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Smaller speaker - bigger Woofer?

This is variation on the BIG STUPID WARM SPEAKERS thread. After moving up the ranks of B&W's (now owning the 804's), I still miss something about the sound of my old $300 a pair Infinitys with their 15" woofer I owned in the 80's.

Actually about everything was wrong with them, the Emit tweeter was awful, the woofers growled at you even when they were off, but they had that big warm sound that I'm missing with more expensive/refined speakers.

That big warm sound was great with rock but also worked well with jazz and classical.

In the BIG STUPID WARM thread I heard about some good big bass speakers like the Legacy's, Dynaudio's etc, but those are monster speakers and though the room is big, the wife doesn't want monster speakers.

I'm using the newest Cary gear for electronics - prepro, amp, cd player (about $10K in electronics) so I'm not looking for cheap Infinity - Klipsch - Cerwin Vega stuff.

I'm looking for a quality speaker with a big warm sound and larger drivers in a smaller package (and no small speakers and a sub isn't the same). Does any of this ring a bell?

larryb

Showing 4 responses by larryb

larryb OP
101 posts
 
I'm not necessarily talking about a tiny box, but something not over 48" tall.
larryb OP
101 posts
 
I'm actually demoing some Vandersteen 3A's in my home but find their bass output disappointing.
larryb OP
101 posts
 
I don't know how diffrent the newer N804's are vs the Matrix 804's that I have, but I'm guessing it's not major bass difference.

I'd love to hear the Gallo's if I could just find a dealer anywhere near me.

I'll bet there's a market out there for a higher end aspiring speaker with larger bass drivers. Sure some imaging, soundstaging, etc. might be lost (though not necessarily), but there's just something you get with larger drivers that can't be duplicated with rows of smaller drivers or powered subs. It affects the whole presentation - and for me, in a good way.
larryb OP
101 posts
 
I've always hated the sound of having the subwoofer dialed in over 60hz. Just gives an ugly bloat in the minds and messes up the sound across the spectrum. When I've had speakers with big bass drivers built in, they did a better job of recreating ambience and even the treble was less harsh and better integrated with a certain kind of ambience detail and integration you can't get with a sub.

One problem with the Vandersteens is the guy who brought them over was demoing with Kimber Cable - yikes. Putting in my speaker cable has obviously really improved the sound, but it's still not what I'm looking for.

I'll check out the Dynaudio. Maybe a smaller version with a sub is as close as I'm going to get.
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