Snell A7 Illusion

The Stereophile review seemed to be very complimentary.

http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/1208snell/

I just read the Stereophile report which is as you said very complimentary. The only concern cited was the lack of low frequency bass in the very low 20's. It's too bad when taking a quick hearing of this speaker that I didn't put in the CD with hard rock music. Nor did I bring something that particular hit the low 20's hertz. Pop rock music sounds just fine. Does anybody have comment about this, or anything for that matter?

Spatine,

Unless you have a pipe organ recording (or 2 or 3), the odds are high that you don't own anything that hits the low 20s. Very few rock music cds have any meaningful signal under 35hz, unless they include a synthesizer.

Marty

Perhaps that's why I didn't pick up anything less than desirable when using the pop music CD. As to frequency in the low 20's, certain Enya songs or some cello pieces can hit that low as well. Yet it doesn't mean that the reduction in bass at just this level would make to the total bass package becomes unacceptable. I just don't want to make another trip with proper CDs to listen to it again. Now Stereophile did say, I think, that the Illusion projects plenty of bass for the organ piece, without rattling the wall however. It's just at the level of pricing, your expectation becomes much higher.

I also wonder if there are many rooms that can support 20 Hz, it most rooms I would think that capability in a speaker would be lost with typical room acoustics. If this speaker is flat at 30Hz I can't imagine feeling like you are missing very much of the lowest bass on almost all recordings.

You'll be surprised ... My Infinity Prelude MTS has this RABOS adjustment CD with tone tracks centered at many frequencies for the bass. At both houses, the 20-Hz level definitely created serious rumbles without shaking something in the room and generate higher-frequency noise.

Stereophile indicates that the Illusion would do fine at the upper 20's Hz, and I believe so. Frankly I didn't notice any lacking when playing regular pop rock music at the stereo store.

The Snell A7 illusion has a sibling called the Phantom B7.

I just heard a pair of Snell Phantom B7 speakers. Look and sound just like the Snell A7 illusion except smaller and half the price @ 25K.

A couple years ago I listened to the Snell A7 speakers and was very impressed with those. But at $50K I would rather spend $25K and purchase the Snell Phantom B7 speakers.

Both Snell speakers souund similar but smaller version. The Phantom B7 speakers don' overpower the room. You need an extremely large listening room for the A7 speakers.

The better value is the Snell Phantom B7 if you love both speakers and only want to spend $25K verse $50K.

Both great sounding speakers in my opinion.