Big Stupid Warm Speakers


I'm getting ready for a speaker change. I've owned B&W 804 matrix speakers for about 12 years now. While I've enjoyed the refinement of them there's always been something missing.

Yes that's right, and that something might be BIG STUPID WOOFERS. Some of my favorite speakers ever were a pair of Infinity's I paid $300 for in 1979. They had 15 inch woofers, tweeters that were harsh and not the greatest, but these things roared like an angry lion even when no music was playing. When it was playing, about anything from Oingo Boingo to Mozart was a visceral experience.

Now with upper end speakers, you don't know there's bass until there's supposed to be, the tweeters are refined and realistic sounding, there's some wonderful imaging etc. But it's somehow too polite - I want to get back some of the warmth from the big woofer days. And no, using a sub isn't the same thing.

I remember being in a high end store about 10 years ago when a Polk Rep was there showing this huge new Polk speaker that was just incredible sounding. Big warm, realistic, detailed -awesome. I asked the store owner when he'd be getting them. He rolled his eyes and said, "Our customers are too discriminating for this type of speaker. The bottom end was way out of control."

So maybe I want out of control instead of polite. Can anyone put me in the direction of some BIG STUPID WARM SPEAKERS that still have some refined and high end attributes? The rest of my system is all Cary HT that retails for around $10K.

Cary Cinema 6 Preamp Processor
Cary Cinema 5 Multichannel amp (200 WPC)
Cary Cinema DVD 6 (incredible with CD's)

Even though the system is HT, the electronics do very well with music. And even the they're Cary components, they're solid state - but easy on the ears. I listen to Classical, Jazz, Electronic, Bluegrass, etc.
Oh yeah, and looking to spend under $3K/pair.

Has anyone else gone through this? Any speaker recommendations? Thanks.
larryb
I would definitely recommend the big JBL floorstanders. If you want big, warm sound, nothing beats a good JBL floorstander. Plus they are as cheap as big speakers go for nowadays (by audiophile standards). Check them out at your local Best buy.
I have a pair of Legacy Focus 20/20's. They have great base and I do not run a sub. I like my base realistic. I know there are many who say, "what no sub for LFE!". You really must here these, I am a 2ch person that wants hi end sound from my home theater. I think they fit the bill. they go for about $7K a pair.

Good luck, hunting for audio gear is lots of fun. Listen to many before making a call.

nick
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I know what you mean about the B&W's. I hate it when I go into a showroom to demo a piece of equipment and they have it hooked up to B&W speakers. They will put you to sleep, something that you should buy a 70 year old person.

If you want to be woken up, get yourself some Klipschorns. They are so dynamic, and revealing that they will scare you.
It's best to have good upstream equipment with these speakers, because they won't hide anything. Your Cary stuff should do.
above post will put to shame many of the others people have listed in the bass department. What they call bass is "audiophile" bass to the 20's at best. There's little power in comparison. You should listen to the various speakers and see for yourself anyway. Good luck in your search.
Both of these can sound very good. The VMPS Supertower/R SE',FF3 and FF1's sound excellent but need some care in set up. Bass is world class to 20hz, that's a very honest 20hz btw on the FF1 and Supertower, mid twenties on the FF3. There's two 15's, one active and one passive for the lower bass. The mid/upper bass is handled by a 10 woven carbon fiber. Well worth researching. They can still be bought although the newer ribbon line gets all the bandwidth after winning the CES with a pair. Legacy speakers have that good bass also but I think the mids aren't quite as coherent as the VMPS I mentioned above due to the planar mids.