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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
rebbi OP
1,319 posts
 
You know, I was joking with a friend yesterday that high-end audio was a great hobby for people who love music and gadgets and have obsessive personalities. :-)

I'm afraid I'm a poster boy for the "obsessive" part. I've got all this great new equipment to enjoy, but I still can't help but think that I should've given the Ohm Walsh Micro Tall's an audition before settling on the Totem Arro's... Mapman's advocacy for the Ohm's was so eloquent! Sigh!

Time to just play lots of music and get over it!
mapman's avatar
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mapman
15,679 posts
 
I've been called a lot of things over the years.... but never eloquent! Thanks!

You made a good move with the Totems. They will hold their value well. Maybe you'll get a chance to try the Ohms someday if desired with little or no financial loss along the way.

I bought my Ohm 2 Series 3, which are still relative unknowns to many and are hard to distinguish visibly from their older, much more commonly found and less refined ancestors, for only $600 or so second hand here on Agon last year.

Ohm micro walshs come up here and on ebay once in a while. They are much easier to identify by appearance for what they are (all micros use series 3 drivers). They typically bring $600-$800 or so used from what I've seen.

The Totems would easily bring that or more should you ever decide to try something different I believe. So both in terms of sound and financially, you made a good investment.

People who might spend tens of thousands for MBL or other high end omnis otherwise are the ones I hope I might convince that it may not be necessary to spend that kind of money out of the gate on speakers in order to get the kind of sound they are looking for.
tvad
9,467 posts
 
Rebbi, I auditioned some Ohm speakers two years ago. One Ohm Walsh driver (new version) blew within 10 minutes at an SPL no higher than the high 80s. One speaker had its speaker cable binding posts on the underside front of the cabinet, while the other speaker had the binding posts on the underside rear of the cabinet where they were supposed to be.

Delivery was delayed nearly 8 weeks past the promised date.

Things may be different now. I don't know. I hope so.

The take-away is that you can take solace in knowing you made an informed decision.

If you want to audition the Micro Talls, Ohm offers a money-back, home trial period. You can always check them out.
rebbi OP
1,319 posts
 
Upon reflection, I think that some of what I'm experiencing has to do with the extent that the Internet (both retail and sites like Audiogon) has changed how you shop for high-end audio.

When I bought my first good system (PS Audio Amp, Vandersteen 2c's, Systemdek turntable) back in the mid-1980's, I spent about 4 months going from shop to shop (I lived in the NYC area back then)... I'll never forget the single-speaker Linn dealer who tried to literally confiscate my wristwatch while I listened to equipment!...) I ended up buying my stuff from two dealers: Innovative Audio in Brooklyn, and a guy in Lynnbrook, Long Island whose name I can no longer remember.

Anyway, there was no internet, and no question that I was going to buy my gear from one of the brick and mortar stores I'd visitedÂ… gear that I'd actually HEARD first. That's how I ended up with the Vandy's: it was love at first listen.

But now I live in Austin which has a nice group of high-end shops, but still limits what you can get to hear.

Plus, between the range of stuff you can learn about (and covet) on the 'Net, the advice you can get on a site like Audiogon, and the possibility of picking up used gear here, everything changes. I started out this upgrade process swearing that I'd only buy something that I'd heard first. And I ended up with a bunch of components that I'd never heard first.

Times do change.
learsfool
1,206 posts
 
I didn't read through all of these responses to see if someone already recommended this, but my brother has a very small listening room, and he as a pair of used Sound Dynamics 300TI's, which he has mounted on stands. He gets very nice results with them. Might be hard to find in the used market, but I saw some on ebay recently.
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