[Bry7470]

Hello,

I plan on building a 2 - channel system. Right now I only have a cheapo int. amp and 3 -ways. I am first looking to get new speakers. They will be placed in a room 15 ft. X 10 ft. X 8ft.  I would prefer floorstanders with a small footprint, but monitors are ok. Speaker budget ~ $2500.

My music tastes run from jazz to blues to rock. No classical.

I would like a speaker that's neutral or laid-back, dynamic and musical. These are some of the speakers I heard so far and what I thought:

B+W 704 - Way too aggressive and in your face. Didn't like these at all. Heard them with a Cary tube amp.

Proac D15 and Studio 125 - Nice midrange and imaged well. I didn't like the bass from these speakers, it just sounded boomy. Seemed to prefer tube gear.

Vandersteen 2CE and 3A - I really enjoyed the non-boxy sound from these speakers. Sounded great with jazz, acoustic and vocals. They just didn't rock out. I thought they were too laid back when I played some rock music through them. Might be too big for a room of my size?  

Linn Ninkas -  Quick, tight, lively sound. These had NO bass at all, even when placed right next to the rear wall.

Naim Arrivas - Didn't like what I heard.

Harbeth 7 something - Great midrange.

From what I heard so far I liked the Vandies the best, but I want a speaker that can also handle rock music. Based on my listening observations as well as room dimension, can anybody suggest some other speakers geared towards my tastes.

Thanks in advance.

[mgalusha]

I own the Vandies and your comments reflect my experience. They won't really rock out or play really loud. That is one of the pitfalls of first order crossovers, at least in my experience. Fortunately I rarely have the desire to really crank it any more. Must be a byproduct of getting older. For a long time I had speakers that would play at pretty much any volume and were very dynamic, sometimes I miss them but most of the time I've very happy with my Vandies. No question they are laid back and not in your face. In the past few years I have come to really dislike speakers (or systems) that are forward and agressive. Lots of folks love systems that have killer dynamics and a wall of sound. I want the killer dynamics but I want them to be laid back and easy to listen to as well. Still looking for that speaker but the Deadalus DA-1 is certainly along those lines.

Keep auditioning, hopefully you will find something that hits you just right. Keep in mind that the speaker/amp interaction can be a big factor. Some speakers can be mighty hard on an amp.

Enjoy your journey.

mike

[flintstone]

Hard, maybe the Green Mountain line? I have VMPS Supertowers for rock and Apogee Duetta Signatures for everything else. While the Apogees are strong down to 27hz. in my room, they (planers in general) don't have that hit you in the chest bass that a good rock speaker has.

All that i've listened to have trade-off at my price range...buy something that does most things well (could be the Vandy's) in your case because you won't find anything that does everything well IMO.  

Good luck
Dave

[Music Maven]

Bry7470,

Look further down this page, there are a couple of more threads where lots of folks suggest lots of speakers. It's pretty fascinating but at the same time can be very frustrating, too, especially if you live in an area where you can't audition things.

Mike, could you give your opinion a little more about "speakers being hard on amps?" In my case I have a Myryad solid-state MA-120 British amp that puts out 60 honest watts per channel at 8 ohms, about 120 at 4. It's a physically pretty beefy amp, almost 20 pounds, built almost as stoutly as the old Bryston 2B from Canada that I used to have.

I've heard manufacturers with 84db efficient loudspeakers promise that they can be well driven by a little twenty watt tubed amp and this perplexes me. I guess the average impedance is another factor in speaker design, while there must be other things.

Certainly I think what you are saying is true, but what is the intersection of performance parameters in a speaker that I need to worry about vis-a-vis its relationship with an amplifier?

Some schools of thought even suggest it's GOOD FOR THE SONICS if an amplifier pushes a little harder in driving a load, but I've always preferred to see my amps run as cool as possible once preconditioned.

So would you say that "most" well-designed speakers today are safe loads for most well-designed amplifiers today, or is it more complicated than that, and what are the biggest compatability issues to consider?

Jerry