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Dazed & Confused

Listening to mostly jazz, solo instruments and vocals I find my Martin Logan Spire hybrids to sound awesome, but recently I was listening to some both "Busy" 90’s rock and classical (lots of instruments playing loudly together) and I find the music starts to sound garbled and annoying (to bright), so much so, I turn it off.
I was wondering if you all might have some suggestions on some speakers that would be a little more forgiving with busy/loud music that I could possibly switch over to when listening to different types of music. That is unless I can find speakers that can handle all styles of music, then I would consider taking the hit ($$$) on selling the Spires.

Without getting into room size and dynamics, lets just call it a standard room, I was also looking for something more efficient. The Spires need a huge amount of power (and volume) to sound good. Looking more for something I can listen to loud but also still enjoy the music at a much lower volume if that’s at all possible. Neutral and not to bright.
Living in the sticks, I can’t just jump in the car to go demo speakers. Only once, in the past, did I purchase a set of speakers online and unheard, going solely on the sales person’s recommendations. I learned the hard way to never do that again!

Equipment now: Coda CSiB integrated amp with W4S 2v2 SE Dac running Roon Nucleus.

I also wanted to mention that the Spires have phenomenal base, so much so I sold the 2 subs I was originally using with them. Floor standers and bookshelfs have come along way in SQ these days, but if I need to purchase another set of subs the budget is starting to dwindle.

No vinyl or CD’s, just Tidal.

$3,000 - $5000 budget, new or newer demos.

Thanks for any suggestions or advice you may have to offer!
Paul
high-amp

Showing 3 responses by ieales

ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
@ishkabibil:
If you are not a fan of subs, you have never heard a proper installation. Perhaps less than 5% of sub installs are done properly. As composer friend once said of my system "Every other sub-woofer I've heard just boomed" see http://ielogical.com/Audio/ and http://ielogical.com/Audio/SubTerrBlues.php

Good sub implementation extends realism far beyond the octave or two they cover.

Planars with a good sub implementation can rock your world better than many a box full of cones, IF one appreciates tonality, coherence, transient response, etc.

ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
Upon first look at the room picture, I exclaimed "Oh my God!"

the Spires have phenomenal bass
in that room! 

Cover the TV. Add something to the right wall to reduced reflections. While the minimalist shelving has nice esthetics, it's a disaster for reflections. I didn't do the math, but the wall/ ceiling corners could be a problem.

Sensitivity: 91 dB/2.3 Volts/Meter.
Seems like the amp should drive to S T U N [110+db @ 3m] unless it is giving up into:

Nominal Impedance: 4 Ohms (0.8 Ohms at 20 kHz)
The bottom end impedance is  50-100x 20k. I've never been a fan of amplifiers with so many output devices per channel. Transistors are non-linear devices and into a complex load with 20 devices per channel, unless the devices and driver circuitry are extremely well selected, things can get ugly in a hurry.

Perhaps with the subs in the previous install, rolling the low end made life easier for the amp.

What speaker cables? Perhaps the amp does not like the ESL/cable load?
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
suggestions for something without so many output devices
My tastes tend to tube amplifiers. I would never presume to recommend. The BJ 5000 is decent garden variety speaker cable and should not cause any issues with most well designed amplifiers.

I would council buying performance and not jewelry. Given 4 amplifiers, 4 sets of cables and 4 pair of speakers, one will have 64 combinations, not one of which will be accurate and all will be flawed in several areas.

The secret to a satisfying system is knowing the flaws you can tolerate and those you can’t. In my case, I don’t really care a hoot about frequency response but can’t abide incoherent time response. ESLs, Maggies, and aligned dynamics are my cup of tea. Not much of a fan of anything ported as the very low end is always indistinct. YMMV!

AND, I’m not a fan of multi woofer tall, vertical front skinny boxes. IMO, time performance suffers badly. A 2 or 3 way with single woofer and a pair of subs [with delay, variable XO freq, multiple XO slope choices and continuous phase control] gives a more coherent low end... everything else being equal.

In the end, it is the system which is the ± of the cumulative device flaws that matters.

Buy in haste, regret at leisure.
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