First round of speaker demo's today

[9designs2]

Today started on quest to find a stunning pair of stand mounts or slim floor standers.
I had a demo of the B&W 804's, Linn 109's, PMC GB1i and the Dynaudio X32's.

First up was the PMC which sounded to flat lazy and shut in. Nothing for me there. (Ideal for upfront forward aggressive Naim amps I thing ....

Next the 109's.. Now I generally find Linn speakers not quite to my taste, but these were nice, much better than the PMC, more open detailed, a lot more interesting. (Still with typical lean and slightly unnatural hollow bass sound)

The X32's were more like home territory for me, more natural, more in the room, good top end, more emotive and evolving and more natural sounding....

Final the 804's were tried. I can't say they did anything wrong, except the bass was a bit tubby and honky, possibly I was hearing the front bass port colouring and giving a one note bass... But they just seemed very mater of fact, doing nothing of note, but nothing particularly wrong, they sounded a very safe speaker.... Consider the price range I thing the Linn 109, and hence some bigger 140's would be a better more involving sound than the 804's.

For me the Dynaudio were the winners today, but I'll be going back to hear some better ones in the Focus and Contour range, plus some Wilson benesch.

Then another dealer to find some JMlab 1007be's and Kudos C10's, MA P100's and Audiovector's S1's.

All results were confirmed by impartial girlfriend, who has had never been to a demo or Hi-Fi show before !!!....... "Wowww I can hear the difference between these speakers".....

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Now go listen to some horns such as the bigger Living Voice stuff. Yes, they're compromised, but then so is every other speaker design in it's own way.

 

[9designs2]

Ah but I need something for my music room/spare room which is only about 3meter square. So space is a premium....Currently with Kabers... remember those hahaha

 

[lunarwolf]

Ah but I need something for my music room/spare room which is only about 3meter square.

you intend to put floorstanders is such a small room

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Ah but I need something for my music room/spare room which is only about 3meter square. So space is a premium....Currently with Kabers... remember those hahaha

Ah, now that complicates things. In a small room, Kabers are a pretty good choice.

 

[9designs2]

you intend to put floorstanders is such a small room

No, that is why I said was looking for stand mounts or slim floor standers that take no more room. We tried the B&W just to see what they were like, as a reference point, as I was struggling to find anything good enough.....

The Kabers are good, but my other speakers are in such a different league there are spanked. Though there size is ideal and they work fine in that size room.

 

[marscay]

As posted in the other thread give the MA Platinum 100's a shot, they're very transparent and airy with great treble through the ribbon.

They work very nicely for me in a 6mx4m room, i think you summed up most of B&W's range pretty well......boring to my ears.

 

[kinobestew123]

Out of interest, what were you listening to when you tested these speakers? And what other equipment were they connected to?

 

[9designs2]

Out of interest, what were you listening to when you tested these speakers? And what other equipment were they connected to?

The music was a mix of Peter Cincotte, Michael Buble and Jack Johnson, Source was either a Linn Klimax DS or Meridian G06.2 CDP into a Linn Akurate Kontrol Pre amp and then in to Akurate Power amps, bi amped when possible.

 

[-Ad-]

Did you test these in your specific room

 

[9designs2]

Did you test these in your specific room

Not yet, once I got the list down to a couple I will do home dem's, and borrow them over a weekend etc.

 

[9designs2]

Update:- Round Two of listening done this week.

New to the party are the following:-
Spendor Se6
Wilson Benesch Arc's
Audio Vector S1 AG's
Neat Motive 4
PMC FACT 8

Equipment this time was Linn Majik CDP, Arurate DS Akurate Kontrol Pre, Akurate 2200 power amp.

Started off warming the room and kit up with some Spendor SE6…. They were ok, typical box speaker, nothing interesting, nothing wrong as such....will pass on these, two big anyway. (Dealer wanted me to try them !)

Next up were the Arc's.... An obvious improvement to the Spendor, quite nice, my assessment was little laid back, lacked a bit of insight and clarity and definition in the bottom end. We were ripping discs for the NAS drive, so using a Majik CD player, which isn't good enough. As when we went to the Akurate DS later every thing was just so much better….wasn't subtle !.... Plus I felt the single Akurate 2200 power amp was not enough to wake the Arc's up….
They were a little disappointing but maybe could be improved with better amp, which I have..... will reserve final judgement on these, and will need to revist them.

Next up Audio Vector S1 AG, with a ribbon tweeter…. Woww they had a wonderful open and free top end, more detail, more texture, more space and in the room. A faster sound, better musically. The bottom end was little disappointment, they lost some of the Arc's weight, but had speed and tightness. I think the excellent top end was leaving the bottom end behind….. That said driving with my Klimax power amp, would give it a fuller deeper and controlled bass. So it may well balance out nicely. There is a floor standing version that could also be better, didn't get around to trying that one.

Next the Neat Motive 4…… Quite large floor stander, and would be too big for my room, the dealer suggested it, as he felt they had excellent bass !!!.
They seem to have lots of ports and vents…. Quite big bass sound, for me was a bit thrummy and box bound. Not a bad speaker, but not exciting me, and probaly better with Naim amps. The dealer reckoned they were one of the tightest and better bass speakers he offers, sorry don't agree… to boxy for me.

Finally we tried the PMC FACT 8…..These are a transmission line design…. Oh.Oh Oh… Now these really started to do what my active Dyns do, top end was not quite a good as the AudioV's, but the bass was very "active" like, note clarity on plucked bass strings was so much cleaner, tighter and detailed. It conveyed the scale and weight of the music, but without sounding "bassy" like all other "box" speakers do… Clearly the best all-round package so far…. Sadly over budget at 4.7K, and very deep floor standing cabinet….Which I think would be to big for the room, once you stood them out from the rear wall a little. The PMC website says there will be other FACT speakers in the future…hope so as these realy start to do what I am use to and looking for.... Could be a long wait though.

Another dealer will arrange some JMLab/Focal 1008be's in for me in a couple of weeks, will run them up against some Linn 109 and Akurate 212's as a reference point.

Then I want to track down some better Dynaudio's, the S1.4 from the Contour range, Kudos, and MA PL100's.....

What I have found though is the sound I am after, which is like the sound I created from my own built speakers is not some freaky weird sound that is "wrong" .... as I am now finding it in commercial designs, but it's taking some pretty expensive kit to get where I want to be....
So in parallel now looking and talking to the guy's at Wilmslow Audio about perhaps build something... perhaps I can get lucky twice with my speaker designing building

 

[86JR]

I would recommend you seriously look at IPL Acoustics.

They do a kit you build for around £800 called S5TL iirc, its an 8" bass driver, midrange + ribbon tweeter. Uses a transmission line like the PMC's.

 

[9designs2]

Yeah I've trawling through the IPL website for days now, and plugging the TS values of there drive units into WinISD and designing my own. Though I am looking at much smaller designs due to the size of my listen room. Mailed them and answer back was as I feared a TL would be a bit to much in my size of room.