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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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In Reply to: Re: Totem Mani2....where's the bass? posted by Oli on May 5, 2007 at 21:07:18:
For a start and to be blunt my speakers - Audio Note J's or E's. Both go deeper but IMO it is not the depth that is really that important but avoiding the one note bass line that so many speakers have. Acoustic piano and acoustic instruments in general have layers and IMO the AN J and E are vastly better in this regard than the Mani-2. The AN's are far more dynamic being of a high efficient design perhaps this is why they sound faster more open and far less boxy sounding.In my town in Nanaimo I met a guy who trade his lived with for several years Mani-2's for AN E's and he said it took him one track to make the decision and a few hours to be sure he wasn't wrong. Which was my experience against some B&W N801s and Paradigms and several others.
It's not necessarily how deep the bass is but how the bass sounds when it's there - transients and decay. When I listen to a cello, or piano or guitar I want to hear the sound of the instrument's box resonating as well as the transient of the next note all at the same time. And frankly I get the sense that large chunks of music are being truncated and hacked off with a lot of speakers/SS gear.
I can;t say that I like standmount speakers in general because a lack of bass and nasality seem to be rule the sound too much. AN standmounts J and E are very large really and are somewhat of a floorstander production from a two way with the advantages of both. They are what I think the best of a lot of worlds of design but that is why I bought them and that is my bias.
The AN E will produce very deep bass, is high sensitive (which allows a much wider array of choices and upgrades in amplifiers), can play loud but not to ridiculous levels of some beastie floorstanders, can be shoved in the corners where they like it best, and are easily trasported and room friendly. To me there is a practical element here as well. They work in small medium and medium large rooms well. They play everything well and are all day listenable and non-fatiguing.
But the most fun for me is when I have friends over and play their blaring rock Guns and Roses stuff to room shaking with bass in the chest thumping levels and they look at the big beast of an amp and ask about the watts and I tell them it's a whole 10 watts I love that look of disbelief when they go home to their slim line multiple stacked 6 inch plastic woofers and their big 150 watt amps and wonder why my system needs no sub and their's does and their's sound all muddy and dead.
And the funny thing is my speakers cost me a fair chunk less than the Mani-2 to boot. And that to me is the truly sad bit. My dealer carried both and I cannot see anyone listening to the two in the same room walking out with Mani-2s and paying more money. The speaker is physically smaller and sexier but because they have that silly demand of needing to be out into the room 3 feet and 3 feet from the walls - the big fat AN's take up far less room by being shoved back into the corners needing less room space. To me it was a no-brainer. All the people running around trying to get huge power just to drive a little speaker - and of course no matter what power amp you own someone will tell you it's not enough.
I would rather buy amps on how they sound, quality wise, than buying on whether they have 800 watts into 1 ohm or not. It's about sound quality not sound power if quality reproduction is the goal (1st watt being right than 1 million lousy watts). The AN E will play louder with less congestion with far better bass and requires flea amps to do it and costs less. It's not as pretty, but some makers are more about appearance and creating furniture with High WAF.
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Follow Ups
- Re: Totem Mani2....where's the bass? - RGA 21:34:00 05/05/07 (0)
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