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georgegeorge Unregistered guest | How would you spend 6500 usd in cd amp and bookshelf speakers for stereo system? Thanks George |
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Silver Member Username: ChitownPost Number: 528 Registered: Apr-05 | Rotel all the way baby Amp: RB 1070 Pre Amp: RC 1070 CD: RCD 1070 This should run you about $3.5K. I don't have enough prices on hand to recommend the rest in speakers, but I would take a look at the Martin Logan's with a good subwoofer. Those Bryson amps are really good too. |
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Silver Member Username: Rysa4Post Number: 225 Registered: Jul-05 | Speakers; Intuitive Summit Design by Denali or Green Mountian Callistos ( we have to see what you mean by book shelf however to see if these super winners qualify.) CD; Jolida CD 100a level 1 mods ( I own this one- an easy pick over the rotel and music hall offerings) AMPS; lots of good choices. Just be sure to pick a class A amp/integrated and you should be fine if its true class A. |
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Bronze Member Username: DavidpaPortland, Oregon US Post Number: 31 Registered: Nov-05 | bryston 4b sst amp 2300.00-2700.00, aerial acoustics model 5B. Both of these will surpass any above IMO. this combo will give you goosebumps, and if not, nothing will. www.aerialacoustics.com www.bryston.com, and no offense to stof but at this price point rotel loses. bryston 20year guarantee, just about as good a mark levinson, only someone with unlimited time would be able to discern differences, and aerial acoustics are the best speaker Ive ever heard, and Ive heard (and owned) too many to list. But as I see here so often, what I like doesnt mean you will, but if your looking for quality sound, at that price, I know you dont go wrong. |
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Bronze Member Username: DavidpaPortland, Oregon US Post Number: 32 Registered: Nov-05 | I do agree with rotel CD player though! |
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Bronze Member Username: WigglymanPost Number: 13 Registered: Dec-03 | CD-Musical Fidelity A3.5 [$1600] AMP-Musical Fidelity A3.5 integrated [$1600] SPEAKERS-Paradigm Signature S2 [$2200] |
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Silver Member Username: GavincummNew York USA Post Number: 405 Registered: Feb-05 | I agree with wigglyman on the speakers, as the paradigm signature S2 are the BEST bookshelf speakers I have EVER heard. However, they NEED to be placed properly, on VERY heavy, dead stands a decent way out in the room to get the best possible sound. This also means no sitting up against the rear wall. |
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Bronze Member Username: DavidpaPortland, Oregon US Post Number: 33 Registered: Nov-05 | paradigm better than aerial acoustics? thats what paradigm would like to be. I have to disagree. I just upgraded, and spent a great deal of time listening to signature series, and they didnt outdo my NHTs, on the other hand, the aerials......totally different league. Now, I will say that bang for the buck, paradigm is worthy of consideration compared to what else has been mentioned in this thread, but unless youve actually heard the aerial acoustics (I have) dont think all the reviews on them are for naught. High End speakers, and it seems to me for what georgegeorge is looking for isnt "wannabe" high end, its the real deal, and paradigm just isnt that. Not trying to offend, just stating MY experiences. |
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Silver Member Username: ChitownPost Number: 532 Registered: Apr-05 | Oh no David I mentioned the Bryston's, even though I misspelled it. |
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Gold Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 2424 Registered: Feb-05 | George, what music do you listen to and at volume? |
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Gold Member Username: T_bomb25Dayton, Ohio United States Post Number: 1332 Registered: Jun-05 | David id have to dissagre with you on the Aerial 5b,yes they are very good,but they are not the best at that price.The S2 is very formidable,I dont know about that,but the Callisto Na to dynamic and musical for the 5b.So I will give you my system,for well under $5,000 Epos M12.2 $895,Ill put them up against any monitor regardless of price Creek Destiny Intergratedamp $1,995 Creek Destiny Cd player $2,395 A absolute stunner at that price it will show the door to most systems under $12,000 and it has as good timing as anything! |
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georgegeorge Unregistered guest | Mainly jazz and new age mid volume probably 90 db or so |
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georgegeorge Unregistered guest | What would you think of Krell kav 400. Totem model 1 and arcam cd 93? That would be in the 6K range |
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Gold Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 2428 Registered: Feb-05 | Naim Nait 5i Integrated amp Naim CD 5i CD player ProAc Response 1sc Nice synergy. |
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Bronze Member Username: DavidpaPortland, Oregon US Post Number: 34 Registered: Nov-05 | tawaun, we agree to disagree? Your tastes, my tastes, georgegeorge tastes, they all differ, I stand behind my selection 100% as well as Im sure you do! In the end its not our decision, but georgegeorge wanted our thoughts on how to spend the money and were all going to come up with different ways doing that. My 6000.00 would go to what Ive suggested, and it will "play nicely" with much, much more expensive systems. |
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Gold Member Username: T_bomb25Dayton, Ohio United States Post Number: 1334 Registered: Jun-05 | Dont get me wrong David I really like the 5bs,hey im probably the biggest Aerial fan on here,I wasnt trying to offend you if I did im sorry.The Bryston you have is great im big fans of all your gear,nice setup.The Callisto is a different speaker than most people have heard,not perfect,but amazingly entertaining. |
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Bronze Member Username: DavidpaPortland, Oregon US Post Number: 35 Registered: Nov-05 | No offense taken tawaun, I hope you didnt think I was taking a defensive stance so to speak, just as you stated, thats what you would purchase, and it would also be a nice setup. I just recently (as you know) really sat down (and plunked down!) to audition all types of speakers and it started with the paradigm signature series, b@W, magneplanerrrrrrrrrrrrrs, KEF, the list really goes on, but the end result as you are aware are the aerials. IM sold on how they perform, 7bs AMAZING, LR5s AMAZING, 5Bs unreal for such a small speaker. IMHO I was just throwing out options for georgegeorge(damn thats hard to type!) and what he does from there is his wallet, and enjoyment, and if you noticed I did overdue the amp because IMO more power is always better than "damn if I wouldve just gotten the next model up" this way theres no room for dissatisfaction, but once again that is MY opinion only. Hopefully he is able to listen to most of whats suggested here so that when he does finally narrow down, he has a good base to go off of, and really good options as well. Cadillac or Mercedes? |
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Silver Member Username: GavincummNew York USA Post Number: 406 Registered: Feb-05 | exactly! There are many speakers for MANY different tastes! I myself LOVE the paradigm S2. David, in reguards to the Paradigm being mid-fi... would you classify my previous MartinLogans as mid-fi, or my current magnepans as mid-fi? I am not looking to start a flame war, just making a general statement that I personally think that paradigm has a legit offering to the audiophile community. |
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Silver Member Username: Rysa4Post Number: 227 Registered: Jul-05 | Well I for one am somewhat relieved we are talking about some real audio equipment. |
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Silver Member Username: GavincummNew York USA Post Number: 408 Registered: Feb-05 | lol... now where is some kid to come through and ask if re-wiring his bose with monster cable will improve the sound. I am only 22. Is it a rarity for someone my age to be as knowledgable as I am with audio equipment? |
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Bronze Member Username: WigglymanPost Number: 14 Registered: Dec-03 | I concur with Gavin that the Paradigm S2 is the best mini-monitor I've heard (I have not, however, heard the Aerial 5B nor, for that matter, anything from Green Mountain Audio or Merlin). This "high-end wannabe" (to quote David about the S2) is the only $2000 stand mount speaker to make "class A" (the best attainable sound for a component of its kind) in Stereophile's most recent recommended components issue...not that David puts any stock in what Stereophile has to say. |
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Bronze Member Username: DavidpaPortland, Oregon US Post Number: 36 Registered: Nov-05 | theres a big misunderstanding going on here, so... (Now, I will say that bang for the buck, paradigm is worthy of consideration compared to what else has been mentioned here) that is a statement made by me earlier in this thread, I dont think paradigm doesnt have anything to offer, theyve made HUGE strides from past attempts, but its still my opinion they have a ways to go to do more than just offer, details, details, details...notes, tones, a feel for the studio(how big, or small)or stage it was recorded from... thats what I found to be missing in the signature series, I am a musician, Ive beat on drums for the last 15 years(start the hearing loss jokes now)have played live many times, seen more musicians than I can count, and I just never got the feel of a live sound from the paradigms, I would never tell someone they made a mistake by buying paradigms either, but if you have the funds, which georgegeorge apparantly does, why get something thats "close" to hi-fi, when you can just get it. the high end wanna be statement probably came off a little harsh, if you were reading my lips as opposed to typed letters youd see it wasnt meant as an all out assault, just the fact that they are not as of yet really high end, toes are wet though. And gavin, to save any arguments at all I wont comment on your speaker selection....YOU like them right, and no never too young, my son is 13, hes heard more configurations than he can think of off the top of his head, AND he tags along for all of my visits to dealers, or friends whenever we have the time, he can tell you what a speaker is missing, or what an amp lacks, and so on. Ive seen a few threads get personal, thats not my goal here, just wanted to make sure that the options available were listened to, and somewhere along the way ( Im guilty too) it got personal. So, sorry for that if I offended anyone, these are only my opinions. BTW wiggly to be totally honest, stereophile doesnt buy my gear, Ill take what they have to say as something to consider, but if stereophile says that paradigm is the best in the world, that doesnt make it so. |
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Gold Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 2429 Registered: Feb-05 | Paradigm Signature series speakers are high end and anyone who has heard them properly setup knows that. Whether one likes them or not is a matter of opinion. Like all other things "audio" we differ in our tastes. |
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Silver Member Username: GavincummNew York USA Post Number: 410 Registered: Feb-05 | I never took offence to ANY of these threads to begin with. Many people don't think that ML are "real" speakers because they can't rock out until you get into the largeer models with the 4' panels. Not to mention the driver discontinuity in the older speakers. Maggies are great speakers, and can rock, but oh the current required to do so... lets not go there...lol |
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Silver Member Username: GavincummNew York USA Post Number: 413 Registered: Feb-05 | grrr... sometimes living in central NY is a biotch! If I want to audition the epos I have to drive to White Plains, NYC, Endicott (response audio...great dealer Ive heard), or Rochester. THIS BLOWS! LOL Rocho isnt a terribly long drive for me, roughly 3.5 hours, to listen to speakers... lol |
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Bronze Member Username: Eieiei0101xPost Number: 78 Registered: Jul-05 | Ok, what about Arcam FMJ series for AMP and CD and Dynaudio Focus 140? |
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Bronze Member Username: Eieiei0101xPost Number: 79 Registered: Jul-05 | Ok, what about Arcam FMJ series for AMP and CD and Dynaudio Focus 140? |
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marogus Unregistered guest | I dont agree on the Paradigms since I own the Ref 100s and man they are so weak if I could return them I would, but its too late and right now I plan to just sell them on audiogon or ebay. Dont ever let nobody tell you that you always get what you pay for cause I listened to some Polk RTi12s and they clear destroyed these Studio 100s I mean it wasnt even close. |
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Silver Member Username: KanoBC Canada Post Number: 796 Registered: Oct-04 | You just said in another thread that "POLK IS JUNK." Make up your mind. |
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Gold Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 2436 Registered: Feb-05 | He's just going from thread to thread making a fool of himself. |
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Silver Member Username: JonmoonPost Number: 218 Registered: Dec-03 | Just my two cents here on speakers. Georgegeorge stated he wanted bookshelf speakers. I think that would eliminate Martin Logan and Magnepan as these are all larger speakers. Bohlender Graebner does a bookshelf with the ATF film on their Z1s. I have them and the high ends are very good but the mids and bass are not great. I have seen others also praise the Epos speakers as a poster above. Also, I have heard good things about the Triangle Titus 202. They are probably all worth a listen with Totems as well. |
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marogus Unregistered guest | I stand by my statement that POLK IS JUNK. This just tells you how much I hate my Studio 100s but great news just found a sucker who will give me $1K for them bless his heart. |
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Silver Member Username: GavincummNew York USA Post Number: 428 Registered: Feb-05 | um.... BG is the company that is actually BEHIND MartinLogan ATF technology to be honest with you. It is NOT something that it is a MartinLogan technology. It is strictly B-G. They just sell their NEO3 and NEO8 drivers to MartinLogan, and ML reworks them a tad, and calls them Advanced Thin Film (ATF) drivers, and puts a trademark on the new name and slaps them in a clarity cabinet. I never brought this up because I didn't think that anyone would believe me. I am not knocking the ATF (NEO?) speakers because I love them, but now that the comparison has been brought up between ATF and B-G I want to set the record straight. I have been thinking about doing it for a while. pic of neo 3 http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&PartNumber=264-735&DID=7 pic of neo 8 http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&PartNumber=264-712&DID=7 those of you that have seen the pic of the vignette of the ML website will instantly recognise the neo 3 as being the tweeter. B-G has both dipolar and "directional" (not sure if thats the right word) versions of the neo transducers, so thats how they can use the "same" drivers in the mosaic, montage, vignette, and fresco. Art, if you like maggies, you might want to audition the MartinLogan Mosaic. Many maggie fans LOVE these speakers. They have a planar tweeter and midrange, with a dynamic woofer for the bass. To my ears, they are quite a bit more dynamic than the 'logans that I got rid of, and the bass intergration is much better as well. sorry for the rambling, but this post is to end any possible confusion before it starts. |
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New member Username: PlevinPost Number: 5 Registered: Oct-05 | david pannell - what size room do you have your 5bs in? are they biamped? Also, how do you think they would sound with a yamaha v657 (95wpc)? Last, did you listen to b&w805s? THank you. Paul |
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Silver Member Username: JonmoonPost Number: 220 Registered: Dec-03 | Gavin, I am aware that it is B-G that actually makes the film used in the Montage, Fresco and Mosaic. (Not the Clarity which is a stat). Sorry if I am being clumsy about the terminology of film vs. neo as I really don't pay attention to that. I love the sound of these whether they are in the B-G speaker or the ML speaker. I just mentioned that the original poster stated he wanted bookshelves which ML really doesn't make unless you count the Fresco as a bookshelf but B-G does: the Z1 which is a really nice speaker that I recently bought. |
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Bronze Member Username: DavidpaPortland, Oregon US Post Number: 39 Registered: Nov-05 | Puul, didnt buy 5Bs, actually bought model 9s, CC5, and CC3. I think they would sound great, but obviously MUCH better with dedicated power, IMO thats all speakers, I am powering my LR 9s with bryston 14B SST, and its (all audiophile terms here for sweet!) And the center CC5, and rear CC3 with anthem MCA50, that is quite a bit "brighter" than 9s with bryston, which will require me to swap out MCA50 when funds allow. No biamping on the 5bs , its just a 2 way speaker that you wont know is there, but love the invisible sound! Yes I have listened to b@w, more than just that model as well, and "this is my opinion" coulnt match the fullness of the aerials, I did not hear the 5bs with yamaha, so that would be wrong of me to say what the sound would be, but they sounded great with the rotel, and even a middle of the road denon. Best with bryston, but obviously much better amp also. So I wouldnt think youd have a problem, just wouldnt get everything out of them you could with better amplification, and actually that will be most speakers, 95wpc is somewhat misleading in that its all shared power, so really maybe 40wpc. Dave |
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Silver Member Username: GavincummNew York USA Post Number: 432 Registered: Feb-05 | honestly, the MartinLogan Fresco sounds much better than the Z series to my ears. But, this is simply because the fresco uses the planar drivers over a much wider frequency range. I am a planar fan and love the quick response that planar drivers give. |
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Gold Member Username: T_bomb25Dayton, Ohio United States Post Number: 1337 Registered: Jun-05 | Now I like this a pure audiophile thread,we need to do this more often.I live 12 miles from Parts Express,and I've seen the B-G drivers in person,imagine how many people are using those drivers for their own project speakers. |
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Silver Member Username: GavincummNew York USA Post Number: 439 Registered: Feb-05 | those drivers are HEAVY for the size! I've thoughe about it, but I'll leave it to ML. I like the sound of the Mosaic and Montage too much, and don't really have the time to do a project right now. |
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Silver Member Username: NuckParkhill, Ontario Canada Post Number: 754 Registered: Dec-04 | Good read, folks, thanks. If GeorgeGeorge wanted anymore than 2 channels I might think Arcam Avr300 for a good one. However, for the stereo, 2xBryston 7's should do the trick, matched with Green Mountain's. Perhaps toss in a Wilson sub(over budget, yeah), but it is the size of a VW Microbus. Toooo cool. |
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Silver Member Username: NuckParkhill, Ontario Canada Post Number: 757 Registered: Dec-04 | Good read, folks, thanks. If GeorgeGeorge wanted anymore than 2 channels I might think Arcam Avr300 for a good one. However, for the stereo, 2xBryston 7's should do the trick, matched with Green Mountain's. Perhaps toss in a Wilson sub(over budget, yeah), but it is the size of a VW Microbus. Toooo cool. |
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Silver Member Username: GavincummNew York USA Post Number: 442 Registered: Feb-05 | oh, you mean the Wilson Audio X-S? That thing is freakin HUGE! |