Speakers with imaging "Free of the box"

Congrats on those Silverlines...did you replace the VR4 Gen III HSE or are you adding to your extensive collection?
Shadorne (System | Reviews | Threads | Answers)

Extensive collection? I owned the VR4 Gen III HSE for four years, and just recently replaced them with the Sonata III when a pair of Castle Acoustics Howard S2 kept blowing woofer drivers.

Hardly an extensive collection.

if you close your eyes or darken a room, it may be difficult to tell whether the music is coming from the speaker(s) or not.

Mrtennis (Threads | Answers)

It may. Or it may not. If it's difficult to detect the loudspeakers, then they are doing their job, IMO...and they are doing an excellent job of imaging "free of the box".

That's my goal. it may not be yours.

hi newbee:

i listen to 2 speakers because some of the instruments emanate from the left speaker and others from the right.
if i listen to the left speaker alone, e.g., i may miss half of the music.

timbre is important to me.

if a tenor sounds like a tenor but comes from the right speaker, i don't mind.

Mr T, You need a pre-amp with a mono blend curcuit - then you could get all of the music into one place. You could use a mono amp and save tons of space and set up problems that occur only in multi-speaker set ups. Go for it, you'll never look back(wards). I'll bet those old 57's would be perfect in a mono set up. :-)

Tvad,

You are far too modest. In any case, congratulations and how do they compare to the VR4's...?

You are far too modest. In any case, congratulations and how do they compare to the VR4's...?
Shadorne (System | Reviews | Threads | Answers)

The Sonata III disappear better (image better), and are more refined in the highs and upper mids. The bass is a bit bloomy and uncontrolled relative to the VR4 Gen III HSE. It's a small, niggling point. The VR4 were more resolving overall...really a reference loudspeaker.

My wife and I prefer the appearance of the Sonata III. Each speaker has it's strengths and weaknesses. I'm more apt to forgive a speaker for its bass performance than I am a top end that's too aggressive. So, at this juncture, I prefer the Sonata III overall, but they are not hands-down winners versus the VR4 Gen III HSE, IMO.

As I am still experimenting with amplification, pre-amplification and wire, my opinion may very well shift.