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Small room, "budget priced" speaker advice, please

Hi,

I recently sold my dearly beloved, old Vandersteen 2C's here on Audiogon (and I hope SgtPeppers is loving them at this moment!) :-) I did this because in our remodeled house, my new listening room (which will double as a guest room) is just too small for the 2C's. The Spousal Acceptance Factor was just too low. ;-)

I have a PS Audio Elite-Plus integrated amp for power (around 70 W/Ch) and a soon-to-be-shipped-off-for-a-refurb Sota Sapphire for an analog front end (I have "miles" of vinyl)! I will also get a CD player at some point.

For now, I need to find a pair of best-of-breed, truly "budget" speakers. By "budget," I'm talking upper limit of $850/pair. (Gone are my free-spending, single days... I'm a dad now...) :-)

Listening habits: lots of 60's and 70's folk and rock, some jazz, Donald Fagen/Steely Dan, a little classical. Listening volume: not too loud. Sonic preferences: I value transparency and imaging/soundstage. Bass should be accurate above all, as opposed to chest-pounding powerful.

I've looked at Paradigms, which I know are highly regarded at lower price points. Trouble is, our one, local dealer is primarily a TV/home theater outfit, so you're trying to hear them in a showroom crammed with other stuff... you know the drill. I've also hit a high end shop. Listened to a pair of PSB small towers and disliked them; they sounded muddy and veiled to me. Listened to a pair of the smallest Rega's and liked them quite a bit, but would want to go back to listen again. I even wrote to PS Audio for advice; they recommended the "baby" Epos monitors, but they're out of my price range.

Thanks if you've read this far. Knowing how subjective all this is, I'd still welcome any advice you have to offer about what I should try to audition.
rebbi
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mapman
15,679 posts
 
Jpaik,

What you describe with Morrisons is very similar to the Ohm experience.

Ohm describes their Walsh wide-range drivers as a "Coherent Line Source", not a point source, though I think the difference here is marginal.

Ohm wide-range Walsh driver omni-output is also attenuated in the direction of the walls as I mentioned.

Ohm uses a separate tweeter (non-omni) for the very top end and this fires 45 degrees inward in a standard placement. I think I recall in some Walsh speakers, they may place the tweeter in an upward firing configuration similar to Morrison and Dueval, I believe, but I think this is by special requestl I believe, and more common for use in surround systems than two channel stereo.

Not sure why Ohm doesn't just aim the tweeter up and use a diffusion device of some sort to disperse 360 degrees along with the Walsh driver, like I think the Morrisons and Duevals do. Maybe for ease of placement due to the apparent Ohm focus on controlling early reflections from walls.

Morrisons appear to use a more sophisticated porting design than the Ohms. Would like to hear that in comparison though I have no grievances regarding bass on the Ohms when used with proper amplification.
zkzpb8
208 posts
 
I've heard a few of the Naim label recordings with just a stereo pair of mics. Some performances come out nice, but many of them had muddy balances between instruments, or were just swimming in natural reverb... I like minimally mic'd drums, but rooms-only is tough to pull off. Anyway, they're fun to check out.

I'd like to hear the Morrison speakers, but: "...And yes, there should be room treatment on the side walls to tame the first reflection. A couple of chunks of convoluted foam glued to a sturdy backing of cardboard or Coraplast work like a charm." Not after my recent renovation, but with a dedicated room, I bet these speakers could be fun..

I was definitely pretty blown away by mbl's but I think Knownothing is onto something about the compatibility of (most) recordings and omnis. I'd like to hear a stereo mix made on a pair of omni speakers.
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mapman
15,679 posts
 
ZK,

All I can say with certainty is that EVERY recording (good, bad and in-between) sounds more lifelike or "live" on my Ohms than any other speaker I've owned concurrently (Maggie, B&W, Dynaudio, Triangle) and been able to do direct a/b comparison with. The unique "like the performers are there" aspect not available in conventional speaker design is what attracts people to the omni design in general, I believe.

Others happy with attributes of conventional stereo speakers may not be attracted to omnis.

So omni's are not for everyone. Different strokes for different folks. Thats what makes the world go round, including the world of audio.
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knownothing
1,298 posts
 
Folks,

I just got kicked out of my office for some unscheduled "repairs" (don't ask) and went to the "Tune" HiFi shop down First Avenue here in Seattle who just happens to carry Totems. I took the opportunity to audition the new Music Hall Trio all-in-one system through a pair of Totem One Signature speakers. Even driven by a budget system, I have to say that these speakers image really, really well on almost any recording from dead center to fairly far off access. The Canadians (like Morrison and Vince Bruzesse of Totem) must have a lot of time during that long winter to perfect their speaker systems' ability to image, either omni-directional or standard dynamic speaker formats.

PS - the Music Hall Trio sounds pretty great for $1000 all-in.
rebbi OP
1,319 posts
 
Jpaik,

Sorry! I'd "taken out my credit card" about 90 minutes before reading your post. I'd never heard of the Morrison's, either! They look neat.
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