Larsen Loudspeakers


I would appreciate feedback from Larsen Loudspeaker owners or anyone who has auditioned Larsen Loudspeakers.  Thank you.
guppy

Showing 2 responses by frazeur1

I have owned the smallest of the Larsens, the Model 4 for almost 4 years now. I pretty much agree with the above comments, and I would imagine as one goes up the ladder, the family resemblance remains, you just get more of it.

I have run mine with a Plinius 8200 integrated/200 wpc, A Naim Uniti/50 wpc, and currently with Croft Series 7 hybrid amplifier/45 wpc. The speakers have responded extremely well with all of the above amplifiers, showing the various flavors of each one quite easily.

I am pretty much a speaker nut-it is one thing in the entire chain of gear that I really get into, and while I have had quite a few other flavors in the system over the last several years, the Larsen remain.

What I like about them is that overall, they are fairly easy to situate in a room, keep them out of the corners, put them hard up against a preferably solid wall, get the spread right, and have decent equipment upstream.

The fact that they do go up against the wall keeps floor space open, nothing sticking out, in the way etc. The other thing that surprised me, even though they are a wall boundary type speaker, they do not present a flat image like many wall boundary speakers tend to do. They have a very lifelike stage, and great image height-although I do realize that some of these attributes are recording dependant. Depth of stage is very good, very 3-dimensional overall. As other comments made, they do not throw the laser beam/pin-point image that I generally find unrealistic anyway, but still they have an extremely wonderful image, full bodied, meat on the bones.

Bass also is pretty good too, especially considering their diminutive size, almost hard to believe at times. Not earth shaking, but very solid. Mids and treble also very good, at times I think the upper end reminds me of an electrostat, quick and clear. Maybe not the end all, be all in absolute definition, but again, very good.

Overall, a wonderful design I think. Plays music of all types and just gets out of the way of it all and goes about its business.

Any dislikes? Yeah maybe one, as Drubin commented on, the build quality is good, nothing great or exceptional, but then again, for the money, the build is commensurate. The speaker uses more than adequate drivers, decent cabinet and fittings etc., but the veneer is just average. You aren’t getting Sonus Faber here, but I don’t think it looks cheap either. Personally, I would rather have my money go into the sound anyway.

Very few speakers or any audio component is the end all, be all, and this is no exception. But I have to say, I could have spent a lot more money(and have before), and got way less in the form of musicality and enjoyment. I totally get these and enjoy them every day, cannot see getting rid of them except maybe to move up the line someday.

I will also put in a shameless plug for Michael Vamos of Audio Skies, the US distributor(no affiliation blah blah), wonderful guy to deal with!


Note: Speakers that I have owned in the last 5 years or so have been: Magnepan MMG/Subs, Shahinian Obelisk 2, Shahinian Lark(still own), Ohm Walsh 2, 2000, 3000, MWT, Linn Kan 2, Direct Acoustics Silent Speaker...just for reference FWIW.

There isn't any simple exceptions in general for taking care of the room. It is important to do due diligence to get the room setup as best as possible to begin with, and go from there. 

My findings with the Larsen Model 4 I have owned for quite sometime now, is that it is just a lot less fussy about the room overall, and I can get away with less room tuning or enhancements there. Most of my room is "treated" by area rugs, the furniture and wall hangings, but nothing in the real "treatments" category such as GIK or others. And probably, some of these items could certainly help, but overall I am happy with the sonics of my system as it stands. 

Wolf, I like your style there, good one!