A bit of history. We have a large 7m x 8m x 2.5m kitchen / lounge room with an audio-visual set-up. The set-up has always been 2-channel although in recent years there have been a few small subwoofers squirreled away to help smooth bass response. We’ve had some Unity Horns with Bass Bins set-up in the room but the size coupled with complexity of operating an active system has meant that this is no longer tenable. The interim solution has been to using mini-DSP to stitch together a pair of Gallo Strada 2 from the office desktop and DIY dual isobaric woofers for bass. This set-up has better WAF and the wide dispersion creates a wide sweet-spot that works given that the system often sees the family watching or listening together. That said, it’s not a surprise that the speakers don’t have the dynamics, mid-bass or truthfulness on vocals of the horns + bass bins.
So here I am contemplating the options. One path is to tweak the current set-up and I’m sure that over time this would improve integration between the two speakers as well as room response but with a young family I just don’t have a lot of time and growing weary of the chase. This view has prompted a process of starting to audition speakers circa $5.0 to $12.5k but nothing has jumped out as the right combination of sound and aesthetic. A number of speakers have excelled at part of the spectrum but not been coherent across the entire range – PMC 25.6 (great bass), Harbeth SHL5 Plus (beautiful vocals) and Martin Logan XT60 (extended Highs). Meanwhile, the Sonus Faber Olympica 3 was less impressive on each individual element but a well sorted overall package although it lacked the dynamics of the horns.
All I’m after is a floor-stander that isn’t too imposing, or a sturdy stand-mount that won’t be easily knocked over, and will work well in a largely untreated room (so either even wide dispersion or constrained directivity) and deliver stupendous dynamics voiced naturally! Ideally, I’d like serviceable bass to ~35Hz but I’m starting to think that a trade-off might be to get a speaker that does an excellent job with the mid-/high and then deal with bass via integration of a swarm of subwoofers. That said, mid-bass is critical. Some ideas that I’ve had floating around are a pair of open baffle speakers such as Spatial Audio M3 or PAP Trio 15 (but size and position from wall might be an issue) or a speaker with monitor heritage such as ATC SCM40. Revel F208/BE seems like a well-designed option but local auditions aren’t possible and it’s on the edge of the size limit whilst other options suggested include the Ayon Black Arrow-S and Devore Orangutan O/96 but again neither is available for local audition. Any suggestions on approach or options would be greatly appreciated.
So here I am contemplating the options. One path is to tweak the current set-up and I’m sure that over time this would improve integration between the two speakers as well as room response but with a young family I just don’t have a lot of time and growing weary of the chase. This view has prompted a process of starting to audition speakers circa $5.0 to $12.5k but nothing has jumped out as the right combination of sound and aesthetic. A number of speakers have excelled at part of the spectrum but not been coherent across the entire range – PMC 25.6 (great bass), Harbeth SHL5 Plus (beautiful vocals) and Martin Logan XT60 (extended Highs). Meanwhile, the Sonus Faber Olympica 3 was less impressive on each individual element but a well sorted overall package although it lacked the dynamics of the horns.
All I’m after is a floor-stander that isn’t too imposing, or a sturdy stand-mount that won’t be easily knocked over, and will work well in a largely untreated room (so either even wide dispersion or constrained directivity) and deliver stupendous dynamics voiced naturally! Ideally, I’d like serviceable bass to ~35Hz but I’m starting to think that a trade-off might be to get a speaker that does an excellent job with the mid-/high and then deal with bass via integration of a swarm of subwoofers. That said, mid-bass is critical. Some ideas that I’ve had floating around are a pair of open baffle speakers such as Spatial Audio M3 or PAP Trio 15 (but size and position from wall might be an issue) or a speaker with monitor heritage such as ATC SCM40. Revel F208/BE seems like a well-designed option but local auditions aren’t possible and it’s on the edge of the size limit whilst other options suggested include the Ayon Black Arrow-S and Devore Orangutan O/96 but again neither is available for local audition. Any suggestions on approach or options would be greatly appreciated.