The 2006's are Definitives.
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I’ve only read about Monitor audio, and from the reviews, think I would love them. But don’t have a close by place to demo them GoldenEar will be on the audition list in the next couple weeks. I need the clarify from my 1st post. The B and W’s I liked the most at Best Buy were the 702 S 3’s. About $7,000 for the pair. They really sounded a lot brighter than the others, and I seem to like that. Not sibilant, but clear. Will need to demo for much longer time to see if they get fatiguing. Although, many consider Focal fatiguing, I listen to my 836 for hours each day and never get tired from them. Stilll waiting to find out the repair bill on my 836’s. Maybe I just have to be content with them for a few more years. I will admit, I’m just kind of bored, and since I’ve owned my gear for so long, maybe I’m looking for that new toy. Maybe I’m expecting things have gotten better, when there is not much difference. I will say, it is kind of amazing how much bass they can get out of small speakers now That seems like the biggest technological advancement I’ve seen. But not necessarily better sound overall
I know there are diminishing returns the higher up the food chain we go, but I really want to make sure I don't spend $4,000 to $8,000 for something that's maybe 20% better.
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Yep. I hear ya Tom on the 10%. Gonna keep demoing and hopefully find something that blows me away. I've saved a lot of money the last 3 years, partially thanks to covid, so maybe I just have to accept that a 10 to 20 percent improvement is good enough. Obviously I keep my stuff for the long haul. $5,000 to $7,000 over a 10 year span could warrant the purchase. Plus the right brands and models can hold some or a lot of their value.
Years ago, I was semi tempted to move up to Focal Electras, and they were a lot cheaper 3 to 8 years ago than they are now. WIth covid kind of ending, hopefully supply chains will get back to normal. Had I bought those electras back then, I could have broke even, or even maybe made a little money. So I am not averse to going the used route too.
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soix. I do need an equalizer. I tip the treble and bass up on most music. And even sometimes from song to song. In my cars I've had alpine head units and subwoofers, and am always adjusting the bass a bit for each song. Not that I'm a bass head, but I at least like to feel it a little bit, even on songs where bass isn't prominent. While it may not be accurate, I much prefer it. When I dropped off my 836's for repair, I demoed a Hegel with Paradigm founders 120 and medium end Kefs, and I was perplexed as to how this sounded good. There was no air in the voices and it just didn't sound clear. You could be right about maybe just doing a stand alone preamp. But there could be times when I do want surround. Plus it would leave my 5 channel amp with 3 being unused.
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I hear ya curtdr. But it is time to move up. I don't buy/trade every 3 or 4 years like some. I'm 51 and have a good amount of other money invested. Whatever I buy will most likely be for 10 years or more. But I do gotta buy it right the 1st time.
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Heard Vandersteens at Audio Perfection about 20 years ago. They were good, but didn't really seem to bump on rock and roll. Maybe they're much better now. Will check them out. When I bought my Mcintosh MX 134 in 2003, it was only like $3,300. Prior to that it was Denon or Yamaha receivers, so to me the Mcintosh was a big step up, and I've loved it ever since. I do have it setup for 5.1, but my rears are just outdoor Klipsch speakers from a previous house. I kind of like movies, but not to the degree I did 10 to 20 years ago. I'm fairly content with just listening to movies in 2 channel, cuz it sounds pretty good. I have also looked at a new processor and/or receiver with Atmos. But I doubt I'm gonna do 7 or more channels, as the system is in a bedroom.
I'm semi tempted to try an Arcam AVR-20, as they are discounted, and most people say they sound a quite a bit better than Denon/marantz/anthem for music. But there is also a lot of complaints about buggyness and reliability with them. A used Mcintosh MX 122 or 123 also piques my interest. I'm pretty sure I could be happy enough with a receiver/processor if the stereo sound is about equal to my 134. I most likely will buy either speakers this year, and a receiver/processor next year. Or vice versa.
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That pair of alto utopias listed is intriguing. But they weigh 170lbs and are probably too big for the room. I would love to hear them, but not move them.
Sadly, no Harbeth dealers in MN that I know of. Similarly, the reviews of ATC seem to be really good for dynamics, but no dealers here.
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I'm still waiting on the verdict for my Focals. The Parasound puts out 250w/channel. I've listened at loud volumes millions of times, and don't think I was pushing them any harder than I did in the past. But at the end of May something gave out. So I figured it must be due to age, as they are about 13 years old. I forgot to mention, but I do have a Klipsch SW-12 subwoofer in the system that I've owned since 1993. And it still works and thumps perfectly. But I don't use it every day either. I did run the 836's as Large, so they were getting the full audio spectrum. I probably only turn the sub on once or twice a week, if I'm listening really loud. Buy 80% of the time it's off as the speakers have adequate bass. I probably just need to keep it dialed back a bit.
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How is that all over the map. i like what I like. I actually have an Anthem MRX 300 in my basement system from 2010, so i know what anthem sounds like. I also demoed their STR line and it did nothing for me. The mcintosh I have walks all over it in stereo sound to me. How can you say something is a problem when I've been 110% happy with it, and owned it for 20 years. If I didn't like it I would have moved on along ago.
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soix could be right. maybe my hearing is bad. I'm 51 now, and have listened to lots of loud rock and roll since my teens. You can make the argument an eq is an extra path in the chain. But you can also use an equalizer or bass/treble to adjust for the room. I WOULD NEVER BUY SOMETHING WITHOUT IT. You are limited to 1 sound and that's it. Different sources (vinyl, cd, streamer) can all have a different sound profile, and one may want to adjust for that. Maybe the high end makers don't put it in cuz it saves them money too. I don't want this to turn into a pissing match. But if you bought something with an eqalizer. Would you just leave it in 1 setting for life, cuz it's the most accurate??
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Well I can say this. In EVERY system I have ever listened to, be it home or car, i can make it sound much better to my ears than it being in the flat position. I'm not gonna buy 20,000 to 30,000 speakers so I can not need an equalizer. It's not economical, and I have better things to spend my money. Audio is important but not everything. I admit I have not demoed many speakers the last 10 to 15 years, cuz a lot of audio stores have closed up, and I've been content. Many of these brands have NO way to demo, and I'm not going to travel all over to do that. Plus I am limited in the speaker placement in my room. It's not real big, and I kind of need to stick with tall and skinny speakers.
Not to flame on, but if you guys have higher end televisions. Do you get it calibrated, and never use the other settings on it? With no ability to adjust the contrast, brightness, color, and all the other variables when you watch different programs? Would you buy a guitar amplifer with no TONE controls??? I'm perplexed as to why one would want this limitation in any endeavor.
If I took a hypothetical Jeff Rowland amp (1 with tone control and 1 without) what percentage of sound degradation does the 1 with tone control have??? Could he really not build them to damn near the same specs. And you could pretty much make them sound identical??
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But if it's not feasible or economical to change the room, wouldn't that be a great reason for EQ. And isn't that why room correction was created? I mean if Trinnov, Lyngdorf, Storm, and Anthem are doing it. It must lead to something better. You can always leave it off if not.
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I guess I tend to agree with this guy, there are high end makers but a lot of what you are paying for is luxury. I like to find stuff that punches above it’s price point. And I will most likely be keeping the Focals once fixed, but may move to basement system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS_tEMTqR08
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lemonhaze, I hear what you said. I know the room is 100% important. But I can’t get 3 or 4 subs in this room. It is a bedroom, and way too small. Unless I do Goldenear/Definitive with subs built in. I stil have to be able to walk around the room without hitting something. If I ever do a dedicated listening room, I would do all the above.
On a side note, I picked up an Arcam avr-30 from best buy on closeout to demo for 14 days. It sounds phenomenal, even on my old Definitive BP 2006 speakers. I haven't even hooked up my parasound external amp or run dirac yet. May try to do that on Wednesday. I think it's a keeper but will keep playing with it. As to speakers, I hope to get my focal 836s back in the next week or two. Probably going to take some time (3 to 12 months) to buy new speakers now.
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Did you guys buy the Razz without a demo? They read like they would be something I love, but doubt I can demo in Minnesota.
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Back in 1993-1994 I worked as a stock guy at a store in MN called Audio King. We had most of the high end stuff back then. In the basement (warehouse area) we had a pair of Klipschorns hooked up to a Yamaha receiver that was like 60wpc. It was unreal how good they sounded off a tiny receiver. The manager told me he would blowout the klipschorns for like $3,500 to $4,500. I was a poor college student, so I couldn't buy them, but now I see them at $16,500. I did end up with a pair of KG-2's that I loved for about 10 years.
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Well, it's gonna be $600 to fix my Focals. 2 woofers and 2 tweeters. Seems quit spendy, but I'm going ahead with it. I know the dealer is kind of screwing me, but I didn't see any other way to fix them. Didn't really have a way to figure out what was wrong on my own, nor a way to buy replacement drivers. If I can get another 5 to 10 years out of them, I'm ok with it.
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