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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 5 responses by johnnyb53

johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
If you want a real departure, check out the Mirage OMD-28.

This is Mirage's high end assault on 2-channel playback incorporating a much higher-spec version of their Omnipolar module.

I got married in my living room in Dec. 2004; we had musicians provide live music for the ceremony and afterward. A couple months later I got some Mirage Omnisats and a subwoofer for the living room system. The Omnisats replaced some Wharfedale Diamond floor-standers, and the improvement in the illusion of reality was uncanny. The Mirages energize the room the same way live instruments had done a couple months previously. Nothing else has sounded so live in the room as the Omnipolar units.

So a high end, full-range version with much more sophisticated drivers and cabinetry should be interesting indeed. It would eliminate the sub/sat positioning and tuning I face and significantly improve resolution, dynamics, and linearity, while maintaining a carefully tuned ratio of sound radiation based on Mirage's 20+ years of research into speaker/room interactions and psycho-acoustics.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
I have a couple of addenda to my previous post.

First, concerning the Mirage OMD-28s, I listen to ALL kinds of music on my Omnisats sourced from LP, and they never disappoint, whether it's solo, small group jazz or acoustic folk/pop, electronica, new age, piano, big band, or large scale orchestral. They'd probably be better off with a big, powerful SS amp though.

OTOH, something to look into to go with your 50 wpc tube amp would be the Zu Audio Druid or Definition Mk2. These speakers have a sensitivity rating of 101 dB. The Druids have a nominal impedance of 12 ohms, which would be very tube-friendly. The Definitions, unfortunately, are rated at 6 ohms.

Here's a review of the Druids which specifically mentions that they do their thing well at all volumes. That is something you're more likely to get with a highly sensitive speaker (and 101 dB is way sensitive).

All speakers I've mentioned are somewhere in or around your price range. The Mirages are $7500/pr, the Druids $2800, and the Definitions $9000. You could bridge the gap between the Druids and Definitions (and retain that amp-friendly 12-ohm load) by getting Druids plus a Zu Audio subwoofer. See Zu Audio's website.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 

08-07-07: Mariasplunge
Those look interesting Johnnyb. What room size are you listening to those in and how far away are you sitting from them? How do they handle rock?
The living room is nominally about 16'x18', but it's in an open architecture with 15' high cathedral ceiling and an open sweep to the front hall, the dining room, and a half-flight of steps to the upstairs hall.

These omnis, even the small satellites, are particularly adept at filling large spaces with sound. I originally hit on them for my next door neighbor, who was looking for a new stereo to fill a similar space with open architecture.

And Mirages rock. I have a pair of the older full-range bipolar Mirages in my "big rig", and they're linear to 29Hz and with a good amp, deliver plenty of rock-solid thump. The OMD-28s are several generations newer, are more expensively built, and would be even faster, cleaner, and more extended. All Mirages I've encountered can rock hard, while the full-range ones scale extremely well from solo and small-group acoustic to big band and full scale orchestra and chorus at the other end.

When the original Mirage M1 Bipolars came out, they immediately became a Stereophile Class A component at about half the price of the next cheapest speaker in the category. These OMD-28s would be worlds better.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
I also have to second your interest in Sonus Fabers. I think they're fabulous speakers and would do great things with the wide variety of music and volumes you listen to. Their tonal balance is similar to Mirage. You may even want to look into some used Sonus Faber floor-standers. There is a pair of Cremona floorstanders in the classifieds for $6500.

Or, although stand-mounted, you might want to keep an eye out for some Extremas. Those were S'phile Class A when they came out and I'm sure they still kick ass.

One thing cool about the Extremas--they have all the dynamic and frequency range of a large speaker, but they present a small front baffle, which means they'd throw an image like mini-monitors. Best of both.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 

08-09-07: Mariasplunge
Johnny, thanks for the vote for the Sonus Fabers. have you expereince with the Cremona's. Very good looking. I was wondering about the small front baffle and what that sounded like.
I have a local Sonus Faber dealer. I am not sure if I've specifically heard the Cremonas, but I've heard several SF speakers and I've liked them all. They have a family signature that I like a lot. SF manages to give you a fine musical perspective and lots of perceived linearity and clarity, while never sounding clinical. They are always musical and engaging, regardless of musical type and they're tolerant of differing levels of source quality. Here's a Stereophile review of the Cremonas by John Atkinson.

And if you're looking for aesthetic appeal, Sonus Faber leads the way. They invented that staved construction which is being copied so much. They use unusual combinations of materials and they're very finely finished. I'd do my house in Sonus Fabers in a heartbeat if I could afford to.

A narrow or small baffle eliminates diffraction distortion (soundwaves bouncing off the front baffle) which results in a pinpoint sort of imaging where the speakers disappear and a 3-d image floats in space.

The floor-standing Cremonas have a narrow front baffle; it's the stand-mount Extremas that have almost no front baffle. There's a pair in the closed auctions on eBay, priced at $7000 with stands (they were about $12K new + $1500 for factory stands) that had no bids here.
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