Bill, Dave, Mitch, I'm going to get to your posts in due time. Just briefly, yes, Ty might want to consider another option to the big woodmere's with the dual 10 inch (W26's) maybe with dual 8's (W22) for even better intergration with the middle MTM section. Quite a speaker the Woodmere.
And yes Ty's speakers do not need the 'discounted" sales price, as opposed to the retail price which is much higher. I wish all labs would get rid of the 2 price system, list/retail. As I've said many times, the Tylers use the expensive Seas drivers at $160/each + premium Xover parts, exceptional cabinets, which the speaker sells for slightly above his costs if you add in employees and all overhead. Let me repeat Ty's cost per speaker IS HIGHER THAN ANY SPEAKER ON THE MARKET. And futhermore we all know that old saying, "you get what you pay for'. IOW you buy a Chevy Chevette you pay low and get low quality. Buy a BMW you get,,,pretty good deal. Buy a Mercedes Benz, now you are getting an even better quality than BMW for the same price. (BMW the old ones at least are too complex and high maintaince cost). ...With Tyler's the saying doesn't work. Why? Because you are getting supetior quality at a very reasonable price. IMHO "they're a steal". I'll take on all objections and refuters. If I go on it'll seem like hype, I'll stop there. btw I've known the value of Tyler's for 2 yrs now. i didn't need to read reviews/comments. Those only confirmed what I knew alreday..
Now on to my visit to New Orleans to hear the Spendor 8. Was a shop i bought a NAD/Rotel/B7W system for my wife 3 yrs ago, that system is gone now. Never take the wife along, not one that loves to show power that is....So i enter the main listening roon, 16X14, well acoustically crafted.
The amp is the Audio Research(ARC) VS110, a big 8 tube mono block with the ARC preamp model 12, middle line model, tubes i believe. Yeah I realize pricey amp and pre, out of most of our budgets, but that is what was in the listening room. Along with a California Labs cdp.
The Magneplanars were hooked up when we walked in, so I said sure give em a go. hummm sounded like the Magy's I heard 3 yrs ago, same, didn't care for em. I was wondering how much "fault" was due to the amp. I know the ARC sound as my friend had a big ARC VTL 200, 6 yr model, heard his amp with 2 different speakers, Mirage1 and Talon Khorus. Didn't care for either speaker.
But as i say I was wondering how much was the ARC influencing the Maggies. The sound was cloudy, even more so that my friends older ARC.
Next up, Spendor 8's. Heard the same sound image, just different speaker. So i had to make really que in to the Spendor in spite of the ARC's supreme coloration effects. Taking that into account, I was not impressed with the spendor. And I'll leave it at that because obviously the ARC clouded the real voicing of the Spendor. But I know even with my Jadis, the sound qualities would fall short of the Seas'. Thats as far as I'm going with the Spendor review. Sorry, go hear them for yourself.
There was one other speaker, same size as Spendor, I said why not, Which is it? Was the Cabasse/Sersey at $1100/pr. Its a tweet with TOW 7 inch poly cone midwoofers below. I heard a Cabasse yrs ago(better midwoofers than this new model) at my home with the Jadis, sent it back right away to Northstar, the USA Jadis dealer yrs ago. It was a MTM, good I felt but was looking for better. This new Cabasse was OK, but still had the same sound image as the Maggies, Spendor, so now I realized just how colored the ARC really is. But determining from the Cabasse sound, i could get even a better image of the Spendor. The Cabasse would be the one I'd take home, and not based on prices. Naggies/ $1800, Spendor/$3100, Cabasse/$1100. It was the better of the 3. The differnces were not major, as the ARC ...or was it the CALIFORNIA AUDIO cdp. Yep I bet that was it. I'm sure of it. The Cal Lab cdp totally polluted the amp and the 3 speakers. Though the ARC is not off the hook, it has to share some of the coloration. So the Cla Lab WITH the Arc both togther did not allow any of the 3 speakers to gives it true voice.
However I knwo the seas would overcome that coloration much better than all 3, with the cabasse comming in a distant second.
I'd like to haer all 3 with the Jadis and my tube cdp for no significant coloration review. But that is not to be. You'll have to do your own auditions. Sure I did not hear the Spendor in "ideal" conitions, but its what was avaliable.
That is my straight up review. Just an opinion, as is every other in the Absolute Sound.
