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Small room, "budget priced" speaker advice, please

Hi,

I recently sold my dearly beloved, old Vandersteen 2C's here on Audiogon (and I hope SgtPeppers is loving them at this moment!) :-) I did this because in our remodeled house, my new listening room (which will double as a guest room) is just too small for the 2C's. The Spousal Acceptance Factor was just too low. ;-)

I have a PS Audio Elite-Plus integrated amp for power (around 70 W/Ch) and a soon-to-be-shipped-off-for-a-refurb Sota Sapphire for an analog front end (I have "miles" of vinyl)! I will also get a CD player at some point.

For now, I need to find a pair of best-of-breed, truly "budget" speakers. By "budget," I'm talking upper limit of $850/pair. (Gone are my free-spending, single days... I'm a dad now...) :-)

Listening habits: lots of 60's and 70's folk and rock, some jazz, Donald Fagen/Steely Dan, a little classical. Listening volume: not too loud. Sonic preferences: I value transparency and imaging/soundstage. Bass should be accurate above all, as opposed to chest-pounding powerful.

I've looked at Paradigms, which I know are highly regarded at lower price points. Trouble is, our one, local dealer is primarily a TV/home theater outfit, so you're trying to hear them in a showroom crammed with other stuff... you know the drill. I've also hit a high end shop. Listened to a pair of PSB small towers and disliked them; they sounded muddy and veiled to me. Listened to a pair of the smallest Rega's and liked them quite a bit, but would want to go back to listen again. I even wrote to PS Audio for advice; they recommended the "baby" Epos monitors, but they're out of my price range.

Thanks if you've read this far. Knowing how subjective all this is, I'd still welcome any advice you have to offer about what I should try to audition.
rebbi
zkzpb8
212 posts
 
Hey Rebbi -how are the Totems working out?!
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Zkzpb8,

They're still in their box! :-( (This is how you know I'm a dad with a small child!) But I've nearly assembled the shelving that the new system will live in, so I hope to get 'em hooked up this week!

I'll report back soon!
zkzpb8
212 posts
 
Ok then.
I was thinking you were so enraptured in beautiful music, that you forgot to report back... I just made some changes to my system, so I'm also in new toy mode... Have fun with it!
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Hi, Everybody,

I'm baaaaaaaack! ;-)

Well, I'm finally getting to listen to some music!

First of all, I sold the PS Audio Elite Plus amp to a very nice person on Audiogon who really wanted to replace her father's old Elite Plus that had breathed its last. Lucky break for both of us! That gave me several hundred dollars to throw at a new amp, and I picked up (get this) a Unison Unico, 80 w/ch tube/ss hybrid for $800, again on Audiogon. My first tubed gear, ever.
So now I have the Music Hall CD 25.2, the Unico, and some old Monster Cable interconnects and way-too-long Monster Cable Powerline 2 speaker cable (all cables from the 1980s).

I know that the system, especially the speakers, aren't anywhere near broken in (Totem recommends at least 100 hours of break in time for the Arro) but I can give you all some initial impressions.

The mids so far are just lovely... recorded vocals sound more like human voices than I've ever heard in my home. James Taylor is "in da house." ;-) Bass extension on the Arros is pretty astonishing, given that puny 4.5" driver. As has oft been reported elsewhere, the thump of the bass isn't going to loosen your fillings, but the NOTES are "there," and well defined. Bass guitar sounds like a stringed instrument, and nothing feels missing. Pretty amazing.

Soundstage and imaging... well, that's kind of a disappointment, so far, which is weird given that that's what these speakers are known to do particularly well. Vocals hang in the air between the speakers like they should, but there's not much action beyond the boundaries of the speakers themselves. Is it the crappy cable, room placement, newness of the speakers, or some combination of the three? Anyway, that's a work in progress, as I continue to tweak things. I'd LOVE advice on how to get the most out of these speakers, and how to dial them in for best imaging.

Analogue: still waiting to hear from SOTA about what repairs/upgrades to my old Sapphire they recommend.
ethanh
48 posts
 
Hi Rebbi,

I also have the Totem Arro. I use them with a 35 watt tube integrated and an Onix XCD88 player that, incidentally, is supposed to be internally identical to the Music Hall CD25. Imaging and soundstage are definitely the Arro's forte in my system, and the room placement is not optimal (I have them about two feet from a side wall and one foot out from the front wall, no toe-in). I also use crappy cables almost exclusively. Still, I do notice that the soundstage is enhanced at the expense of bass response if I move the speakers at least two feet into the room and away from side walls, so that may be something you should try out.

I bought mine used, so I can't give you any advice regarding break-in.

FWIW, I found that swapping out small signal tubes usually nets noticeable effects regarding soundstage and imaging, so this maybe something you should consider experimenting with.
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