arty_vandelay

Responses from arty_vandelay

Speakers under $50k that rival $200k+ speakers?
For a full range speaker it's difficult to go past B&W 800D3.  
DYI upgrading B&W N805 to Diamond 805?
Good advice to get an upgrade done professionally. I would definitely upgrade the tweeter caps, and there's also a potential there to upgrade the N805 to "Signature" 805, which includes the higher spec aluminium dome tweeter. 
Thoughts about the Magico A3, Revel Salon2/ Studio2
IMO the Revel Salon's treble is magnificent, and even with my hearing now limited to <18khz they sound more extended than most of the competition. If there's a weak point with the Salon's (2's) it's the low sensitivity, and they seem to lack th... 
DYI upgrading B&W N805 to Diamond 805?
You can replace the drivers but not the crossover, because the crossover design is linked to the cabinet design, and the relative position of the woofer and tweeter voice coils. In the older Nautilus there's a 90 degree offset at crossover, but in... 
What in your mind represents real technological advancement.
The advancement is here but is yet to be fully utilized. For some time now it’s been possible to accurately correct all dynamic speaker distortions, in both time and frequency domain, but thus far high end speaker manufacturers have resisted from ... 
B&W 802D
Don't blame B&W,  you obviously need bigger drivers with a higher power rating. I have 800 Diamonds and even peaking 1000W on bass heavy program, woofers are fine.  
KEF LS50, B&W 805D2, B&W 805S opinions wanted
My opinion only, but where the 705S2 excels is the driver integration, which is the most seamless I've heard from a B&W. The consequence of this is a speaker that conveys dynamic nuance exceptionally well, and is incredibly engaging. More so i... 
KEF LS50, B&W 805D2, B&W 805S opinions wanted
Before you commit money to 805D2, have a listen first to the 705S2.    
B&W 802d3 vs 802d2
@auxinput1,   I've heard 802D2 and D3 side by side, so my comments relate to those models, and what I heard is more or less supported by Stereophile and other 3rd party measurements. The older D2 definitely has more weight and warmth from a more g... 
B&W 802d3 vs 802d2
802D3’s have a more overdamped bass alignment and less energy through the upper bass and lower mids, so they are by design a less warm / rich sounding speaker than the 802D2 or 800D2. Positioning them closer to the room boundary might be beneficia... 
DAW vs Alexia 1 vs Sasha 2, descending order of $$
From Stereophile measurements, Alexia1 dips to 2 ohms around 80-90 Hz and Alexia2 to 2.6  ohms in the same range, so not a huge difference. Both are sufficiently challenging, but still a walk in the park for any well designed solid state amp with ... 
DAW vs Alexia 1 vs Sasha 2, descending order of $$
I've heard the original Alexia's bass sound terrible in the wrong rooms but very close to perfect in the right room, which left me with the impression that they're more room fussy than average. I haven't heard the DAW but from all reports they're ... 
B&W 803D crossover caps
I've done some work on my 800D2 crossover, which makes the mid-treble response smoother and more "seamless".The FST driver exhibits a slight peak at 3.5 kHz, which can be fixed with a RLC (2mH + 6R+ 1uF) network in shunt with the driver, and by so...