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Please help with speaker choices

Hi all,
Well the room and time has lead me down the road to upgrading speakers. A most exciting time, but alas, filled with choices and no possible auditioning for me.

So I must relie on this communities suggestions and help!!

First the current system:
Nick Doshi Preamp
Nick Doshi modded Lectron JH50
Amazon Referenze TT
Triplanar Tonearm
CDP-Don't have one yet
Focal 1007 Be Monitors-current speakers

Room Size:
21 by 13 with 8ft cellings

Music:
I listen to pretty much everything. Sorry for being so general. In one listening session I may move from Coltrane, to Cannonball Adderly, to Muddy Waters and Johnny Lee Hooker to Lucinda Williams and electric/folk Neil Young. Throw in some Dylan and then move onto the White Stripes, Beck, if I'm real rowdy maybe some Ramones or AC/DC, then come down with some Edith Piaf and a sip of 12 year single malt.

Reason for wantng change:
One is I find this a hobby. For me that means having fun with experimentation. So far I have only owned the Focals.
Two is now that I moved my system against the short wall and facing out to the long part of the room, the monitors seems lacking, like they are too small to fill the space, like it is too much effort. Three is I have nerver had a floorstanding speaker and the prospect excites me. Four is, sitting wise, I can only get about 9 feet near to the Focals. To place them closer puts them right in the middle of the living room. Not really acceptable. At 9 feet, the monitors just not presenting the soundstage I desire. At that distance with monitors, I am just not in the heart of the music.

Also something important to note is I like listening loud, but do not always have that option as my system is in the living room and out of respect for others cannot always listen loud so I must have speakers that offer low volume detail.

My choices so far (more of course welcome)
Sonus Faber Cremona floorstanders
Merlin VSM-Mxe
Verity Fidelio Encore
ATC 20's passive

At the higher end(only consider if HIGHLY recommended)
Verity Parsifal ovation
Sonus Faber Amati Homage

Monitors I might consider
Focal Mini-Utopia Be
Sonus Guarnari Homage

OK, sorry for rambling so much. Obviously I am putting a lot of thought into this. Any input much appreciated!

Peter
mariasplunge

Showing 10 responses by dan_ed

dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
That sounds about right, Pete. The 10t's are about 86. The point is that there is no way to tell from this number alone what happens to the load with respect to frequency. I think the 803's are good to about 30Hz or so, not sure. Anyway, I've heard Doug's a few times and never had the impression that his Lectron was struggling in the least. In fact, it has great bass control with those speakers.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Hi Peter,

As Nick explained to me, the Lectron was designed for horns by a horn-lover. I've recently hooked mine up to some speakers I've just build using Edgarhorn DIY Titan's. Depending on how much you're willing to take on, these can be done in your price range. I still have some work to do on the speakers but so far the match is great! The only issue that arises is LF extension. But most horn schemes make use of subs. You might be in the same boat if you went with the Merlins.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Pete,

the real time with DIY speakers is in the aesthetics. It just depends on how far one wants to go. There are many open baffle speaker plans that could be built in a few days that sound wonderful. They may look like something you picked up out the back door of your local Home Depot, but they do rival many high dollar speakers. Still, the DIY route is not for everyone.

It sounds to me like your tastes in music are similar to my own. Those whose listening habits run the gamut like ours do place a huge burden on speakers. I can appreciate the demands of classical music but to ask a speaker to sound great on full symphony, bluegrass, jazz, and fully electrified rock is really not fair. But, life is not fair. :)

The Lectron really does have boat-loads of punch for a 50 watts/ch PP amp. I agree that it will handle low efficiency loads but I would warn that one needs to watch for heavy impedance loads. I found that out.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
That should probably say "low impedance". What happens on some speakers is that the impedance the amp sees falls way off when trying to reproduce LF signals. So the amp is forced to try and keep up by supplying more current. If it goes too far the amp clips and that's not good.

My Aerial 10t's are a great example of this. I believe these can fall to 2 ohms or lower and will play down below 20 Hz. You can drive them with 50 watts, but don't turn the volume up much at all. Now, hook up 200-300 watts or more from a high-current delivering amp and they sing beautifully.

It's not easy to tell from efficiency numbers, either. I'm not sure what the numbers are on Doug's B&Ws but I'm guessing they don't drop impedance too much even though they are relatively inefficient.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
I don't think it's a problem since they don't seem to ever go below 4 ohms. How loud to you want to play and how big is the room?

Maybe you can schlep your Lectron down to a dealer and find out first hand?
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Pete,

You may want to add Aerial 7B's to your list. Excellent speakers, priced right on the used market.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Pete,

You and the real boss in your life would be welcome to visit me and my boss in N.H. I've got 4 different sets of speakers here we can sample and there's probably some other choices around as well. Just a couple of miles up the road from Deacon's place.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Pete, I prefer alcohol. ;)
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
2.5 feet is bad. You may benefit in LF do to room gain. But you might think twice about any rear-ported speakers. Your speakers will be about 7 feet apart, which also isn't bad for the 10' distance. Once you have them setup you may talk the wife into moving the listening position forward or back a foot or so to hit the sweet spot.

How long does the clap echo last? A couple of reverberations isn't too big of a deal. You don't want the room too dead. Now, if the clap really bounces around you could add some plants, stuffed chairs, pillows, etc. I doubt you'll ever get the wife to agree to bass traps, corner traps, and all that other acoustic treatment stuff.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Ops, meant to 2.5' isn't bad.
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