Can you live with your current speaker until you die?
@ atmasphere Wow your Classic Audio Loudspeakers loo fantastic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_cqeuogxc0 Is there any place in US to audition them? I expect you enjoy it for your life. |
Had any one of you found the speaker for your life?So far, yes. I've had the Classic Audio Loudspeakers T-3s for about 20 years. I had them updated about 8 years ago with the new field coil midrange drivers (which employ beryllium diaphrams with Kapton surrounds). When I initially had them built, they were made a few inches taller just so I could honestly say they go down to 20Hz (the TAD 15" woofers have a free air resonance of 22Hz). So the speaker goes from 20Hz to about 35Khz, are 16 ohms and 98db 1 watt/1 meter. I really don't see changing them out- they are still some of the most revealing and uncolored speakers I've heard. |
@folkfreak is right keep working the details, hyper level matching is important or you are most likely just chasing your tail.... I chewed mine off long ago....tailess Kat... I probably have a lot less runway ahead than behind....but yes, easy to say I could live with my Vandersteen 7.....I am blessed to have Richards amps as well and there are rumblings of a preamp, so who knows...IF I ever build a dedicated room, might get his sub 9... that is a longshot.... My Naim server is getting a bit long in the tooth, so that might be next.... |
skhkong78 Thanks about the upgrading components. Once I placed the Signature IIIs in my living room, it was mated to a voltage regulated (non-ultralinear) redesigned Dynaco ST70 with tremendous bass and original Mullard EL34 output tubes. Also, a custom made subminiature tube voltage regulated preamp and a custom rebuilt CD player. This is my secondary system, small and great. Oregonpapa on these forums has the Signature IIIs as his primary speaker and they sound fantastic in his smaller room than my Focus which are in my large listening room. Both speakers are a bargain used, probably because they are 25 year old models. But so easy to make sound great compared to expensive new high end speakers for larger rooms. |
@folkfreak I agree with you in that there is always room for improvement in any system. But law of diminishing return applies here, there is no way to justify the cost of 90K$ MSB Select II in my system although it will give subtle improvement in details, soundstage and etc. But Vintage horn Western Electric system is just another league above from all modern speakers in natural dynamics to justify its cost. |
You are right once it reach certain level, it is hard to improve Actually I couldn’t disagree more. With very resolving systems any change in the system is obvious. Fine tuning small details becomes paramount. As as a case in point in my system over the past two days I’ve spent many hours firstly getting to appreciate an update on my CD mat (Marigo Clear Transformation to new Aida) and then going back and forth on the impact of introducing a Furutech damping stand under the power cord to the power conditioner that drives my mono blocks. Both of these changes had profound impacts, one I ultimately decided as positive (the mat) and the other negative. But in both cases the differences were very clear and audible. High resolution means needing to sweat the details I’m afraid and the benefits when you get it right keep adding up |
@cd318 You are right once it reach certain level, it is hard to improve. 200K$ system that I heard at dealers’s ahowroom 3 days ago in Korea does sound less musical than my humble system (total paid cost around 100K$). But 300K$ vintage Western Electric Horn system that I had heard twice last week in Seoul, Korea blew me away with natural dynamics and sound stage. Now I got into trouble. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/are-you-ready-to-dive-for-your-dream-speaker-which-cost-300k |
Once you get to a certain level you can only go sideways, trading one quality for another. The real trick is to know what you line best and what you dislike most. I love purity of tone the most and find coarse treble painful. So 8 years later I'm still with Tannoy DCs, but as prof said, an audiophile can never truly say never. Especially when there's wood cone speakers out there, ribbon tweeters, plasma tweeters(!?), open baffles, active designs etc Besides who knows what fabulous designs and technologies that supercomputers of the near future will be churning out in a few years? |
Yes. I’ve had my ESP Bodhran SE speakers for over ten years now. They fulfill all my requirements with the exception of deep bass which has been addressed with a pair of Gallo Acoustics TR1D subs. The Bodhran’s are rare and unconventional in design. The enclosure is a sealed design with aperiodic venting. Viewed from the top it resembles the state of Nevada, so designed to fire at 45 degrees into the room. They are designed for tube amplifiers, fairly efficient at 91 db with a high stable impedance. Front firing drivers are a 1 inch tweeter flanked by two 5 inch mids in an MTM configuration. Below that are two 7 inch bass drivers. There is also an additional 1 inch tweeter which is side firing. They present a large and spacious soundstage. Frequency balance is towards the warm side but not excessively so. The bass is clean without the excesses one finds with the common ported speakers. My musical tastes are primarily jazz, classical, and americana. I can play anything I want to listen to and be thrilled with the results. I believe that’s pretty much all one can hope for. |
lmfao... wolf_garcia. Have to admit was the thought when I let go of the 704 set up. Some parts still available, for how much longer? Always someone put something in the cabinet, change the crossovers and voila, a better sounding speaker but at what cost? Still, just another way looking at some old vintage gear. My gear is simple, always been on a budget and my choice needs to stay within. |
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I think I could have lived with my Beethovens, but I had to go down the rabbit hole. Now I have a $22k pair of speakers dominating my room that do everything better than the beethovens do 'cept when I swap them out those old speakers still sound really good, no I can't count how many pips are singing harmony like the $$$'s can, but I DIDN'T KNOW THAT until I went looking for it! There's currently 4 pair of speakers in my basement and I could live with any of them the rest of my live. Picking one, that's the hard part. |
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danabunner
Von Schweikert VR-4s is a nice speaker. If you like it, you do not need to change speakers. I had a sweet offer for Wilson Watt Puppy 6 from one of dealer around me 20 years ago. I swapped Avalon Ascent II which I had been happy. The result was somewhat disaster, the sound from Wilson was too bright for my taste. I was forced to sell it to get B&W 801. |
I purchased my Von Schweikert original VR-4s in 1997. Had them factory upgraded in 2002. I've rotated the speakers in my bedroom systems, but these have been in my main system for 21 years now. I have auditioned many other speakers (up to price points of $15K to $18K) over this period, but have yet to hear any which impressed me to the point of swapping out the Von Schweikerts for them. |
My Legacy Signature IIIs were purchased using a 16 watt Sherwood 7100 receiver (it killed his 200 watt Boulder amp due to an electrical mismatch with an his tube preamp). Also sounds dynamic with punchy bass using a Yamaha R620 30 watt receiver. Both have good current control of speakers. My EAR 890 can't control the bass on my larger Legacy Focus which have 96 db efficiency. Turns out that they go down to 2.8 ohms in the bass with six 12" woofers. EAR 890 works great on the Signature IIIs with a 3.2 ohm 94 db efficiency and six 10" woofers. Mating the amp to the speaker is essential. |
Yes, too many folks equate efficiency to driving speakers. Current and control are key. This is why you can have synergy with a speaker adn amp that 'seems' under powered, but really isn't. You can also have a bad match just hooking up some behemoth amp with a speaker at say 85db efficient. This is why I hate reading threads where folks make real life decisions on gear from specs. It's just crazy. Starting point maybe, but any good speaker designer will tell you to listen to an amp with their speakers before saying it's under powered. Some like specific amp designs like zero feedback etc..., but in the end, it's still personal taste. |
I'm 65 years old and have enjoyed a pair of Focal Sopra No2's since they first came out and every time I hear another speaker that I like, they sound "different" than my Sopra's, but not "better", not getting the "hots" to trade. I haven't heard the new Focal Utopia's yet, if I did, I might consider trading up to a Scala (the largest one I could accommodate). But I'm really happy with my setup, no need to go thru all the heartache of changing components now! |
