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First Trip outside of Best Buy, a real newbie.

I am a commoner; I have never been to a real stereo store until this weekend. The big box of Best Buy was all I ever knew.

I went out with my wife, Music Librarian with a Phd in Music who has been happy with her 1980’s Denon but the CD recently player broke on our system. I talked to a friend who loves audio and wanted something I have never heard of called. . . Magnaplaners?

Me I love beauty and things that last, I brought my Claudio Arrau Beethoven Emperor movement 3 DDD disk to test some stuff with and Clara Nunes a great Brazilian singer.

First we hit a place that had some “Maggies” to see and hear for the first time. We walked in, I told them I have a big bonus check and I want to hear the Magnaplaners against the best other speakers you got. The lined up these huge 6 foot panels against some giant B&W box type speaker and plugged these Mark Levinson power blocks. I stuffed in the Beethoven into a Classes CD player that would probably kill my whole bonus.

The Maggies took up this awesome Piano piece and the speakers just disappeared. It was an airy and transparent sound that was not really powerful but beautiful. We compared the B&W and it sounded boxy in immediate comparison. We played a bunch of stuff, but at the first place I was impressed by the Magnaplaners.

Then we went to another shop that had Kef and Spendor. My wife immediately liked the Spendor S9. It was pretty nice, It had a punchy quality but did not have the clarity of the maggies, but good all around power. Then we heard some Kef 207 / 2. The owner cranked up the volume so I am not sure it was fair, but Beethoven was totally epic with some soaring highs. I told the Kef guy that I also listened to the Maggies. He said the Maggies were too specialized and would not work as an all around solution.

I am going to spend another 2-4 weeks working this out and then spend my bonus on a new system. I think I want a good 2 channel system that I can use with my TV. From the thread it sounds like 5 of 7 channel is not worth it.

So what to get? Where to go from here? What will fit in my space well?

My home is open, modern with lots of glass, but small. Where I will put the new system will be in a long thin room. About 12 feet wide and 30 feet long. It is open to other areas of the house and is both a living room and dining room.

I want something beautiful that will last a long time. I loved the Maggies for being invisible, but I also loved the Spendor and Kefs for being powerful.

My house is small and I plan to use the new system as a stereo and 2 channel home theatre.

Thanks for whatever advice you want to give me,
Scott
scottlanterman
scottlanterman's avatar
scottlanterman OP
24 posts
 
At the moment I am seriously considering getting the Peachtree Nova. The Decco had great reviews, and the new Nova takes it to 80 watts per channel. This should play the digital collection, and if I can learn to tell the difference I can go with un-compressed digital through the Nova, which is supposed to have a good DAC.

I am not sure about the speakers that would go with this really simple set up. I am looking to do quality 2 channel, and forget about home theatre 5 or 7 channel. Too much hassle with little benefit. I am not into bomb blasting type movies anyway and good two channel will be more enjoyable for everyday. My wife the Musician grew up in classical and helps run Stanford's music program, but she likes rock and likes to dance around the house. I like doing that too, but most of the time I have been listening to quiet classical piano pieces to mellow out after work.

Speakers.

I am interested in Maggie 1.6. My wife is not.

I am interested in the Spendor S8 or S9. It is pricey. My wife likes these, and they look good. She thought the Spendor sounded great.

I will have to check out the Paradigm. My budget is about 2-3k for speakers. Maybe they are out of league.

I wonder if the 80 watt Nova could work with the Maggie 1.6? Does a sub-woofer really help the Maggies? Which one should I look at? This would be an uphill battle which I will probably lose, but what I do know is that we both are tired and losing interest in music just listening to an iPod in a weak set up that sounds muddy.
mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
I think the Nova would certainly work well with the Maggies.
unsound
6,115 posts
 
I strongly suggest you decide on your speakers first!
jj2468
280 posts
 
"The owner cranked up the volume so I am not sure it was fair, but Beethoven was totally epic with some soaring highs. I told the Kef guy that I also listened to the Maggies. He said the Maggies were too specialized and would not work as an all around solution."

Sounds like a slick salesman to me - putting power before fidelity.

FWIW, I did not say that the ultimate test of a speaker is its ability to play low. I did say and I do believe that a "system" should be able to sound good at speaking volume.

I have heard many, many systems and I've never heard one where at speaking volume it sucked and when loud it sounded great. Not once. If power is your thing, then you might feel differently about it.

I've heard many "systems" that sucked when played loud that sounded much better at speaking level.
mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
Poorly driven speakers that sound good loud most likely will not "suck" at lower volumes, but bass levels may suffer resulting in a less satisfying presentation at lower volumes.

I went from a 360/W channel relatively low current amp to my current 120w/ch amp with my larger OHMs for this reason.

The 120w/ch amp delivers cleaner, more satisfying bass with the OHMs and Dynaudios at most reasonable levels that I listen to normally.

The previous 360w/ch amp did fine at all volumes with the Magneplanar 1.3c's that I owned for years, as did an 80w/ch tandberg receiver that I used with the Maggies as well.

I also owned B&W P6s that I had to crank to sound right using that high power but low current 360w/ch amp.
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