Well, I'm a function over form guy...but I think the speakers you have proposed are beautiful. I enjoyed reading your enthusiastic description of what you want and hope you find the perfect speaker.
Speaker of My House…!
Hey Boys - (and gals if there are any here)
It’s time to usher in a new speaker. It needs to be nuanced and elegant. It needs to party but also be super fast and detailed. No muddy lows or shrieking highs. It needs to image like electrostatic speakers but with a large sweet spot. I don’t have room for Subs, so I need at least 25hz.
My new speakers are probably floor standers and they need to look beautiful.
My current Amp is an ARC 160s.
Source is Rossini Apex
My main listening room is about 18’ X 22’ with vaulted 12’ ceiling. My system also spends time in my home office which is small - 13’ X 14’ also with high vaulted ceilings and as many room treatments as I could fit.
I just sold my 18 month old Sonus Faber Serafino Traditions. I loved a lot about them. Probably still the prettiest speaker I’ve ever seen and at just under $20k new, pretty awesome sounding. They really ticked all the boxes in so many areas but they got a little breathless in my larger room. Mostly the bass got lost and less detailed.
So….
I’m considering the new SF Amati’s.
Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene
Wilson Sasha DAW (ugh - I know, but that sound..!)
So…. Let’s have it. Whatta you guys think I should consider…?
(Im not ready for Maggie’s just yet)
Thanks for your help..!
Joe
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Your current speakers are beautiful don't know if any of your listed speakers can surpass them but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I've recently heard the JA Perspectives2 in a similar size room as your main listening room and it filled that space better than I would have imagined. Also very nice looking IMO. I've not heard the Pearl's but told they will play louder and deeper but same sonic signature. However the Perspectives played plenty loud, I think we were listening into the 90's per a dB meter that was showing levels. Peaks were in the upper 90's which were too loud for my taste. |
Can you audition any of these speakers? May be bring your amp and pre if the dealer doesn’t carry ARC. You aren’t really going to buy based on the recommendations here I assume. |
@audioguy85 +1 for Tannoy Arden Legacy.
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@audphile1 You’re right…! Heavy equipment will be the death of me. I’m still sore from boxing up my 125lbs Serafino’s…! I was able to finally demo the new SF Amati’s with my DAC and amp and I was pretty happy. hopefully next week I get to hear the Joseph Audio speakers. Not mad about Focals or B&W…. I can always pop the casters on the DAW’S…
anyway - I’m having a ball…. Thanks for your suggestions…!
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If you can, go listen to a pair of Vandersteen Kento. Absolutely blew me away. Airy highs without being piercing, natural mids, deep bass that wasn't boomy. What's really nice about them is that they have build in amplified subwoofers that you can tune to your room. Your dealer helps do it but can show you. 4 stars. Would recommend. |
@sc2 You beat me to it, the Legacy Aeris was the first thing that came to mind. |
@carlsbad Thanks for the encouraging words...! I was finally able to hear the New Amati's properly yesterday....
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Beauty is “in the eye of the beholder” but as someone previously mentioned, moving around speakers of that size & quality once properly set up is not something that’s seems too realistic. They’re not likely going to weigh less 100 lbs & be less than 4’ x 1’ x1’ & w/ an easily damaged finish. Of course speakers & their sound are a matter of personal taste & most of the speakers mentioned that I’ve heard sound like good “hifi”but not like live music which is what I prefer. I’ve found that lower efficiency speakers, regardless of the heroic amps they’re paired, rarely if ever sound live to me. They don’t have the dynamics, micro & macro, they live music has & you can instantly know it’s live. Some of the speakers I’ve heard & really enjoyed are: Legacy, some Bigger JBL’s, Avantgarde, Volti Audio, Acapella, Tannoy. Best of luck & I hope it doesn’t take 15 attempts to find your new “speaker of the house”! |
I have not seen or heard these speakers. I don’t judge anything by you tube videos, but uncharacteristically, somehow, the sound of these new Qualio speakers came through, especially on the first Patricia Barber tune. I have to say that although they are not your standard box look, I think their form and color would work well in your room. The 9.5" woofer puts out some serious sounding bass.
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@jomonhifi you seem extremely fortunate that you can hear all those speakers, where are you located? My guess is CA |
@rsf507 I live in Miami…. I have one dealer that is a 15 min walk from my house, very dangerous and a dealer about 90 mins away…. |
Cal me the Majority whip! Bass counts in many ways people do not always seem to get. All the speakers you mention are excellent. Many of the suggested speakers are as well. So why is your system lacking something? No subs. Before you buy any new speaker rethink your "No room for subs" idea. Get 4 subs in your 18 x 22 room's corners powered by their own amp. I use small RELs. Paradigms are as good or better. Not really intrusive. Yes, the wires are a hassle. Once those are in and tuned well you likely will forget about new speakers.
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you had a post a few weeks ago about your problems and nobody understood what your issues were with the Sonus Faber Serafino. It seems that you just want something else for the sake of change - instead of tweaking what you have? I mean, every component you have is a trillion dollars, are you just bored? |
@grislybutter Oh gosh... I’d never want to come across bored or petulant. I’m tweaking constantly. I’m even moving the entire system room to room in order to squeeze out sonic nuances. I’m striving for a better sound experience always. I spend a fair amount of time listening to music in my home and visiting as many hifi shops as I have time for. I love comparing the sound of different systems. I spent almost two hours last week moving crap around in my dealers room full of shiny objects trying to build what I can image might work in my home. I absoulutely love the sound of music and listening to the sound of music and just listening to music. All kinds. I studied music up until college and thought I was going to be a professional musician. My father taught my how to build stuff and at a very young age, he let me solder resistors to the circuit boards of his Dynakit Pre-Amp and Amp in 1967. I’ve worked so hard all my life and I’ve managed to save money and build a lovely life for myself. I am a very lucky man and always try to see the positive in every endeavor. So... Bored...? Never... |
sorry if I offended you, I guess I only knew 2% of the story. (however I am not sorry for, maybe this was one quick to way to get the details out of you :) ) Good luck to you. I work hard too, but I am more on the "buried in debt" side, and I just dream about little things like a cheap, used subwoofer. So I don't have your problems, but I enjoy reading about them. |
Good choice on adding subs. Even the lower end of the “price not an issue” stuff you are looking at all lacks bass. Yeah I might play down to 20hz with room gain but it does not mean it does it with ease and texture. I can’t recommend trying the JL Audio CR-1 crossover enough. The Rel hook up is 1980s tech… to get subs to truly mesh well you need a high pass crossover. I would also argue subs work better with full range speakers. I think it’s a best to cross them over where the bass driver drops off and the port starts to pick up. So this would be 50-70hz for almost all ported speakers. I will never run a system without subs again (well not my main system) but I also would never run subs without a high pass. My system will let me run with and without the high pass so I have A/B tested it many times. With the crossover it sounds like one big awesome speaker. Without it, it sounds like a good speaker with a good sub… |
@james633 - Interesting... Thanks for these notes. I can't wait to get all this stuff and start tinkering around...! Hopefully it all should start trickling in late next week. Back in 1998, I had a pair of Miller & Kriesel (sp?) satellites and two massive subs.... I'm sure the technology has come such a long way. Will keep you posted....
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One of the nice things about adjustable bass is sometimes you think you want more so you just dial more in. Then in a few days you realize you had it right before lol. Bass has a profound effect on musical enjoyment and enjoyment for the system as a whole. It is the most important thing to get right. sometimes I have trouble telling which speaker has better mids or highs as they are often just different not better but I can tell in just a few seconds which system has better bass.
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A couple of times I’ve had a monitor and dual sub set up. First was with 3 different Omega speakers with Omega subs and second with Shelby+Kroll monitors with S+K subs. After many exhausting trials I came across the Dspeaker Anti Mode Dual Core which gave me the best bass overall. It sends out bass tones and fixes the bass nodes in your room. Dspeaker now has the X4 Anti Mode which is also an electronic crossover. Not sure if your budget but you’ll save yourself a lot of time and frustration. https://www.underwoodhifi.com/products/dspeaker
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I second those who suggest Rockport--i have lusted for them but can't afford (the divorce that would follow). As someone else mentioned, your room size is not that large so Avior II would suffice--Cygnus would be overkill. Ticks all boxes and they sail on down to 25Hz with ease. Hopefully one of your dealers carries them--they're pretty too! |
@wyoboy I’ll try to find a dealer. Thank you…! |
Hmmm, is your plan to have a system that's easy to move between these two rooms and works well in both? If so, I would suggest a really nice headphones rig or extreme nearfield setup rather than attempting to find full-range loudspeakers that will shine these two very different rooms.
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