So you've just heard speakers that blew you away
Ctsooner, I agree with you about the emotion of the event. Well made speakers based on the Seas Excel midrange woofer prove your point. Joseph Audio and Salk come to mind. In a proper system, they deliver excitement of a performance. There are others such as the Vandy 7s that will get you even closer to the performance itself, but the Excels get you there primarily on capturing the excitement of the performance alone. Bob |
I have never heard the Salk speakers. Don't think there are any dealers in my area. I've heard good things about them. Are they first order xovers? Don't know much about them. I have liked some of the Joseph audio speakers I've heard in the past, but for the cost I really wanted a full range legit sub 40hz. I don't know if they have that at that price range. I still can't get over the fact that I went to Audio Connections to buy new Proacs as that's all I've ever owned and I can away with Vandy Treo's. It changed my whole paradigm in how I listen to higher end systems. I used to listen for huge soundstage and imaging. I love bass and a full range, but I always ended up liking monitors best. Then I hear the various higher end Vandy's and it opened up a new way to listen. They just sounded like what I heard the night before (live concert). It blew me away. Then I went back to listen to other systems I was looking at and they all left me cold. They just didn't hit that emotion. I'm sure there are some smaller upstart companies who have 'IT', but I haven't heard any so far that have that. I have heard some of the exotics that also lack this emotional magic. Is this what the Magico's have? I did like the new Legacy's, but for the cost, I like the Vandy's better. |
The Salks are second order, but they have excellent crossovers. The Salks are mail order, but they have sold so many that there are probably people in your area that would let you listen to theirs. You could call Jim Salk if you were interested in finding somebody in your area. http://salksound.com Bob |
Cstooner, Sadly, I'd have to say that a great system won't necessarily sound great in any decent room. Far from it - on at least on two different levels, IMO. First, I believe that the room issues below 100ish hz are, in almost all cases, best addressed with room correction software, (but I also know that many here will disagree). I've heard many excellent systems transformed by DRC software, even in excellent rooms as the inevitable low frequency room induced FR issues are cleaned up. Check that out for yourself to decide where you end up on the issue. The other issue is simply room volume (cubic feet). Any given Speaker model generally sounds much better in a room of a given volume. The big MBLs (to cite one example) can sound great in a huge room, but I'd never want to listen to that speaker system in a small to medium sized space. I hope you can recreate the outstanding experience you heard on audition with the same system in your own room. I like stories with happy endings. I just wouldn't be completely confident until I actually heard the results. Best of luck in the effort. |
