Hi, Phil, haven't seen you at one of our meetings lately...
Your listening position being about 10' away is ideal, and having 7' between looks to be OK even if I try to spread them a little bit farther than that. In a good sized room such as yours, they will reveal their true, relaxed character, and will work best with a more open and engaging, yet full-bodied type amplifier.
In all honesty, I think there are better amplification matches for the Opera Audio Barque & Consonance M12 horns than a Class D amplifier. The reason being both tend to blunt low level transients a bit, and in tandem, there may be too much of that going on. However, I also feel the conventional wisdom of partnering them with lower power tube (2A3, 300B, 211, 845) amplification is even more wrong. To my ear, these loudspeakers mate best with moderate to higher power tube and Class A or Class AB solid state amplification.
Finally, as far as imaging goes, this is one of the weaker points of this line of loudspeakers. They don't image poorly, per se, but nor would I want to put them up against too many slim profile modern loudspeakers, either.
By the way, I want to personally thank Duke for the kindness and friendship he shown me in this thread.
DISCLAIMER: I am the importer/distributor for all Opera Audio and Consonance high-end audio components in the USA and Canada
Your listening position being about 10' away is ideal, and having 7' between looks to be OK even if I try to spread them a little bit farther than that. In a good sized room such as yours, they will reveal their true, relaxed character, and will work best with a more open and engaging, yet full-bodied type amplifier.
In all honesty, I think there are better amplification matches for the Opera Audio Barque & Consonance M12 horns than a Class D amplifier. The reason being both tend to blunt low level transients a bit, and in tandem, there may be too much of that going on. However, I also feel the conventional wisdom of partnering them with lower power tube (2A3, 300B, 211, 845) amplification is even more wrong. To my ear, these loudspeakers mate best with moderate to higher power tube and Class A or Class AB solid state amplification.
Finally, as far as imaging goes, this is one of the weaker points of this line of loudspeakers. They don't image poorly, per se, but nor would I want to put them up against too many slim profile modern loudspeakers, either.
By the way, I want to personally thank Duke for the kindness and friendship he shown me in this thread.
DISCLAIMER: I am the importer/distributor for all Opera Audio and Consonance high-end audio components in the USA and Canada