Tube Friendly Speakers - Down to 30Hz - $3000?

Silverline Reference 17.5. 90db/8 ohms. 32Hz-32Khz. $3500 retail.

Any owner comments?

Hi Tvad,

I have a friend who owned Silverline Reference 17's, and they were very nice little speakers. In his set-up, I'd estimate they got down to maybe the upper to mid 40's.

I'm skeptical of the 17.5's implied claim of extension to 32 Hz (although to be precise no plus-or-minus-dB tolerance is specified). Assuming an 88 to 90 db efficient woofer in a .65 cubic foot vented enclosure, the response will be down at least 10 dB at 32 Hz without significant boundary reinforcement. While it's true that I don't know the specific parameters of the Dynaudio woofer used, enclosure volume and efficiency and bass extension are interrelated enough that knowing any two will allow a reasonably reliable extrapolation of the third.

You might find it useful to make calculations of your own to check out manufacturer's claims. Speaker designers are pretty much constrained by the same sets of rules, unlike writers of ad copy.

You can download a pretty good little speaker simulation program here. Try the free demo version - that's probably all you really need. I can help you run a few practice simulations if you'd like.

Best regards,

Duke

Thanks, Duke.

A personal rant:
I live in Los Angeles. The second largest city in the USA. I have identified seven loudspeakers that I'd like to hear. None are available to hear in Southern California either because there are no dealers, the dealers do not respond to inquiries, a dealer will not demo the speakers because of the uncertainty of a sale, the manufacturers do not respond to my inquiry to locate a local owner or to arrange an in-home audition, or there are no local owners.

The speakers in question are almost all currently popular or recently well-reviewed models. Only two are what I would consider somewhat obscure.

When someone asks the question if high end audio is dead or dying, I will point out my experience. This hobby cannot survive without responses from dealers and manufacturers to a potential customer, and the lack of distribution does not bode well for the survival of boutique gear.

I thank all of you who have assisted in this thread and in private emails.

Tvad,

Your experience(s) are unfortunate, don't really know what to say. FWIW, I saw the Silver Oaks a while back at Kevin's and seem to recall a footprint of less than 10" square and a height of +/- 4 feet. I never listened to the speaker so I can't comment on their performance.

Yes indeed Tvad. But I'll tell you what I noticed as well: I travel all over the place and in nearly all cases, there were never as many hi-fi shops in the cities as in little towns. I have two shops in my (very) rural area that cover like 20 brands, from JM Lab to Totem to Cayin and YBA. Pretty crazy huh? I suppose that doesn't help you but I always found it interesting so I thought I would bring it up. New York does seem to be an exception however, but then again, it always is.