Hi all, I was referred by an acquaintance on Audiogon. I stopped by and looks there is a wealth of great info here, so I registered and look forward to learning and participating. A little about me and my audiophilia...
I've been an audiophile since college. My first system in the college dorm room was a M&K satellite/sub system with SAE electronics. Over the years I continually upgraded and enjoyed time with some very fine speakers including Infinity IRS Betas, Sonus Faber Extremas, poor man's Apogee Grand (e.g. Divas with Muse 18 subs), and VMPS RM/X. Of those I only had serious seller's remorse for the Divas/Muse - they were phenomenal! My wife twisted my arm to sell them otherwise I'd likely still own them today.
I finally settled with Alón/Nola speakers, which I am pretty much married to now. They are amazing loudspeakers, which not all expensive ones are - being very well designed and gorgeous too. The line array of Raven R-1 true ribbon tweeters and Vifa M13Mi-08 alnico midranges operating as dipoles, Seas magnesium cone woofers in sealed boxes, and stacked ported subwoofers pretty much do everything very well. There are no inherent weaknesses. The biggest challenge of course is integrating all those drivers coherently... with the supplied crossovers I felt the system was leaving a lot of performance untapped, so I went full active/DSP route on them with TacT electronics, to great effect.
If anyone is interested I posted some details of my current system here:
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...r-Nola-Speakers&p=334762&viewfull=1#post33476
There are a few other loudspeaker systems that I have always been interested in, and would potentially 'cheat' on the Alón/Nola for - Martin Logan Statement E2, MBL 101 X-treme, and Genesis 1.2; obviously I am partial to two piece per side systems. And given my regret of selling the Apogees, I'd always be tempted by fully restored Divas, Full Range, or Grands, or the 'Definitive' from Australia.
I've been an audiophile since college. My first system in the college dorm room was a M&K satellite/sub system with SAE electronics. Over the years I continually upgraded and enjoyed time with some very fine speakers including Infinity IRS Betas, Sonus Faber Extremas, poor man's Apogee Grand (e.g. Divas with Muse 18 subs), and VMPS RM/X. Of those I only had serious seller's remorse for the Divas/Muse - they were phenomenal! My wife twisted my arm to sell them otherwise I'd likely still own them today.
I finally settled with Alón/Nola speakers, which I am pretty much married to now. They are amazing loudspeakers, which not all expensive ones are - being very well designed and gorgeous too. The line array of Raven R-1 true ribbon tweeters and Vifa M13Mi-08 alnico midranges operating as dipoles, Seas magnesium cone woofers in sealed boxes, and stacked ported subwoofers pretty much do everything very well. There are no inherent weaknesses. The biggest challenge of course is integrating all those drivers coherently... with the supplied crossovers I felt the system was leaving a lot of performance untapped, so I went full active/DSP route on them with TacT electronics, to great effect.
If anyone is interested I posted some details of my current system here:
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...r-Nola-Speakers&p=334762&viewfull=1#post33476
There are a few other loudspeaker systems that I have always been interested in, and would potentially 'cheat' on the Alón/Nola for - Martin Logan Statement E2, MBL 101 X-treme, and Genesis 1.2; obviously I am partial to two piece per side systems. And given my regret of selling the Apogees, I'd always be tempted by fully restored Divas, Full Range, or Grands, or the 'Definitive' from Australia.