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Home demo. ProAc D48R and Spendor D9

I am in the process of a home demo. of the ProAc D48R and Spendor D9 from different dealers.
The ProAc guy says it is well run in and the Spendor guy says only about 90 hours on them.

First off, love the D48R so far, midrange to die for & the bass, lots of bass, perhaps a tad too much. Not sure yet, vocals , treble from that ribbon is exceptional.
The Spendor in comparison is not bad at all, I think a bit better definition in the bass, not as full as D48R , seems just as deep, but more tuneful to me. The midrange is OK , it seems to lag behind the ProAc only just. The upper midrange/treble to me is a bit of a let down. For example acoustic guitar seems slightly less crisp, less involving compared to the ProAc.

Question for any D9 owners out there, how long did they take to fully run in ? I assume I am not hearing now what their final run in sound will be like. Will the midrange/ treble open up more, like D48R more, or is the ProAc ribbon tweeter that much better ?
seadog77
itzhak1969
515 posts
 
total room area of 26’ x 13’ x 14’ can accommodate the D9 and D48 just fine, bass trapping solutions can tune the bass of the D48 but if you’re filling the bass of D48 is too much for your taste try the D30 .you should take into consideration that by choosing the D30 you are getting more controlled bass but loosing some of the great dynamics and huge soundstage of the D48 .
jetter
2,984 posts
 
An honest question from someone who has never owned a speaker with a ribbon tweeter, but has never had a problem with soft dome tweeter. Is there a concern that a ribbon tweeter is so fragile that one should consider purchasing the D48 with the soft dome tweeter instead?

Is the difference in sound that pronounced?
itzhak1969
515 posts
 
You are right ribbon twitters are much more sensitive than dome ones but they are much better , the differences are substantial : more details every small naunce is comming to life ,voices are liflike natural . ribbons are suppirier at every aspect.
barbapapa
244 posts
 
For my own I always prefer soft dome on hybrid Proac (and I have ribbon tweeter at that time in my Analysis Audio) because of better coherence  between dynamic medium and ribbon tweeter. Even if ribbon tweeter is better.
But that’s only me. 
milpai's avatar
milpai
2,338 posts
 
@seagod77,I am slightly perplexed - you have a bigger room size than me. Is there a limitation as to why you cannot pull the speakers more than the distance you specified? While true that overall room size is bigger, the distance to back and side matters for imaging and depth of sound stage. If you don't allow the speakers to "breath", then you will have lot of smearing in the imaging area and depth will be shallow and you will end up blaming the speakers for being "in your face". One thing that will favor the D48 overt the D9 is that they are downward ported instead of being back ported.
As far as ribbons are concerned, yes they are sensitive and placement is important. But ProAc's approach to ribbons is pretty good and even when I sway my head a few inches in any direction, the change is not drastic as some other designs I have heard. When you take the time to properly position the speakers, the imaging, midrange and vocals are breathtaking.
@jetter,While the ribbon is delicate, it is protected by a grill. If you check my system, I have a close up pic of the D48's ribbon tweeter. That should give you an idea about the ProAc's ribbon.
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