Another 2,000 Speaker Question

In the 2k range the Martin Logan SL 3 is a great transparent speaker- they are originally 3500 but sell for 2 and under on the used market.

I agree with Ljgj. The SL3 can be placed in your room. It has probably one of the most revealing mid ranges around. I few cautionary points: You probably won't want to drive these with tubes--while you can--and they sound great--they need a lot of current, which puts you into big buck tube amps. Sedond's suggestion of a tube pre and solid state power is a very good one for these speakers. Another important point--what is behind the speakers? If it's curtains--well, then it's curtains for these speakers--they need a sonically reflective wall behind them, otherwise the soundstage collapses.

Thanks, Sedond. I read the reviews on audioreview.com on the speaker you referred to. I don't think I've seen a collection of reviews that positive on anything. It's in my price range as well. I particularly liked the one reviewer who mentioned Keb Mo's Just Like You album, which is the type of music I mainly listen to. It can also handle tube and/or SS with it's sensitivity (is that the right word) So many options! As far as your compromise, I was thinking about getting speakers (all of the ones recommended here sound intriguing, though electrostatic vs. cone is up in the air), amp (possibly tube), and cd player w/volume (older units by Resolution Audio? or Wadia have been auctioned for reasonable amounts on this site) and foregoing the preamp. My other option is using the digital out on my Sony DVD player to a newer Digital processor (the MSB Link III's upsampling, for example seems like it's getting a lot of press), and getting a preamp. Any thoughts (I probably enraged about 90% of the readers reading this due to these equipment choices!).

Ljgj, thanks for the recommendation. A friend of mine just bought the Aerius second hand and has been gushing ever since about it. I may get a chance to audition at least its little brother.

Tubes sound the way to go for me, thanks Trelja and rcprince. I only purchase tube amps for guitar amplification due to their tone and 3-D quality; I guess much of the same concepts apply in audio (obviously audio components are far superior). I like the comment regarding the naturalness of the dynamics, I think that's right where I'd be going.

undertaker, while i really like the martin logan cls (tho they don't go loud enuff for me on many types of music i listen to), except for m-l's top-line models, i've never cared for their hybrids - but, ymmv.

re: not using a preamp, my experience is a nice toob preamp w/a not-too-expensive cd-player, will beat out a moderately-expensive cd-player, run straight in. (again, while there are many who will agree w/me on this, there are also others who don't!) and, a good toob preamp will drastically reduce the differences between inexpensive & moderately-expensive cd-players, imo. of course, i also listen to a lot of vinyl, *and* a lot of fm, so no preamp is not an option for me.

regards, doug

Undertaker4, I was waiting for the electrostat users to show up. You should make a point of listening to your friend's M-L, as the transparency of the midrange may be your cup of tea, and the lack of deep bass may not upset you. Abstract7's cautions are excellent, and you should heed them. As far as the preamp/no preamp debate goes, I think that if you like the tube amps sound, you should consider going with a tubed preamp as well. Going straight into the amps with a CD player will give you better dynamics (I actually tried this with my Jadis tubed preamp, which clearly softened the initial edge of transients but, again, in a way I find more approximates a concert hall) and probably a little more low level detail, but you may lose a little of the tube dimensionality and, all right, I'll say it, pleasing harmonic distortions(!). The main reason, though, would be for the possibility of using other sources, be they a tuner, SACD, DVD-Audio or, most importantly, vinyl. BTW, my brother is a guitarist as well (I am too, but only acoustic these days), and he also prefers using tubed guitar amps for the reasons you mentioned.