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Speaker advice for listening to Blues music

Hi, new to the forum, and hoping I can get some help finding the right speakers... I'm a Blues guitar player and have a dedicated music room for my guitars/amps. I usually spend time playing my guitars and recently decided to setup a decent system for listening to my Blues music. I first started with a Marantz integrated (PM8005) and some Kef R300, source is a Marantz ND8006 and I mostly play FLAC files from a NAS, but also started streaming from Spotify and now trying Tidal. This setup was great at first, very revealing, but found the R300 were not the right speakers for the kind of music I listen to, but they were great for some Jazz and did well with good recordings, which most of my Blues recordings weren't, specially live albums. I also found them to be a little boomy in that small room (12' X 12'), so I moved them to the living room instead and added a matching center, they're perfect there.

Next came the LS50, read so much about them I had to get a pair to try. Wow! I still can't believe what these small speakers can do, the details I hear, soundstage, imaging, it's all there. But, just like the R300, since they're so revealing they're horrible with my favorite Blues recordings. It's great to listen to excellent recordings and enjoy the music these speakers are making but I want to enjoy MY music, the Blues greats I've been listening to for over 30 years. If it sounds great in the car then I should be able to find the right gear to duplicate at home, right? On some good Blues recordings it sounds excellent, but most of my favorites aren't good recordings.

Since I only play my guitars through old Fender amps I figured I should replace the Marantz integrated with a tube amp, so next came the PrimaLuna integrated. I wanted to get a "warmer" sound and hope it'll fix the issues I was having with most crappy recordings... I want to hear BB's beautiful guitar tone and crank it up, without hurting my ears. Both Kefs were too fatiguing to listen to. And on most live recordings guitars sound way too thin and bright, not what I'm used to hearing. A good example is Albert King's Wednesday Night in San Francisco, that Flying V can be painful to listen to after a couple of minutes! Not so in the car or even just using headphones and my laptop. I understand that it's because the system is more revealing, but is it possible to have both, revealing and musical so that one can enjoy the music they love? The PrimaLuna did help and it's staying, I like what I'm hearing so far, and I get to play with tubes, something I enjoy doing already :)

Right now I'm breaking in some Wharfedale Denton 80th, I wanted to try something with a soft dome tweeter, something less fatiguing than the LS50. I'm at 70+ hours so far and they're sounding much better, not as fatiguing, but something is missing... I prefer the LS50's soundstage and details, but they're both not that great for electric guitar. The Dentons are more forgiving but I don't find them musical and they don't disappear like the LS50s do.

So what are my choices? Do I stick with bookshelf, try some floor standing? What about single driver speakers (Omega, Zu...)? Are those the answer to what I'm looking for? I need something more forgiving, musical, efficient so I can crank it up when I feel like playing along some times... I want the guitar to sound full and not thin and bright. It's a small room and not a lot of space due to my guitar gear. My budget is also limited, would like to keep it under $2k, I already have a hobby and don't want this to get out of control :)

Forgot to mention, I also have a Rel sub, so not too worried about the low end. Sorry for the long post and thanks for any help!
cedarblues
soma70
153 posts
 
i should have added that you also need some aftermarket power cables to get the best from the power conditioner. Nothing expensive, just shielded and with lower awg than the the stock cords and plugged straight into the wall.
donvito
400 posts
 
You have been using the LS50 and the Denton in your 12x12 room. Why do you state that the Harbeth is too small? With the REL subwoofer any small stand mount speaker is the best option in a small room like yours!
wim1983's avatar
wim1983
221 posts
 
With Wharfedale Denton 80th, you kinda get the best speakers to listen that kind of music you love, yes sometimes Denton can be a bit dark I tried quite some speakers, some with really good resolution, it’s give and take, at the same time you got your resolution you got noise higher db too, I have an advice though you could try some brutal power amp like NAD M22 V2 power amp, not cheap though, it give a more near neutral sense, is very very little bright detailed to the sound, which a give a little bit more HD sense but less little musical, not so much, though usually I use Class D Audio SDS-470C, not a warm amp, not a neutral amp too, it give proper bright and warm to different audio spectrum, dunno how it works, it just works better with the Denton, sound sweeter. Between Marantz is strongly not recommended to pair with Denton 80th, at least from me and others’ experiences, also soft dome tweeters also can be bright sometimes for certain speakers.
8th-note
407 posts
 
I have several hundred blues CDs and records and some of them just aren’t recorded very well. If your system sounds good on your best recorded source material I would not recommend choosing speakers to take the harshness out of your poor recordings. Have you considered (the horror, the horror....) an equalizer? This is a low cost way to tame some of your thin recordings. You can experiment with your favorite bad sounding CDs and come up with a curve that fattens them up and rounds them off. Then you can selectively use the equalizer when you need it. I have one in my system and I use it fairly often - usually on older recordings that I cherish. One of the reasons your car sounds so nice is that car stereos often have fat round bass because it sounds good in the showroom and it compensates for road noise which is in the mid bass region. Used ten or twelve band equalizers are cheap and readily available on eBay and they provide a huge insight into the effect of subtle frequency manipulations on your recorded music. One positive side effect is that it will help train your ears as a musician. Once you’ve played with EQ for a while you will become a better listener and better at identifying shortcomings in your own live and recorded sound.
cedarblues OP
32 posts
 
@beernut I've seen some of your posts discussing the same thing here... so if you say the Heresy will get the job done then that's probably what I'll go with, but I'd like to listen to them in person first, if I can find any.

Not all power conditioners are equally effective and some can be detrimental. Having tried several I have found that Shunyata conditioners work very well and you could pick up a second hand Hydra 2 or 4 for a just a few hundred $
I will also look into power conditioners and better power cables, since this keeps coming up, thanks!

You have been using the LS50 and the Denton in your 12x12 room. Why do you state that the Harbeth is too small? With the REL subwoofer any small stand mount speaker is the best option in a small room like yours!

With the two sets I already have, on some recordings I find myself having to turn it up way too much and find that the amp might be struggling, being a 35 wpc amp, so something more efficient will help.

With Wharfedale Denton 80th, you kinda get the best speakers to listen that kind of music you love, yes sometimes Denton can be a bit dark
I don't find the Dentons dark at all, they're nice, but they don't excite me, they sound kinda "boring" sometimes.

Have you considered (the horror, the horror....) an equalizer?
Lol, yes I have actually. On the previous integrated I was using, the Marantz PM8005, that's exactly what I did. I left the source direct enabled and when I played some of these live blues albums I disabled it and I had the tone controls set to cut down on the highs and add more mids. Since the PrimaLuna doesn't have any tone controls I was thinking of adding something like the Schiit Loki. But if I can find a better speaker, more efficient, that will get job done and I don't have to mess with anything then I'll be set.

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