Kharma 3.2 to MidiGrand Upgade???

I have the 3.2's now, and they're wonderful and surprisingly dynamic on that music but my room is the problem, it's 30x40 ft and the 3.2's are ALMOST enough for the room but probably could use the Kharma sub or bigger drivers to move just a little more air. I've moved them out to the sides of the room and am shocked at the quality and quantity of additional midbass and bass and of course the incredibly beautiful liquid and coherent Kharma mids and highs. My concern is that with multiple drivers the Midis may be a more difficult load for the Lamms and in my setup NOT as dynamic as what I'm getting! On paper it's almost a wash, with 89 db vs 91 db but leaving such a perfect speaker for a 3 way is a concern though I'm hearing from a number of people that the Midi's are a strong step up. I just don't want to have to give up the Lamm.

Frank,

Your comments hit home because just found this CD, Infected Mushroom B Empire and have been buying up a lot of GOA Trance and been just astounded that the Lamm's are doing what they are with dynamics and upper bass. This is replacing some very dynamic full frequency Avantgarde Duos with dual subs! Synthesized music just appears from out of space, is beatiful and liquid then disappears just as quickly as it came into the room. Just picture a cheesy looking smile on my audiofool face for 45 minutes of sheer musical ecstacy... Until the time comes to put another disc in. Actually set up my road bike on a stationary stand and listen to 140bpm GOA and pedal around the same pace. Heart attack material! I think the key is placement. I have them out in the room for maximum imaging and near the sidewalls and sit within 10 ft for maximizing the bass wavelength. Surprisingly, these speakers are able to deal with being able to sit over 12 feet apart without sidewall reflection issues or center fill problems. The result: getting an even more enormous stage with very tight images and since I've moved them close to the sidewalls, some silly room reinforcement for the bass to boot. Could they use the sub? Perhaps, if integration is as good as the "buzz" then absolutely. Having heard them briefly at CES, I can say that I heard no integration issues whatsoever with the Midi Exquisites. In the smaller 3.2 room, they sounded incredibly dynamic, cohesive and perhaps tighter than in the MidiE room.

Thanks for all your comments.

Keith & Howie It's not a true 30x40 rectangle. Where the speakers are placed it's actually 18 ft wide then behind the listening area opens to a bar area and then a pool table behind which sits a desk- my "office". There are a lot of juts and irregularities which I've found breaks up room nodes. The entire room is over a 3 car garage and a stairway to the basement, if that helps you to visualize the space. I do find that a lot of bass gets lost into the garage below from large speakers I've had in the past, like the Dynaudio Temptations, Wilson Watt Puppy 7's and Avantgarde Duos. The speakers are positioned about 3 feet from the sidewalls and 6 ft from the back walls so they'r spread out about 12 ft from tweeter to tweeter. There is a large picture window behind the left speaker which also tends to leak bass. At the back of the room is a stairway to the downstairs level which, coincidentally also leaks bass. I honestly am shocked at the bass I do get, specifically the quality, but it certainly isn't flat to 50hz I'd guess. I have a radio shack digital spl meter but haven't been able to figure the darned thing out or find my test discs, so I have no Idea what the room is doing objectively.

Thom Y. Are you from Radiohead? One of my favorite progressive bands, i have to say. If you're interested in GOA, I'm just starting to collect but if you like some of the ambient stuff that Radiohead has started doing, you may like something like Hooverphonic's New sterophonic sound spectacular, The Orb, or Future Sound of London. More towards the trance side, bands like Troll, Holophonia, Geiger, Abnormal, Ego Traum are places to start. My favorites in the Genre though are the Israeli group Infected Mushroom and Juno Reactor.

Carl. I agree with everything you've said, if you like it why change and that is why I've purchased the subwoofer and will see what that's like before deciding on moving up from the 3.2's. I may be DONE at that point and feel no need to move up to the other speakers, or that may be an itch, I just gotta scratch, for better, the same or slightly different or worse. Come to think of it, I'm not a big fan of doggie bags...

Sir Speedy

If I didn't know better it sounds like you get a commission on each and every 3.2 sold ;^)It's an amazing piece. You really have a point about the "virtual sub" being built in. I get amazing pitch definition and body on standup acoustic bass. The texturing and bass "color" in the good sense, the way the english use the term, is outstanding.
BTW, I'm a big Zorn fan as well. I really, really enjoy his music but have only collected a few discs. Chimeras was a little avantgarde for me, but well recorded and I fully enjoyed the live in seville (not a great recording though) and especially The Gift. He's put out so many discs, it's hard to know where to begin. Do you recall the title of the disc you took to GTT? Was it Filmworks?

Speedy 2001 Dominus Estate. It's yummy.

Frank, you're on the hotseat... and here's another one for you. How well relatively speaking do the ML2.1's drive those Grand Ceramiques? How close do they come to your setup and how do they differ?: tubed ML2.1's with Grand Ceramique ENIGMA to SS hybrid Lamm ML1.2 ref's and Exquisites with diamond tweeters? As far as my own opinion of Tenor goes, the previous pair of 3.2's in residence had Tenor OTL's driving them and I do prefer the Lamms overall though both have their respective strengths and the Tenors were wonderful within their limits. The current dilemma now also is that I find it impossible to walk near a(ny) pair of solid state amps anymore after having lived with the tubed Lamm SETs. Painted into an oh so sweet corner ...

Certainly wish the principals at Tenor the best in hopefully emerging from their troubles. Francois is truly a standup guy, a true gentleman and an avid perfectionist truly committed to great sound. It's also a warning as well, as sometimes we are all dealing with companies we have no idea how truly small they are or what their financial condition is like. Fortunately enough the high end audio is one of the few true cottage industries left in this country (and continent) and allows people with great ideas and products to introduce them to the marketplace. Unfortunately, whether they survive in the long run, even with great products to generate the initial buzz is a huge question mark as a lot more goes into their long term success than just having a great product. Again, wish Tenor all the best in their uphill struggle, they truly deserve success if any manufacturer in the high end does.