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First round of auditions disappointing

Well, I finally got out and did some actual listening over the weekend, and I can see that I have quite an adventure ahead of me.

I listened to the Focal Profile 928, Polk LSi15 and a couple of Martin Logan's (Vista and Vantage). The Focal was by far the worst of the bunch; as a matter of fact, it was downright awful, and at a price of $5K for the pair?????????? Good grief...

The Polk LSi15 was better, but far and away from what I expected, given the good press. I use to own Martin Logan Sequel II's, and liked them for their midrange qualities. The newer Logan's were pretty nice, but far too dead in the dynamics department. Very nice rendition of vocals though, and great soundstage presentation.

The more I listened to the typical box speaker, the more I believe that design won't satisfy me. My wife, who is really not "in" to music, commented to me that the Focal sounded "like a box," so there you have it.

I'll probably have to wait until CES, because there is little in the way of "high end" in my area.
seadweller

Showing 1 response by aball

aball
2,016 posts
 
Well I hate to tell you but unless you heard each pair of speaker with all the same equipment and in the right positions, you can't compare them in relative terms.

Also, in my experience, many dealers can't properly setup a system so you can't compare them in absolute terms either. They get lazy and let the constant changes get in the way of competent setup. For each room, you have to choose the right speaker. For each speaker, you have to choose the right gear to suit it. To complicate the already complicated, not all gear suits all speakers well.

There are plenty of posts and articles talking about the crappy setups at CES. Get this - you can hear $100,000 systems that sound bad. How is that for your decision making?! Will you then think all that big-name gear isn't any good either? hahaha. Same story, same problem.

My advice to you, if you want to have fun during your adventure, is to only make decisions based on what you hear in your own system. It is the only way to judge fairly and not overlook a diamond in the rough. That is the only way you can take all the variables into account.

Arthur
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