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I had, in my 20s, a pair of Klispsch La Scallas that literally rocked the house. Moving on some years later I did a long stint with planars and still the best sound I have had at home came from Acoustats + SETs. Now, however, I have come around again to the ideas of horns after hearing newer and better models than my old Klipsch speakers.
To that end I have decided to buy a pair of Odeon "La Boheme" speakers from a guy in Germany. I went to hear them and they have a strong helping of "breath of life" despite the budget cd-player and amp they were strapped to. I was wondering if anyone else here has heard this speaker and what their impressions were of it. It is a quite rare model apparently as there is next to nothing about it on the internet.
It has a 9 inch spherical wood horn for the tweeter and a 10 inch back loaded horn for the mid/bass. The crossover is external. Integration of the drivers is superb. REally lifelike dynamics and clarity.
Follow Ups:
that once you have heard a good pair you never forget them. I had a pair of Altec Model 14's upgraded. Those speakers with a Counterpoint SA-1000 preamp and Phase Linear power amp (both upgraded and Modded) were just an awesome match. Even my Uncle who loves music and had a pretty good system said he never heard a stereo sound so good and real! couldn't get him out of the room! :)
Now I'm on a quest to build a pair of horn speakers that will either match or surpass those Altec Model 14's.
I went down a similar path, though with lesser gear than yours.
When I was in the Air Force in the late 80's I had a pair of LaScala's that I would to the delight of my buddies, play to concert levels with a Onkyo Grand Integra driving them. I laugh thinking about 150 wpc driving 100+ db efficient horns.
I then went down the Adcom/Hafler road and tall narrow boxes with drivers stacked in a vertical row - think Paradigm, PSB etc...
Next came my planar affair; Maggies & Pass Labs.
And now I have have come full circle - sort of. I have a custom built pair of hybrid horns, modified 811b horns with GPA 802 Alnico mid drivers, Beyma cp25 tweeters, and Eminence 1526 cast frame woofers. The crossover is an extreme slope ALK Engineering affair. I drive these with a 20 wpc push/pull tube integrated.
I have tried (on loan) a couple SET amps, however they didn't get on as well as I would have liked with the likes of Rush, Van Halen, and AC/DC being played at spirited levels.
I love the sound and I could not envision going back to high power sand amps and cones. I would however, in the future like to assemble a 60ish wpc tube/Martin Logan Ethos system to have in addition to what I know have because I believe there is a certain purity with stats you can't get with other designs.
........I was a vegetarian for 15 minutes... until the main course.
I would listen to them for a long time and on varied music types and at different volume levels. Based on what I'm seeing in the measurements from Stereophile it looks like it would certainly be a 'breath of fresh air' but only on lower volume levels and on certain types of music.
Turn up the volume a little and play some alternative music and I'm sure things will become hard to bear, as indicated by the sharp increase in output above 4 kHz. Again, your reaction may be positive at first listen, but as you spend time listening the flaws start to show up. Not sure if what I'm recommending is even possible, but it's what I would try to do.
Well, it is not the same speaker as the one in STereophile, only similar. The La Boheme was a higher model with a 10 inch horn bass driver and no super tweeter. From what I heard (about 4 hours straight at all different volume levels from whisper to very loud) the sound is far more balanced than what is shown in the stereophile report for the La Traviata.
~!
The Mind has No Firewall~ U.S. Army War College.
I would listen to them for a long time and on varied music types and at different volume levels. Based on what I'm seeing in the measurements from Stereophile it looks like it would certainly be a 'breath of fresh air' but only on lower volume levels and on certain types of music.
Turn up the volume a little and play some alternative music and I'm sure things will become hard to bear, as indicated by the sharp increase in output above 4 kHz. Again, your reaction may be positive at first listen, but as you spend time listening the flaws start to show up. Not sure if what I'm recommending is even possible, but it's what I would try to do.
Before importing something from overseas I would've looked at what was available locally. I think the Edgarhorn is a great value and one sees them occasionally on the used market for a very reasonable price.
the OP is currently in Switzerland. But I could be wrong.
big j.
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
You are correct I am in Switzerland and the speakers are about 1 1/2 hours drive away from me. I promised to get rid of other things before I brought them home...sigh...
Promises promises...
Where are you in Suisse? That whole area from Montreux to Brig is like my second home, especially Montreux, Martigny, Crans, and Sion.
:)
www.itakepictures.net/suissepg1.htm
I live near Zurich.
nt
Cut-Throat
*
"Your liver suffers dearly now for youthful magic moments...so rock on completely with some brand new components"
I wanted to have a look at them but searches come up empty. Got a site?
ET
there is very little info on this model as it was nearly custom and relatively early in the companies history.
However, what I do know is this:
the main driver is a 10 inch paper cone that is backloaded into a folded horn. The tweeter is a compression driver in about a 10 inch wooden horn that is set into the speaker (the mouth of the horn is flush with woofer). System sensitivity is about 98db/watt. Crossover is external and biwireable/biampable. The tweeter has 3 level position adjustments.
Bass is rated to 48 hz but it sounds very robust down to that range. I will use a servo sub to augment the last octave or so of bass.
The system is about 1.4-1.5 meters tall and weighs a substantial 80Kg (176 lbs) per side.
Apparently the system was informally reviewed by Jonathan Scull from Stereophile back in 1998 and 1999 and he was rather blown away by the sound. No formal reviews can be found.
I don't know what the make of the drivers are inside but given the cost of the system when new (around $16,000) they are likely high quality units.
It was the premium 2-way system from Odeon at the time and I think only the Nr. 30 and Nr. 33 were bigger and more expensive.
What I can tell you is that they sound very robust and lifelike, especially male singing voice came through spookily real. I didn't get the impression of them being tipped up but I wouldn't be surprised if the actual FR is not terribly smooth...I haven't seen a horn speaker yet that had really smooth FR response.
Awe-d-o-file:
Check out DIY sound group for horns and waveguides also Inlow sound for midbass horns.
have 4 Pi's on order. Been through Martin Logan, Apogee, Thiel, etc. etc
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