What speakers did you replace?

birbygdad · « **Reply #140 on:** 7 Jan 2018, 02:04 pm »

Well, thanks to Jim and his crew my walnut Song 3 Speakers will be here Tuesday! Yahoo! I will report on them ASAP but I know they will be awesome. In the long ago I started in this music listening hobby with AR 5s, then AR 3as, along with Dynaco A 25s. I had a brief dalliance with Bose 901s in those days. Along the way I had for a long time some Maggie’s (MG 1), then some kit built small speakers which I still have. I also have some refurbed Ohm 2.2000s in the tv room. There have also been some Paradigms along the way (7se and minimonitors). I’ve spread these out over the family. My plan is for the Song3 to be my last Speakers! I’m 70! Ha!

ErichGS · « **Reply #141 on:** 28 Jan 2018, 09:03 am »

Have Salk HTS MTMs right now. Those will move to the rear and have a set of SS8s and an SS7c on order.

DFpritchard · « **Reply #142 on:** 31 Jan 2018, 07:24 pm »

I am new to Audiocircle. Just ordered a pair of Salk Song3, largely base on impressions shared on this forum. The Song3s replace Bluenote Ducale monitors I bought used but found WAY too bright, almost glass-like in the higher frequencies. The Ducales use a ceramic tweeter from Accuton, so the RAAL in the Song3s should improve that listening experience. Prior to the Bluenotes, I had Harbeth monitors driven by McIntosh integrated. Great British boxes, but not quite as symphonic (depth of soundstage, placement of instruments) in presentation as I like. Before the Harbeths, I had Sonus Faber Amatis, which were as rewarding to listen to as they were to see. The SF Amatis are power hungry but performed well driven by Levinson 432. Looking forward to the Song3 which will be driven by a Parasound Halo integrated. Still listening to the same music, and expecting great things from the Song3 especially with voice (Eva Cassidy a real favorite).

birbygdad · « **Reply #143 on:** 6 Feb 2018, 07:02 pm »

As I posted elsewhere on this circle, I have received my Song3 speakers. As others have said they look terrific and music sounds just right through them. They are very well worth the wait. There is a synergy at play with the cabinet, the drivers and the crossover that allows one to enjoy old recordings all over again. And yes, Eva Cassidy was indeed a magnificent talent.

Branson4020 · « **Reply #144 on:** 23 Oct 2018, 09:00 pm »

The veracity STs I am now waiting for will replace some Klipsch Fortes, vintage 1987.

rmdtexas · « **Reply #145 on:** 29 Nov 2018, 08:41 pm »

Hi,
just ordered Song 3 BeAT's to replace Monitor Audio Silver RX-6 which were temporary replacements for a pair of Magnepan 1.6s that finally died after many years of constant use.

TransportPlanner · « **Reply #146 on:** 30 Nov 2018, 12:30 pm »

My Silks (used, but with new dark walnut cabinets... how many speaker manufacturers will do that?!

) will replace some Tannoy Monitor Gold 10"s (LSU/HF/III.LZ/8), vintage c.1970. The Tannoys, very kindly gifted from my parents, were really meant as a bit of a stop-gap; I was originally planning to buy some ProAc D2 speakers or something similar, but after reading about the Silks, I decided to go with them instead.
I actually like the Tannoys too much to sell them (especially as you can't pick up another decent pair that easily now), so I might get the crossovers rebuilt/upgraded and banana plug terminals installed, and use them in a secondary system at some point. They're quite detailed but a little on the bright side with my current Chord DAC/Primare set-up, so I would probably pair them with a tube amp in future. Plus, they just don't provide enough bass for movie watching, which is probably at least 50% of my system use...

Very excited to get my Silks soon and explore newfound reaches of high-fidelity sound!

bwcarpe · « **Reply #147 on:** 1 Dec 2018, 09:08 pm »

I replaced my NHT 2.5i's with the Song3 Encore after listening to them 2 years in a row at RMAF. My son gets the NHT's and I get an upgrade. Isn't that called a win-win? Happy to have joined the Salk Sound cult!

Joe Frances · « **Reply #148 on:** 8 Feb 2019, 05:18 pm »

Quote from: TransportPlanner on 30 Nov 2018, 12:30 pm

My Silks (used, but with new dark walnut cabinets... how many speaker manufacturers will do that?! ) will replace some Tannoy Monitor Gold 10"s (LSU/HF/III.LZ/8), vintage c.1970. The Tannoys, very kindly gifted from my parents, were really meant as a bit of a stop-gap; I was originally planning to buy some ProAc D2 speakers or something similar, but after reading about the Silks, I decided to go with them instead.
I actually like the Tannoys too much to sell them (especially as you can't pick up another decent pair that easily now), so I might get the crossovers rebuilt/upgraded and banana plug terminals installed, and use them in a secondary system at some point. They're quite detailed but a little on the bright side with my current Chord DAC/Primare set-up, so I would probably pair them with a tube amp in future. Plus, they just don't provide enough bass for movie watching, which is probably at least 50% of my system use...

Very excited to get my Silks soon and explore newfound reaches of high-fidelity sound!

Transport Planner: Did you get your Silks? What do you think? Could you give us "Doubting Thomases" a good non-professional's opinion/review so that we can make the choice in lieu of say something from ProAc or Harbeth? Not that you have to know those speakers, but that you think the Silks are long-term keepers for those of us who want a monitor that has a nice open non-fatiguing sound that works in smaller spaces....Thanks,

TransportPlanner · « **Reply #149 on:** 13 Feb 2019, 12:29 pm »

Quote from: Joe Frances on 8 Feb 2019, 05:18 pm

Transport Planner: Did you get your Silks? What do you think? Could you give us "Doubting Thomases" a good non-professional's opinion/review so that we can make the choice in lieu of say something from ProAc or Harbeth? Not that you have to know those speakers, but that you think the Silks are long-term keepers for those of us who want a monitor that has a nice open non-fatiguing sound that works in smaller spaces....Thanks,

Hi Joe (or should I say, perhaps this forum's longest lurker

)... I received them in December, and they both look and sound fantastic.
Initially, I was running them with a Primare i22 (80W@8ohm), which as Jim told me, will run them, but be a bit on the underpowered side. What surprised me was how this manifested itself. While I had to crank the volume dial moderately high to get decent volume in the room (particularly for movies), I actually still got good amounts of bass, just about without clipping, and the highs were crystal clear. What left me a bit disappointed was that vocals seemed recessed and nasal.
Thankfully, I got a fantastic trade-in offer on a Primare i32 (120W@8ohm), and so I snapped it up. Well, what can I say, this transformed the experience! For the first hour, I just said "wow" with each new song I played. To my great surprise, the greatest difference was with the vocals... instead of being recessed, they now seem to pop out into the room, and sound much fuller and richer! Furthermore, the imaging and soundstage were both noticeably better - the soundstage often seems to extend past the speakers, while imaging is really good. I'm not sure whether all these changes are simply due to having more power on tap, or whether the i32 perhaps has a bit of a warmer, fuller sonic character anyway, but either way, I'm not complaining. It just leaves me wondering now if the Primare i35 (150W@8ohm) might give a further improvement of almost the same amount... an expensive thought!!
To be honest, I'm now really happy with my setup as it stands. I may consider a further amp upgrade down the line, but I can say that it already sounds fantastic as-is. I would say that, as long as you are willing to spend the money on an amp that's powerful enough, you will absolutely be happy with buying some Silks!

What perhaps came as most surprise to me was just how good they are with watching films. While buying them (combined with a Spotify Premium account) has increased the amount of music I listen to, the biggest plus is how good films now sound. The bass really is fantastic. They might have been designed for apartments, but let me assure you, my friend came to visit on a Saturday night, and we watched The Dark Knight at what might be described as "cinematic" volume levels. My friend commented every time there was some action - you could literally FEEL the thud as Batman punches someone, for example. Sure enough, halfway through the film, my upstairs neighbour sends me a polite text asking me to lower the volume a bit... oops!

The only thing that the Silks seem to struggle with a little bit so far is the shootout scene in Heat. This may be due to just needing even more power... or perhaps the gunshots are too fast and sharp for the Illuminators to manage with well. But this is probably the about the hardest movie scene to reproduce well for most speakers/audio set-ups. Perhaps Jim can offer some insight here...

Either way, I'm not disappointed at all with the Silks, and get great enjoyment from listening to them. I think that you will, too

RonN5 · « **Reply #150 on:** 6 Mar 2019, 03:20 pm »

For the past six years, I enjoyed the lively, big soundstage, you are there presentation of the Tekton Lores. Nevertheless, I had a growing list of speakers that for various reasons, I wanted to try, including; small Maggies, Ohm Walsh, Spatial Audio open baffle, Salk RAALs, Tekton’s new mid/tweeter array. And seemingly, the list kept growing which made it hard to make a change.

Fifty miles away, another Audio Circle member had purchased his 4th pair of Salks, the Songtower3 BeAT, which meant that his 3rd pair, the Veracity STs had to go in order to make space. I don’t know why, but when I saw his posting, I contacted him, went to his house to listen, persuaded him to bring them to my house, and before long, after my own posting on Audio Circle, the Lores were in boxes headed to a new home in Dayton .

I positioned STs about where the Lores had been; 3’ out from the rear wall, 10’ apart and with the listening position 11’ back. The room is big, 12,000 cubic feet, open concept, 10’ ceilings, drywall, glass, ceramic tile with throw rugs, furniture, wall hangings and window treatments. It’s slightly live, but having 20’ open behind the listening position helps to counteract reflections so I never felt the need to add special acoustic treatments.

Being only 8” wide and 42” tall the Veracity STs aren’t very imposing. Cue up the music and hit play, and you might be a little concerned that you will be underwhelmed. WRONG!

The RAAL tweeter imparts planar/electrostatic clarity and tonal accuracy while the Seas midwoofers provide the dynamics of a cone speaker. The low end is powerful and deep... so much so that you can’t believe that two 6” drivers can do what they are doing. Bass definition is excellent... bass guitar and standup bass notes are easily distinguishable.

The midrange is detailed without a hint of bite... pianos really sound like pianos... guitar strings, mandolins, violins are just sweet and the clarity is right on.

The top end is open, airy, clear and detailed...the tone/pitch of snares and cymbals are perfect, so are triangles, xylophones, and drum rim shots.

Voices are beautifully and clearly presented, no glare, in a word, ‘captivating’.

I’m “feeding” the STs with an Oppo 205 into a Power Modules Belles 22a tube/mosfet hybrid into a Parasound Halo 23. The sweet spot is a 2-3 feet wide and the vertical dispersion 11’ back is good... stand up and the top end doesn’t disappear. No HT duty…only music.

The soundstage is massive... extending 5’ beyond the speakers left and right with excellent depth and believable height and instrument size. Presentation is about 5 rows back. These are NOT boxy sounding speakers in any way, they completely disappear.

Needless to say, my enjoyment level has gone up significantly. Not only am I listening more because the STs just sound so darn good, but the visual pleasure is a huge and unexpected bonus. The Veracity STs ooze care and craftsmanship. It is like having a beautiful piece of art that makes you smile every time you walk by it.

Two thumbs up, much appreciated and definitely worth your consideration!

Joe Frances · « **Reply #151 on:** 9 Mar 2019, 07:53 pm »

Quote from: TransportPlanner on 30 Nov 2018, 12:30 pm

My Silks (used, but with new dark walnut cabinets... how many speaker manufacturers will do that?! ) will replace some Tannoy Monitor Gold 10"s (LSU/HF/III.LZ/8), vintage c.1970. The Tannoys, very kindly gifted from my parents, were really meant as a bit of a stop-gap; I was originally planning to buy some ProAc D2 speakers or something similar, but after reading about the Silks, I decided to go with them instead.
I actually like the Tannoys too much to sell them (especially as you can't pick up another decent pair that easily now), so I might get the crossovers rebuilt/upgraded and banana plug terminals installed, and use them in a secondary system at some point. They're quite detailed but a little on the bright side with my current Chord DAC/Primare set-up, so I would probably pair them with a tube amp in future. Plus, they just don't provide enough bass for movie watching, which is probably at least 50% of my system use...

Very excited to get my Silks soon and explore newfound reaches of high-fidelity sound!

Hi TP:

I am not sure you check this Forum very often any more, but on the off chance, now that you have had your Silks for awhile, and considering your prior experience with Harbeths, I was wondering if you could tell us how you like the Silks, and how they compare to the other speakers you have owned?

JF

MiamiAngler · « **Reply #152 on:** 2 Apr 2019, 02:34 am »

Made a huge leap in speakers, replaced my 7 year old KEF LS50’s with Song3 BeATS. The KEF’s served me well with a Paradyn sub. Nice affordable combo that did well with jazz music. The BeATs are incredible speakers, the Beryllium tweeter and Audio Technology midrange have really impressed me. Great bass from a front ported speaker that sits close to the wall. I have bought my last pair of speakers.

mevans · « **Reply #153 on:** 14 Apr 2019, 01:28 am »

I'm new and seeking advice. I've only recently discovered the Salk company and am giving serious consideration to purchasing my first pair, the SS9.5s. I currently listen to Proac Response 3's, which I believe date from the early 90s. Has technology advanced sufficiently with regard to music reproduction in the last 25 years to justify updating my speakers? I am a lay person (retired lawyer) who doesn't know anything of electronics but enjoys listening to music. As a lay person, today's drivers don't appear to vary significantly from mine - dome tweeter, cone woofer. As I don't expect to get the chance to make a side-by-side comparison, can anyone explain the nature of the advancements that have been made over these years?

By the way, if any members live in the DC area and wish to catch up for a beer, or sit in a casual poker game, please let me know.

Mark Evans
Falls Church

DFpritchard · « **Reply #154 on:** 14 Apr 2019, 05:57 pm »

Welcome to the forum. Though a forum newbie myself, I have found the discussions herein to be informative, honest and occasionally helpful. Like yourself, I did not know of Salk speakers, had never heard them, but bought a pair of Song3s last year largely because of the discourse on this site. The experience has been uniformly positive, in terms of the quality of music and the incredible craftsmanship (very important to me) of the Salk line. I know that materials in the various speaker elements have changed somewhat, as have design approaches to crossovers. That said, I have no idea, qualitatively, what these changes/advances mean in the context of speaker sound. There is some discussion of the evolution of speaker materials, and hw that translates to speaker performance, on the Salk website (e.g., Beryllium in a tweeter, use of Alnic magnets). What I do know from my own experience is that, without question, my hearing has changed over the last 30+ years. That may be the bigger factor in determining whether to replace the excellent ProAc Response speakers with Salk speakers or anything else. What are you listening to? Source: Cds, SACDs, streaming, vinyl? What about amplification? As I recall, the ProAcs were pretty power-hungry. The SS9.5s may be less so but you still want to consider listening levels. What do you want out of speakers: soundstage, depth, imaging, flat-line frequency response, bass, 'loudness', beauty (a very real part of the Salk experience, though it has nothing to do with how the speakers sound. Take a look at the gallery on the Salk website. Works of art.)? I think these and other psychoacoustic considerations will provide context for the physics of the replies about materials that other, more learned members will provide. Enjoy the process.

mevans · « **Reply #155 on:** 14 Apr 2019, 07:29 pm »

DF--

Thanks for the thoughtful and thorough response.

I agree 100% that the Salks are works of art. And, I share your view that the appearance of speakers is extremely important, perhaps as much so as the music.

To be honest, I listen mostly to the Sirius/XM 'elevator' music channel, Escape. But, every now and again when my wife is out, I put on some cd's, find my favorite chair, and crank up the system. I listen to 60s pop but also jazz and blues. Never developed much of a taste for classical. System powered by two Adcom 5400 amps, one for each speaker.

I can't really speak to sonic features I'm looking for. More a matter of knowing what I like when I hear it. Actually, I've probably not seriously auditioned any other speakers since buying my Proacs maybe 20 years ago (or more).

I think I probably need to audition the SS9.5s. I believe Salk will be at a show in the DC area in November.

Mark

golddustpeak · « **Reply #156 on:** 2 Jan 2020, 01:58 pm »

I'm in the process of changing my system from a pair of Lowther Medallions driven by SET 45s, to a pair of SS 6Ms driven by a MC 240.

My wife hates the appearance of the Medallions and has helped pick out the veneer for the SS 6Ms so I'm hoping that she will be happier.

GM1055 · « **Reply #157 on:** 16 Jan 2020, 06:16 pm »

I bought the Salk Song3Beat,got them in late July of 2019. I'm having a hard time getting any decent bass out of them. I have tried everything, to cables different amps,preamps,Isoacoustics footers,maple platforms. I don't know what to do anymore. Gary

Delta77 · « **Reply #158 on:** 16 Jan 2020, 09:21 pm »

Quote from: GM1055 on 16 Jan 2020, 06:16 pm

I bought the Salk Song3Beat,got them in late July of 2019. I'm having a hard time getting any decent bass out of them. I have tried everything, to cables different amps,preamps,Isoacoustics footers,maple platforms. I don't know what to do anymore. Gary

I just ordered a Decware Z-Rock-2 in hopes of adding low to mid bass in my system..(3-4 month wait)..
my system is a little bass shy at low to mid volumes..

Don't know if it's going to work for my needs..
It’s nearly impossible to find one on the used market..
If it doesn't work for my needs , it should sell in a hurry..

mresseguie · « **Reply #159 on:** 17 Jan 2020, 12:38 am »

Quote from: GM1055 on 16 Jan 2020, 06:16 pm

I bought the Salk Song3Beat,got them in late July of 2019. I'm having a hard time getting any decent bass out of them. I have tried everything, to cables different amps,preamps,Isoacoustics footers,maple platforms. I don't know what to do anymore. Gary

Gary,

Post a couple photos of your listening room and tell us the dimensions of your listening room plus any adjoining side rooms/spaces. My original listening room was designed by a sadist who must have invested serious time and effort to design a bass sucking/midrange destroying space. My wife - after 3+ years of my groveling - allowed me to relocate my system to our formal living room.