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Ok here's the deal. I can move up to the J Spe from My K Spe for a relatively good deal. They will give me 100% of what I paid for the K/SPe that I bought in November. So I will only have to pay $1000.00Cdn(~$700US). This is what I was kinda hoping for. The K was $1500.00 and the J Spe is $2500 as closeout last year stock. They have two pairs left. The only downside is going from the nice Cherry wood finish to plain old black. But the sound is what matters most to me.I have these 20 inch Skylan stands. The dealer said they would be fine for the J ---but I'm thinking that's way too high. Plus my Skylan's top plate is already too small for the K as the speaker hangs over the side just a tiny bit. The AN speakers are relatively light though but the height is a concern.
I had planned on a subwoofer instead but I just realized my amp has no subwoofer output and subs really are a pain in the ass to integrate.
I will of course audition before I buy but I have one day to audition due to the drive. I'm hoping that it will be the same structure with additive bass and a fuller sound.
The trouble with fuller sound is sometimes it can also muddy the sound and my room is 12 X 15 roughly witht he speakers in the corners of the 12 wall.
So I'm thinking which would be better to keep the K and go with a 1k sub or go J. I'm not overly a bass freak but the J is pretty much as full range as it gets in the world of standmounts. Hi-Fi CHoice measured them:
"Not as sensitive as the bigger floorstanders in this test, the AN-J/SPe still musters a full 89.5dB (re. 2.83V/1m) from its essentially undamped, reflex-loaded cabinet.
Neither is the load especially tough with a minimum 5 Ohm at 150Hz and an average of 12.3 Ohm to keep any valve amps from wheezing. The port resonance looks very broad indeed, providing a deal of reinforcement from 20Hz-90Hz (-3dB points) while the driver itself rolls off to 60Hz (-6dB).
Bass distortion remains very low indeed at ~0.15-0.2% but climbs closer to 0.6% through the midrange where the pulp-coned bass/mid driver is obviously working a little harder.
Indeed, an averaged 3rd-octave trace shows the axial response of the AN-J/Spe to be divided into two 'halves' - above and below 800Hz where there's a step in the response due to a driver/baffle cancellation.
Off axis, the step is less apparent, but there's an increase in bass heaviness and loss of presence.
The Reviews seem to like them and I love the K and E so I pretty much think the J is the go between.
Mr. Rochlin - you have the SPx version which I don't know they still make but I think the SPe is also a level 3. The whole level thing is confusing if they keep changing the little letters.
And the Rochlin Review from Enjoythemusic.com is informative.
Follow Ups:
Dear RGA,Go for the AN-J, you will never get a subwoofer to integrated with the AN-K, no matter what it costs.
Sincerely,
Peter Qvortrup
Being that foam is very uncommon these days or seemingly so - roughly how much does it cost to have them re-foamed and does the whole woofer need to be replaced at such time. I have never seen a foam driver because I have always had speakers using rubber. I understand people get 5-20 years with foam which seems about the same as rubber. I know friends with rubber that started to fray and needed replacing - but I'm curios as to cost - Under $100? give or take a few bucks? Just don't want to see some scary $480.00 shocker in five years.And will 20 inch stands be ruinous or is there a work around?
Thanks.
I replace foam surrounds for fun and $20 each. $30 if 15 inches
Rolf E (310) 372-9113
Dear Richard,Where you live you should expect 15 - 20 years of life, in hot and humid parts of the world it can be as little as 5 - 7 years, if left in direct sunlight even less.
The foam surround itself is cheap, about US$ 5.00, it takes about an hour to change, so I would say somewhere between $ 100.00 and $ 150.00, depending on what the technician charges an hour.
Stands?
20 inches is too high, they need to be between 14 and 16 inches ideally. Why?
We "add" the first reflection from the floor to the overall sound, (we do the same with the side and rear wall reflections) and this is calculated into the speakers output when the crossover/driver match is set up, if the stand is too high or too low it will change the overall frequency balance, either lighter or darker depending on whether the stands are higher or lower than recommended.
Hope this explains.
Sincerely,
Peter Qvortrup
Thanks. I asked because I own 20 inch Skylans with the K (which is already slightly too short for the K) so I would have to trade the stands as well for ~15 inch stands. Sundhounds said my 20 inch Stands would be fine with the J - probably trying to save me some money. And they said it sounded good...but of course good and great are not the same.Well the refoaming is like a tune up on a great car - you don't mind doing it if you get the great performance - it's a pain in the neck when you have to do it on a Kia.
SH audionote stands are list 500 a pair. Not sure how much you can trade in your K stands in for if you do. You can also get it from soundanchor (American), but then you are looking at duty and that. Also I found another place called "ironworkz" (canadian) They quote me a 10inch E stand for 425CDN. But I would need to add shipping, etc to the cost, which would end up being close to the AN stand.Hope that helps
Skylan will custom make stands at 15 inches...so it's not a big deal - no PST either. They may charge a bit extra.It's hard because stands have almost no resale value because they're so speaker dependant. I could use the Skylans in my home theater but they're too low for the rears.
Bugger.
Would they custom 10 inch ones too? or would it end up being too light even after loading?
You can ask Skylan directly. They are supposed to be excellent to deal with - Topspeed on our other forum got some for his VR 1sThe problem Audio Note has I suspect is that they are shipping stands presumably from the UK and they probably weight as much or more than their speakers. they are still an assemble yourself stand not a welded one. They are not gurus on their stands from what I can tell but they want the right height. Even for my K the manual says they will work without sand filling but they stress that mass loading is best.
The guy who spends $5000.00 Cash for an AN E probably won't blink to much for a well made $500.00 stand. But when you pay $1500.00 then spending $500 for the stand bats more than just an eye. The Skylans at $200.00 Cdn caused me a healthy pause...but basically they were 70-80 more than the utter garbage they sell at A&B sound so I figured I didn't want to ruin my $1500.00 investment too much.
here are other companies that make custom stands but you'd have to ask around...I looked at what Soundhounds and A&B sound - nothing else out this way really.
I suspect Soundhounds doesn't really want to take my stands on trade because they'd give me little for them - and fear me balking at the 15 inch stands price. OTOH, someone buying the K used would likely need something like my stands :-) to go with them.
And if you buy 15 inch or 10 inch stands you basically have zero trade in on those stands because virtually no other speaker would use such low stands...so you have to be sure you like the speakers.
The J and E are essentially to be viewed as floorstanders - the stand is seperate but are speaker dependant. Which is fine.
I think I might just have to go with Option 2...buy a footstool that is exactly 10 inches less than a normal chair. That way I wont even need a stand!
I'm intending to build it myself and I'm gonna get someone I know to help me make the cabinet. Lucky for me, he will basically do it at cost. So that will work out to be just around 2k including taxes and everything. Still debating to stain or not to stain. My dad keeps telling me that if its good wood then laquer will do. Stains are for woods that are less than good quality. Always did like that rich cherry colour though.
500 for stands is a lot, but seeing that the built E's are quite heavy, I'll need some heavy stands to support them. I understand that skylan uses polymers rather than metal. I'm cool with that except that polymer is quite a bit lighter than metal. Would 10inches of loading be enough to support a heavy cabinet? I guess I can fill more lead and less sand...
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