Speakers

Tyrion posting his Compact Hemps for sale got me interested yesterday, so I did a bit of internet searchage. I like the looks of the Omega company, and their speakers look very nice, and reasonably priced to boot. I'm a newb when it comes to high efficiency speakers and SET amps (its high efficiency right, not low efficiency?), but I admit the simplicity of it all appeals to me (single ended triode -> single driver). So what do Omegas sound like? Do they like bigger rooms or smaller rooms?

Yay - new gear acquisitions to help ease the burdens of life... As to why I bought it... Well I must admit I like to listen fairly loud at night, as I'm all alone for blocks from 12am to 5am. I thought the 35 Watts of the restored Eico HF-87 (cathode biased, quad of EL34) was enough into the 93db/Watt Tannoys, as the sound it yielded was for the most part super-clean. Funny thing I only recently discovered about hard-clipping on these tube amps, though - it sounds a LOT like the light crackling you get from minor flaws on a record. So, when it did clip it was somewhat camouflaged, though I still should of made the connection WAY earlier...yep I still feel pretty stupi…

I turned on the amp after about a week and a half of work being done on the house and attached is a short clip of what I heard. Recorded with the iPhone mic about 2 inches away from the driver but its a pretty close representation of the issue. 1. I turned it off after 10 minutes of warm up and it still making the same noise. 2. Turned it on again and let it warm up for 15 minutes. Still the same noise. Biased the tubes. Still the same noise. 3. The noise is equal in both channels from what I can tell. 4. The noise if constant with two different sources. 5. All tubes are lit except for 12ax7s. I don't see anything in them but I don't know if this…

Whats the deal with this speaker? Anyone heard one? One of my common complaints about modern audiophile speakers is their inability to rock, and one thing to blame this on is very few speaker manufacturers produce speakers with large woofers anymore. We're lucky to find even 6.5" woofers, most seem to top out at 5.25". The Klipsch Heresy III has a big ass 12" woofer, and reviews of this model, which is still in production and "reasonably" priced at about $1600/pair, are generally pretty good. They rock out well, meaning nice midbass thump, at the expense of refinement and resolution. Just curious if any headcasers have any personal experience with these speakers.

[This post is too long.] As you may know, one of my Quad 12L actives died. RIP. I have a pair of Audioengine A5 actives to use for now and maybe they will be good enough (I don't use speakers very much - usually headphones) for my limited desktop use. I was thinking that I wanted to get a pair of Adam A3X and I think this is probably what I might get if I went the studio monitor route. Then I remembered how much I liked the Ascend CMT-340 when I owned them (which I only sold because they were way too big and loud for nearfield listening). So I was thinking of going Parasound Zamp + Ascend CBM-170SE instead. (The Parasound ZDAC, Zamp and GS-1 would make a nic…

I sold my T-Amp and want something else. I have Athena AS-B1 bookshelf speakers so I am not really looking for anything super fancy. For now, I will be using Pico as pre-amp. I looked at T-Amp 2, but i'd rather get something more expensive and higher quality. Would prefer not to go vintage route coz been there done that already. Any recommendations are welcomed.

There seem to be quite a few speaker folk here, so I'm hoping you can help me out. I'm setting up an office system (pretty big office, but I don't listen very loud) and I would like to hear any suggestions you have. In another office I have some older Paradigm Atoms (I think V3) and a powered Paradigm subwoofer. It's nice, but I think it lacks a little treble and spaciousness. I don't want to get another subwoofer, so I'm looking for a set of monitors only. The bass response is less important to me than the treble and dispersion of sound. Something that doesn't require speaker stands would be preferable. The rest of the system is not definite yet, but I think I'll go w…

My brother just moved and needs some speakers. He's not really deep into audio, but does like to listen to music. Budget is around 500

Hi everyone. One of my tweeters for my 400i PSB speakers is blown out. I was wondering where a good place would be to try and find a replacement tweeter. I honestly never did try and find a replacement tweeter before so this is new territory for me. I sent an email to PSB in hopes of purchasing one from them if they have one, which seems unlikely after doing some research on the net. I put a WTB ad in audiokarma as well. It seems that a website called Madisound Speaker Components | Assisting speaker builders for more than 25 years. used to sell the replacement, but they don't offer it anymore. I will try and call my local authorized PSB dealer to see if they do…

anybody heard it? Better yet, let's go OT: how does everyone feel about monitors + sub in a small room? I'm still craving more bass extension then my Quads want to provide. I'm wondering if something like some iQ1s and sub would satisfy my needs.

I'm debating getting some speakers sometime in 2008. I dont listen loud, and will be moving into an apartment, so I will need something that sounds nice played at low volumes. Both the Horn and Strata Mini seem to be well received and around the size I'd be looking for. I would essentially be starting from scratch, with the exception of source, as I've remained solely headphone-based thus far. So I would need to get a suitable amp, and whatever else. I'm thinking of going SET or 300B/similar. Possibly getting another EAR amp, having had success with the EAR HP4. I'm not averse to spending significant money, but I absolutely have to be able to enjoy the setup at low…

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 …

Hey guys, Looking for a pair of monitors to pair up with a Pass Labs X250. Details is the priority but a tidbit of warmth is ok with me, hence the Pass amp. A big plus if the speakers come in a white finish; budget is around 3K. Appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

I am currently going over ideas on beefing up my speaker rig. I've got my power amp pretty much solidified, but I need ideas for a cheap preamp that can suffice until I replace it with a more high end headphone/preamp combo. B&K PRO 10 Don't know much about that pre, but $329 for a FET discrete pre with MM/MC phono stage and balanced output doesn't sound too shabby. Any ideas or thoughts you can share would be great. Again cheaper the better, ideally not a long term solution.

I got back one of my C-22 preamps and my MC-75 monoblock from the repair shop yesterday. I've had these things for a decade, and I'm just now getting around to dealing with them properly. I haven't plugged the MC-75 into anything but the AC outlet so far, but I did just spend half an hour futzing around taking pictures of it: The case could use a good cleaning, but I'm not sure what cleaning product one uses on vintage tube amps. The repair tech tested all the tubes and said they did quite well. I understand the power tubes used the MC-75 are quite spendy to replace. I don't have any pitures of the C-22 preamp yet. I'm going to try to integrate it as a phon…

I created a similar thread at Headfi a while ago and I'll paste the links I was offered over there. I'm now much more serious and once again interested in any good reading for room setup and treatments. I'm especially interested in room design and getting the most performance if one is able to start from complete scratch. The links offered up for those interested: Jon Risch's Web Site- Acoustic Treatments Real Traps Ethan's Magazine Articles Auralex Audioholics Tweaks

I picked up the Alons a few weeks back and drove 7 hours round trip to pick them up. They are a dream speaker for me in the under $3000 used price range. They are probably only about 90db efficient but the woofer is 14ohms and the designer had 300b and up SET designs in mind when he put these out. The Signatures were made in very small runs and include AlNiCo magnet speakers all the way around. I had the standard Lotus SE speakers for the better part of a year and while great these are better in every respect. The standards are pretty amazing at $1000 to 1500 they go for used and should be more. Well After a bit of searching on our forum it looks like my amp of choice…

I went to my regular hi-fi store, MacBook Pro in hand, for some speaker evaluation today. The plan was to try the Harbeth 7ES-3s originally, but things were considerably altered by my running into the fluent-English-speaking KEF dealer the last time I went there who pointed out a new pair of Q900s in the store. I'd neither experienced Harbeths nor KEFs, so was somewhat intrigued. The KEFs are cheaper, but have a funky combined tweeter and mid designed to improve the soundstage and image even when listening off-center, along with a passive cone instead of a port, the whole aim being making them very room-friendly. So the idea was to plug my MBP into the Esoteric K-01 t…

Recently upgraded from YG Acoustics Carmels to YG Kipod Signature II speakers. Thought at first the BAT amps didn't have enough power, but it's settling in, and they are great together.

I've decided to put together a B22 as speaker amp, but when it comes to speakers, I'm pretty clueless. I'm building it single-ended, so I can expect 18wpc. That seems wimpy compared to a lot of other amps, but the math, from what I can tell, says that should be enough for reasonably efficient speakers in a medium sized room. What kind of speakers am I looking at with this kind of power?

Sold my Legacy Signature III's last week and so was without floorstanding speakers for a total of, oh...3 hours before I hopped on audiogon and dealt a perilous blow to my unwitting Visa Now my speaker ownership history looks like this (* indicates previous favorites): Ascend Acoustics 340, 170 Polk LSi 15, 9 *Tyler Acoustics Taylo Reference Monitors *Tannoy Eyris DC3 Tyler Linbrook Signature Monitors *Legacy Signature III Tannoy Dimension TD10 <-- new So yesterday my new Tannoy Dimension TD10's arrived. They are very "interesting" looking - I love 'em I'll try to get some pics up soon. I really should get them in a bigger room than the one they're in, …

So finally accepting the fact that I'm a bass head, I've decided to pair a sub with my 22Ls. While it'd be cool to get the Quad L-sub and have a matching set, reviews of the L-sub say it lacks the lowest bass frequencies. I would be devastated if I paid $1000 for a heavy ass sub and it didn't reproduce low bass effectively, so I've decided to go with SVS and save some money at the same time. Room size is 13 x 10, ceiling height just under 8'. As you can imagine, floor space is at a minimum. My 22Ls are 18" from the side wall and 24" from the back wall. So, while I could possibly squeeze the PB12-NSD in the corner behind the speakers, it would be a tight squeeze,…

Ever since I sold off "The Dragon" I had been debating what I wanted to do with my speaker rig. The obvious thing to do was to just buy a new pre-amp but I also thought about selling my power amps and going the integrated route. Low and behold I found quite a deal on audiogon for a Modwright SWL 9.0SE with the bybee upgrades (yes i know they are worthless) and more importantly upgraded caps (mundorf silver oil caps which appear to have a good reputation). I've had it for about two days now and it really matches up well with my ICE Power based amps. It has absolutely wonderful tone and every note has the proper amount of texture and depth to them. I'll post more detail…

I'm in the market for a new power amp, preferrably something with 300+ Watts into 4ohm. I've been considering picking up a used Rotel RB-1090 it would certainly fit the bill powerwise. But I keep seeing all the various "Class D" type amps and their size and weight make them intruiging options. Out of the Class D amps the ones that caught my interest the most are ones based on the ICE Power modules (think the new belcanto amps) and the Hypex UCD Modules (think CIAudio amps). Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated.

As some of you may know, I am fascinated by older audio designs that have stood the test of time. I was reading about a new production Rogers LS3/5a in a recent Hi-Fi News, and this drove me to the internet to do more research. It definitely sounds like a speaker I am interested in hearing. So who here has heard an LS3/5a in any of its versions? Impressions?