advertisement


Life after Shahinian Arcs !!!

linntroika

linntroika

pfm Member
I still love my Arcs and think that they are one of the best all round speakers i have owned, however i know that they are a neutral sounding speaker as previously i have owned Briks

Sometime i miss the isobarik Bass and am tempted by Neats

My question is for those who have owned Arcs and moved on to a different manufacture , what did you move on to ? and did you miss the Shahinian unique presentation ?
 
As much as i like their 'sound', i never really got on with the presentation completely. I know some people say that once you have had Shahinian's it's hard to go back to more traditional speakers, but i think it's the opposite. Once you have owned them, it's easy to see what's wrong with them once you move on.

I have Naim SL2's, in fact i ran them whilst i had Arc's in another system. The SL2 is IMO a superior speaker in just about every way, but one that requires a wall of course, whereas the Arc will sing in the middle of the room. Arc's have a unique presentation, but for me they never quite get the bass right as it always lags a little behind the rest of the music. What they do well is very unique, agreed, but i won't be returning to them even though i loved my time with them.
 
linntroika said:
I still love my Arcs and think that they are one of the best all round speakers i have owned, however i know that they are a neutral sounding speaker as previously i have owned Briks

Sometime i miss the isobarik Bass and am tempted by Neats

My question is for those who have owned Arcs and moved on to a different manufacture , what did you move on to ? and did you miss the Shahinian unique presentation ?
Click to expand...

Something is wrong. What amps are you using? I have the Obs and the bass goes deeeep and vibrates the foundations of this detached house. The deep notes are felt and heard even at lowish volume.

You need an amp with heavy current capability in order to start and stop bass notes. The woofer is mechanically coupled to that heavily doped ABR.

Cheers,

DV
 
Had Arcs for a while and enjoyed their drive, clout and appearance but the presentation didn't work for me. Easy to move on to ELS63s.
 
Hi Gary , unfortunately i have never heard SL2, from the Naim forum i hear that they are a fine sounding speaker and much sought after , i did audition S400 at the same time as the Arcs and preferred the Shahinians

Darth , nothing is wrong , i have a DV amp powering the Arcs and the Bass is deep & well controlled , its just not the same "in your chest" bass extension that you get with Briks

I like the gut wrenching Bass from the Briks, but also adore the room filling 3D sound that Shahinians offer.:)

Robn - only ever heard the Quads at a show , i did enjoy their presentation , but not sure about the Bass
 
Arcs are different to Obs though DV.

I've gone to Opals, I miss the Obs as they had a very natural presentation but the Opals have a lovely midrange, image superbly and they are not lacking in the bass department at all. If/when I return to passives, I'd probably be tempted by later Arcs.
 
Darth Vader said:
Something is wrong. What amps are you using? I have the Obs and the bass goes deeeep and vibrates the foundations of this detached house. The deep notes are felt and heard even at lowish volume.

You need an amp with heavy current capability in order to start and stop bass notes. The woofer is mechanically coupled to that heavily doped ABR.

Cheers,

DV
Click to expand...

Intrigued - by ABR is 'Mechanically coupled' Are you referring to the bass Radiator on the rear of the cabinet? Do you have a picture showing the coupling by any chance? Thanks,
 
I don't miss my arcs a bit , but thought I would , I had a pair dated 1993 and
I thought they were a tad bright, the bass was good but the tweeter and mid
could put your teeth on edge on some music, after I paired them up with valves things sounded better all round, I have to say they are way overpriced for what goes into them , the cabinet was made from 6mm chipboard with little
bracing, I made a pair of large transmission line speakers, but if that was not an option my choice would be audio note or quad esl 63 or maybe martin logan, phil.
 
The first time i heard Arcs was 1988 and i did not like them, i thought they were well overpriced and much preferred Linn Saras at the time !!

2 decades later things were very much different and out of the 6 different speaker manufactures i auditioned , Shahinians pipped the post for me

I dont think you will find a "perfect speaker" but i really like 90% of what they can do:rolleyes:

Unfortunately i have not auditioned manufactures like Kudos , ATC , ProAc ,B&W, etc but Neats were not too far off the pace for me :rolleyes:
 
Well even the guy fro pear audio said that the early model arcs could sound
bright/harsh and suggested cutting up layers of shirt material and placing it over the mid speaker , I think the newer models are better, phil.
 
The Arcs even in mk2 guise are no Obelisk 2. But even my Obs 2 driven by an HX100 don't have the bass weight and punch that my Isobariks had driven by olive Naim amps. My present system IMO is overall better by a street but it's horses for courses. Why not look for a pair of second hand 'barks Brian and go back to the system that gave you that special buzz? Sometimes the answer is very simple!
 
It's partly down to amps, Dynavectors are superb with Shahinians but they do not have that kick/lift in the bass that Naim amps have. We found that when I compared my Naim/Avondale amp to both Meridian/Passlabs/Dynavector.
 
I bought Arcs from new 6 years ago after hearing DSOTM in a demo room. Loved them and never had any lack of bass although they did seem "slow" and lacking in fine detail. Two years ago I had thoughts of going active and bought a pair of Minty SL2's, relegating the Arcs to an upstairs room. The SL2s certainly resolve the detail issue and do more of an "imaging" thing but I am missing that room-filling Arc sound and think I will move back to them as I no longer want to pursue the active route.

The other thing is that the Arcs can be sited more or less anywhere in the room and still sound good whereas the SL2s not only need careful positioning but regular fettling and I am not into that except for an annual system strip down and rebuild. The SL2s also have a tendency to trip out my 250.2 after an hour or so of enthusiastic volume (they do sound a lot better LOUD) but the Arcs never tripped the amp out even after a night of volume.

I think I will give the Arcs another chance and maybe put the Naims on PF classifieds. I will miss the SL2's beauty though.
 
I really enjoyed my Arcs last year and they are a great all rounder.

Their flaw I found in the bass, slightly plody also the treble could get a little hard and bright, mine were quite an early pair of MK1s.

Compared to a good stand mount there presentation is a little slow.

I now have Harbeth P3 ESRs and do not miss the Arcs.

As ever, speaker performance is a lot to do with the room and subjective taste.
 
Gaius said:
Their flaw I found in the bass, slightly plody also the treble could get a little hard and bright, mine were quite an early pair of MK1s.
...
As ever, speaker performance is a lot to do with the room and subjective taste.
Click to expand...

My fundamental problem with Shahinians was with a boxy bass quality - where what you are hearing is so obviously the speaker cabinet resonance. I actually found the treble on the Arcs a little lacking - though the Obs did have a tendency to split your head in half - better with a decent Meridian 559 to grip them, but still not right in my room with my ears.

They really are a marmite speaker. The trouble with saying this is that it sounds like one means that those that like them have poor taste - I really don't mean that. I suspect I've never heard them in the right room, properly set up with the right amps. Both the Arcs and Obs I had were Mk1 which apparently makes a big difference, compared to the improvements made in the Mk2s.
 
Gaius said:
I really enjoyed my Arcs last year and they are a great all rounder.

Their flaw I found in the bass, slightly plody
Click to expand...

It might be worth getting your room measured since you had the same problem with the LS50s. I had similar issues but a little treatment went a long way - a couple of Tri-traps are a big help.

Your old Arcs are now in the very large room of a friend of mine and sound very good, with bass I can only dream of in my little room. They sound vastly better than the other pair my friend was unfortunate enough to buy from someone else on this forum previously, which were clearly compromised and went back as soon as we heard them.

From my limited experience so far it does seem like you need to search to make sure you get a good pair.

More generally, Shahinians are not my kind of speaker because I am wedded to more of a monitor style presentation, but I'm very glad to have friends with them as they are unique and highly enjoyable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top