I believe the associated gear is of utmost importance in the comments made above, and I believe I can understand how each speaker would display the given characteristics in each of the listener's systems.
Thanks for listing the equipment used. It's very, very helpful.
Ian, you heard the Gibbons with Shindo gear. This is considered to be an ideal pairing. I take it the Gibbons still didn't do it for you. What did you end up buying, and are you driving them with the Odyssey amps?
I typed up a response the other day, but for some reason didn't see it here.
Warning: This post is looong :
Well, I got lost with all the postings (still trying to learn my way around the functions in this forum!). Anyway, Shindo gear is great. Their entry-level preamp sounded agile and quick when called upon. It was very quiet just like its bigger sibling and just sounds natural. I plan to own a Shindo preamp someday. I have heard the Aurieres and Giscours at two different locations. The Aurieges was paired with the Gibbon Super 8's at In Living Stereo with accuphase cd player (forget which model). I forget the amp as well, but it used tubes. The Giscours was setup with Wilson Audio Watt/Puppy 7's with Accuphase a50v amplifier and Esoteric CD player in Innovative Audio, in Manhattan, NY.
The Gibbon Super 8's sounded good. It rendered a neutral mids and bass without over emphasizing them. For some reason though, just like hogg (Jim) and somebody else mentioned somewhere in this thread, I thought that the highs were a bit tipped up. They weren't over bearing, but I guess you can sense it upon listening to several songs.
At the end I did not end up with them because I already had speakers that I believed equaled, if not surpassed them in some areas. The speakers I had at the time were the already mentioned Taylo monitors, ACI Jaguar 2000, and the ProAc response 2.5 clone. I thought and said to myself that in order for me to actually buy something, it had to be a "head and shoulders" above upgrade. I will try and share the differences between these speakers and hopefully it'll help you find your next pair of speakers - hopefully this is not too late.
The ACI Jaguars are the most neutral of the three with the best bass, bar none. These monitors sound more like floorstanders than monitors. Its mids are a touch warm, but does not call attention to itself. Its highs are also well-balanced - not polite, though it falls a bit short compared to ribbon tweeters. Now whether you like ribbon signature sound or what-not, I'm not sure. Though I believe that the best dome tweeters can do the job just the same, if not better given the type of application. The Proac Response 2.5 clones' sound quality will fall in between the ACI's and the Taylos. The ProAc's have a touch more on the top end than the ACI's, but won't even approach it in the bass region. The ProAc's mids are warmer, in my room and the already equipment mentioned, and is more holographic. The ACI's have better pinpoint imaging and huge soundstage, whereas the ProAc's mids make instruments float. The taylos have the most resolution of the three, probably because of the seas excel midbass. The ACI's and ProAc's I have use the Scan-speak 8545 woofers, and same tweeters - SS D2905-9300 (I think). I eventually sold the Taylo monitors.
I ended up getting Linkwitz Orions. I had to sell the Odyssey Stratos Extreme because I needed at least six channels of amplification. I replaced the Odysseys with Integra Research RDA-7 multichannel amp (well, the ATI first then this). It is the most neutral of all my speakers. Being a floorstander and full-range, these speakers sound complete and utterly accurate. Driver integration is great without sounding harsh, or etched. Let me describe from bottom-up: The dipole bass gives strong bass without being flabby nor tubby. I do not hear stored bass energy in corners, whatsoever. The mids employ the seas excel (8") mid bass, and yet, though shares the same brand as the Taylos, these sound much more neutral. The level of midrange detail is almost the same, but I would still give the edge to the Orions because the illusion it creates - like being at a venue, though you can tell that it isn't "forced" like some sort of DSP was put in the mix. It is hard to describe. Finally, the treble extension creates an illusion that it is almost tangible. For instance, if a synth-pop track is played, it is what it's going to sound like as if the artist is in front of you playing with a KORG keyboard. With jazz, literally just the same. Some speakers I've heard sound as if the treble was tipped up to give it more sparkle... sounding a bit forced, and sometimes even bright, but these sound real - effortless. These speakers are accurate, so whatever the characteristic of the recording and equipments are, will be conveyed. I guess you would just have to blend it a bit with your listening tastes.
I hardly watch TV shows nowadays. I come home from work, fire the music system up, and either just run through my collections, whether cd or vinyl, or in most cases fall asleep while the music's on (and this is without drinking beer
)
I hope this helped. Goodluck on this crazy journey we're in
I still have the ACI's that I use as surrounds until I find a better place for them, and the ProAc's are in my gf's place
Thanks for taking the time to read.
ian
Current equipments used:
2 channel:
Van Alstine TSLR-7 Pre
Sony SCD-XA777ES Player
Integra Research RDA-7 Multichannel Amp
Linkwitz Orion Speakers with mid and tweeter upgrade
Multichannel:
Linkwitz Orions in the front
Integra RDC-7 Processor (upgraded)
Integra RDV-1 DVD Player
ATI 1506 Multichannel Amp
ACI Jaguar, Protege, and Titan speakers
