What are the world's best speakers to bring the philharmonic into your living room?
- Thread starter louballoo
- Start date
tuga
Legal Alien
If you can live with the massive bulk the Gradient subs would be a worthy improvement.
I spent a whole day listening to this combo years ago and it was a memorable experience.
Yank
Bulbous Also Tapered
I guess they blew their budget on room acoustics and couldn't afford a reasonable console then?
tuga
Legal Alien
Can't comment on that.
Fatmarley
"It appears my intelligence circuits have melted"
I have, and it was like listening music in 3d. The vocal (female) was floating in mid-air like you could almost touch it.
Yank
Bulbous Also Tapered
Well that was my point. Two of the rooms had Yamaha 02R consoles, which in the world of digital consoles are ancient history.
Joe P
Memory Alpha incarnate | mod; Shatner number = 2
Hook,
I knew the flagship MBLs were expensive, but I had no idea just how expensive until now.
I think it's fair to say that I will never have to worry about them matching my decor as much as I would love to have three pulsating spheres in my home.
Joe
You're just scared the MBLs would take over the decor...and then the planet.
I knew the flagship MBLs were expensive, but I had no idea just how expensive until now.
I think it's fair to say that I will never have to worry about them matching my decor as much as I would love to have three pulsating spheres in my home.
Joe
tuga
Legal Alien
Was it the orchestra control rooms?
Many orchestras nowadays record and publish/sell a few of performances but perhaps owning the latest gear isn't in their priority list as it's not their core business.
Why? Are those Yamahas lower-fi or just limited in what they can do?
Yank
Bulbous Also Tapered
But they've spent big on acoustic treatments and monitor rigs, why stop there?
It's a product with origins in the first decade of this century, as we prepare to enter the third.
There's no such thing as "vintage" digital pro audio.
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Colin L
High-tech low-life
Hook,
I knew the flagship MBLs were expensive, but I had no idea just how expensive until now.
I think it's fair to say that I will never have to worry about them matching my decor as much as I would love to have pulsating spheres in my home.
Joe
Try the 101e mk2’s. Much more...erm.....affordable at 56k. I bought mine used at a more acceptable price.
camverton
pfm Member
Exactly. The trouble is that when you have lived with them for a while it is all but impossible to go back to “ordinary” speakers.
Del monaco
Del Monaco
If after something vintage, I remember hearing the Kef Ref 107/2 s playing Also Strachey Zarathustra. They were very impressive and made an impression.Not sure about how easy they are to get now but worth a shout I think.
Robert Sinden
Trade: Gecko Home Cinema
The 107/2 like most full range speakers are horribly room dependent. I remember not being able to get good results from them in our 3 dem rooms and ended up using my home for dems.
Tony L
Administrator
The omni vs. conventional multi-driver vs. dipole argument is always interesting. I spent a lot of time with Shahinian Obelisks in the past and came to the conclusion that I liked them but they weren’t for me. I’ve also heard some of the large MBLs at shows, and they are seriously impressive, but again probably not for me. Part of my problem is that I know *exactly* how stuff gets onto a record or a CD. I’ve spent a lot of time in recording studios, even co-ran a very little one for a while. I fully grasp that we are dealing with mic feeds, panning, FX etc here, not some mythical recreation of an orchestra in a concert hall or whatever, and in a way I’ve been crippled by that knowledge. As such a long while ago I decided that a classic studio monitoring rig, both full-range and near-field, was my best compromise. For me the ‘real’ is the sound in the control room, that is the only attainable goal. If you are listening to those highly prised Decca SXLs, classic UK rock albums etc that is most likely a pair of 15” Tannoys driven by a Quad power amp, for classic Blue Notes and early Beatles albums it is Altec 604s. I also have a pair of JR149s, but think of them as standing in for LS3/5As, a classic near-field. I’m perfectly happy with these two perspectives to cross-reference, and I suspect between them I get very close to hearing a lot of music as it was created, as it was intended to be heard.
The better omni kit I’ve heard does a remarkably good job of presenting a live band, ensemble, orchestra or whatever in the room, and I totally understand why many view it as preferential to a more conventional system. I never fund orchestral music sounds truly convincing on conventional kit, even via the giant Tannoys so much of it was recorded through as a reference. Orchestral music in a concert hall is an omni-directional experience, so effectively adding that impression as an ‘effect’ via omnidirectional speakers is fully understandable and I’d not knock people with such systems. It sounds great and is a perfectly legitimate end goal IMO given the inherent limitations of recorded sound. I would however never want to monitor or mix on Shahinians or MBLs, they just aren’t suited to it IMHO.
PS Panels/dipoles are a whole other thing too, and I’m a big fan of them too.
The better omni kit I’ve heard does a remarkably good job of presenting a live band, ensemble, orchestra or whatever in the room, and I totally understand why many view it as preferential to a more conventional system. I never fund orchestral music sounds truly convincing on conventional kit, even via the giant Tannoys so much of it was recorded through as a reference. Orchestral music in a concert hall is an omni-directional experience, so effectively adding that impression as an ‘effect’ via omnidirectional speakers is fully understandable and I’d not knock people with such systems. It sounds great and is a perfectly legitimate end goal IMO given the inherent limitations of recorded sound. I would however never want to monitor or mix on Shahinians or MBLs, they just aren’t suited to it IMHO.
PS Panels/dipoles are a whole other thing too, and I’m a big fan of them too.
I don't think my post contradicts what you say. The precedence effect is well known, but it works with most speakers, as long as there is a long enough delay from the direct sound and the first reflected one. Then to avoid hearing the acustics of the listening room as much as possible, the reflected sounds should be diffuse.
There is, though, speakers that have a diffuse direct sound! This is omnis placed up against the rear wall, like the older Sonab/Carlsson designs. With these the direct sound will imeditially be followed by the refected sounds from the rear wall. In later years Stig Carlsson corrected himself with the OA5x series which produced direct sound follwed by a delayed diffuse sound.
Volume is an important component of orchestral music, unless you enjoy listening from the lobby.
TimF
pfm Member
Very interesting thread, nice to see some Omni love here too, as it certainly seems to be a very small percentage of listeners that own them. I have been in the Omni camp for a long time myself, and while I don’t think I could see myself not owning them, it also does not make it impossible for me to enjoy a well setup pair of traditional box speaker or a panel speaker. They all have their virtues or downfalls and compromises of sorts. It just comes down to which ones you can live with and what you value most I think.
vln
Shuns mooks. And MQA.
Many thanks, tuga - as a B&W owner I wanted to get back to you to ask where these pictures have been taken, but I saw that you already updated your post in that regard.
Here's an image from Zurich in the makeshift recording studio at Tonhalle Maag (the provisional location, until the proper Tonhalle has finished renovations) - B&W 803 or 804 D2, it seems to me:
And here's an image from Jan Erik Kongshaug's Rainbow Studios (Oslo), where a lot of ECM recordings were/are made, as you may know:
