Those I assume are my recent SP speakers...thanks Bob.
Bob provided me with a Freq. Response graph with his
Compensation network. In his words they came out very
flat and very nice....nearly the equal of his upper end lines.
Well, Iv'e had these speakers for nearly 2 weeks. They have
well over 100hrs of music & test/burn-in tones on them. I assume
they are broken in.
First off they arrived in perfect condition in Very Well boxed shipping
containers. The Walnut Finish is nice. Satin semi gloss. Black studio finish front & back.
I bought these speakers thinking they were 96dB sensitive. They are not. As Bob has mentioned on this forum the in room XO is 92.5 dB.
Why the difference? Laws of Physics i.e.,Baffle Step Loss. If you mount
these in the wall---on the wall or VERY near the wall the XO can be configured for 96dB sensitivty & a subwoofer should be considered.
Bob by his own admission targeted these to the AV crowd. In other words some compromise must be accepted. He was quite pleased & surprised by both the quality of sound & their Potential. As was Bill at Response Audio, who has based his Bella line on this design potential.
I have played these speakers in 4 different rooms with 4 very different
systems. They have been driven with AYRE integrated, Audio Note
(a 6550 based integrated) and dual WE 300B amp Parallelled, cj EL-34
(either one stereo amp or two stereo amps-passive bi-amp)
and lastly a Chord Electronics set-up. They have been A/B against
AN-E speakers, Adire HE10.1, Northcreek Rhthym, Avatar Living Voice QBX, Hawthorne 15" concentric OB. They benefit from juice. But they aren't all that difficult to drive. I found no magic synergy.
I have always enjoyed the sound of the 95dB sensitive Living Voice speakers either driven with very nice Chord electronics or good tubes.
It was this sound I was aiming for. Coherent. Dynamic. "Balanced".
Personal tastes factor into likes & dislikes. And we won't even mention visual Biases or preconceived biases. We're only human.
When you see these Big Stand Mounted monitors you expect big sound.
And you get it. You expect some good bass & you get it. It's sealed so you expect tight & tuneful bass. And you get that too. A sub woofer is optional for 95% of the music out there. IN rom response has been into the lower 40s easy & the Test discs have useable output into the upper 30s. These speakers have been paired with a DIY Sealed Tumult, a sealed M&K MX200 & a Rell Stentor. Run full range. Run with a passive first order inline or an active XO (Bassis, paradigm X-30 AudioControl Richter Scale III, Snell EC-300). Integration has been fairly
seemless. It takes time & practice results have been a challenge at times.
They produce very distinct images. In other words they do what a good 2Ch setup playing stereo recordings should do. They don't produce the widest soundstage nor the deepest. But how much emphisis you place on this is subjective. I have them nealry 10 ft. apart I sit back 12 ft. & they are angled in about 15 degrees. They are well away from side walls and about 3 ft from the wall behind them. They can be pulled out 1-2 feet more without problems. They did well in smaller rooms with less sidewall influences. A Waveguide benefit....I 'spsose.
There are limits to how loud they can go comfortably. 100dB is harsh.
But this is loud. Bring it back down to reasonable. Max it out at 95dB
with 'normal program material hovering in the 75db-80dB region & it's good. They do well at lower levels. Say 65dB program with peaks at
75-80dB. But I'd have to give the nod to the Living Voice for lower & mid-level playback. Compared to the AN-E it's a question of balance & preference. Both can boogie...more so than they have right to & on tubes. (cuz tubes can't do bass or sound fast
) Compared to Higher Eff. ~sensitivity, with larger drivers or Horns & you'll notice the differences. Which you prefer is up to you. I like the Sound of Coincident Technolgy Eclipses, Bruce Edgar horns, Pi Horns --among others. In fact a very good competitor is the Edgar Slimnlines.
There are some cabinet resonances but less than I've encountered with
Typically offered commericial offereings from Paradigm, JM lab et. al at this price point. They are made from 3/4" MDF well braced & covered in real wood Veneer. They use good quality drivers. Bob makes sure they met his engineering goals not unlike Snell Speakers of old when
Tolerances were tight & Pride in production was foremost. I have no idea if modern Snell speakers do or don't adhere to such rigorous specs.
But back in the day they did & it's with this in mind that all modern AN-E Speakers trace their lineage. Not such a bad thing actually.
They are a nice compromise between Pappy Van Winkle & Basil Hayden's.
So think of them as Elijah Craig. If you drink Burbon-you'll catch my drift.
In other words they are warm & mellow at times. They won't bite unless pushed to do so. They won't honk. Nor well they Thump & bump. Sins of ommission not commission.
Bob makes other higher end speakers with the same wave guide principles & with higher spec'ed XO & Cabinetry. He has nothing to apologize for with these.
I will soon be listening to these with some tweaking.
Cheers
