I am nuts to use these speakers?


I fell into the world of "high end" audio by accident. I've always had mediocre Japanese gear with the exception of a Thorens 125 turntable and Altec Lansing speakers. Then I bought a used ARC Ref1 and an ARC Phono 2, tweaked the 25 year old Thorens with a new Goldring cartridge and it changed everything. I also picked up a used ARC CD1 but vinyl sounded so good that I went off the deep end and bought a VPI TNT 3.5 and replaced the Phono 2 with a ARC Ref Phone Preamp. My power amp is an ARC D130. I am using a pair of JBL 4311 studio monitors for speakers and assorted Cardas Hexlink for cables. I think the system sounds great. The JBL's are sitting on some lead shot filled target stands which also have spikes. My room has a concrete floor and I have separate power outlets run from the fuse box for all the gear. Anyhow I think that the speakers which I paid 300 bucks for from a radio station could probably use an upgrade considering the rest of the system. BUT I think they sound great. Basically if the vinyl is great it sounds great, if it is lousy vinyl the speakers seem unforgiving. ANY SUGGESTIONS on where to start looking? There seem to be a million speaker lines out there so any advice is appreciated.
ntscdan

Showing 2 responses by abstract7

It kind of depends on the music you listen to and how you listen. For me, I fell in love with Electrostatics. They are not really very good for listening to rock music--but I don't really listen to rock. They are great for vocals, jazz and classical (particularly with few instruments rather than a full orchestra). A used pair of Martin Logan SL-3 or Requests would be a very good system match--but more importantly you need to determine if they are a good match for you. You do have to be careful with placement of Electrostatics--they can't be back against the wall and the wall behind them needs to be sonically reflective to some degree.
In that case SL3s, Requests would be too big. I listen to a lot of the same music. If you are into a very detailed presentation where the speakers just disappear and you listen at moderate volumes you may also love the e-stats.