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In Reply to: RE: Just got some Reference 3a speakers (Master Control MMC) posted by RGA on February 09, 2013 at 06:40:43
RGA,
I heard the AN room for awhile at CAS last year and thought it sounded wonderful, with the caveat that I only got to stay a short time and had never heard AN speakers before. But I thought that the sound was pretty thrilling.
As for the De Capo iA's, I wouldn't characterize them as "thick and warm" at all in my setup, but my room is quite lively. I'm driving them with Manley gear: a Shrimp preamp driving a pair of Mahi's. Love the music they make.
Follow Ups:
Set-up and the gear running the set-up is important. If you were on forums around 2000 I was raving about Reference 3a - I felt the La Suprema was one of the better full rangers going but no one could really audition them as they began making them to order. The DeCapo I liked because it was a fuller range gutsier sound than you could get from the B&W N805's of the world. I want some oomph and some bass from a loudspeaker and I don;t want to run a subwoofer that doesn't seamlessly integrate (which they never seem to do). Further, the De Capo at that time could easily be driven from most amplifiers (SETs of the not high power variety). At the time there wasn;t a whole lot of speakers in Canada that could do that (aside from horns). Trouble with the horns is that most of them made my head hurt. Even lowther single drivers seem to be wearing in the upper midrange - ribbon panels sounded bright - the 1.6 was obnoxious in the treble even with good tube amps and the Quads which I liked were well over $10,000. The new 2905 is closer to $15,000 and add on 12+% Canadian tax and it's not exactly a cheap thing to do- and the De Capo still has "richer" bass. Boxes may be more coloured but they tend to put in the frequency band which I would say adds more "body" and ultimately more musical satisfaction. Hence truth versus beauty.
The De Capo was far and away my front runner as best loudspeaker in its class back then. It did what few other standmounts could do - sound bigger than they were, be able to be run by the best amplifiers (not SS) and still offer the two way advantages of "close to" point source that UHF magazine loves to claim as the speaker ideal. For me the De Capo leans more to the beauty side while the AN K has more truth. There is no wrong choice - you can get more beauty from the AN K and more truth from the De Capo depending what you stick in front of them. The first key is can I listen to all of my music all day all the time at any volume and be "happy."
At the end of the day there really ain't a whole lot out there that satisfies. I listened to a nice famous speaker the other day well set-up with a companies top 300B amplifier and top tube CD player and the system never made me happy. It was an over there experience.
If you like the Reference 3a and AN sound then if you get a chance check out the Von Gaylord "Return of the Legend" loudspeakers. They really have the finger on the goosebump factor with wetness and huge body and presence. Another reviewer felt it was the best sound at the Californioa Audio show and it was in my top four. They're $13,000 so they should be good but they score very high in the musical rightness camp. (I heard the model with out the extra woofer). Not as easy to drive however but similar slanted cabinet and time aligned. The AN K/Spe recently won loudspeaker of the year here in Asia - I had to laugh at that since it's a 30 year old speaker design (maybe older) and it beat out all comers. I auditioned it here again against a floorsanding big name speaker at 4 times the price and it really wasn't much of a contest. The other speaker did do some wonderful things but...
Another real nice speaker is the Acoustic Zen Crescendo - they sound consistently very good every time I hear them. Ditto Sonist loudspeakers.
RGA,
I agree that a lot of this is about what makes you happy. My De Capo's regularly amaze me by making music as they do, to that point that every time I get that "I wonder how speaker X that I've read so much about would sound in my room?" itch, I sit down and listen and remember how fine the De Capo's really are. They are the first speakers I've ever owned that regularly allow me to forget that I'm listening to the stereo and just get lost in the performance, the music. They also REALLY need extended break-in time. I must have at least a couple of hundred hours on them and they still keep opening up.
I also have a clear maximum dollar amount to spend: US $3K is my upper limit. So when I read reviews of monitors that are supposed to be fabulous but cost multiples of that (the Joseph Audio Pulsars, for example), I'm not in that $ league. I'd still like to hear what all the fuss is, about though.
"ribbon panels sounded bright - the 1.6 was obnoxious in the treble even with good tube amps"
While I am not a Maggie fan, I think this is an overstatement.
Have you heard Vaughn speakers by any chance?? They should have a lively sound.
I have not heard them. I generally have trouble with ribbons including ribbons as tweeters with dynamic drivers. Philip Holmes on our staff very much liked Vaughn speakers and prefers them to his Magnepans. That doesn't necessarily help me because I would never have bought Magnepans in the first place so something that beats them to me is like same something beat a Bose 901 - great - now beat something good and it will interest me more.
Try to hear an Apogee Centaur Major sometime if you want to hear a ribbon mated properly to a cone woofer. The Relco Mantis is another good example but needs a sub for deep bass.
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