I am looking a pair of used speakers and the following are available near me: ___________________________________ Reference 3A Grand Veena - $6899 Gemme Audio Katana - $6054 VERITY AUDIO Fidelio - $4224 PBN MONTANA EPX - $5491
I do not have anything today :/ I miss listning to music through some "real" speakers. What I do have however is a source. I will use Modwright Transporter to play FLAC/Wav.
I would consider myself a musiclover foremost and audiophile second. What I mean is that I am not looking for a super detalied sound that will make bad recordings sound shit. I hate thin sound and treble that gives you headache. Detailed and organic is what I am looking for, I think. I want to be emotional engaged in the music.
I would rather give up some detail for speakers that breath life.
I have the Verity Fidelio Encores in my secondary system and I love them. They are extremely accurate and detailed but not what I would call organic. They will very accurately let you hear the quality of your music source and other upstream components - good, bad, or otherwise. A really great speaker, and if in great condition, a bargain at the stated price. Good luck!
I like Katans design because they are placing more emphasis on the box construction (tenon and mortise, larger bracing, 2 inch MDF in front and back) to ensure stiffer and stronger enclosure. The fact they use ceramic drivers helps but I like to look at some innovation instead of just placing ceramic, kevlar, or wood pulp drivers in a box.
Avalon and Ascendo also has unique emphasis on box construction.
Interesting response, what in particular do you mean with "Based on their ads alone" - you of course are entitled to your own opinion but we have got a tremendous response from the ad campaign running in Stereophile, overwhelmingly positive. They are meant for you to actually stop and read the ad, not just glance on a pretty picture and read a corny caption like 99% of ads.
I guess different ads work for different folks, just happen that the Pbn ones doesn't do it for me. It may have succeeded as a stopper, but sorry to say that compared to the Wilson, Magico, Avagarde, YG ones, the Pbn's came across (projected itself--image wise) as the home industrial type against 'them' being the more established manufacturers. Visually, imo, the artwork and photography needs re-working, also possibly the body copy condensed to it's essence. My apology to have put it rather blatantly.
I would put the Montana's first. I owned Kharma 3.1's for over 3 years. I wanted to have more bass but still keep the beautiful soundstaging and disappearing act. I found them in the Montana's. I have the EPS II's. The sound is full, large, and balanced. They disappear every bit as well as the Kharma's. The Verity that I'm familier with has a ribbon tweeter that I don't care for. That's just me, I don't care for ribbons. I have a custom built sound room and everybody thats been in it goes crazy over the sound in my room. Again this is my view. Your mileage may vary. Peace and Good Listening, Pat.
Not to worry - you have to thick skinned to be in this business :-) On another note have you actually ever heard any of my speakers ? same question to Grannyring and mtdking ?
And Pat - thanks for the kind words its greatly appreciated
Yes Peter. I owned the EPX for about a year. You make a very nice speaker to be sure. My comments were simply in reference to the others compared to PBN.
I found the others listed and my current to be more to my taste. In my system the PBN's were a tad froward and bright.
Again, the PBN speaker was impressive in many ways and for some the best of the group. Very subjective as you know.
Yes peter I have heard them and owned them and like Grannyring I just think some others are better and that Verity speakers are amazing. I didn't find your speakers bright per say but I found it lacking bass for the size and amount of bass drivers.
Peter I have owned your K2 preamp and Everest amp also. Now those were very good products.
For the record I have no problem with your ads. They are a bit odd but if it works. I just wish your speakers were smaller and didn't have so many drivers. What Verity can do with 3 drivers is just amazing.
Mtdking and Grannyring, then your comments are valid, my reason for asking is that I find that many on this forum just offer opinion without any solid background, like actually having heard the products they opine upon.
I would advise that our Swedish freind go and listen to all the speakers he mentioned at the start of this post, which ever one sounds right to him is the speaker for him, there is a reason that Baskin Robins offer 32 flavors :-)
I have owned two pairs of SP2s, the SPX and the EPS2. I think the SP2s are the sweet spot of the line, I just never did warm up to the bigger speakers. Peter makes a great product, but they do not hold their value well on the used market for some reason. I have since moved on to something different that I like more than any of the Montanas I owned, but I still have fond memories of those SP2s.....
I haven`t heard the Karmas, but Montana and Verity. Sadly not yet been the owner, still using my old but still quite good Infinity Omega 1999. For an overall use, I would choose Montana KAS2, they manage to give a stunning soundstage for my range of music. Raidho or Verity I would prefer if I was only to classic, but overall KAS2 is just very good. I once heard a session with some old XPS with a DQX room correcting system. Playing H.I.M it was just so cool. Really full range and filling the room completely. So my bottom line is Montana/PBN value for money, but they need excellent gears for reading and amping. Bladelius Gondul 3 together with AX and KAS2 and I want nothing more.
I thought I'd chip in...I really wanted to like Katanas, they're just beautiful and easy to drive. Reviews were about how easy they are on the ears and so on. Well, they do throw a huge soundstage which was impressive and the detail is there and to my ears, they don't sound natural, sound quite artificial, can't really decribe it but I couldn't get lost in the music. Just my opinion, of course
I have not heard any of these speakers but have read this whole thread. I find it interesting that there has not been a single comment on the Reference 3A Grand Veena - speakers which have been highly touted by MANY.
I bring this up simply because I have an interest in the Grand Veena and stumbled upon this thread for insight. Funny that no observation of the Veena has been given.
>I find it interesting that there has not been a single comment on the Reference 3A Grand Veena<
Could it possibly be because no comments were solicited for those speakers? And most of the people contributing to the thread obviously weren't very interested either........
Could it possibly be because no comments were solicited for those speakers? And most of the people contributing to the thread obviously weren't very interested either........
Shakey Shakeydeal
Actually, the Reference 3A Grand Veena is the first speaker that the OP listed as a possible choice in his area, so the question is legit.
I owned Montana SP2s and then EPS2s...the SP2s are very good, the Montana EPS2s are fabulous. Montanas sound great with all types of music. They are very well built, beautiful to look at, and sound rich, full and put out a huge soundstage. They're efficient and sound good at low volume, too. Can't go wrong with Montanas.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
