Time, Wear, and Technological Evolution

@soix I’ve already put quite a lot of time into speaker placement, unfortunately. This is already as far away from the wall I can go before it messes up the highs and mids. Thank you for the advice, though.

As a follow-up, the dealer didn’t have LS50s of any type on hand, so he loaned me a pair of LSX IIs to demo. CONSIDERING THEIR SIZE, I am actually quite impressed with this sound, but I’ve only managed to get some preliminary listening in. My current system is still set up, so I will try to spend some time doing A/B comparisons later tonight.

-Ed

@rocray as it turns out, I was able to get in touch with a local KEF dealer, and while he does not have LS50 Metas on hand/demo, he has a pair of LSX IIs that he is able to let me audition in my home to get some idea of how it may sound right in my own listening space. Will test them out and see how it goes. He's actually on his way over right now to drop them off.

-Ed

@yoyoyaya i was able to source a pair of LS50 Metas just an hour North of my home, picking them up Tuesday night. Let’s see how it goes! Sort of a birthday gift to myself (turning 42 tomorrow). Ordered a pair of 26” stands as well, arriving Tuesday via Amazon.

-Ed

@yoyoyaya Yes, I’ve left the sub completely off any time I experimented with placement of the main loudspeakers. I did the vast majority (and a LOT of it) of the speaker placement testing before resorting to buying the woofer, actually.

-Ed

@rocray Yes, I have begun looking around for shops with demo spaces. Room is around 250 sq ft. I listen to a mix of stuff, primarily pop and rock, some jazz and metal, but almost no rap/hip-hop, or country music. I do not tend to listen super loud, under 85db for sure.

-Ed

@soix ​​​​@yoyoyaya I did more experimentation with placement today, like dramatically pulling them away from the back wall, and still no dice. Then on a whim, I also tried something new. The Electra 926 are designed for biwire, with the lower posts driving the woofers and the upper posts driving the tweeters and mids. I tried removing the in-line, high-pass filters between the speakers and the amp, and then the jumpers at the back of the speakers, and only driving the upper posts, then disabling the low-pass filter entirely on the subwoofer to fill the gap left by the unpowered woofers in the main loudspeakers. I managed to get response flat through the crossover band, but the quality of the upper bass in the 200Hz range coming out of my sub is complete poo compared to the woofers in the Electras (yeah, no surprise, right?), so I've once against reverted it back. I felt an improvement in soundstage without those high-pass filters in place, so either the filters are creating a bit of a veil, and/or the amp only driving the mids and tweeters gives it less work, enhancing quality there, but the completely muddy upper bass in that configuration just kind of killed the entire vibe.

The experiment continues...

-Ed

@rocray @yoyoyaya @kingbr @soix @mofojo Got the LS50 Metas in. Haven’t even broken them in yet, but this did the trick, especially once I installed the included foam port plugs. I removed the in-line high-pass filters and am running the LS50 Metas full range straight from the GCC-100, and have already achieved a flat total response curve with minimal time spent tuning the subwoofer through the phone app. Initial speaker placement is based on the guidelines set in the included manual, although they don’t think the bass port plugs are needed when placed with far from surrounding walls, I ended up needing the port plugs to cut down the room gain at ~45hz. Curiously, the floorstanders were more sensitive than the new bookshelfs. Actual volume level when listening to the new speakers set to 30 on the GCC-100 sounds more like 23 or 25 with the Electras combined with the high-pass filters.

Answering the broader question, it seems time and technological evolution have not been so kind to my Electras. The new setup provides better resolve in the bass and sub-bass, and superior imaging with basically no experimentation with placement yet (waiting for break-in to progress more before doing so). The sound is also smoother/easier to listen to on the top-end and also overall more neutral across the spectrum, which, from a subjective point, fits my listening tastes more (I’m not a V-shape kind of guy, plus vocals were a little too forward compared to the rest of the ensemble with the Electras for me taste). I am finding that complex metal and classical/orchestral pieces maintain better integrity from the new speakers than the Electras. It’s a hands-down winner, especially once I plugged the bass ports on the Metas. I wonder if the Electras are just too much speaker for my room (approximately 250 sq ft, lowish ceiling) or if they really are degraded in performance due to age. I can’t take a time machine back 20 years to tell for sure.

Most critical of all, however, the system has reached end-game sound for me. I think, at the end of the day, this is something for which a price tag cannot be put. To have the sound where it is good enough that I no longer have any desire to change anything, and just enjoy the music, well, can’t beat that, right?

-Ed