Spendor S9e or ProAc Response D28


I've been eyeing the Spendor S9e and ProAc D28 and while this is your typical "how does this compare to that thread", I wanted to give some background about where I'm coming from.

I currently own a pair of B&W 703's and my gripe with them is that my ears get tired of listening to them when playing music after 20mins or so. To be a bit more specific, at low volumes 60-70dB, these speakers are very listenable but low volumes don't do rock music justice. At higher volumes (80-85db) my ears get tired within a couple of songs.

In fact, at louder volumes even if I'm in the other room doing stuff on the computer and listening to music playing from my living room I get annoyed.

Not all is bad with these speakers, they shine when it comes to movies. I only have two of them but even so they generate an excellent phantom center (note: I haven't felt the need to add a dedicated center because they are that good). They also disappear into the background. Weird thing is I listen to movie louder than I do music, yet under this activity I don't find them fatiguing.

I've been thinking of upgrading my pre but the question I keep asking myself is that maybe I've outgrown this brand of speaker (I used to have 603's).

A bit more about me and my setup:
- Ratio of music-to-movie duty: 50/50
- Listening preferences: rock+hard rock (90%), everything else literally (10%).
- Source: Squeezbox v3 (my library has been converted flac)
- Preamp/Poweramp: NAD T742 / NAD C272
g_georgi

Showing 5 responses by g_georgi

Shadorne,

Your right that quality of the record is a big factor but in my case I find that even my MFSL Guns and Roses stuff gets annoying after a bit of listening.

The music that sounds best with these speakers is stuff like jazz, classical and trance to some extent but I rarely want to listen to this sort of stuff. I'm a fan of rock what can I say =)

My guess is that maybe the 703 accents a certain set of frequencies that my ears don't really like.
"have you heard other systems that don't fatigue you in that fashion at the same volume level?"

Short answer is no. The reason why I went with B&W is because of the proximity of the dealer to my, at that time, apartment.

At that time I had a pair of Athena bookshelf speakers, they were fairly ho hum. I picked up a pair of B&W 600's and was floored with how good they sounded. Then again the B&W's cost a few hundred dollars more.

I later traded in the 600 put in some extra cash and bought the 603's and then did it again for the 703's. My dealer has been good too me in buying back my speakers at full retail cost. I have heard other speakers at other stores but those setups cost many many times more that what I have.

Still to this day the best speakers I heard where a pair of Quad ESL's and if I had the room to fit those here this discussion would have never taken place :-)
Hi Drubin,

You make a good point that it could be my source, I'm planning on adding a Lavry DA10 DAC soon just to get out that last bit of resolution that's lacking. I know the squeezebox DAC isn't the greatest but it's much much better than the DAC inside my NAD receiver (which I use as a preamp btw). The NAD tends to flatten the presentation so that there's no airiness between instruments. The SB is much better sounding but rolls off the bass. I'm thinking a better DAC will be the solution.

I'll try playing a CD or two to see if that makes a difference, I just need to dig them all out of the back of my closet.

I also realize that most if not all rock recordings are recorded very poorly and when I think about it over the last couple of years I've started listening to more and more different types. I may be wrong with this line of reasoning but could it be possible that I've managed to setup a system that is more clinically revealing as opposed to musically revealing and that I'm just starting to realize this now as my hearing is evolving to pickup newer nuances/detail that I wasn't aware of before?
About Sonus Faber,

I've read countless posts/reviews about these speakers saying that if your the type to listen to rock music or expect big bass you should look elsewhere.
Tomryan,

I agree that music does influence your mood. Luckily, I don't listen to enough of it on a continuous basis that for it to affect me more than just momentarily.

I get stuck in traffic a lot to and from work, and I'm the type that really really really hates traffic. I remember one specific occasion where I was stuck in traffic and listening to system of a down...that was a really bad combination.

I pulled out that disc and put in Eva Cassidey's Live at Blues Alley and it made the situation much more tolerable, my mood changed pretty much instantly.