Interesting thread....
I was pretty happy with some nice two-way monitors developed by two friends of mine in the early 90s (one now head designer at Boston Acoustics, the other runs Acentec, the acoustical engineering offshoot of the original BB&N); I helped with final crossover voicing; many were surprised at the speaker's dynamics and great bass. Over the years upper midrange/low treble roughness (tweeter resonance issues, I think) eventually resulted in me simply listening to music less and less.
After building my first 3 way, and thus realizing the difficulty in acquiring smooth, coherent bass/mid transitions, I decided to not screw around anymore, and perhaps embark on a search of established builders' fine-tuned successful results. Speaker design is HARD!
I waded through various Aeriels, Thiels, Nautilus (don't work in nearfield at all!), Paradigm, and Sonus Faber. I especially started to appreciate better quality midrange response.
I too discovered the Revel F30, and realized I now HAD to have midrange purity, and hopefully still get coherent full-range response in a 3-way for large-scale orchestral work in the nearfield. Unfortunately my wife couldn't handle the Revel's Califirnia moderne (cartoony?) looks.
I then discovered Verity Audio speakers, and fell in love!
Unfortunately the affordable Fidelios' rear-firing woofers didn't work in the nearfield, but I eventually found a demo pair of front-firing Parsifal Encores at a great price.
I listen to music at least 5 times as much this year as last, and have purchased probably an additional 50 CDs as well.
Owning these speakers has changed my relationship with recorded music. Transducer smoothness, proper room-loading,
coherence, and complete clone-like L-R freq resp matching have meant all the difference.
I certainly agree that if you enjoy the musicality of your system then you may not wish to spend the necessary time performing repeated home auditions. It's real work! Yet you may find yourself either stumbling upon, or evolving toward,
a level of musical satisfaction that in many ways equals (or in soundstaging transcends!) many live music venues!
Just one man's grateful story. Good luck with whichever path you choose! Ern
I was pretty happy with some nice two-way monitors developed by two friends of mine in the early 90s (one now head designer at Boston Acoustics, the other runs Acentec, the acoustical engineering offshoot of the original BB&N); I helped with final crossover voicing; many were surprised at the speaker's dynamics and great bass. Over the years upper midrange/low treble roughness (tweeter resonance issues, I think) eventually resulted in me simply listening to music less and less.
After building my first 3 way, and thus realizing the difficulty in acquiring smooth, coherent bass/mid transitions, I decided to not screw around anymore, and perhaps embark on a search of established builders' fine-tuned successful results. Speaker design is HARD!
I waded through various Aeriels, Thiels, Nautilus (don't work in nearfield at all!), Paradigm, and Sonus Faber. I especially started to appreciate better quality midrange response.
I too discovered the Revel F30, and realized I now HAD to have midrange purity, and hopefully still get coherent full-range response in a 3-way for large-scale orchestral work in the nearfield. Unfortunately my wife couldn't handle the Revel's Califirnia moderne (cartoony?) looks.
I then discovered Verity Audio speakers, and fell in love!
Unfortunately the affordable Fidelios' rear-firing woofers didn't work in the nearfield, but I eventually found a demo pair of front-firing Parsifal Encores at a great price.
I listen to music at least 5 times as much this year as last, and have purchased probably an additional 50 CDs as well.
Owning these speakers has changed my relationship with recorded music. Transducer smoothness, proper room-loading,
coherence, and complete clone-like L-R freq resp matching have meant all the difference.
I certainly agree that if you enjoy the musicality of your system then you may not wish to spend the necessary time performing repeated home auditions. It's real work! Yet you may find yourself either stumbling upon, or evolving toward,
a level of musical satisfaction that in many ways equals (or in soundstaging transcends!) many live music venues!
Just one man's grateful story. Good luck with whichever path you choose! Ern