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#47
10-01-2018, 11:36 AM
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__________________
Quia tristis cervisia 
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#48
10-01-2018, 11:49 AM
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I've been in audio nirvana for around 20 years or so with my Magnepan MMG. I had them set up in special listening area, and when sitting in the sweet spot, the soundstage and imaging are unbelievable.
Then a few years ago, after I stopped using that room for listening to music, I had the crazy idea of moving the MMG into my living room where the MMG would be used for both stereo listening and home theater. My task was to get my wife to agree to this because she already thought that my bookshelf speakers on stands were already too obtrusive to the living room. It turned out that the MMG took up about as much space as the bookshelf speakers w/stands, and they looked much better in our eyes (more elegant, being single, very flat panels). So I got the okay to move them into the LR. After some fiddling with their positions (they need space behind them), I was able to make them sound very nice for all the intended uses (stereo listening, background music, home theater). I run them with a subwoofer, which really helps on the rumbling deep noises required by HT.
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#49
10-01-2018, 12:32 PM
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I have read some opinions that the capacitors in crossover networks deteriorate and so affect the sound of older speakers. I suppose this may be true. For some brands there are independent experts who will even "improve" the performance of crossovers that haven't begun to fail and are still good as new.
I suppose we should factor in the expense and inconvenience of replacing the caps when contemplating the purchase of older speakers. OTOH removing/replacing capacitors is pretty easy for anyone with a soldering iron or gun. Some of the experts/gurus will sell parts and instructions to upgrade crossovers.
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#50
10-01-2018, 01:04 PM
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So I just did a mid-budget hi-fi update
Grabbed a killer deal on a McIntosh integrated and that drove the rest of the decisions (budget and sound). Had to pair with the right speakers. It was politely suggested that towers (even little ones) were not welcome in our home, narrowing the search to bookshelves on stands (even though they are the same height and footprint...).
Did a ton of A/B testing and listening. I thought I would love B&W's and had fond memories of a friend's NAD system with a set of little CDMs. I tested a set of CDM NT Se (basically the older mini-8 series) and thought they sounded muddy (to my surprise). The lower end 6 series felt like elevated dorm speakers... the quality just wasn't there. The newer B&W 705 monitors sounded great, very articulate and very pricey. Paradigms through a Classe amp were way too bright and tweeter forward. Focal bookshelves lost the mid-range to a bass-forward sound. Revel were pretty much exactly what I wanted, but way out of the price range. Ended up with a set of Monitor Audio Silver 100. 8" woofer gives plenty of bass for my little space. The pairing with the Mc keeps the sound warm and they seem to love the heaps of power on offer and give a full sound stage even at lower volumes. Monitor seems to have won some mid-fi converts and get accolades. I've also heard similar raves about Energy speakers. Will also add that I loved the KEF ls50, but the significant other couldn't take the Tron look of the speakers. Last edited by polyhistoric; 10-01-2018 at 01:09 PM.
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#51
10-01-2018, 01:12 PM
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I just "sold" my ProAc Response 2.5 ($4500 when new in 1995) to local audio store to sell second hand for $100. My wife got tired of me needing to pull out the speakers into the room for spacial clarity and asked me to get rid of them.
I hope someone can use the speakers and enjoy great sound.
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#53
10-01-2018, 03:18 PM
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You really can't go wrong with the brands listed. I have some Magnepan MG-1.6QR speakers, each sitting atop a Velodyne F-1200 servo-controlled subwoofer, and hooked up to a Classé Audio integrated amp. The subs are fast-hitting and the dual setup allows me to run them at a low volume to avoid movie sub "boominess" while filling in the missing low-end. Anyhow, the sound was delicious in a dedicated listening space. The joy has been lost, however, in the drop-ceiling basement of my new house. I've considered selling the set-up to fund more bikes.
Last edited by spacemen3; 10-01-2018 at 03:22 PM.
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#54
10-01-2018, 03:31 PM
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Audio dorks are worse than bike dorks when it comes to equipment. Camera dorks are right up there too.
I'm in recovery on 2 of the 3. I don't particularly care about cameras.
__________________
Cuero - Fine leather cycling gloves - GET SOME
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#55
10-01-2018, 03:45 PM
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I'm pretty sure ProAc's are worth a lot more than that on the used market. There are a lot of people who like that British sound, and Spendors, Harbeths, Rogers, and ProAcs all hold their value pretty well. I've had Spendor BC1's and SP1's in my systems over the years; nice speakers.
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#56
10-01-2018, 04:06 PM
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For replacements, got a set of Revel bookshelves that are still there today and that kicked the crap out of the old KEF's by a good margin with the exception of bass. Whether it was because of the old capacitors starting to effect the crossover, or the tweeters and mid-range cones getting old I'll never know, but doing a side to side with a 180gram pressing of Pet Sounds on a VPI/Trichord/Sonic Frontiers/Krell setup the difference was palpable.
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#57
10-01-2018, 04:36 PM
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 I heard a pair of Polk RTAs long ago, think it was the first iteration. My friend and I wanted to audition the B&W 801s that we’re next to them. After just a short time we looked at each other and said the B&Ws sounded like crap. Turns out the shop guy had the Polks hooked up! They may have improved but I always considered Polk a small step up from Bose.I also remember Bose suing Thiel Audio over their use of the number 2.2 for the CS 2.2 speaker. Well, you can’t trademark a number but Bose had tons more money to throw at lawyers so Jim Thiel renamed the speaker CS 2 2! Tim
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#58
10-01-2018, 04:46 PM
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#59
10-01-2018, 05:02 PM
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It's true, audiophiles are even worse than those with bike addictions.
In this area, though, you should look to what the commercial studios used when recording albums. From Wikipedia: "The JBL 4320 series studio monitor was introduced through Capitol Records in Hollywood and became the standard monitor worldwide for its parent company, EMI. JBL's introduction to rock and roll music came via the adoption of the D130 loudspeaker by Leo Fender's Fender Guitar company as the ideal driver for electric guitars. ...The 1970s saw JBL become a household brand, starting with the famous L-100, which was the best-selling loudspeaker model of any company to that time. The 1970s also saw a major JBL expansion in the professional audio field from their studio monitors. By 1977, more recording studios were using JBL monitors than all other brands combined, according to a Billboard survey. The JBL L-100 and 4310 control monitors were noteworthy, popular home speakers." The JBL studio monitors and L-series speakers were probably the finest speakers ever made. That's not me talking--it's the people who depended on sound quality for a living.
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#60
10-01-2018, 05:14 PM
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IDK about that rule of thumb. Sure, JBLs are great, but tons of studios have used Yamaha NS10s since the late 70's because they sound so bad and the engineers wanted to make recordings that would sound good regardless of what they were played back on.
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