I need help from GMA Europa owners


I'm hoping one of the many Europa owners on this forum can help. After A/B-ing between between Thiel CS1.6's and Europa's, I've decided to keep the Europas -- but I'm having one problem with their sound.

While the Thiels have a remarkable clarity and purity with female voices, the Europas have a slight bit of a haze. The clarity seems to be missing a bit. I'm not sure if it's a bit of distortion, simply the nature of the speakers, or something else.

I'm feeding the speakers from a Musical Fidelity 3.2 CD and Musical Fidelity A308 integrated, through Virtual Dynamics Nite cables. The Europas are sitting atop homemade MDF stands with a sand-filled rectangular center column.

Maybe its the stands, maybe its just the sound of the Europas (they have a soft dome tweeter vs. the Thiel's hard dome). I don't know.

Any insights you Europa owners can offer would be much appreciated. I love the speakers with the exception of the slightly hazy top end. I hoping someone else may have had a similar experience.

Thanks in advance for your help.
richs
Drubin, "anti-Europa rap?" Come on big guy. I'm recommending stands for your Europas. Stands that are going to make your speakers sing. What's negative about that? Just because I mentioned a few other, more musical, speakers, you get all bent? Come on. I love the way the Europas sound. I do. I just prefer a hellava lot of monitors more. That's all. Sure the other monitors cost more. So? Lighten up. If moving up to a Jm lab Micro Be or Revel M20 is a diss to you: get real. Just something to look forward to, one day. The Caravelle line, was just a tease. Can't have a thin skin on the 'gon. Hey, we're audiophools. Let's enjoy...peace, warren
Dan, didn't I make you an offer a ways back (March, I believe) because you said that you were coming into (or was that a maybe) the Big Apple, to come over to my place and listen to the Caravelles? Never heard from you. I thought that was an audiophoolishly friendly offer. No pressure, just some easy listening.
Thanks for all the responses to my thread so far. Here's a couple of comments:

Drubin:
That's a good thought about the 1.6's simply being more incisive. I've grown accustomed to the sound Thiels, which are very detailed and extended, but a bit thin and austere. It may be that I'm finding the Europas a more well rounded speaker, hence the highs are standing out less. I should spend more time just listening.

But for the record please lighten up on Warren. I found his comment fully appropriate. He didn't bash the Europas, he simply recommended stands and some other speakers.

I should also note that I'm a huge fan of Starsound. I have Audiopoints under my electronics and Thiels and I built a rack to Starsounds specs using brass rods and Audiopoints. I have found they clean up the sound a lot. Somewhat suprisingly, today I was switching cones around trying different things on the Europas. I replaced the Audiopoints under my CD with Mapleshade cones. Big difference, the Audiopoints did much more to clean up the sound.

Roy:
Thanks for your ideas. I will muck around with the stands as you suggest. I may also try some Osiris or Parts Express metal stands to eliminate the MDF problem.

I'll be writing a review on the Europas soon. But I do want to note they are fantasitic speakers. To my ears they easily out perform Nautilus 805's, Thiel 1.6's, Revel M20's and Tyler Acoustics Reference Monitors, all of which I've had in my home in the last year. Not bad, since all these cost over twice as much as the Europas. This thread was to help me tweak the sound to make them even better.

Thanks again for the posts. Any more thoughts anyone? Keep them coming.

Rich
Thanks- let me know if particular cones under the Europas do any good. Always curious.

The Europa marble is quite thick at the bottom, and it would be easy enough to put in four (three?) dimples with a drill bit (1/8" diameter probably) to locate the tips if the cones point upwards. If tips are down, eventually stick the cones to the bottom of Europas with Scotch 3M very thin double-sided tape (thin like Scotch tape).

Y`all have a good weekend. And you're right- there's little reason pick too hard on Warren.
Best,
Roy
Warren, your once again becoming aggravating. You admit never hearing the Europa's, but yet you claim them to be inferior. There are people in THIS FORUM that say no matter what happens in the future, they will ALWAYS keep their Europa's. For you to predict "the europa's are temporary" is assnine at best. Give it a rest.