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  #11  
Old 07-28-2018, 08:25 PM
Mikado463 Mikado463 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nalthien View Post
I agree that the Montis being a smaller panel might be problematic.
I assume you meant the 'Theos' being the smaller panel



Quote:
What drove you to switch back? Why did you settle on Revels?
I owned planner / stats for over thirty years (still feel they are great speakers) but I have always listened to the 'other side' and until I auditioned the Revels I have never heard ANYTHING that would compete at their price point until hearing the Revels. To this day and to my ears nothing reproduces a piano like good stats IMO.

I will not use the word 'never' for if my Revels disappeared tomorrow there's a very good chance a pair of M/L 13a's would take their place
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  #12  
Old 07-28-2018, 08:27 PM
nicoff nicoff is offline
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Originally Posted by nalthien View Post
Several years ago, I bought a pair of Martin Logan Theos speakers. While I've enjoyed them over these years, I'm considering moving back to more traditional speakers for two reasons: first, while great recordings sound amazing, bad recordings sound far worse and I'm tired of avoiding certain songs or albums because my speakers reveal how bad the engineering is. Second, I'm tired of dealing with what I heard Paul McGowan of PSAudio refer to as "vice grip" speakers--that is, the sweet spot being so small that you basically have one good seat and you feel like you need to put your head in a vice grip to stay in the correct position. I'd never heard the term before; but, when I heard Paul say it, I immediately felt a bit of relief that I wasn't the only one who felt this way about my electrostats!



Has anyone else made this transition? What brands have you considered or did you ultimately purchase? Did you miss the ultra-transparency of the electrostats? What was it that made you choose your new speakers? I've posted these questions in other places and I think I've received great suggestions as to speakers to try; but, so far, no one has been able to explain *why* their suggestion makes sense for someone making the move I'm looking to make.



I haven't settled on a budget yet; but, let's call it $10,000 to keep my options pretty open. These speakers will be driven by a McIntosh C1100C/T preamp and McIntosh MC452 power amp.

Whatsapp kind of music do you listen to?
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  #13  
Old 07-28-2018, 08:29 PM
doguniverse doguniverse is offline
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I went from Quads 63s to SF Ktema. I will never go back.
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  #14  
Old 07-28-2018, 08:40 PM
nalthien nalthien is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikado463 View Post
I assume you meant the 'Theos' being the smaller panel
Yup...I was reading your post, thinking about the Montis, and typed it instead of Theos.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikado463 View Post
I will not use the word 'never' for if my Revels disappeared tomorrow there's a very good chance a pair of M/L 13a's would take their place
Interesting. I'm test driving the 13a's on Monday. I want to know where this can go before I give up entirely.

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Originally Posted by nicoff View Post
Whatsapp kind of music do you listen to?
A huge variety including classic rock, 80's hair metal, jazz, classical, electronic, hip-hop...and damn near everything in between.
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  #15  
Old 07-28-2018, 09:38 PM
nicoff nicoff is offline
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With such a large variety of music preference, were you happy with the electrostatic except for the limited sweet spot? I would have thought that metal and heavy rock was not that good with that kind of speakers.

FWIW, I have owned Magnepans and they are great for jazz, vocals, and acoustic music. No great IMO for large orchestral music. Their sweet spot may be wider than the electrostatic but probably not by a lot.
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  #16  
Old 07-28-2018, 10:51 PM
nalthien nalthien is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nicoff View Post
With such a large variety of music preference, were you happy with the electrostatic except for the limited sweet spot? I would have thought that metal and heavy rock was not that good with that kind of speakers.
It depends on the specifics of the recording; well-recorded rock music sounds amazing. But, on the whole, rock music wasn't super impressive. I'm a sucker for a well-reproduced piano, harp, and acoustic guitar which are just divine on electrostats--and I biased a lot of my auditioning of speakers that way the last time. That's fine--I enjoy that kind of music. But, I didn't pay enough attention to other genres and they didn't work out as well.

Still, the big two issues were the main thing: tiny sweet spot and bad recordings sounding doubly bad. I agree that no speaker can make a poor recording sound better than it is; but, electrostats definitely make poor recordings sound even worse.
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  #17  
Old 07-28-2018, 11:06 PM
nicoff nicoff is offline
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Default Getting out of Electrostats

Quote:
Originally Posted by nalthien View Post
It depends on the specifics of the recording; well-recorded rock music sounds amazing. But, on the whole, rock music wasn't super impressive. I'm a sucker for a well-reproduced piano, harp, and acoustic guitar which are just divine on electrostats--and I biased a lot of my auditioning of speakers that way the last time. That's fine--I enjoy that kind of music. But, I didn't pay enough attention to other genres and they didn't work out as well.



Still, the big two issues were the main thing: tiny sweet spot and bad recordings sounding doubly bad. I agree that no speaker can make a poor recording sound better than it is; but, electrostats definitely make poor recordings sound even worse.

Ah ok. I think that you may get similar results with Magnepan speakers. Hopefully someone can suggest other speakers for you.
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  #18  
Old 07-28-2018, 11:26 PM
nalthien nalthien is offline
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At this point, I have several brands to look into:

* Revel - The one universal that I've heard in every place I've asked this same question is to check out Revel. Unfortunately, I'm having a bit of trouble finding a dealer; but, given the buzz, they are worth my time.

* McIntosh XR100 - Honestly, I'm a bit torn as I've heard really mixed things about McIntosh speakers. Still, I feel I should check them out!

* Sonus Faber - I demoed some McIntosh electronics with Sonus Faber Venere speakers and I admit to being quite enchanted by their sound. Unfortunately, the only place that carried them near me was Magnolia and they've since stopped carrying Sonus Faber.

* Focal - Same problem--no dealer here. But I keep hearing their name come up.

* Salk Sound - Independent, custom-made speakers that I've heard for years punch way above their price. Of course, no dealers so no way for me to demo them effectively.

I've heard a few other names: Paradigm and PSB specifically but only one-off references.
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  #19  
Old 07-28-2018, 11:52 PM
gadawg gadawg is offline
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I had Martin Logan Ethos for a few years and was looking for something with a bit more dynamics and was hoping the newer line would do it for me but I just never liked any of the newer Renaissance line ... I went Wilson Sasha’s as they we are extremely transparent and have incredible depth while being incredibly dynamic. The Sabrina’s are really nice also at $15k might want to take a listen.

George
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  #20  
Old 07-28-2018, 11:58 PM
nalthien nalthien is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gadawg View Post
The Sabrina’s are really nice also at $15k might want to take a listen.
Thanks for the suggestion! I've honestly avoided looking at anything from Wilson because feasible budget for me is near the bottom end of what they do. I always worry about being at the bottom-end of what a high-end company does because I feel like I'm probably paying for the name as much as anything else.

That said, I've never auditioned Wilson speakers and I should probably check my biases at the door! Thanks for the tip!
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