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Need fast speakers

Someone better notify HARBETH, PROAC, SPENDOR, ROGERS, GRAHAM, ATC, QUAD, B&W, KEF, LINN, NAIM, AUDIO NOTE, MONITOR AUDIO, REGA RESEARCH, DYNAUDIO, DALI, JAMO, B&O, CANTON, MAGNAT, KHARMA, PHILIPS, FOCAL, CABASSE, YAMAHA, SONY, DENON, PIONEER, SANSUI, TECHNICS, TOTEM, KLIPSCH, AVALON, NHT, POLK, KLH, LEGACY, WILSON, (even) JBL and countless other highly esteemed international loudspeaker manufacturers who - at one time or another - have all carefully incorporated one or more 8" woofers into their award-winning speaker designs...

They've all been making woofers for children!

Who knew?

Laughable.

I know these forums are a place for opinions, but sadly, IMHO this once promising thread left the Kingdom of Sanity and Maturity from the above post onwards. A shame.

[Apologies if I left out your favourite speaker manufacturer. No slight intended... :D]

Laughable may be, but its more a sign of the times.

I have a hi fi book from the mid 50s (pre stereo), All the recommended loudspeakers have 12" to 15" bass drivers, many of them front or back horns
The large majority of these recommended speakers are highly prized today, with high price tags to match
 
I agree with what Tony said. Having heard Tannoy Golds, HPD 315as, Westminsters, Kensington, Canterbury, the best I think are the vintage ones like Golds and HPD 315a. In fact Tom (montesqueiu) has a great Tannoy HPD 315a system that people can listen to. Tannoys are good value and easily sit in a living room, like at Tom's.

However, they are not about fast. Horns are faster, but it is difficult to find a good horn, and they require more space. And the commercial ones are crazy priced. I like the hORNs Universum for classical and jazz, there is a great system in Malvern if one wants to listen. Trios are very good but even more expensive, and Animas are priced similar to the Universum.

I personally find Altecs better than all those, and custom built Altecs are among the best systems I have heard, the problem is there are just too many bad Altecs out there. I don't like any of the Hiraga mods that the French Altec community follows. And you need some space, but they are quite flexible that they can go back to the wall and you can adjust the multicell verically. They run on much lower watt SETs then Tannoys so are very agile, and the Altec woofer is one of the best ever made, it's Q factor and XMAX is such that it does not need grip (the woofer itself is damped) and requires very little excursion to produce great bass, so low watt amps can drive it great.

The best Altec I heard, 817, was in Bulgaria. Misho and Yanislav run Audioantiquary which makes good electronics at direct sale prices, no retail margins, and they voice their stuff on the 817. You will see some videos if you scroll down here https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/set-amp-owners.274809/page-3

I bought 802g original Altec and 2 pairs of 515B woofers. At some point I will get a cabinet built for them from a local carpenter, you can always buy Markus Klug's 4 cell horn for a normal room. I will take Misho's help on the crossover which is first order. Both top and bottom of the speaker will be over 100db at 8 ohms (2 16 ohm woofers will give collective 8 ohms, and the 802g is 8). 515b is 100 db, 2 together is 103, the horn loading is another +6db. In the video you see 12 watts playing Black Sabbath and Mahler with ease.
 
I've heard many great TANNOYs, but I always feel that this it's the tops that let them down.

Are mine the only pair of ears on the planet that does NOT appreciate the TANNOY Dual Concentric Tweeters?

(Now I'm in for a hiding... :D )
 
I use the word fast in the context to describe that we feel, for example, the violinist is moving his now faster. We get this feeling because of more nuance and variation. So you hear more things happening, fast. The linear tracker on Vyger transitions quickly from note to note, I heard this with the linear tracker on versa dynamics as well, and one thing is that good LTs don't have skating and anti skating forces slowing them down. Well set up VDH stradivarius will appear fast because of fast transients

Fast is how it sounds. The opposite in context of speakers is sluggish..

With speakers, it is more about grip on drivers. Too much chokes the speed, too little drive causes sluggish movement. The fastest, for example, is very low watt amps with very high sensitive speakers. You can immediately hear a difference when you drop from a big tube like 211, 845 or 833 to a smaller one like 2a3 provided it can drive the speaker. If the 2a3 cannot drive, the headroom will be less, it will sound dynamically compressed, and woofers will move sluggishly.

Electrostats are fast in the midrange and up compared to most cones.

The faster ones do more and are therefore more exciting as opposed to boring. This is a positive term, and does not mean hurried, which is a negative term.

Fast - vdh, Lyra, Vyger, electrostats, ribbon midrange, panel bass. In solid state amps Spectral, CH, Goldmund, Soulution, Boulder, Dagostino, are fast, NOT Vitus, Luxman, Pass.. In valves, very low output valves with well matched speakers are the fastest, then keeps slowing down and push pull relatively quite slow. Standard cones - Slow. Tannoy - slow. Underdrivern or overrgripped - slow. Not all fast is good, some are bad, not all slow are bad, some are good.
 
It is true that some try to appear fast by truncating notes and just giving leading edge

Those who don’t like spectral will argue the speed comes at a cost of truncation of note, decay, or whatever, but those are separate points to be discussed for or against a component. I like Tannoy, but they are slow. And there could be faster speakers I don't like. But when you listen to spectral, you do get the feeling of speed. The fastest I know is the AER when run with extremely low watt amps like Thomas Mayer 46, with Vyger red sparrow, and yamamura. There are so many inner inflections and nuances so music is moving fast. We are getting the impact at more frequent intervals is the best way to put it..the DaVa cart is also extremely fast and good, it is so nuanced.
 
I use the word fast in the context to describe that we feel, for example, the violinist is moving his now faster. We get this feeling because of more nuance and variation. So you hear more things happening, fast. The linear tracker on Vyger transitions quickly from note to note, I heard this with the linear tracker on versa dynamics as well, and one thing is that good LTs don't have skating and anti skating forces slowing them down. Well set up VDH stradivarius will appear fast because of fast transients

Fast is how it sounds. The opposite in context of speakers is sluggish..

With speakers, it is more about grip on drivers. Too much chokes the speed, too little drive causes sluggish movement. The fastest, for example, is very low watt amps with very high sensitive speakers. You can immediately hear a difference when you drop from a big tube like 211, 845 or 833 to a smaller one like 2a3 provided it can drive the speaker. If the 2a3 cannot drive, the headroom will be less, it will sound dynamically compressed, and woofers will move sluggishly.

Electrostats are fast in the midrange and up compared to most cones.

The faster ones do more and are therefore more exciting as opposed to boring. This is a positive term, and does not mean hurried, which is a negative term.

Fast - vdh, Lyra, Vyger, electrostats, ribbon midrange, panel bass. In solid state amps Spectral, CH, Goldmund, Soulution, Boulder, Dagostino, are fast, NOT Vitus, Luxman, Pass.. In valves, very low output valves with well matched speakers are the fastest, then keeps slowing down and push pull relatively quite slow. Standard cones - Slow. Tannoy - slow. Underdrivern or overrgripped - slow. Not all fast is good, some are bad, not all slow are bad, some are good.

Eh ???
 
Focal diabolo utopia were the fastest I've personally heard.
There's a pair at a good price in classifieds by the way.

I’m biased but I would agree. And with David Berning amps, the timing and lack of inertia can be startling. Dare I say it but it can be a bit too much for some people. How’s that for balance!
 
bonzo has probably listened to more systems that half of pfm !!! he came to hear my summits as well and kindly sorted me with some townshend stands that made a fabulous improvement

having had diablo i wouldnt say they are that fast . my ar6 are fast thats for sure
Just a note that I said the diablo utopia are the fastest (I personally heard) not the fastest from all.
Also if youve found a significantly faster they must be unique indeed as the diablos were too much at times for me.

Also note that I've used all the speakers with a devialet amplification which are also some of the fastest and most dynamic amps on the market today....
 
Just a note that I said the diablo utopia are the fastest (I personally heard) not the fastest from all.
Also if youve found a significantly faster they must be unique indeed as the diablos were too much at times for me.

Also note that I've used all the speakers with a devialet amplification which are also some of the fastest and most dynamic amps on the market today....

neither the Diablo Utopia or Devialet are anything more than convenience products for semi audiophiles those who want to not do much search but get something small for a living room to stream average music
 


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