B&W 804s + Atma-Sphere M60 MkIII.2

Michel, and Franks,

I apologize as it seems my post was not clearly written. I was not insinuating Franks was steering Michel in any direction whatsoever. Didn't mean to.

The comment about steering someone and being well behaved was a way of making fun of myself, as I was being objective in answering questions, but down deep I was also interested in having comments from someone who could compare the sound differences between a Canterbury and an 804. I know they are in different leagues, but I understand their sound signature is different and I would benefit from some input. Logistics make it impossible for me to audition a Canterbury. Along the lines of the post above, testimony of my sporadic day-dreaming with speakers.

Maybe I should stick to speaking about the subs? :-)

Lewinskih, We all have different tastes on judging quality of speakers. The major factor is based on our taste on what type of music we are usually listening. Most of the time I listen to Jazz, blues and orchestral /classic opera and chamber music. This doesn’t exclude my love for classic rock. So my comments are based on these kind of music and I don’t consider myself as an expert on audiophiles’ topics!
Regarding Canterburry speaker, it is an excellent speaker for chamber music, Jazz and somehow the blues. For example, when Pierre Fournier plays cello on solo, it is just marvelous! However, when it comes to big orchestra, you could not properly follow the instruments, there is kind of congestion on music. The violins and altos don’t sound really good at all, besides you could clearly hear the drums! This is maybe because of its nature of forwardness of music. For Operas, when sopranos and tenors walk away from each other and change their position on the scene, for example, one goes on right corner and the other on back left, you still hear them like they are almost next to each other! Generally speaking, it has a 3d imaging but it is kind of narrow one compared to B&Ws and isn’t present toward back of the speakers! As for classic rock specially the live version, you feel the fatigues on hearing after 5-10 minutes. A few days ago, I tried AC/DC lp, it was loud with a lot of bass, but you could not too much enjoy the flow of music and instruments, the bass is THE dominant sound which covers higher frequencies. It is obvious because the 15” woofer is in charge of delivering different range of frequencies. It is not a fast and very dynamic speaker.
Tannoy used to have some dealers in USA. When I talked to a representative back in EU, he was saying their distributor in US didn’t do a good job for selling/marketing the brand. Therefore they decided to enforce their present in Asia and EU. 18 months ago, I heard Westminster in a dealer in Bay Area and really liked the sound but not for $35k! This one was definitely out of my budget. Once I found a local sale of Canterbury with interesting price! I bought it and ask a local expert to tune it to my room. I used MC402 and VTL MB-450 II as amps. I found MC402 is better because of its deep bass and fast dynamic compared to VTL 450. VTL+ Canterbury sound had too much warmness, based on my taste.
As for 804, maybe it is not a real full-range speaker, but it is an excellent speaker when it comes to be versatile on different type of music. Sound-stage and details on mid-high frequencies is fantastic. Its only default is not having enough bass! I think a proper setup of subs+804 could provide almost as much as sound quality as the very expensive speakers. This procedure needs a lot of patient and acoustic measurements, especially when it comes on positioning two subs knowing different position combination in the room. For example in last CAS’13 I auditioned a setup of Zu acoustic + Sub (total ~10k) that has better sounding ( all my friends saying the same) than the Von Schemikert VR-11SE (~140k)!? Of course all comes to proper setup. That’s why I am seeking this path toward 804s+sub! Perhaps first with one sub and after that I will move toward a second one. The Velodyne Subs have very positive reviews but the issue I found with them is that you don’t have too much freedom to setup the EQ! their big DD version could be set up with computer connection but they are too way expensive (2x~3k)! I am looking to some B&W subs because of their experience on Audio music rather HT setup. The price wise also they are much affordable, especially some used ones. I have some budget limitation setup by my wife, which makes sense because as a second audio room, we are not going to use all the time.

Michel.

"I wasn't aware the Supremas had passive subs."
Yep, two 8" isobarik loaded in each lower cabinet. You can very their crossover to the Royal Master monitors w a jumper, 50 or 60 hz, IIRC. I've been driving the monitors w VAC Ren 30/30 or Doshi-modified Lectron JH-50 and using a variety of ss amps on the sub, crossing over actively w NHT X-1.

Michel, thanks for the insight. I still would love tho hear the Tannoys, but it's sounding like it might not be my cup of tea.

Swampwalker, interesting input! Somebody posted the Grand Veenas as becoming distorted at high SPLs, attributed to their direct connection between the amp and mids driver. What he meant by "high SPL", I don't know. Do you find this to be an issue with your speakers?