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Please help with speaker choices

Hi all,
Well the room and time has lead me down the road to upgrading speakers. A most exciting time, but alas, filled with choices and no possible auditioning for me.

So I must relie on this communities suggestions and help!!

First the current system:
Nick Doshi Preamp
Nick Doshi modded Lectron JH50
Amazon Referenze TT
Triplanar Tonearm
CDP-Don't have one yet
Focal 1007 Be Monitors-current speakers

Room Size:
21 by 13 with 8ft cellings

Music:
I listen to pretty much everything. Sorry for being so general. In one listening session I may move from Coltrane, to Cannonball Adderly, to Muddy Waters and Johnny Lee Hooker to Lucinda Williams and electric/folk Neil Young. Throw in some Dylan and then move onto the White Stripes, Beck, if I'm real rowdy maybe some Ramones or AC/DC, then come down with some Edith Piaf and a sip of 12 year single malt.

Reason for wantng change:
One is I find this a hobby. For me that means having fun with experimentation. So far I have only owned the Focals.
Two is now that I moved my system against the short wall and facing out to the long part of the room, the monitors seems lacking, like they are too small to fill the space, like it is too much effort. Three is I have nerver had a floorstanding speaker and the prospect excites me. Four is, sitting wise, I can only get about 9 feet near to the Focals. To place them closer puts them right in the middle of the living room. Not really acceptable. At 9 feet, the monitors just not presenting the soundstage I desire. At that distance with monitors, I am just not in the heart of the music.

Also something important to note is I like listening loud, but do not always have that option as my system is in the living room and out of respect for others cannot always listen loud so I must have speakers that offer low volume detail.

My choices so far (more of course welcome)
Sonus Faber Cremona floorstanders
Merlin VSM-Mxe
Verity Fidelio Encore
ATC 20's passive

At the higher end(only consider if HIGHLY recommended)
Verity Parsifal ovation
Sonus Faber Amati Homage

Monitors I might consider
Focal Mini-Utopia Be
Sonus Guarnari Homage

OK, sorry for rambling so much. Obviously I am putting a lot of thought into this. Any input much appreciated!

Peter
mariasplunge

Showing 3 responses by shadorne

shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,491 posts
 
Since you are in a mid to far field listening position and you like loud then I'd go with a three way of your choice (may present amp challenges however) although from personal experience the SCM 20's can go extremely loud compared to other two ways but 50 Watts will not make them sing....I'd go at least 150 watts.

If you want to stick to your 50 Watt tube and want loud then I'd forget ATC and the others and go with horns or a nice two way supplemented with an active subwoofer.

The two speakers you selected at higher end. I would not highly recommend either due to impedance load consideration on one and a dip in the upper mid range response on the other.
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,491 posts
 
Just a heads-up - take a look at this.

Note the behaviour in the upper mid range from 2Khz to 5 Khz on the plots. Then look at the peak in the impedance plot and the phase behaviour in this same upper mid-range region.
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,491 posts
 
Your short list has clearly selected some beautiful looking aesthetic speakers (Verity, Audio Physic, SF, Merlin etc.) These are all very good speakers and each has strengths and weaknesses. The one strength that they all share is that they all look really impressive (clearly expensive cabinetry).

Most recently, in your thread you state

Aesthestics are important to me as well. I want the speaker to disappear in the general decor.

Now we are getting somewhere....frankly, the ATC's stick out like a sore thumb on this list. As a purely functional box designed for acoustics with little regard to aesthetics, ATC's look quite ordinary and are the least likely to garner admiration from guests or spouse, even if you were to go with an expensive veneer. In private, ATC's may give you jaw-dropping mid range but, from personal experience, they will not even elicit a comment from casual dinner guests and the wife will probably keep them pushed well back against the wall and hidden or out the way.

My aesthetic preference is SF then Audio Physic. I like the pyramidal Verity's least and the Merlin's are a bit more conventional looking than the others ( score lower on the wow factor with guests, IMHO)

Since these are all very good speakers (nobody should be unhappy with the sound of any of these speakers), I'd go with what you will be happiest with in terms of your decor!

Perhaps others can suggest some very good sounding and aesthetic speakers such as Totem's (and not JBL's with 18" woofers)....my hunch is that these kind of speakers may be more appropriate for you and will not lead to regrets later on...
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