After my lovely waterfall speakers got damaged to the point it'll cost about £1000 to repair which is more than i paid for them, its time to start looking out for something new i've decided.
Been looking up to around the similar value of my Waterfalls which were around £2500 new. However a caveat is that they can’t be too huge in size. My Waterfalls were probably around a meter high and around 17cm square. An awful lot of floorstanders seem to have a much larger footprint.
My shortlist then seemed to hover around the
Monitor Audio GX200’s
PMC Twenty 23’s
B&W CM9’s
Neat Motive 1
Shahinian Compass/Arc
Popped into Audio-T today to listen to the Monitor Audios and the PMC’s. First be warned I’m pretty useless at describing sounds (along with virtually anything, whether its food, whisky etc!)
First the GX200’s. God how they look stunning, and even better in the flesh in the Bebunga veneer.
How I wanted these to sound as good as they look, and they did pretty well and seemed very exciting and forward to me. The problem was that they were quite bright up top. I ended up feeling that whilst they sounded good at first they’d become quite tiring when sitting down for a while. A bit disappointing for me as I had high hopes. Possibly to do with the metal ribbon tweeter as I’ve not heard any speakers like that before. Seemed to be quite unforgiving of poor recordings and I can see that ruining the enjoyment of some of my cd’s at home.
Next I heard the PMC’s.
These were quite breathe taking for me and I absolutely loved them. The way they immersed me into the music was quite incredible and truly seemed to just “disappear”. With them having no rear port they’d also probably be better to integrate into my room as they’ll be placed within a bay window.
The only part that put me off them was the fact that on some tracks the bass seemed to sound as if it was coming from a room next door rather than being with me. Particularly on a couple of Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip tracks. I then tried the slightly larger PMC Twenty 24’s which certainly seemed to address the issue of a slightly more in your face bass response which I liked and just seemed to sound so effortless. The main problem here was that they’re considerably larger and might be a bit too big for my room.
I had hoped to listen to a pair of Kudos C2’s which were on offer but I had to dash back to work. Possibly another day.
As it stands, the PMC’s 23’s are probably in the lead, after ruling out the 24’s due to size and the hefty price increase. Its been a while since I’ve listened to any B&W speakers and haven’t heard any of Neats offerings before. I’ve very excited to listen to a pair of Shahinians but I’m not sure if the Compass’ will give me the bass kick I often crave.
Can anyone think of any other speakers to look out for?
The rest of my hifi is
Densen B410 Cd player
Densen DM20 Pre amp
Avondale S100 Dual Mono Power Amp
Been looking up to around the similar value of my Waterfalls which were around £2500 new. However a caveat is that they can’t be too huge in size. My Waterfalls were probably around a meter high and around 17cm square. An awful lot of floorstanders seem to have a much larger footprint.
My shortlist then seemed to hover around the
Monitor Audio GX200’s
PMC Twenty 23’s
B&W CM9’s
Neat Motive 1
Shahinian Compass/Arc
Popped into Audio-T today to listen to the Monitor Audios and the PMC’s. First be warned I’m pretty useless at describing sounds (along with virtually anything, whether its food, whisky etc!)
First the GX200’s. God how they look stunning, and even better in the flesh in the Bebunga veneer.
How I wanted these to sound as good as they look, and they did pretty well and seemed very exciting and forward to me. The problem was that they were quite bright up top. I ended up feeling that whilst they sounded good at first they’d become quite tiring when sitting down for a while. A bit disappointing for me as I had high hopes. Possibly to do with the metal ribbon tweeter as I’ve not heard any speakers like that before. Seemed to be quite unforgiving of poor recordings and I can see that ruining the enjoyment of some of my cd’s at home.
Next I heard the PMC’s.
These were quite breathe taking for me and I absolutely loved them. The way they immersed me into the music was quite incredible and truly seemed to just “disappear”. With them having no rear port they’d also probably be better to integrate into my room as they’ll be placed within a bay window.
The only part that put me off them was the fact that on some tracks the bass seemed to sound as if it was coming from a room next door rather than being with me. Particularly on a couple of Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip tracks. I then tried the slightly larger PMC Twenty 24’s which certainly seemed to address the issue of a slightly more in your face bass response which I liked and just seemed to sound so effortless. The main problem here was that they’re considerably larger and might be a bit too big for my room.
I had hoped to listen to a pair of Kudos C2’s which were on offer but I had to dash back to work. Possibly another day.
As it stands, the PMC’s 23’s are probably in the lead, after ruling out the 24’s due to size and the hefty price increase. Its been a while since I’ve listened to any B&W speakers and haven’t heard any of Neats offerings before. I’ve very excited to listen to a pair of Shahinians but I’m not sure if the Compass’ will give me the bass kick I often crave.
Can anyone think of any other speakers to look out for?
The rest of my hifi is
Densen B410 Cd player
Densen DM20 Pre amp
Avondale S100 Dual Mono Power Amp
