Feel free to talk me off the ledge


Just picked up my new Rogue RP-1 from a dealer. That coupled with my Rogue Atlas, then to my Klipsch Heresy IV's with an SVS PB2000 pro has me over the moon right now. But funny thing happened at the dealer.. I couldn't help myself, I listened to some other speakers. I'm an idiot, a glutton, a fool. As you can imagine I'm now about a third the way down the rabbit hole. 

At the dealer I was enchanted by a pair of Golden ear BRX monitors, they were so sweet, airy and open. Can't stop thinking about them.

Now I'm looking at:

Paradigm founder 80F

Tyler Time Keepers

The Golden Ear BRX

Vandersteen's among others..

Am I nuts? should I join a support group (other than the other one I'm already in) ?

Feedback always appreciated 

doyle3433

Showing 1 response by lemonhaze

Hi OP, something to consider is the sensitivity of new speakers you may like. Your Klipsch are 99dB sensitive which is unusually high. If the new speakers of interest are only 87dB which is typical, then to get the same SPL you would need to double the power into them 4 times!  And you don't have that kind of power.

The above fact may not be mentioned by the seller of the speakers you are smitten by.

Perhaps something to consider too is that a waveguide/horn with compression driver plays differently to a dome tweeter. By comparison a CD on a waveguide/horn produces, by comparison, unlimited dynamics and greatly reduced distortion. I'm sure you've been to a live concert and noticed that the PA speakers are not equipped with dome tweeters, and for a reason.

From what I can make out your CDs use titanium diaphragms which are known to be a little brash. Try and swap them out for aluminium or beryllium and while you're at it consider replacing the series caps in the midrange and tweeter circuits. There is lots of improvement to be gained there.

The 99dB sensitivity is set by the woofer and to achieve that something is sacrificed and that is the bottom octave, therefore a few subs will completely change the overall performance. If this suggestion is not an immediate 'no no' then read up on the multi-sub approach. Also room treatment, essential for any room makes a huge difference. Ignore those who state: "just hang a curtain and add a rug"  That's not treatment, that's decoration.

Good luck and remember Pink Floyd never played through dome tweeters!