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Looking for suggestions for a new (to me) pair of high efficiency monitors

Hi,

I’m looking to change out my Legacy Studio HD monitors for something more efficient. The Legacy’s are fine speakers and have served me well, but you all know the drill—time to try something new for the fun of it after several years..

I presently run a Bob Latino VTA ST120 amp. Not a lot of power, but nice sound for not a lot of $$.

No preamp, Mac-mini running Audivana out to my Bryston DAC, which puts out plenty of signal directly into the VTA 120 to drive to full power.

The Legacy’s are rated at 93 dB at 4ohms I believe—interested in getting opinions for alternative high efficiency and detailed monitors. Lost a fair amount of upper freq hearing over the years, in fact I have to wear hearing aids that help hear above 7khz, so mellow mid- and treble doesn’t do it for me. Even so largely listen to acoustic jazz, vocals and lately a smattering of opera. Rarely rock or full range orchestral. 

Thanks in advance!
jsl1234
jsl1234 OP
32 posts
 
From Bob Latino’s site:

The VTA ST-120 is a 60 WATT PER CHANNEL amplifier built on the same ST-70 stainless steel chassis as the amp pictured above.

The VTA ST-120 uses three custom wound USA made transformers and is available as a KIT amp or completely WIRED and tested.

This amp has the same quality components as the VTA ST-70 listed above. The optional tube set has a GZ34/5AR4 rectifier, three 12AU7 driver tubes and a matched quad of 6550 tubes.
The power transformer
yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
2,678 posts
 
Why do you feel that you need high efficient speakers? In your small room with 60 watt amps and your musical tastes I would suggest a LS3/5A type of speaker. Spendor,Harbeth,etc. You can get a new Spendor S3/5R2 within your budget.
http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/94333/Spendor-Spendor_S35R2_Classic_Stereo_Speakers-Speakers
BTW, there is a pair of Harbeth P3ESRs listed here for $1600! Also the Spendor S3/5R2 is listed here for $1200!
mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
http://images.klipsch.com/RB81IIcutsheet_635042118979170000.pdf
goldprintaudio's avatar
goldprintaudio
332 posts
 
I'm a huge fan of the LS3/5a, but would they be a good option for the OP if he needs/wants a speaker with a little more forward/up front top end? 

In all honesty, it may be tough to find a speaker at the $1500 price point that will out do the Legacys.
willemj
1,036 posts
 
None of the LS3/5a type speakers are efficient. Of the modern incarnations, the Harbeth P3ESR in particular is glorious, and far better than the original. If the OP has little hearing above 7 kHz, no speaker will compensate. He might benefit from some tone control implemented on the MacMini, however. If his audiologist can supply a frequency curve for his hearing ability, he could download that into an equalizer program on the MacMini. But be careful not to destroy the tweeters.
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