attractive towers with high WAF for living room?

albireo13 · « **on:** 16 Jul 2011, 11:26 am »

Looking for opinions on this one. I've been running with Paradigm Studio-20s (V5) for over a year and want to upgrade. This is for our living room, 100% 2ch music. The Studios have been a nice intro into quality speakers. Now, I'm looking for something with a bit more bass presence and with a smother high end. Plus, I want to get away from speaker stands.
My living room is large, 14X24', but we tend to listen at low-mid levels ... jazz, blues, classical, folk, some rock. I don't blast or need "wall thumpers".

I really want these to be nice, attractive, to get buy-in from the wife! ; )

Budget? Well < $2K preferrably, can go used.

My priorities: high WAF, sonic upgrade from the Studio20s, modest size ... don't want them to dominate the room.
Candidates I'm looking into:
* Salk spkrs (Songbirds, SongTowers)
* Aerial Model 6
* Totem - Staff, Hawk, Forest?
* Selah speakers - don't know much about them

Would love to hear other folks' solutions to this??

Thx

mcgsxr · « **Reply #1 on:** 16 Jul 2011, 12:11 pm »

I have owned Totems in the past, and I would not suggest that they are all that smooth - I paired them with a Class A Sugden amp, that was a great combo.

Were it my dollars, with WAF in the pic, I would absolutely trend towards Salk. Furrniture that sounds good!

BYOB · « **Reply #2 on:** 16 Jul 2011, 12:24 pm »

what about aperion?

I have listened at friends house and really liked them. not as much as my LS6 but enjoyed better than his old Paradigm.

WntrMute2 · « **Reply #3 on:** 16 Jul 2011, 12:38 pm »

Salk HT2-TLs. High WAF in my house.

Kinger · « **Reply #4 on:** 16 Jul 2011, 01:12 pm »

Quote

Budget? Well < $2K preferrably, can go used

..........

mhconley · « **Reply #5 on:** 16 Jul 2011, 02:32 pm »

Fritz Carbon 7 Towers.

Unfortunately he will not ship these but he will hand deliver them antywhere between Orange County and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Martin

HAL · « **Reply #6 on:** 16 Jul 2011, 02:36 pm »

The Carnegie Acoustics CST-1's sounded very good at CAF last weekend.

http://www.carnegieacoustics.com/#/products/

albireo13 · « **Reply #7 on:** 16 Jul 2011, 02:55 pm »

The Fritz Carbon 7s I am very interested in but, I live in New Hampshire so I have to rule those out.

The HT2-TLs are great but ... out of my budget for sure, at about $4K.

Actually the HT1-TLs or even the Salk 1801-TLs would be a stretch goal.

kingdeezie · « **Reply #8 on:** 16 Jul 2011, 03:03 pm »

You could keep your eyes out for a used pair of Von Schwiekert VR-33's.

I know new they are out of your price range, but if you stalk audiogon maybe a pair used might show up.

They might just be the perfect WAF speaker. They can be placed close to a wall, so they don't dominate the room, and are mostly black grill cloth so they aren't very overt.

I haven't heard them, but they are getting great reviews.

charmerci · « **Reply #9 on:** 16 Jul 2011, 04:58 pm »

People on the Salk thread say if you allow her to pick out the veneer - she approves the speaker!

Phil A · « **Reply #10 on:** 16 Jul 2011, 05:21 pm »

Quote from: WntrMute2 on 16 Jul 2011, 12:38 pm

Salk HT2-TLs. High WAF in my house.

The finish on the speakers looks great. What type of wood finish?

JLM · « **Reply #11 on:** 17 Jul 2011, 01:25 am »

Smaller Salk towers

Aperion

You should also consider small single driver speakers with a powered subwoofer. The sub can be adjusted to taste. The single driver speakers should remove treble emphasize.

Here's one suggestion: http://tbisound.com/index.asp (very placement insensitive, the majestic diamonds are stand/wall mounts, but are tiny). This stuff is the audiophile version of lifestyle systems. The subs are really remarkable and could allow you to shop for a very small floorstander (like a Totem Aero).

albireo13 · « **Reply #12 on:** 17 Jul 2011, 02:44 am »

the Songbirds are smaller Salk speakers which look very nice indeed. That's an option.

albireo13 · « **Reply #13 on:** 19 Jul 2011, 11:01 am »

The Songtowers are in the lead right now for me. I wish they were a tad shorter and smaller though.
Have to reconcile that.

JLM · « **Reply #14 on:** 19 Jul 2011, 11:47 am »

Jim Salk can probably tweak the cabinet design for you.

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #15 on:** 19 Jul 2011, 11:55 am »

Quote from: albireo13 on 19 Jul 2011, 11:01 am

The Songtowers are in the lead right now for me. I wish they were a tad shorter and smaller though.
Have to reconcile that.

Which makes it a Songbird. You are killing yourself over this decision. No matter the choice you will be very happy.

albireo13 · « **Reply #16 on:** 19 Jul 2011, 12:10 pm »

I know. Picking speakers is a real pain. Tons of quality choices .... few opportunities to actually hear them ... coupled with the fact that sound quality is such a subjective thing.

Poultrygeist · « **Reply #17 on:** 19 Jul 2011, 01:32 pm »

My wife loves the Zu Omens in ghost black ( subtle smoke gray swirls on black which don't show up in pictures )

milford3 · « **Reply #18 on:** 19 Jul 2011, 01:57 pm »

Axiom M80v3
You can custom order your finish. And they sound great.

wagnju · « **Reply #19 on:** 2 Sep 2011, 08:35 pm »

what about the Swans DIVA series , $1,200/pair and sounds very good too ? My wife loves it , looks and sound