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Quote from: woodsyi on 16 Jun 2009, 05:52 pmI have not heard those Maggies but I would think any panel speakers are going to need some good old woofer help in the first octave. I haven't heard the ones in the picture either, but whether or not someone will want to supplement the bottom end will depend on room placement and personal taste.But for classical music, symphony and large orchestra, even without supplementary bass Magnepans have no equal. The smallest Magnepan has the equivalent 72 one-inch dome tweeters and 9 eight-inch woofers! Conventional speakers simply cannot convey the same realism of the bigger maggies when it comes to large scale music.I have over 300 classical discs that I rarely listen to. If I had maggies, that would probably change. In fact there was only one time I was impressed listening to a recording of classical music. That was through a 6' tall pair of maggies many years ago.
I have not heard those Maggies but I would think any panel speakers are going to need some good old woofer help in the first octave.
Sound Labs are pretty big panels too. They do great job with Baroque but they need the subs for big symphonies. But then it's probably just me being obsessed with bass. I like the visceral bass to be there if the recording has it. Tight bass is like the foundation upon which a house is built. You can't get clear highs if the bass isn't there to balance it. Just to give you an idea, I have added 4 subwoofers totaling 6 big drivers (2 18", 2 15" and 2 12") to augment my pair of RM 40 (sames as Tyson) which already has 4 10" woofers. So, IMO, panels need subwoofers.
I seriously considered Magnepans before buying VMPS. The Magnepans bass does not have the impact and power of good dynamic woofers, IMHO. The Magnepans played the notes, but without the punch of live music.
To go from the ideal point source to a planar or vertical array would be a big change (and IMO a big step backwards) in terms of detail and the type of imaging you'd hear.
I listen 90% to classical. Mostly Bach-Mozart so I have less large orchestral music though I do like Wagner.I bought new speakers last year and the final choice was between the Orions and my eventual choice Quad 2805. The Quad sounds better a low volume but is much weaker in the bass and playing loud (two things I cannot use in a one bedroom apartment) and the Orion is a superior general purpose speaker. The relatively small size and flexibility color even gives it decent WAF, they are even small and light enough to move if practical considerations means that you cannot have them at the optimal position all the time.I invited myself to hear the Orions at a fellow NYC resident who was using the ATI with a CJ tube preamp. They sounded great (the only demo I have had that was better was Jeff Joseph playing Satchmo St James Infirmery when the Pearls first came out) and are my recommendation to people looking for speakers in the 5-10k range.
I've had similar experiences with single driver speakers, I loved mine (Cain & Cain Abbys, probably under-driven with a 2A3 amp) but I went back to bi-amped boxes. I do believe that single drivers just can't handle larger forces. Horns are a different and more complicated beast, so you could have it all - with a significant increase in size and expense.
What I was assuming from the original post was that his stereo sounds good with between one and say around twenty people playing but sounds not so good with between one and a hundred people playing/singing. As much as it could be his speakers it could also be his cd player, if he were to audition a better cd player I think it couold be possible that the improved resolving ability will let the orchestra and choirs sing through his speakers as well as a small jazz band. It is only a suggestion mind you, I don't have any experience with his equipment.
How big is your room? How loud do you listen? What kind of classical music do you have compliant about? Is this just an itch to get new toys? As you know Paul, I have the original pair of FTA-2000s. They are driven in a nearfield setup by similar chip amps to yours in a 8ft x 13ft x 22ft room. I'm still a proud papa and in fact am scheduled to have the drivers "EnABLE'd" by Bud Purvine himself. Bud has stated that these AlNiCo drivers are perhaps the most accurate in the world. But I acknowledge the itch to get sexier speakers versus staring at those plain 8 inch drivers.For readers not familiar with the FTA-2000s google Bob Brines. Bob's taste runs towards the Baroque so they're great for all kinds of smaller ensembles, they reach below 30 Hz (even the raw driver is factory rated flat to 30 Hz), and the rated peak output in my room/setup is 109 dB. To go from the ideal point source to a planar or vertical array would be a big change (and IMO a big step backwards) in terms of detail and the type of imaging you'd hear. Your speakers are transmission lines, so the bass is tight/low/musical with roll off matching room gain and doesn't have any boxy artifacts in the midrange. But the smaller VMPS speakers with one (or maybe two) ribbon midrange drivers, with their extended frequency range, provide much of coherency of single driver designs. So one of my favorite multi-driver designs is the VMPS 626. With all the options and stands they cost about the same as the FTA-2000s, but would need a good sub, active crossover, and multiple amps to match up. I've noticed that orchestral or symphonic music lacks individual/separated sound sources through the FTA-2000s. This could be a factor of the recording/mixing methods used or just a comparision to the smaller ensembles. I know that when I attend such live presentation (not often enough) that I can't hear individual performers either, no matter how close I sit or how hard I've tried (with the visual cues to help).
Don't over look the big Tannoys. They're awesome with clasical music; great tone, dynamics and sound stage. Jim
well, last time I heard Tannoy was some 15 years ago-- large Sterlings or something like that. I thought that the upper midrange was coloured all right, like they had a hump in SPL. hope the current speakers do not sound like the old ones.
