Monitors for Bryston 4B ST

I've been using B&W Nautilus 805s with my Bryston 4bst, and Sonic Frontiers Line 3. I used to find the 805s slightly lacking in soundstange and rage, but the new addition of the Line 3 opened them up a lot further. I'm now very happy with the 805s. I know they're slightly over your budget but may be worth the stretch. Also, they hold their value very well. Good luck!

there's currently a pair of meret re's f/s on a-gon, the guy wants $900. (retail w/o stands was $3300). they're excellent, at least in *my* system, they are! ;~) they're rhombus-shaped to break up standing waves, have lead-layered construction so the cabinets are really inert. they have respectable low-end for monitors, are extremely detailed & transparent, & soundstage wery nicely. good stands are a must, dunno if the guy is selling stands...

as an alternative, i would consider used proac 1.5's, or 1sc's...

Slingshot. I have heard the B&W CDM Series and I was very impress with them. However, I found them to be a bit bright for my taste, although I havent got a chance to listen to it with my new setup. The Morrison ELAD preamp is the most transparent preamp I have ever heard, it simply doesnt add or subtract anything from the original source. You gotta hear it to believe it...

My musical taste is Vocal, Acoustic, Blues and Jazz. I also want Speakers that doesnt add or subtract anything froom the source either. It should sound exactly the way it was recorded, whether good or bad (probably asking too much for $1500.00?) :-)

Darkmoebius-spell wrong above :-), from what I read from yours and others reviews, I think the JMRs are closer to my taste and a little over budget for the Trente. Guess I would have to instant cup noodles for a month...lol...This hobby is sure getting more expensive everyday. Are we ever gonna find our dream system?

Jcushing, I have heard that Harbeth are indeed one of the finest Monitors in the world. However, I could not find much information about them. Some says that they are a high end in their price, which means that it would probably be out of my budget.

Thanks to all for your inputs and suggestions.

Have you considered the Brit made Harbeth Acoustic LS5/12A monitors. I am currently using a 4B ST and a BP 20 and getting wonderful musical and dynamic results. These speakers are not very efficient and require current, which the 4B handles without a problem. At this point I do not know anyone, or for that matter, who distributes them. I do like these speakers and do own two sets.

Slingshot has brought up an good suggestion with the B&W's, and I have owned both 601 S2's and CDM1 NT's for a very short period. I think B&W is currently putting out excellent speakers for the money, that should please the widest range of people. They do just about everything well, especially dynamics and high frequencies. Their patented tweeter creates a unique "airiness" that is very hard to define. Although, after extended listening I found it to be overly bright and fatiquing. I switched cd players, interconnects, and speaker cables multiple times with varying effect, but alas the high freq's were not to my liking (very subjective and personal opinion).

Now, the JMR Twins and Trente are in a whole different leaque than the CDM series and quite possibly 805's. In fairness to both companies, the type of sound they reproduce is so entirely different, that comparison is almost impossible. B&W's have the tendency to highlight (not exaggerate or color) certain aspects of music more than others, while JMR's are astonishigly balanced. First quick impressions while A/B between them would be that:

1) Vocals and Piano's are so strikingly reproduced on the JMR's that you will be left breathless. Artists like Cassandra Wilson, Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughn, Sinatra, etc. are reproduced in perfect glory.

2) The soundstage of JMR's is so incredibly deep and wide that the speakers simply vanish in the musical landscape. And they are not the least bit postion sensitive. You will spend absolutley no time finding the "sweet spot" - just 6.5-8 ft. apart and a few feet from the back wall and you are done! Unlike the B&W's which I spent an entire night fine tuning their positioning.

3) the JMR's lack high frequency clarity and "zing". But after a while it becomes clear that they have just as much definition as the B&W's, it's that every part of the sonic spectrum is perfectly in proportion to others, so highs are beautiful, but not at the expense of overshadowing midrange, etc.

4) the JMR's have far less bass than the B&W's. In fact, this is partly, and, definetly true(?). The B&W's front firing port produces amazingly tight "punch" in music which the JMR's were never intended to deliver. All the B&W 600 series and CDM's can rock your tits off, no problem. But, the JMR's have this incredible low frequency defintion that (once again in my opinion) blows the B&W's away(figuratively). Their bass is much more refined, it rolls across the carpet and up through your furniture. A much more subtle style. While A/B'ing between the two on Cassandra Wilson's "Blue Light 'Till Dawn" (Blue Note, 1993), on the JMR's I could clearly hear the "twang-snap" and resonance of a stand-up bass string that was not present on the B&W's. And the notes are so real sounding it is scary.

4) The JMR's take a solid 200+ hours to breakin - No Joke. Mid's and highs will sound great out of the box, but they devop a whole different richness and texture after 200 hours. A simple and primitive way of telling if they are still breaking in is power handling. When I first got mine used w/ 125 hours on them, they sounded terrific but a) I couldn't turn them up past 8:30 on the dial w/o the sound quality deteriating, and b) on vocals if one of before mentioned singers sustained a long note, I could hear minor fluctuations in the timber. After 200 hours I now can turn the speakers up past 12:00 (w/o sound degradation) and there is nolonger any tone variances. Also, everything is much more rich.

Enough rambling for now. I don't want anyone to think that I am putting down B&W's, they are excellent. Especially for Rock, Pop, techno, and Dance - if you need driving, tight,bass you can't beat them. But, for my taste (Jazz, vocals, acoustic, classical), the JMR's are so much more musical and rich that are are in a whole different leaque even if I may have to add a subwoofer. What they do right, and the fact that they do nothing wrong, by far outweighs any benefits other speakers may have. Unfortunately, they aren't many dealers (in LA) where you can A/B them. If there were, I think that there would be far less B&Ws sold and far more JMR's.

My room is only marginally smaller than yours. I am currently running B&W CDM-1SEs with an Adcom GFA-555. I have no fear of "overpowering" these speakers. The key is that you provide only clean power to the speakers. A speaker with a lower power rating will probably be painfully loud long before you approach or surpass the power rating. As for a speaker for you amp ... I have gone my entire audiophile life with various B&W monitors at the front of the room. Listen to the new CDM-NT series and if you can stretch, the Nautalis 805s. I have been listening around lately ... the only way I've found to surpass the B&Ws is making the step to electrostatics. Martin Logan Aerius Is are amazing ... but not monitors. Good luck. Would love if future posts revealed what decision you made and why.

Dartmebius.Thanks for the response, my living room is about the same size as yours. I have You are right, i should save my money and buy the Trente. I have read so many great reviews on the Twins but not the Trente, so thanks for the links.

I'm not sure where you live, how gigantic your listening room is, or, what you listen to, but why would you want to go anywhere near 115W peak for the Twins? JMR speakers hunger for refined, clean power(not that Bryston don't deliver that). In fact, the guy I bought my Twins mkII from was running them w/ a Decware Zen SET at 8 watts, and claimed excellent results! While this is pushing the envelope, it does make a point. Also, at $1,500-1,800 you could get the Trente's which blow away the already amazing Twins and have a peak handling of 240 Watts.

I run my Twins mkII's with a Rotel 980bx (120Wx2), while it is nowhere near the same leaque as your Bryston's 250 per watts, my neighbors can easily sing along in their bedrooms at 20-30 watts (or more accurately, 11:30-12:00 on the vol. dial). I live in a decent sized house (2600 sq. ft) on a 120 ft. by 100 ft. lot, so our house's aren't that close (by So. Cal standards). My living room is 20 ft. x 16 ft. But this misses the point, the Twins are a beautiful sounding speaker that is incredibly revealing and an immense pleasure to listen to. They deliver a refined, balanced, and wonderfully musical sound that draws you into the performance. Depending on room size, I can't see how it would take more than 10-30 watts to achieve this Nirvana (excluding dynamic peaks). And please understand that both the Twins and Trente's 6.7"" woofers will never deliver room-slamming bass, so they don't require large amounts of power like 12" or 15" rockers. But what they do deliver is a very clean perfectly defined low frequency notes.

So, what I am trying to say is that with the JMR speakers you will reach musical bliss long before you near their max power handling(<20%) . And they will be the best speakers you have ever experienced! Please buy them and enhance your life- In case you haven't read all the reviews of the Trente's and Twins, here is site with quite a few,:http://www.diest-audio.com/jeanmariereynauld/reviews.htm#Arpeggione