New Fritz Carbon 7 bookshelf speakers review!

@stuartk Ok. 

I stand by my own experience that I have never heard the Carbon 7 speakers sound anything but lovely, detailed, and smooth on the top end. Never harsh. Ever. They do not have the Be tweeters of Fritz's Carreras. To confuse the two speakers is to do Fritz an injustice. 

"@stuartk FWIW, I found the Carbon 7’s surprisingly bright, based upon what I’d encountered in reviews. Fritz suggested I play them at length, at loud volume, face to face but that wasn’t practical in my case, so I returned them. I will say, he’s a great guy."

Hmm, I’ve used those same drivers in some custom speakers I’ve built and with these same brand drivers in particular never found them to be bright and quite weighty and musical, even using a simple 2-way crossover.  I had done nothing overly exhaustive or proven or tediously evolved like Fritz has developed and accomplished with his crossover fine tuning.  Nothing bright with these drivers, fwiw. One of the more musical and warm bodied pairings I’ve ever tried in fact.  

Possible key indicators of something else going on with your room, setup, source, amplifier, cables being used, or possibly a bad synergy going on there. 

@stuark what amplifier and cables are you using these days that you tested the Fritz speakers with? Were the brand-spanken-new from Fritz or used demos?

-I ask because if you did not give the crossovers, drivers, all of it time to settle in, there is no value in stating they were bright if recommended procedures were not followed, just sayin’.  New speaker drivers need time to loosen up, stiff new. 

+1 @decooney 

@stuartk Have you measured your room, acoustically? If so, share the graphs, especially the impulse graph.

Has anyone here tried to pair up Fritz Carbon 7 speakers with an Advance Paris A12 integrated amplifier before?

Background:

I'm helping a friend buying the A12 amp. I mentioned the Fritz Carbon 7 as one possible idea to buy or at least demo to give it a try. A good match or no, why?

Comments anyone?

Specs: AP A12

Product info:

• 190 watts x 2 channels into 8 ohms (280 watts x 2 channels into 4 ohms)
• 4-ohm capability allows use with a wide range of speakers
• THD: 0.007%
• signal-to-noise ratio: >103dB
• frequency response: <10-35,000 Hz (-3dB)
• built-in high-performance PCM 1796 DAC
• High Bias switch lets you select warm, detailed Class-A-like performance at low volumes with automatic switching to AB for full power
• dual-mono design with two toroidal transformers means each channel gets its own dedicated power
• hybrid technology combines a vacuum tube preamp section with a solid-state Class AB power section

@decooney 

Fritz’s speakers have an impedance curve with a minimum of around 6 ohms with mild phase angles across the spectrum – a genuinely easy load. I’ve not heard them with the A12 but I have tried them with the  Atoll IN200, a very similar amp in terms of power, headroom, etc. My guess is that the A12’s hybrid tube pre-stage will likely add a somewhat warmer, slightly rounder character but I didn’t find the Atoll solid-state design to be bright or harsh at all with Carbons. Both have quite enough power — the Carbon’s 88dB efficiency would not need more than a few watts.