Is Your Loudspeaker Perfect For You?

[ssfas]

View attachment 124313
Perfect for our small listening space and my wife could care less. Music is not her thing.

There is something ironic about small stand mount speakers when the entire width of the room is taken up by hifi equipment. Even though we have a music room, neither of us like looking at hifi. We have floor standing speakers, but the hifi is stuck in a corner with a 450x500mm footprint. She often sits in a chair located between the speakers. What impact she has on the acoustic I don't know.

Nothing against stand mount speakers, I've used them for almost all of my audio life, most recently Harbeth, in a much larger space than my current 13'x18' room.

 

[Republicoftexas69]

There is something ironic about small stand mount speakers when the entire width of the room is taken up by hifi equipment. Even though we have a music room, neither of us like looking at hifi. We have floor standing speakers, but the hifi is stuck in a corner with a 450x500mm footprint. She often sits in a chair located between the speakers. What impact she has on the acoustic I don't know.

Nothing against stand mount speakers, I've used them for almost all of my audio life, most recently Harbeth, in a much larger space than my current 13'x18' room.

What is ironic is that Noel and I are empty nesters, have a 4000 square foot home and she has told me to turn the game room into a listening room 30x20 with 12 foot ceilings I said no, I love my 12x16x12 space. I have always loved 2 way stand mounts over towers. Cheers

 

[ssfas]

What is ironic is that Noel and I are empty nesters, have a 4000 square foot home and she has told me to turn the game room into a listening room 30x20 with 12 foot ceilings I said no, I love my 12x16x12 space. I have always loved 2 way stand mounts over towers. Cheers

I much prefer a smaller space. I've only had "towers" for about 5 out of the last 45 years. The wife chose the "towers", although the Wilson Sabrina are more amorphous blobs that emit sound. I hate anything that looks like a tower, they are an assault on my aesthetic sensibilities. Audio is generally ugly in my book and I listen mostly through invisible ceiling speakers. Our kids went to university and never came back. They are rather upset we rebuilt the house after they left, it is now much nicer, but part of the reason was they trashed parts of it while they were here.
Roon asked me to do a blog entry on the ceiling speakers.

Roon Ready Zuma Lumisonic Wireless Multi-Room System Review

Zuma Lumisonic is a state-of-the-art Roon Ready lighting and sound system. Each light/sound unit is an all-in-one audio system.

blog.roonlabs.com

 

[Lagonda]

I love the sight of beautiful audio equipment, well designed gear is a daily pleasure to behold, my MBL's are sculptures fit to stand in the middle of any room. The Statements are monumental structures that command attention and awe, nobody has ever walked into my listening rooms and been indifferent or put off by them, it is always "wow" especially if they are playing !

 

[AudioHR]

No single driver, amazing emtional coaxspeaker can do everything from metal to orchestra at high levels. They don't cost a lot of money, just listen to them if you have the opportunity, my tip. vestlyd v15"c. View attachment 124303

Along the same line. This 18" coaxial speaker from Coherent Audio Speakers in Canada does a lot right for the money.
It's full and dynamic sounding and plays well with low wattage amplification. Chances are the custom made cabinets will pass the WAF test

 

[ssfas]

I love the sight of beautiful audio equipment, well designed gear is a daily pleasure to behold, my MBL's are sculptures fit to stand in the middle of any room. The Statements are monumental structures that command attention and awe, nobody has ever walked into my listening rooms and been indifferent or put off by them, it is always "wow" especially if they are playing ! View attachment 124368

I like good industrial design. My son is an industrial designer and used to work at Zuma (see above). Half of Zuma is Laurence Dickie of B&W and Vivid fame, and the other half is Morten Warren, a leading designer who played a big role in the B&W 800 series curved design.

Unfortunately hifi generally fails for me. There are very few pieces of hifi I would have in my room if I didn't need them and could put elsewhere. Just a load of shiny boxes. So all my hifi is in a corner and tends to be black and with black electrical tape covering up brand labels. My amp is a Luxman that has a little retro-chic going for it, but I keep the VU's switched off.

My turntable is so ugly I'm doing a Garrard for largely aesthetic reasons. Thankfully one half of the room has no visible hifi other than a loudspeaker masquerading as an amorphous blob.

 

[AudioHR]

What is ironic is that Noel and I are empty nesters, have a 4000 square foot home and she has told me to turn the game room into a listening room 30x20 with 12 foot ceilings I said no, I love my 12x16x12 space. I have always loved 2 way stand mounts over towers. Cheers

Loved my small ProAc stand mounts! Great little speaker.

I have a nice sized 18x13x9 dedicated room now. The back half of the room opens up into an equally large space which I like to think creates better low end extension. It suits the size and type of speaker that I am likely to own. If I were lusting after physically larger speakers it would probably not be large enough.

 

[AudioHR]

I love the sight of beautiful audio equipment, well designed gear is a daily pleasure to behold, my MBL's are sculptures fit to stand in the middle of any room. The Statements are monumental structures that command attention and awe, nobody has ever walked into my listening rooms and been indifferent or put off by them, it is always "wow" especially if they are playing ! View attachment 124368

Love the picture.

 

[Cellcbern]

Modified/upgraded Bache speakers are pretty close to perfect for my small (16'd x 9.5'w x 8'h) dedicated listening room. Together with the DHDI ZR Acoustics panels behind them, they have gotten me off of the speaker "merry-go-round". Their size is right, their spatial performance superb, their coherence matches single driver "full range" speakers, and bass response is more than adequate for the music I listen to (mostly jazz) without a subwoofer. Their "augmented wide band" design ("full range" driver covers 500 hz to 10khz, augmented by woofer and super tweeter) paired with my extensively modified Pathos TT is magic in the midrange, as resolved, articulate, and natural sounding as any speaker-amp combo I've heard. For many years I would listen to equipment at audio shows, dealers, and colleagues' homes and then go home to find my own system lacking in some area. That ceased with this pairing. Now I hear great sounding gear at audio shows, dealers, etc. and then go home to find that my own system leaves me wanting for nothing by comparison. I would need different speakers if I moved and had more space, but in my current listening room the Bache-Pathos pairing provides end game level sound quality.

 

[AudioHR]

I like good industrial design. My son is an industrial designer and used to work at Zuma (see above). Half of Zuma is Laurence Dickie of B&W and Vivid fame, and the other half is Morten Warren, a leading designer who played a big role in the B&W 800 series curved design.

Unfortunately hifi generally fails for me. There are very few pieces of hifi I would have in my room if I didn't need them and could put elsewhere. Just a load of shiny boxes. So all my hifi is in a corner and tends to be black and with black electrical tape covering up brand labels. My amp is a Luxman that has a little retro-chic going for it, but I keep the VU's switched off.

My turntable is so ugly I'm doing a Garrard for largely aesthetic reasons. Thankfully one half of the room has no visible hifi other than a loudspeaker masquerading as an amorphous blob.

View attachment 124376

It's unfortunate that your equipment doesn't please you visually, hopefully it sounds good. I must admit I find most modern looking components don't do much for me.

Perhaps something like this would be more appealing?

 

[DasguteOhr]

Along the same line. This 18" coaxial speaker from Coherent Audio Speakers in Canada does a lot right for the money.
It's full and dynamic sounding and plays well with low wattage amplification. Chances are the custom made cabinets will pass the WAF test

They cost ten times as much as the Vestlyd, not exactly a bargain. looks great too thanks.
In that price range i would by this phantastic open baffle 102db/1watt

6moons audioreviews: Bastanis Mandala

 

[AudioHR]

They cost ten times as much as the Vestlyd, not exactly a bargain. looks great too thanks.
In that price rage i would by this phantastic open baffle 102db/1watt

6moons audioreviews: Bastanis Mandala

I haven't heard the Vestlyd but they truly must be a bargain.

As far as the Coherent Speakers I was thinking they are a bargain compared to say the Prestige Series Tannoys. Actually compared to many speakers in that $10,000 to $25,000 CAD price range they are a solid value. Speakers are so dependent on other factors; looks, appropriate amplification and room to name but a few, that it hard to narrow down what might be best.

I haven't heard the speaker you recommended. Perhaps it will be at the upcoming Munich show?

 

[DasguteOhr]

I haven't heard the Vestlyd but they truly must be a bargain.

As far as the Coherent Speakers I was thinking they are a bargain compared to say the Prestige Series Tannoys. Actually compared to many speakers in that $10,000 to $25,000 CAD price range they are a solid value. Speakers are so dependent on other factors; looks, appropriate amplification and room to name but a few, that it hard to narrow down what might be best.

I haven't heard the speaker you recommended. Perhaps it will be at the upcoming Munich show?

Do you live in Canada? If so, the horn speakers and open baffle can be heard here. I haven't seen bastanis on high end munich for a long time. but I may have overlooked it too.

PEACENIK

www.peacenikaudio.com

Hearken Audio

hearkenaudio.ca

Vestlyd is a danish speaker for (studio)and stage. i don't know whether you can see them in Munich.

Vestlyd - Power Monitors | Live louder

Vestlyd is a Danish loudspeaker brand carefully crafted to blow you away with punchy bass, an open sound stage and powerful dynamics.

vestlyd.com

 

[ssfas]

It's unfortunate that your equipment doesn't please you visually, hopefully it sounds good. I must admit I find most modern looking components don't do much for me.

Perhaps something like this would be more appealing?

Nothing gold or shiny allowed in the house at all. One reason for changing my tonearm is that it has a chrome headshell and counterweight. I have one of these arriving tomorrow. My wife's inspiration (for tonal pallette) is the interior designer Axel Vervoordt. I shall be getting a new hifi rack made, from raw steel and a slate top, shelves from the same dark brown eucalyptus veneer as the whole of the ground floor of the house.

The one brand that I really like is Trilogy and one day I might get a 925 integrated.

 

[AudioHR]

Do you live in Canada? If so, the horn speakers and open baffle can be heard here. I haven't seen bastanis on high end munich for a long time. but I may have overlooked it too.

PEACENIK

www.peacenikaudio.com

Hearken Audio

hearkenaudio.ca

Vestlyd is a danish speaker for (studio)and stage. i don't know whether you can see them in Munich.

Vestlyd - Power Monitors | Live louder

Vestlyd is a Danish loudspeaker brand carefully crafted to blow you away with punchy bass, an open sound stage and powerful dynamics.

vestlyd.com

Yes I live in Western Canada. As our country is vast I doubt that I would get to hear these speakers as one dealer is in Central Canada, Ontario. The other is in Manitoba a western province but a days drive away. I will keep my eyes open and do a little research.

I see the review from the Bastanis is from 2016. I wonder what they would cost today?

 

[rwwear]

View attachment 117861

Tom

Which live music? A lot sounds terrible.

 

[acmn]

Do you consider your loudspeaker perfect for your personal sonic preferences and perfect for your ears?

Do you believe that loudspeakers are the most difficult or "problematic" category of components?

Do you believe there is such a thing as the "perfect" loudspeaker for you personally? Or is some compromise, large or small, inevitably part of the equation of every loudspeaker. (A "compromise" could be in size of loudspeaker or drive requirements or frequency balance or dynamics or transparency or any of the sonic characteristics we ever talk about.)
How would you apply these questions to your current loudspeaker?

You should convert the stereo sound to three channel sound, that's the starting point. Like this:

center= L+R
left=L-R+2kR
right=R-L+2kL
k=0...1.

Parameter k is controlled by the user, with a pot for example.
If k=0, we get: left=L-R, right=R-L. And if k=1/2, we get: left=L, right=R. This is the "stereomode".

 

[acmn]

SOP = superortoperspekta.

 

[Jaytor]

Do you consider your loudspeaker perfect for your personal sonic preferences and perfect for your ears?

They are very close. I like vocals a lot and they are exceptional at this. I also like deep, natural sounding bass, and they do an excellent job with this. They also have a very deep, wide soundstage with an excellent center image. And they sound great at both low and high volumes. I tend to listen at fairly low volumes (<75db) most of the time, and I dislike speakers that you have to crank up for them to come alive.

Where they fall a little short is in dynamic slam, but this is probably more due to my amp choice (DIY 300B PSET). I absolutely love this amp for vocals and sound staging, but I suspect a high end SS amp (Gryphon, Pilium, Boulder, etc.) might provide more dynamics.

They don't have the sharpest imaging focus I've ever heard, but they aren't bad in this regard. But if I get too far off-axis, I lose the center image distinctness, but that is true to some extent with every speaker I have heard.

Do you believe that loudspeakers are the most difficult or "problematic" category of components?

I believe there is more variability in speakers than any other component and they have the most interaction with the room acoustics so optimizing performance can be challenging in some rooms. But every component affects the sound, and getting good synergy is key.

Do you believe there is such a thing as the "perfect" loudspeaker for you personally? Or is some compromise, large or small, inevitably part of the equation of every loudspeaker. (A "compromise" could be in size of loudspeaker or drive requirements or frequency balance or dynamics or transparency or any of the sonic characteristics we ever talk about.)

My speakers are big and require a fair amount of room. I'd love to be able to get this performance from a small speaker placed close to the wall behind them, but I have yet to hear any such speakers that come close to delivering the same satisfaction.

My speakers are DIY open-baffle planar-magnetic line arrays (six BG NEO10 and sixteen NEO3 drivers per speaker) with open-baffle servo woofer towers (four 12" woofers per speaker). The line arrays are ~98db/w sensitivity. I'm not sure what the woofers are, but they are driven separately by 800w Rythmik HX800 servo control amps. These are based on the Line Force designed by Danny Ritchie for Serenity Acoustics.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Very cool 4 tower system!