And the thing is,
A High efficiency speaker with low watt amp
B Low efficient speaker with high watt amp
are 2 different school of "mainstream" audiophile today. I used to be the advocator of school B before, but I'm moving toward A, just because it looks like B is the authentic fashionable hipster choice in Brooklyn. 😀
A High efficiency speaker with low watt amp
B Low efficient speaker with high watt amp
are 2 different school of "mainstream" audiophile today. I used to be the advocator of school B before, but I'm moving toward A, just because it looks like B is the authentic fashionable hipster choice in Brooklyn. 😀
Bons baisers de Brooklyn, from Mytek, Grado, etc...
https://mytekdigital.com/hifi/products/brooklyn/
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Actually, Michal started Mitek in lower Manhattan. Now Manhattan is too expensive and little benefit to live there today. I didn't know that Grado is located in Brooklyn. 🙂
Earlier there was a lot of discussion of the Altec (GP) 604; if the OP decided to go that route, I would highly recommend listening first, if at all possible. I like them a lot for some material, but not large orchestra. I don't care for the high crossover point.
To my ears 800hz works a lot better for timbre and blending, even if it gives up that wonderful point source. 500Hz and a large format compression driver is even better.
All a matter of taste, but I would listen before I leaped.
To my ears 800hz works a lot better for timbre and blending, even if it gives up that wonderful point source. 500Hz and a large format compression driver is even better.
All a matter of taste, but I would listen before I leaped.
I am sure these sound lovely with Charly Haden and Pat Metheny playing Cine Paradiso, but Malher's 8th...😛
I believe that high linear distortion might have progrm dependent euphonic benefits, but all these go bankrupt as soon as the musical program becomes any complex. Low eff drivers are still kings in these domains.
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In mine, db drugs no good for the health of the ears, nor makes music sound better. Quantity is not quality!😀
As i already said, at a concert hall at the locations i like SPL hardly goes above 100db. What other guys like to do in their living rooms is their problem, ... and their neighboors' too...
As i already said, at a concert hall at the locations i like SPL hardly goes above 100db. What other guys like to do in their living rooms is their problem, ... and their neighboors' too...
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If the goal is playing classical music in the home, the Harbeth C7ES-3 (with suitable amplification) sets a bar that is hard to beat with a high efficiency system, except in overall loudness. It can certainly be done with HE, but the water gets really deep if one really cares about getting the tone colors of orchestral instruments right.
All of the highly-regarded classic drivers that I have heard and/or worked with are far too colored for classical music, even though they can sound magical with certain program material. From what I was able to hear at RMAF 14, currently-available commercial offerings aren't doing a whole lot better.
I'm very happy with my high-efficiency speaker system, but it's been a rather long and expensive road.
Gary Dahl
All of the highly-regarded classic drivers that I have heard and/or worked with are far too colored for classical music, even though they can sound magical with certain program material. From what I was able to hear at RMAF 14, currently-available commercial offerings aren't doing a whole lot better.
I'm very happy with my high-efficiency speaker system, but it's been a rather long and expensive road.
Gary Dahl
Horns & quarterwave designs. Decent modelers started to appear about 2000.
And the internet really sparked a diy renaissance that has pushed things forward.
In general driver manufacturers are very conservative so we have really had mostly slow evolution there (a few companies that have pushed things forward)
dave
I wouldn't know
"euphonic benefits"? Troll-ish audiophool psycho-babble. No, they beam and get colored in the mids. Timbre and tone suffer. It's just not as apparent on less complex works.
I have the exact opposite opinion of low efficiency drivers; when things become complex, they fall apart like a Jenga tower. Too heavy, too slow, attacks and decays are smeared, timbres uneven. Particularly on dynamic changes.
A small clarification is in order...
Re: Yamaha NS-10M studio monitors. How many times must we go through this? Nobody uses this speaker as a 'reference' for 'high fidelity.' The truth is that the NS-10M has a peculiar voicing that makes it so that if you play a recording back through these speakers and the playback sounds good to everyone concerned, then you can be pretty confident that this recording will sound good to most people played through most systems. Put another way; nobody masters their recordings through NS-10M's. They're mix speakers, usually perched on top of the meter bridge.
Many mastering studios use B&W 801 or similar speakers (often with Nelson Pass amplifiers). For instance, Sterling Sound uses B&W 801 Nautilus speakers in their stereo room. Audio Mastering
OK, back to the direct radiator vs. high efficiency/horn loaded debate.
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Re: Yamaha NS-10M studio monitors. How many times must we go through this? Nobody uses this speaker as a 'reference' for 'high fidelity.' The truth is that the NS-10M has a peculiar voicing that makes it so that if you play a recording back through these speakers and the playback sounds good to everyone concerned, then you can be pretty confident that this recording will sound good to most people played through most systems. Put another way; nobody masters their recordings through NS-10M's. They're mix speakers, usually perched on top of the meter bridge.
Many mastering studios use B&W 801 or similar speakers (often with Nelson Pass amplifiers). For instance, Sterling Sound uses B&W 801 Nautilus speakers in their stereo room. Audio Mastering
OK, back to the direct radiator vs. high efficiency/horn loaded debate.
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I heard some Audio Nirvana coax in folded horns designed and made by Johann Van Zyl recently and they were the best high efficiency single driver speakers I have ever listened to. They handled those Japanese drums with no problem, chamber music with double bass sounded great as well as male and female vocals. I didn't listen to a full orchestra but big band with lots of brass was no problem at all.
I have heard negative things about these drivers but in well designed and made folded horns they sounded great at all volume levels and with every type of music that I heard played with them.
I don't recall what amp he was using but I believe these drivers are in the 100 db SPL range and should be great with 2A3s.
Johann has been designing and building excellent folded horns for for a good 20 years and these were by far the best horns with a single driver I have ever heard and without the extra tight sweet spot that one often gets from horns.
Thatch
I have heard negative things about these drivers but in well designed and made folded horns they sounded great at all volume levels and with every type of music that I heard played with them.
I don't recall what amp he was using but I believe these drivers are in the 100 db SPL range and should be great with 2A3s.
Johann has been designing and building excellent folded horns for for a good 20 years and these were by far the best horns with a single driver I have ever heard and without the extra tight sweet spot that one often gets from horns.
Thatch
I'm not Gary, but we did a lot of collaboration together. Briefly, the HF section is the AH425 Azurahorn with the Radian 745P compression driver with beryllium diaphragm. The LF is a GPA 416 16" driver with Alnico magnet in a 3.5 cubic foot closed box with left and right front edges rounded to minimize diffraction. The independently powered subwoofers, one for each channel, are Acoustic Elegance 15" woofers in QB3 passive-radiator alignments, and covering the 20~60 Hz range.
That's interesting, Gary. Because I find the Harbeth speakers to be highly colored. It's a lovely, woody tone, but very obvious. Maybe some paper sound in there too, but that's just wood in another form. It sounds very nice on a lot of material, but not neutral to my ears.
I recently bought a large Clairtone console stereo for the living room. Very definitely a colored tonality. But on piano - it sounds brilliant, startlingly so. Maybe the big wood case helps fill in the gaps of the piano recording.