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Speaker for low volume listening with high WAF

It's that time of life when the large home is no longer needed and a New Orleans French Quarter condo is more exciting. So I'll be saying good-bye to my Wilson watt puppy 7's, wonderful "Big Mac" MC2000 (get the tubes right and this amp is incredible), Hovland HP100, Dodson DAC, Sony SCD-1, Lector CDP 7TL and mucho other stuff I spent years perfecting with tube rolling. Now I'm looking for a very good speaker system that will complement a Luxman L-590AII integrated amp along with a single box cd player. I don't particularly like speakers that are overly warm but prefer accuracy, clarity, wide soundstaging and musical dynamics which the watt pup 7's serves up with the right equipment. I would be interested in hearing from others who live in smaller spaces and share a similar musical taste and bought speakers that mirror my musical taste. Prior to the watt pups (I've owned the 6 & 7's) I had ML Prodigy and Quad ESL 63 stats (fast & transparent but low WAF).
rickjames
somec59
245 posts
 
Consider Gallo 3.1
rickjames OP
24 posts
 
Thanks for the responses I did hear the Gallo 3.1's at one of the NY shows and was impressed.
khagen58's avatar
khagen58
14 posts
 
You might want to audition the Usher BE-718 Tiny Dancers. I think they have a very nice sound, throw a great soundstage and are fairly small in size.
mechans
3,048 posts
 
Merlins for one,try the VSM. They have a fairly small footprint for a floor strander. The customised Esotar tweeter in them is clean and accurate. IMHO that tweeter competes for world best and provides really great top and lower treble detail at low volumes. As for WAF they come in a wide variety colors the same basic idea as Wilson, they use automotive paint.
If you like a warm, which is really just some extra mid bass and bass emphasis. Given the requisite clean, super detailed, and never blurry muffed sound, try to listen to FJ from Germany. I liked their OM model which again is a small floor stander. They are only available in wood veneers or all wood I beliieve. They are very reasonably priced for the quality.
I admit up front that I haven't heard the Focal Electra in it's latest version. I do own an ealiear version of the Electra series. They are very different than the modernistic wedge shaped iteration of the Focal Electra. The crisp almost analytic accuracy of JM is well known and your familiarity of the Wilson's OEM JM/Fopcal drivers should give you some insight regarding a great balance between them and the warmth of a Luxman at low volume. If the speaker is too large -assuming you haven't had your audio resources pre-allocated by your wife to redo the kitchen and baths- move up to the Mini Utopias.
The French Quarter is a pretty loud place . You can keep the electronics and you will need really big speakers, truth be told, to avoid being overcome by the cacophony. Get even bigger and louder speakers.
You can enter the center of your head soundstage don't trouble with anything more than exellent headphones.Add to this a source and the best Headphone amp money can buy. I havea Singlepower Extreme which sounds great but I am certain others will spank it. Play as loud as you want.
And as they say Have Fun!!
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
Thiel CS1.6 or 2.4 for WAF. They sound better with the grills on which impresses my wife. Nice furniture grade finish.
I don't particularly like speakers that are overly warm but prefer accuracy, clarity, wide soundstaging and musical dynamics
The Thiels do all that.
Disclaimer: I have a pair of Thiels currently listed for sale.
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