Speaker Recommendation Needed


A friend of mine wants to get a new system and I'm trying to help her out. Her room is pretty large: 20'x22'x12'. She listens primarily to classical music. She has heard my Spica TC-60's and loves the natural sound, imaging and soundstage of those speakers. Her budget for speakers is $800-$900. If we look for used ones on Audiogon, what can you recommend?

Thanks,

Steve O.
steveott

Showing 2 responses by bdgregory

I'd consider Totem Sttaf's - which can be found used at the upper part of your price range. They image like there's no tomorrow. The only concern I may have is with a room that large they may thin out.

As for the GMA Europas - I agree with Evita - I had a pair, and they're great, but IMO may get lost in a room that large.

The Sttafs have enough low end - nearly as much as the Vandersteen 2s - to be worth considering. The added advantage of the Totems is they have a small footprint and are really easy to place. OTOH, if you can't place them 4 ft from the wall you'll lose a lot of that great imaging.
I'll add my 2 cents to what Seandtaylor99 said about the Rel integration. I also can't address the Spica TC=50's, but I have a Rel Storm I, and a Storm III. I've run the III with Totem Sttafs, and now it's set up with Mani-2's. I ran the Storm I and III with GMA Europas (at different times, of course). I found it easiest to integrate the sub with the Sttafs by far, and hardest with the Mani-2s. The crossovers were set at 35 Hz for the Sttaf, 48hz for Europa, and 29Hz for Mani-2. My hypothesis is that in general, the higher the crossover is the easier it will be (although I expect there's a knee in the curve if you go too high). I think the sweet-spot is in the 40-60Hz range. With the Mani's, the sub isn't even in play for most music, and it almost doesn't make sense to have it. Further, I think (conjecture on my part) the only reason Europas were more dificult to integrate is because they're phase coherent/time aligned and I had to fiddle with the positioning of the sub a lttle more than for the Sttaf.

The Rel/Sttaf, and Rel/Europa combination is really satisfying, and even though for the money you can get a full range, It may not have the quality of deep bass, and perhaps not the quality of the upper bandwidth either.