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Small room electrostat/ planar speaker?

In about 30 days will be moving to a new home where its going to be hard to make my 1.7 maggies work in a spouse friendly way ( the only large room is the main living room). I've always gravitated to planars and electrostatics, box speakers that don't sound colored or slow usually cost more than my entire system. Where I'd like to end up is a system that's extremely resolving at low to moderate volume levels, my main dissatisfaction with my current Mg 1.7 speakers and Prima Luna amp is that it really doesn't come to life until the volume is moderate listening levels or higher.

I'm wondering if anyone has seen something that approaches the coherency and speed of the 1.7s that would work in an 11x12 listening room? I'd like to keep the cost limited to $4k if possible.
davide256
donvito101
278 posts
 
If you are looking at Harbeth ,I’ve owned the CS7 and the P3ESR. The two way sealed P3 would be a better choice in the small room you are putting them in. IMO, you should keep away from any ported speaker in a 11x12 size room. Here you go!
http://www.hifizine.com/2011/12/harbeth-p3esr/
mdeblanc's avatar
mdeblanc
58 posts
 
Is your room, open-ended? In other words, does it open into a foyer, etc? My room in 11x11 with 10' ceiling but I have no wall behind my listening position. So, if you're in an open-ended room, you may not have concerns with a ported speaker as you may have in a totally enclosed room. Just something for you to consider.
terry9
931 posts
 
Davide, I don't find the 63's as musical as the 57's or the 29xx. Too much top end, and a little digital, to me.

As for protection for the 57's, what about a fast fuse on one side of the speaker terminals? Why not ask Prima Luna about it - they seem to be quite keen on protecting their output transformers, so they should have a very good grasp of what you need.

You can buy fuses from Digikey for a few bucks, and elementary soldering skills will do the rest. A service man could do that for you for not much. Easiest would be to terminate one side of each speaker cable with a fuse.
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,645 posts
 
Certainly from "rear ported" since they seem to work better away from rear walls. Sealed box would be another good option. I'd still think a single driver full-range is a great choice, particularly for near field listening position.
gotog
75 posts
 
For speakers that are resolving at low to moderate volume levels that are very fast, dynamic, and unboxed sounding and would work in your room, I would look to some of the Omega offerings.  More specifically the Junior 8XRS, Super 3XRS or maybe Super 8XRS.  Just give them a call, Louis is really approachable and helpful with his suggestions.
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