[donjr]

I have made some bad decisions the past 6 months and I'm on the mend. After replacing some brand new Rotel separates with a Rogue Cronus Magnum tube integrated, I'm extremely pleased with the sound that this new amp has brought into my system. I love the big soundstage, after coming from zero soundstage with the Rotel. Now I'm starting to get critical of my new speakers.  I think I can improve on the B&W CM7's. They don't sound bad, although they're 12 inches from the wall and I have to constantly mess with the port bungs because of the bass caused from the placement of the speakers not far from the wall. I can't bring them out into the room any further. I don't think I should have to keep getting up to insert or remove these foam port bungs. Does anyone know if I would notice a huge improvement with Songtowers? I read a nice review that said they would pair nicely with tubes. Can the sound get that much better to justify selling off a pair of 5 month old speakers?

 I listen to stuff like Cassandra Wilson, Be Good Tanyas, Pink Martini, Ray Lamontagne, Talking Heads, Ani Difranco, Joshua Redman, and a couple of times a year I break out the Led Zeppelin.

[oneinthepipe]

If you live anywhere near a SongTower owner, you might want to audition the SongTower with your amp, if possible, but you won't be able to accurately assess their performance in your room.  Notwithstanding, the SongTower, although not their ideal placement, perform well even when placed more closely to the front wall than desired.  The SongTower will pair well with a tube amp of sufficient power and with the ability to drive a 4 ohm load, and the Cronus Magnum is capable of ninety watts and has 4 ohm taps, I believe.  I heard the SongTower being driven with a 30 watt AVA UltraValve tube amp, and the UltraValve had more than enough power.

If you don't like your current speakers, replacing them is more than justified, IMO, and the sooner the better.

BTW, if you like Led Zeppelin, The Rain Song is great on the SongTower with good amplification.  The track shows off the SongTowers' capabilities.

Good luck.

[TJHUB]

IMO, the SongTower is a far better speaker than most B&W speakers until you get into the upper end 800 series.  I owned B&W speakers for many years and once I heard a pair of SongTower RTs, I knew I had to own Salk speakers. 

BUT, I suspect your issue is in-room bass response.  Any ported speaker I've ever owned seems to get peaky around the tuning frequency of the port.  It also seems that most speakers do this and so do my HT2-TLs.  It's nearly unavoidable and the way I solve this issue is to run a subwoofer.

Your room and listening position are most likely creating dips and peaks in the frequency response from 200Hz and lower.  If some music sound bass heavy and other music sounds "thin", you have response issues.  Changing speakers may change the issue, but it won't solve it.  Running a subwoofer with some sort of parametric EQ can do wonders for this issue.

Room treatments, speaker placement, and listening position can all help.  If you are serious about good sound, you should consider getting a Room EQ Wizard setup and measure your room.  Until you do that, you may never solve your issue.

BTW, I'd still get the Salk's. 

[audiocrazy]

Running a subwoofer with some sort of parametric EQ can do wonders for this issue.
Room treatments, speaker placement, and listening position can all help.  If you are serious about good sound, you should consider getting a Room EQ Wizard setup and measure your room.  Until you do that, you may never solve your issue.

BTW, I'd still get the Salk's. 

I added SVS AS-EQ1 to my setup and I've been a very happy camper. Since I upgraded the lasted firmware on AS-EQ1( that doubles the EQ resolution) my SongTowers are now integrated so well that I'm amazed many times.
I have Cary Audio V12 tube amp and I've added GIK Room Acoustics Panels.
All in all Song Towers has transformed that way I listen to music in a good way. They are simply amazing.

[Marbles]

Frank Van Alstine replaced his heavily modded B&W 801D's with Salk HT3's.

While not a direct comparo, it might give you some info. 

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=23787.280


This is how he described one of his first mornings with his HT3's:

OK, I am trying to post some snips of how the HT3s are making me feel, kinda rather than analysing the sound.

Emotional impression this morning:

I am in one of the "ultra hi end rooms" at a CES show with zillions of dollars of cables and 300 pound tube amps and tubes glowing everywhere and room treatment accessories everywhere and a set of $50,000 speakers being showcased and played.  This is how the looks and workmanship and the sound, the sound, of the HT3s is coming across (with of course day and night better sound than any room at a show ever)  nothing in my 55 years of listening has grabbed me quite this way, well maybe the Fulton J Modular system 20 years ago.

I am so lucky to have these absolutely awesome looking pieces of exotic furniture here playing music so awesomely too.  How am I supposed to get anything done here now for the time being?

Frank