Speaker Asylum

Posted by m2500tvr on July 25, 2002 at 20:30:40

All:

Okay, I'm on a speaker hunt - I think. Here's the deal. Recently, as part of my "decade upgrade" (I get restless every ten years or so and decide to return to audio experimentation) I bought a very nice pair of Snell C/Vs (designed up Kevin Vakes, now at Revel) thinking I was going to make a nice upgrade from my Snell Cis (Peter Snell was involved with the design of these and they use the same drivers as the Type As of the same period) that I've enjoyed for years.

Well, the short of it is that I'm not enjoying the C/Vs nearly as much as my old Cis. The C/Vs are hard and glaring, they never disappear, they produce a flat sound stage... They do have phenomenal bass extension. The Cis are very different. Much smoother, more dimensional... Overall I find them very listenable.

Okay, so this is all very nice. Why not keep the Cis? I may but I'm looking for the next level, and I'd like to give a full effort to the C/Vs to make sure I've not over looked anything that they might need to sound good. I recently listened to two speakers that I certainly considered an upgrade from where I'm at - Audio Physic Virgo IIIs and Avalon Diamonds. Both are too expensive for me. Well, at least the Avalon Diamonds are at $32,000 pr. They are also the best speakers I've ever listened to.

So, to these questions:
Anyone with suggestions or experience with the Snell C/Vs that might shed some light on getting the best from them? I've tried all kinds of placements, different tweeter levels, turning off and on the rear tweeter, loads of different tubes in the amps and preamp, and while I can make things better the same sonic signature persists. The Cis sound great, the Audio Physic Virgos sound great in my system. I should mention that I somehow ended up speaking with Stan Warren of Supermods, formerly one of the founders of PS Audio, who had been struggling modifying a pair of B Minors. He said these speakers shrieked. Well, I'd say that description might apply to the C/Vs. The B Minors and the C/Vs use the same mid/tweeters. Stan suggested the speakers had a phasing problem and that this could be helped by a Zobel network at the drivers.???

Any speaker suggestions at around $1K/pr that might offer some glimpse of the performance of the Audio Physic Virgo III? They sounded just great when I auditioned them in my home with my gear. Yes, I'm looking for some suggestion. I know this could be big trouble.

My system:

Two recently Bill Thalmann (Bill was CJ engineering director for 20 years) updated CJ MV-75A-1 running as monoblocks (very lovely), a CJ PV-12A, Pioneer PD-65 Elite CD player with Audio Alchemy DTI 32 Pro jitter filter/Monolithic power supply and Channel Islands Audio DAC with Channel Islands external power supply. Cabling is a biwire run of Kimber 8TC to the bass and 4TC to the mid/tweeters. Tubes? ALL KINDS of premium everything to mix and match...!

Thanks,

- Steven