I would highly recommend Audio Note you can find used J’s and possible used E’s for under $5K. Easy to drive and designed to be paired with low powered tube amps. I have a pair of J’s myself and love them a very natural organic slightly warm transparent sound. And great tone!
Best Values In Speakers To Pair With Coincident Frankenstein MKII Monoblocks?
A good friend who I have gradually been introducing to quality audio for the past few years has decided to start by putting together a SET system, based on demo's, attending both Axpona and Rocky Mountain this year, with me. He started his new system by purchasing a mint condition pair of the superb Coincident Frankenstein MKII mono's, and we are now currently attempting to match these amps up with a suitable pair of, at least somewhat reasonably priced, suitable high efficiency speakers.
His room is 13.5x15. We would appreciate any insight, recommendations and suggestions, from you, of speakers that would pair very well with the Frankenmsteins. His budget is $5k or under for a used pair (to maximize his budget). Any speakers within the budget, that you have heard working well with these amps, is fair game, excepting any speakers made by Coincident. I would appreciate it if those are excluded from the discussion. Most are too expensive anyway, and there are other reasons for the exclusion. Not that Coincidents aren't fine speakers, but they don't fit into our scenario. Thanks for any help with this, it is greatly appreciated.
His room is 13.5x15. We would appreciate any insight, recommendations and suggestions, from you, of speakers that would pair very well with the Frankenmsteins. His budget is $5k or under for a used pair (to maximize his budget). Any speakers within the budget, that you have heard working well with these amps, is fair game, excepting any speakers made by Coincident. I would appreciate it if those are excluded from the discussion. Most are too expensive anyway, and there are other reasons for the exclusion. Not that Coincidents aren't fine speakers, but they don't fit into our scenario. Thanks for any help with this, it is greatly appreciated.
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The Klipsch Heritage series come alive with 3-8 watts of SET. I use the La Scala with the same Frankie-Mk-II with outstanding results but in a room of your size the smaller Heresy-III or Forte-III would be outstanding. Note I'm not really a "Klipsch" guy and use various single driver speakers that I rotate in & out of my system but I must say the Coiencident Frankie does match with the Klipsch Heritage line well. |
They don't come up much, but Coincident super or total eclipses are beautiful matches. Some other Coincident speakers aren't quite efficient enough. I had Frank's and SEIIIs and loved it so much I bought Coincident PRE's. Unfortunately the Frank's just don't have enough power for those speakers and I've had to put the amps up for sale. |
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, so far. jond I've really liked what I've heard from Audio Note speakers at shows. I simply wasn't aware they were efficient enough to pair with the Frankensteins. Are the J's their entry level model, and the E's the next step up? It's very difficult to understand their line, with so many versions of each model, and no price lists that I could find to differentiate them. |
I am an owner of the Frankensteins. I use and love a pair of Von Schweikert db99 speakers, but those are only available used and rarely come up for sale. I tried Coincident Victory II speakers, which Arthur Salvatore praised, but found that the rear port created a chuff that required careful placement of the speakers to minimize the chuff. My room at the time was just about the same size as your friend’s. If I were to get new speakers for that room, the Audio Notes would be among those at the top of the list. There are many choices, limited only to your taste and budget. Salvatore has a list of SET friendly speakers that is worth looking at if you haven't already. It is in his Reference Components section in the Speakers category. |
jond 06-27-2019 5:59pm"I would highly recommend Audio Note you can find used J’s and possible used E’s for under $5K. Easy to drive and designed to be paired with low powered tube amps. I have a pair of J’s myself and love them a very natural organic slightly warm transparent sound. And great tone!" Another question, Jon. You mention that you own a pair of the J's, I notice on the Audio Note site that they again have a whole list of J models. Which ones do you have? And just to make sure, are you powering them with the Frankensteins? I just want to be sure the Audi Note's mentioned can be fully and effectively driven with 8wpc. Thanks. |
06-28-2019 1:30pm"If you haven't already, take a look at SONIST speakers. The concerto 4 can be found used for 3 to 4 thousand dollars and would be a great match for your new amps! Good Luck, TISH" Thanks for the suggestion, Tish. I've heard a bit about Sonist, but these look very interesting too and there are some Concerto 4's to be had in exactly the price range you mention. No worries about driving them with 8wpc? |
@nightfall To answer your questions the designations for AN speakers K, J, and E, don't refer to the cabinets getting better just bigger. All 3 models use the same 8" bass driver and the J and E have the same 1" tweeter the K's tweeter is 3/4". Within each model there are variations of levels of internal wiring, inductors, voice coils etc. My J's are the J-lx internally wired with AN Lexus copper cabling. Sensitivity is 93db the E's are slightly more sensitive at 94db. +1 @twoleftears Deja Vu is my local dealer and where I bought my AN-J's. |
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keithtexas244 posts06-28-2019 10:13pm "Another you may consider is the Omega SAM monitor. Good luck; great start with the Frankensteins." Over the years, I've heard some very good things about Louis and his speaker designs. I've been intrigued, but there are almost no reviews of his products (with the exception of the 6 Moons Hemp review) which is concerning. |