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Vienna Acoustics sounded terrible at Magnolia

I went to check them out, with all the reserve I have when it comes to big box stores, the fact that you can buy VA speakers with their no-interest financing is fairly attractive. I found something quite rare in these stores, a sales-guy who liked and understood sound and music, and he was very helpful.
I listened to the Mozart's in the show room and it was nothing short of appalling. Are those sources that bad? I came back home and looked at the reviews and something must be amiss. The bass was completely disjointed, like a $100 subwoofer with the driver loosened from the rim!! I put in my CD of Beethoven's 4th piano concerto with Claudio Arrau at the Concertgebow and stopped it right away, I though it made Beethoven cry in Heaven! The sound had nothing to do with the actual tonality or notes or anything!!
The sources were Yamaha and Denon receivers in tone defeat. I know they are bad, but that bad?? I did notice the positioning made a big difference, but never got them to sound even decent!
Any ideas? Anyone with any experience? VA owners, what is your experience regarding source sensitivity? BTW, my plan would have been for a NAD 372 as amp.
Thanks
roc_doc

Showing 1 response by ndfan

ndfan
8 posts
 
I recently bought a pair of VA speakers at a shop in Chicago. I only had a Marantz receiver so I unplugged what seemed like a few hundred connections and brought it along to make sure it could push whatever speakers I decided to buy. Making a long story short, the Marantz (SR7500) is big, heavy and fine for movies but it is really, really bad at reproducing two channel music. It simply couldn't drive the VA's.
I ended up buying the Krell integrated KAV400-xi that day also because it would have been a waste of money to buy the speakers otherwise. The difference between the Marantz and the Krell was night and day. I'm familiar with Magnolia and if you ask them to hook the VA's to one of their Mcintosh set up's I'm sure they would oblige. You'll hear a huge difference.

The NAD 372 at 150 per side should do a pretty good job driving the VA's you're looking at. Your best bet is to buy the integrated and bring it in to Magnolia. If you really want to know how the speakers are before you buy, do this. One way or the other, you'll know if those are the speakers for you.

Mike

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