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Time to change. But to what?

I've had my B&W N803 for a while now. Love them. But have a craving for a different type of sound.

I want speakers that play all kinds of music equally well. Excell at soundstaging, imaging, resolution, are NOT analytical, sound natural(this is very improtant...I hate artificial sound), and do the bass so you not only hear it but feel it as well.

I started building a list of potential candidates.
Here goes it:
1. B&W 803D
2. DALI Helicon 800MkII
3. DALI Euphonia MS4 or 5
4. Dynuadio S5.4
5. Sonus Faber Cremona

from the list I am familiar with S5.4, 803D and Cremona. I have never heard DALI speakers.

Room width is about 14 feet. Length is 18 feet. Speakers are on the short wall. Behind the speakers corners are treated with 8th Nerve Rectangles and Triangles, there is an area rug in front of speakers.

I listen to rock music, jazz(vocal and instrumental but dynamic stuff...no smooth jazz at all), acoustic music, solo, chamber and large orchestral classical(Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Bartok, Shoenberg, Shostakovich, etc). I would like the orchestra to be rendered as large and real as possible within the natural limitations of my room, system, listener.

I like to listen on realistic levels when I can, but since I have a 5 year old who goes to bed early, low level resolution is VERY IMPORTANT. I do a lot of late night listening at low levels and want to hear as much information out of the speakers as possible. My B&Ws excell at playing loud without strain. I want this quality to remain with the new speaker as well.

The speaker upgrade will most likely force me to use my Bel Canto DAC3 as a preamp for a while.

I am selling my BAT VK-51SE preamp right now to raise some funds for the speakers. Once I sell the preamp I plan to sell the B&Ws.

DAC3 isn't that bad direct into my Pass Labs X250.5 and I have a feeling I can deal with it for the time being.
No plans to change the amplifier, or anything else. Just the speakers.

What are my options?

Your advise is greatly appreciated.
audphile1

Showing 2 responses by mimberman

mimberman
299 posts
 
Okay, I guess I'll chime in here, as we've spoken over email about this, but maybe this will be helpful for others. I own the MS4's and am happy with them. They can be though, as Tvad said, analytical. I find them extremely sensitive to changes up the line (especially with cables) and am going to spend some time trying to find a nice synergy in my system before I entertain switching to something else. They're not necessarily forgiving speakers, and are going to reveal weaknesses in bad recordings, but they do wonderful things with sound-staging, micro-dynamics and vocals. Low-level listening is very pleasant, although I tend to listen at higher volumes. I think given your amplification, most of the speakers you're entertaining will sound good at low levels, because of the Pass's Class A bias.

Now are they the perfect speaker for you, I don't know. I think you should listen to them, but I think that something else to hear is the Verity Parsifal Encore. I really love what these modestly-sized speakers do, especially at low level. They are nothing close to analytical, but are still resolving and articulate. They're pricier new or used, but I think that's a speaker you could be happy with for a long time. It's also nice that you can position the woofer to fire forward or backward depending on your room's setup. They're also beautiful in the Makore finish, IMO.

Enjoy!
mimberman
299 posts
 
I'm going to chime in here again. Audphile1 and I are going to listen to my Dali MS4s with his pass 250.5 and my bat vk 250 running from the aesthetix janus and the Bel Canto DAC 3, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. I just took delivery of the Pass INT-150 today and couldn't wait to warm it up, so am listening to it cold with the Dali's. I have a thread on my initial impressions of this integrated that I'll update, but I'll just say that I think Pass electronics and Dali are a good combo, and this is from a non-broken-in unit. The high resolve of the Dalis is there, but any stridency has been taken out of the highs, and the sound is much rounder. Sure, bass is a little bloated at the moment, but I'm hoping I'm onto something here. The Dali's will not be forgiving with a recording, but they'll reproduce a good or great recording so well that it's hard to forget. I still say if you want more forgiving yet engaging speakers that Verity has some great stuff in nicely designed and proportioned packages, FWIW.
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