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Looking for "realistic" speakers

I just had my pair of Cary Audio Silver Oak speakers get fried along with the rest of my Cary gear in some kind of power surge (sniff sniff). And absolutely loved the Silver Oaks because they just made everything sound authentic.

The instruments had the right timbre, scale, the balance was just right, and aside for perhaps a touch of richness had no character of their own. This made them sound great for any type of music.

I can't afford the $8K I spent in the day to replace so am looking for something closer to $2K-$3K max (used Ok). I'm looking less for something with super trick staging, imaging and some of the other high end niceties (though I wouldn't kick them out of bed).

More for a musical speaker that just makes the music musical and the presentation realistic sounding. That makes you forget you're listening to speakers/electronics and hearing the music the way it should sound.

Easy to say, I know.

My preamps and amps are solid state Cary stuff that will be replaced by insurance though sadly the Silver Oaks are no longer made.

Any ideas?
larrybou
pbnaudio's avatar
pbnaudio
1,610 posts
 
They used off the shelf drivers, you can get 4 new woofers and 2 new tweeters from Madisound for approximately $ 1200

Pull the drivers out and check the stickers on them for the exact type, the excel woofer comes in two versions.

The Millennium tweeter is still available also

Best of luck

Peter
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
I agree with Peter, I also think these should be repairable, especially seeing how you liked them so much. There could be some damaged components in the crossover as well though.

If you are not comfortable doing the work yourself, there are companies out there that will do the work for you. I am very fortunate to have a very good company like Millersound located close by. If you Google speaker repair, you may find someone close by who could help you out.

Good luck,
John
4hannons's avatar
4hannons
187 posts
 
Magnepan and Cary pair up well.
larrybou OP
130 posts
 
Actually they use Scan-Speak drivers that are no longer made or available - and the president of Scan-Speak himself was kind enough to write and let me know that the replacements wouldn't fit the old enclosures and wouldn't sound the same in any case.

There actually is a company that could have fixed the voice coils - but the mouth breathing "Speaker Repair" guy took it upon himself to slash the speaker drivers as a way of removing them from the enclosures. (pause for blood pressure to come back down).

I should have known when I asked him if the speaker drivers could be repaired. He answered that they weren't called "Speaker Drivers". I asked what they WERE called and he answered "They're just called 'speakers'."

And stupid me actually let the guy proceed with the "repair work" - which amounted to "speaker" mutilation.

Anyway thanks for responding and please keep the recommendations coming!
larrybou OP
130 posts
 
I've heard good things about the Aeriels in that regard, maybe also Revels? I'm actually auditioning some Maggie MMG's that I'd consider adding some REL subs with.

But one other thing I liked about the Silver Oaks was how good they were off axis. The MMG's haven't had many hours on them but at this point they sound horrid off axis and 200% better on axis making them barely listenable. I'm sure that will change dramatically after 80 hours of burn-in, but still doubt they'll be what I'm looking for.

Also the system is in a small room at the moment, though we'll be moving next year sometime. But larger Maggies are out of the question because of WAF and room size uncertainty.
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