siddcap33 Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 Hi all, I started a thread a while ago, which inevitably was locked and I never really got that answers that I was after then, so Ill try again. I have done a fair bit of research and concluded with the following components listed below. I have a budget of under 10k. I wont give an exact amount as this is not what this topic is about and I don't really want to focus on dollars as the main driver of this thread. I have, since (my initial research) decided to consider "solid state" amplification as opposed to limiting myself to "valve only" amplification. I am interested in considering the below components. This is a starting point, which would appear (at least to me) a system which may work to my budget. Photos and reviews attached below: http://www.digitalversus.com/home-cinema-speakers/bowers-wilkins-cm10-p16591/test.html http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/rowland_112.htm The amp and speakers separately, have had good reviews, although as a combination Im not so sure. I am interested to hear some opinions on both the components separately, and as a total package if you are familiar with these items. I am open to peoples ideas on adding more components to this prospective setup or hearing any further suggestions that may steer me away from this pairing all together. Lets just base my questions and your advice, on a room that is acoustically sound (Pardon the pun!) I dunno? Have I covered enough for this thread?
Anthony John Colbert Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 audio research and sonus faber, electrocompaniet and b&w, bryston and PMC, arcam and monitor audio, Naim and proac.
siddcap33 Posted July 6, 2014 Author Posted July 6, 2014 audio research and sonus faber, electrocompaniet and b&w, bryston and PMC, arcam and monitor audio, Naim and proac. Unfortunately I will need a little more explanation. Thanks.
Anthony John Colbert Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 hehe sorry. I heard an audio research vsi75 amp with sonus faber cremona speakers, sounded fantastic. Electrocompaniet ec4.8 preamp and aw250 amp into B&W 802 diamonds. Bryston 4BSST and BP26 preamp into PMC OB1i speakers, Naim nait 3r into proac response 1sc speakers. all of those combos sounded well balanced to me
Anthony John Colbert Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 almost forgot the arcam - monitor audio setup. was the FMJ separates cant remember the model number, into monitor audio gr80's
Stereophilus Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 audio research and sonus faber, electrocompaniet and b&w, bryston and PMC, arcam and monitor audio, Naim and proac. I, personally, don't buy into some of those "traditional" combinations. Sonus Faber speakers sound much better with Bryston and Krell amps IMO. Likewise, PMC speakers need an amplifier with a bit more character like a Naim or Macintosh. It's all about synergy, and you need to hear it for yourself to know for sure. I can't comment on the B&W speakers or Rowland amp, as I haven't heard them. If it were me personally, I choose the most neutral speakers I could (I like ProAc, ATC, and PMC), and try to pair them with an amp that gives character to the music I like (I think a call to Earle Weston could help in this regard). If I had your money to spend right now I'd seriously consider Lenehan speakers with a Weston valve amp.
Al Leece Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 Golden combinations must work for a reason. Personally, I would not do anything without listening to the combo first. But it is probably better to find out what type of sound you like first - most likely what type of speakers suit you - then finding an amp that can drive them. Fwiw I fell for PMC speakers, bought unheard (yes I break some of my own rules!) but knowing the kind of sound I like and that they were not likely to be far away from that. I found them easy to drive with 100W of Arcam integrated but when 250W of class D were added to the mix (with the Arcam as pre-) they started to really sing. Another step up came with the 520W W4S mono blocks and still the Arcam in pre-mode. Before I bought the OB1 speakers I have now I heard a demo of FB1s by PMC and a range of other speakers, including Dynaudio and B&Ws for around the same money. Dynaudio might have been a contender but they really did need a lot of amplifier driving them - more than the 100W Arcam I had at the time. Given the amount I was spending on speakers, I was not guaranteed to be able to upgrade the amp any time soon. The PMCs were the better all-rounders in my view, and that is largely why I went for them. Your needs may differ, though, which it is why you need to listen to a lot of things first and find a direction. Without this you will chew up a lot of time and money going round in circles. But that can be fun too... ;-)
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted July 6, 2014 Volunteer Posted July 6, 2014 it's all very well identifying speaker/amp combos that go well together but that's not the same as knowing whether you'll like that sound. I reckon (for what it's worth), you should listen to as many speakers as you can before you decide. There are some stinking bargains to be had in the SNA classifieds too 1
padre_power Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 Mate I've got an Ayon CD5s for sale, which is one of the best preamps and Cd players around. Add any good solid state power amp and you have something really special. Check out my listing.
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted July 6, 2014 Volunteer Posted July 6, 2014 Mate I've got an Ayon CD5s for sale, which is one of the best preamps and Cd players around. Add any good solid state power amp and you have something really special. Check out my listing. cool, that leaves half the OP's budget for the stuff he actually wants to buy 3
PorkBun69s Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 Mate I've got an Ayon CD5s for sale, which is one of the best preamps and Cd players around. Add any good solid state power amp and you have something really special. Check out my listing. Not a shameless plug obviously..
Juicester Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 (edited) http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/67486-fs-zingali-twenty-112-speakers/ & http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/67701-fs-red-wine-audio-signature-57-price-drop/ - only $500 over budget. beautiful kit.. Edited July 6, 2014 by Juicester 1
siddcap33 Posted July 7, 2014 Author Posted July 7, 2014 http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/67486-fs-zingali-twenty-112-speakers/ & http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/67701-fs-red-wine-audio-signature-57-price-drop/ - only $500 over budget. beautiful kit.. Looks like a good match. Will consider these two units also. May need to do a bit more research Im afraid!
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted July 7, 2014 Volunteer Posted July 7, 2014 Looks like a good match. Will consider these two units also. May need to do a bit more research Im afraid! Happy for you to come over for a listen if you are interested Perhaps @@twwen2 could be persuaded to bring his amp over so you can see if the synergy is there
THOMO Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 (edited) Why bloody B&W? Those Kevlar midrange drivers are simply not quite right.Good for marketing and a "house sound" but Kevlar is simply not the optimal material for midrange drivers.If it was would not most speaker makers be using it?Focal gave up on it years ago.Maybe OK for bass and bullet proof vests though. Edited July 7, 2014 by THOMO
Onbagz Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 Kevlar drivers are verey stiff. Thus far a lot of sub drivers are uesing Kevlar and a lot of manufactures have dropped Kevlar mid ranges. Sent from my iPhone 5.
THOMO Posted July 8, 2014 Posted July 8, 2014 Hi all, I started a thread a while ago, which inevitably was locked and I never really got that answers that I was after then, so Ill try again. I have done a fair bit of research and concluded with the following components listed below. I have a budget of under 10k. I wont give an exact amount as this is not what this topic is about and I don't really want to focus on dollars as the main driver of this thread. I have, since (my initial research) decided to consider "solid state" amplification as opposed to limiting myself to "valve only" amplification. I am interested in considering the below components. This is a starting point, which would appear (at least to me) a system which may work to my budget. Photos and reviews attached below: http://www.digitalversus.com/home-cinema-speakers/bowers-wilkins-cm10-p16591/test.html 522e66cd8f587.jpg http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/rowland_112.htm rowland_112_front.jpg The amp and speakers separately, have had good reviews, although as a combination Im not so sure. I am interested to hear some opinions on both the components separately, and as a total package if you are familiar with these items. I am open to peoples ideas on adding more components to this prospective setup or hearing any further suggestions that may steer me away from this pairing all together. Lets just base my questions and your advice, on a room that is acoustically sound (Pardon the pun!) I dunno? Have I covered enough for this thread? First port of call should be a local one- Osborn Audio. Great products,great prices and zero marketing hype and BS. And they are in your own backyard. 1
siddcap33 Posted July 11, 2014 Author Posted July 11, 2014 First port of call should be a local one- Osborn Audio. Great products,great prices and zero marketing hype and BS. And they are in your own backyard. Why bloody B&W? Those Kevlar midrange drivers are simply not quite right.Good for marketing and a "house sound" but Kevlar is simply not the optimal material for midrange drivers.If it was would not most speaker makers be using it?Focal gave up on it years ago.Maybe OK for bass and bullet proof vests though. This is exactly why I am asking the question here.Thank-you to all who have contributed to this thread. I guess I am asking the question here because I would expect that all of you having gone through the exercise of "creating a sound" in your own home would have come to "a conclusion". Do you love your sound, hate it or are you one of the greater percentage finding yourself compromising on "the sound" you set out to achieve in the first place? I "threw up" (pardon the pun) the "B&W" brand as a starting point to this discussion, this brand was something that I stumbleupon in my search for answers. Now... what is "your right sound"? Different for me and different for you? (I get that). I acknowledge that the subject of sound is like opening up a can of worms or in this case a "can of sound". There are so many variables we need to consider but lets try and make this simple. My expectations of sound may well be polar opposites to yours, or may well be the same. I would think that their must be a sound in general terms, that most of us would be drawn to. Is it palatable to you or me? Do you and Joe-blow down the road agree on a "Standard" or a "Starting point" of sound that we could use as a "Control". From there we could complicate or Un-complicate the sound. This of course is up to us and our ears. Is anyone actually happy with their sound? Are we disappointed/or elated? Are we living with compromises? Can we create a perfect sound? What is perfect? And the list of variables goes on. I will do my best to create a system that sounds good to my ears. There will always be compromises when trying to achieve this. We just need to except the compromises and be realistic about it all. I think we all end up confusing "The sound" that we think we're trying to create. I want a sound that envelopes the room. I want a sound that is full of detail, and makes me smile. I want to hear all of the faults in the production of the music. I want to be able to turn the volume dial up until it blows me out of the room, without turning my whole listening experience in to a distorted mess of sound. I don't want a "clinical sound" that makes my whole listening experience detailed, yet falls short of making me feel warm and excited about what i'm listening to. Can I achieve my ideal sound? I dunno, you tell me?
henry218 Posted July 12, 2014 Posted July 12, 2014 I want a sound that envelopes the room. I want a sound that is full of detail, and makes me smile. I want to hear all of the faults in the production of the music. I want to be able to turn the volume dial up until it blows me out of the room, without turning my whole listening experience in to a distorted mess of sound. I don't want a "clinical sound" that makes my whole listening experience detailed, yet falls short of making me feel warm and excited about what i'm listening to. Can I achieve my ideal sound? I dunno, you tell me? its a valid requests for a high performance speaker system. if you have a reasonably sized room, min width 4m and length of 6m plus, audition speakers with woofers bigger than 10" or at least 2 woofers with 8 and 10 AND sensitivity above 92db (the higher the better) 1
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