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Help me choose speakers

Hello all.
I am asking for some recommendations on speakers to go with a McIntosh MA-6900 integrated amp. I have down-sized my system from Plinius SA102 and Dynaudio Contour S5.4. The digital source will remain: a Bel canto DAC3 fed with either a squeezebox, eventual mac mini, and a cd transport.

My room is atypical. It's an "L" shape but i've had excellent results with Thiel CS2.2, Dyn 1.8MKII, Dyn S3.4, and not so good results with the S5.4s. It was a combination of their size and my lack of willingness to fully commit to appropriate room treatments (It's not a dedicated room at this time).
Room Size:
Imagine 2 rectangles. Make one 12 feet wide by 30, and then another about 12 feet wide by 26 feet. Now turn the 2nd rectangle 90 deg and line up its long edge with the 1st rectangles short edge (the "L")
Ceilings 9 feet;
My main listening space is about 15L x 12W x 9H (i have lots of empty space behind the couch). The listening position is about 10 feet from the front of the speakers and the speakers are about 7 feet center to center and 3 to 4 feet from the back wall. I think this is a small to medium sized volume but i'm not sure.

I like to listen to: rock, pop, jazz, blues, blues, and classical. Mostly rock and jazz though. I think the S3.4s were a good size for the room; the contour 1.8's maybe a touch on the smaller size.

I am thinking about:

Dynaudio Focus 220, Thiel CS1.6, Totem Forest, B&W 805, Focus Audio FS7... and i'm looking for suggestions from you all as well. The Mac integrated is probably not the last word in power drive, but i'm reasonably sure it could easily handle the speakers i've mentioned.

I do have a powered sub that seems to match well to the room; Its a paradigm PDR 10 that plays clean and low. I plan on using this for recordings that suck in the lower octaves, or that would benefit from the ambiance i seem to get with a sub. Weird I know, but it's there.

Important sonic aspects:
1)clean clear open "natural" midrange
2)ability to rock out now and again (think Mark Knopfler played around ~90 dB rms)
3)good with various genres
4)ultra clean top end.
5) good usable bass response.
6)full balanced sound/not thin or shelved up
7)excellent imagaing potential

I guess there is more but thats about it for now.
Thanks for your help
128x128dpac996

Showing 8 responses by pubul57

pubul57
3,712 posts
 
I second the Merlin VSMs based on the qualities you want. Whether they can work in that space is beyond me, but Bobby P. at Merlin could tell you. I suspect your space might be to big though.
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
The 6900 with autoformers would work well with the Merlin, but the Spendor will be more "relaxed" than the Merlins. The Spendors are wonderfully musical and enjoyable speakers, but the Merlin is a notch above in resolution, transparency, dynamics, and a clean, grainless top end. But you can do ALOT worse than the Spendors. If you heard them and like them you should be happy with the a long time.
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
If you like the Spendors, you owe it to yourself to hear the Harbeths as well - though you would need the large ones for your space, maybe even the M40s - they need a largish room to balance out the bass response with its wonderful midrange. The Merlins would have a higher WAF though - IMHO.
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
Magnumpi205, you've tried Mac with Harbeth? The combo sounded pretty good at RMAF. Have you also owned Merlins or extensively audtioned them? I do wonder about language like "by far the best sounding" which seems like hyberbole at best. I heard both the Veenas and the Merlins on the same day, I preferred the Merlins - that's my taste and what I like, but to say of either that one is far better than the other doesn't ring true, though one can describe differences between them and it depends on your taste, and you might have a preference. I prefer coherence and balance and the Merlins do that better than the Veenas IMHO. Certainly both are worth auditioning - the Veenas are good and worthy of consideration, but I would not choose one over the other on the basis of overstatement, though I appreciate your enthusiasm.

Stringgreen, I agree that subs can do some things, and its true that it take a load of the amp driving the mains (though that is not much a concern with the easy to drive Merlins and other speaker with benign impedance), and Vandersteens work very well with their speakers, better with the 3A than the 2Ce IMO, but subwoofers can also cause plenty of problems most of the time in my experience; if coherency and balance are a goal (there are are some possible exceptions, but hard to get this right IMHO.)
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
Well, I have to agree with Magnumpi205 on the importance of auditioning, becuase to a great extent what you like is subjective to your taste and someone else's taste may not be yours. For example I heard the Grand Veenas, and they are certainly fine speakers and could easily live with them, but I still prefer what the Merlins do so I'm a bit uncomfortable with describing things as "not in the same league" - in my view the Merlins certainly are in the same league as ANY speaker 50Hz and up and I prefer them to the Grand Veena's as speaker I would want to have in MY living room- so yes, do audition, what you hear here certainly isn't gospel. And you room being the size it is certainly will make a difference as to which speaker will work best for you in that environment. Dpac996 I agree with you regarding subwoofers - awfully tough to get right, but I am a coherency freak which I tend to prefer two-way over multi-drivers, and soft dome tweeters at that.
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
Is the Murata a driver they are using?
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
Tbg, I read up on the Murata driver. I'll say one thing, they are mighty fine looking speakers if your room isn't to small and they do seem like an incredible bargain at their price ($8000 or so?) - certainly worth auditioning.
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
Well, with the speakers you have and your feelings about the GVs they may be worth another listen - that extra bass (the Merlins are essentially out at 28 Hz with a +/-2b at 32Hz)might be especially useful with symphonic music and a larger room (the Merlins do not seem to have any issues with compression, even with their smallish mid/woofer. I did spend 10 minutes with the GVs at RMAF and certainly liked them. I did not realize how "inexpensive" they were for what you get and if I were looking for speakers they would be on my short list, though proabably not for my size room. Anoth one I liked was the Harbeth M40, but if you read John Atkinson's recent observations regarding bass balance in a smallish room, I suspect I would have the same problem - OP might not. We'll see if GV starts developing an ownership following, they do deserve serious consideration, and a bargain to boot IMHO - though I suspect my OTLs need not apply.
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