Speakers

I'm going to get a SS amp to compare with the Manleys with the new Harbeths when they get here. has to have balanced inputs, can be stereo or monoblocks. Must be in the $3k or less range. No room on this one. has to have at least 200-300 watts into 8 ohms. What i want i cant afford, thats the Arye V-1xe. had one and it was the nicest SS amp i had heard or owned. Just wasnt enough for the Thiels at the time. Here are my choices so far. Pass Labs X-250 BAT VK-500 w/batpak McCormack DNA-2 Odyssey Stratos extreme monoblocks (I only know what I have read on these???) I've had two Pass amps here and although I thought the Ayre was better, They were nice. (X-600 mono, X3…

With having the constant need to tinker I was thinking about bypassing the internal amp of the A5s with some sort of toob amp. I like way the A5s sound but I think the amp is possibly holding them back a bit. Plus at low volumes it puts more power to the left speaker than the right which is really annoying. I was thinking about picking up something like the Miniwatt N3. Any better suggestions?

That is the question. Spent a good deal of time with both this week, and to me, sonicly they are equal, and very close in sound signature. My wife likes the ANs more i dont really care either way. But the fact i can get by with 5-10 watts with the ANs is pretty cool. Down side is i would have to pull new dedicated lines and turn my room around so i can corner load them. Downside with the harbeths is i would probably move to more powerful tube amps. That means money, and heat. Price is pretty equal. I can get AN demos for $12K plus shipping for them and stands. The harbeths will go around a K more for new speakers w/stands. Both are butt ugly and old fashion looking, bu…

I liked them so much that I bough these speakers right after auditioning them on the store. Now I need an amp and these are my first speakers I don't have an idea what's good what's not but I have these deals in mind: Marantz PM 5003 300

Sound Has anyone tried these out? Seems to be in a price range between the Audioengines and the Quads. With a built in USB DAC and headphone amp, the feature list looks pretty good.

Hey all, AV123.COM is clearing out their "ELT" line of speakers, for some pretty cheap prices with free delivery. This line looks nice, with some nice finishes. I owned the monitors (little softer/warmer sounding), still own the towers (REAL nice deal at this price), and the center channel (have it, but haven't set it up yet; have read it's so-so). But the towers at $249 Cherry/$259 Rosewood (though these may be out of stock now) delivered are a great deal IMO. Only caveat: AV123 was founded by Mark Schifter, and he is currently in legal trouble, and it may affect/reflect on the company. They are still developing and getting new product, but there may be some …

Anyone have experience with them? If you do, please let me know the details and what you think of them. What you're using, how they're setup physically, crossover frequency, dispersion characteristics, horn vs. ribbon, etc. Oh, and uh, how they sound. Thanks.

I moved into my new place last week and the room where my Selah 3D's will be going has hardwood floors. The 3D's currently have rather large metal spikes for feet, and I'm looking to replace them with rubber feet to avoid damaging the hardwood floor. I need some suggestions on rubber feet that screw in and have a recess for 1/4-20 machine screw.

Finally bit the bullet and picked up a dream speaker of mine for a long time. I was able to unload my hornshoppe horns and while they were great for the price, the resolution and detail retrieval of the lowthers is in a completely different world. Lightning speed, incredibly dynamic, beautiful top end, wonderful imaging. I am also very happy with the bass response, in due to the alerion enclosure really maximizing the low end output, coupled with the Firstwatt F1, the combo is really well matched to each other.

Well I've owned my Alon Lotus SE speakers for close to a year now and love them. They sounded great in my house in Cali as the room had decent diffusion and not much of an echo. When I loved to PA and set them up in my second story loft they sounded pretty awful. There was a fairly massive echo and no real low bass to speak of. I have used some auralex treatments in the past and they are ok but in this room they just did not do the trick. So after much searching on the web I checked out GIK as there panels are reasonably well made and very fairly priced based on parts cost and minimal labor costs. At $70 a panel for their 244 panel ( a 2' x 4' and 4" deep) I picked up …

Brought home a pr. of these amps to try with the Harbeths to see how 25wpc 845 would do with them. They use 1 pr. of 6sn7 and a single 211/845 power tube each. (monoblocks) they are Chinese made. Anyone have any info on them? I have always been a big fan of 845 based amps, and after Axpona i have had the itch to try one. If these work out I might try something a little nicer and more powerful like the Cary 211 or Cayin 9088 in my system.

A thread for discussing the "Unisound Golden Series Home Theater AU265-R Speakers." A number of head-casers got these on sale @ ThingFling, and a number more were frustrated when they tried to order them from the same and got an error. I finally got mine today, after FedEx utterly fucked things up failed at delivering them three times in a row. It was a bleeding odyssey for me to get them. The FedEx ground location is on the airport industrial park off Westover AFB in Chicopee, MA (an armpit if there ever was one). The drive ended up taking three times as long as it should have as I tooled around looking for an unmarked street. I haven't so much as taken the sp…

I'm looking for 1. Reasonably full range, extend down to 46hz or more 2. Easy to drive: 88+ dB/w, preferably 8ohm 3. Not too big, (Harbeth Compact 7 is about the biggest I can use) 4. Front ported or sealed 5. Cost less than 3000 for a used one in good condition Musical preference: classical and Wagner. Listening at relatively low levels (in an apartment). Therefore, vocals and ability to come alive at low volume are important. Speakers will be used on desktop, about 2 feet away from where I sit. I'm considering Merlin TSM and Harbeth Compact 7. They seem like good choices, but I'd like to hear more suggestions.

With my headphone amp also being a decent preamp, I have some interest in active monitors for when speaker listening is an option. I know that there is a fairly strong Quad active fanbase around here. I came across the Tannoy Reveal line: Seems this series has a bunch of options, ranging from passive, to active, to active w/digital inputs, all basically differing in driver size (5, 6, 8"). Anyone heard any version of these?

Could be a decent Audioengine A5 alternative, but I'm really not sure about those finish options! Purple lilac?

Wall of sound WAT. WAT. WAT. I really hope this is an elaborate joke.

My sister wants me to help her with ideas for a simple system under $500 or close. She will use her Ipod. I think she also has an airport express? Here is what she said: i want something that looks good (minimal design) and, of course, sounds good and can connect to my ipod. i don't really have a home system - just a small bookshelf stereo that i might get rid of. She is definitely not an audiophile. Any thoughts appreciated.

Will its been a year with the Harbeths. (and Manley amps) Truly one of the most enjoyable years listening to music I have had. I've probably bought more records since getting the Harbeths than any time prior. It took a couple months to really appreciate what they do, which is recreate recordings in a way few other speakers I have heard can. They (my system in general) walks the fine line of speed & resolution and warmth and musical about as good as I have heard. They play really big and transparent. I've listened to them from 3' away up 13' feet and they sound great at either distance. My goal is to someday own the 40.1s driven by BAT VK-150se amps. But if i stay wi…

I'm looking into a NAD 325BEE, and I'd like to know if it can output enough power to my speakers. My speakers are some vintage AKAI's with 8 ohm impedence and 100Wpeak. I see here: NAD Electronics :: C325BEE Stereo Integrated Amplifier that the NAD 325BEE is rated for 110W power, but only 50W continuously? What does this mean?

Any other GMA users here? I own Callistos (2nd system) and Calypsos (main system). If anyone here has questions about GMA speakers, drop me a line. I'm in the SF Bay Area and they have (I believe) a dealer now in SF.

OK, so I'm trying to build a stereo system from scratch for the gf. So far, I managed to find a pair of used Maggie MG10s, but I still need a dac and amp for an htpc as source. And probably a sub, but I'll save that for later. I'm trying to shoot for 100W to 250W rms, which is what the manual says I should do. I want to keep the budget tight, as she's no audiophile; when I'm not there, they're most likely not going to play music. I'm shooting for under $700 used for the dac/amp. I've managed to come up with a few budget ideas: - vintage Adcom based system with maybe the 600 dac, 555 amp, and some kinda pre - Outlaw's RR2150 - old NAD integrated plus a dac? I really …

I just realized that I probably won't ever be able to afford a decent multichannel setup, even though I believe that is the primary benefit of the new digital formats... perhaps a lot of "stereophiles" are the same way - they don't actually have a philosophical bias against multichannel recordings, they just can't stomach the cost of buying the new equipment (e.g., 5 more speakers, amps, preamps/controllers, cables, stands, etc.). So I am a stereophile by default.

As many of you know I recently came into possession of a nice set of Quad ESL-63 USA Monitors, serial numbers 24783 and 24784. Unfortunately one of the speakers (24784) exhibits a moderate volume squealing noise, with no apparent drop out in the audio. This speaker recently had new panels from Electrostatic Solutions installed by the previous owner. The other speaker is all original parts and functions perfectly. So I shoot Kent at Electrostatic Solutions an email to tell him about the problem. He writes me back and politely says its difficult for him to make a diagnosis without seeing the speaker for himself. I spent a day or so mulling over what will no doubt …

World's most 'perfect' speaker gets even better | The Audiophiliac - CNET News Very excited as the 1.6 is one of my favorite speakers.

Hi all, I'd appreciate your help on the following: I have medium pile carpeting over an uneven floor in my listening room. My old Apogee Centaurs used to have spikes and they were always a nuisance because it was so hard to reposition. After those speakers died (RIP - I loved them!), I have since acquired a pair of used Meadowlark Shearwater Hotrods which I'm very happy with, but they didn't come with their spikes. I am noticing now that the left speaker's back left edge is tilted back a bit because of my uneven flooring under the carpeting. Now I'm missing those spikes I used to hate. I wonder how much it is ruining my imaging because I think even small changes in how…