solidsblog: handsome small speakers and other stuff...

[SSM]

icehockeyboy wrote:

Just think Solid, ive got the bigger 22 L's......all that extra piano gloss finish to w*nk over !!

Yes, but I've got the bigger MF amp. 50 amperes peak current...

...vs your 24 puny ones



:lwink:

[icehockeyboy]

Cant quite make out which MF'er it is you have....?

[earl of sodbury]

Congrats on the new speaks - can't abide 'em myself (me bro' has 'em) -they're too in-yer-face for my liking, but many seem to love 'em. Nice for Ice to have a little friend to play with, too...

Re. earlier "bra strap" comments about veneer changing colour - the trick is to remove the grilles and leave the speakers fully exposed to daylight, took about 3 weeks for my PMCs to darken-up and lose the "photograph" of the grilles, but eventually the unexposed wood darkens to the same shade as the exposed and the marks disappear.

churz, eofs

[ClassikFan]

I like the sound of my 11L's. Have mine just a couple of inches from the wall with lots of toe-in. They look nice also, mine are birds eye maple.

[iann]

ClassikFan wrote:

I like the sound of my 11L's. Have mine just a couple of inches from the wall with lots of toe-in. They look nice also, mine are birds eye maple.

Couple of inches? Is that after experimenting? Is it justa very small room?

Mine are about 2 feet from wall, must try really close then.

[ClassikFan]

iann wrote:

ClassikFan wrote:

I like the sound of my 11L's. Have mine just a couple of inches from the wall with lots of toe-in. They look nice also, mine are birds eye maple.

Couple of inches? Is that after experimenting? Is it justa very small room?

Mine are about 2 feet from wall, must try really close then.

In my house wall proximity boosts the bass. Its not atiny room. About 11' 6" wide.

[SSM]

icehockeyboy wrote:

Cant quite make out which MF'er it is you have....?

rescan my review please



It seems I'm having a slight amp-speaker compatibility issue now. The 12L's bass is taking on King Kong proportions with every new listening day Thinking of switching to a lean-sounding QED speaker cable to sap away the excess richness in the bass frequencies

[Biscuit]

well, only 23.5 months to go before you can change Solid - so don't worry about that bloated horrible bass :green:

[earl of sodbury]

solidstateman wrote:

It seems I'm having a slight amp-speaker compatibility issue now. The 12L's bass is taking on King Kong proportions with every new listening day Thinking of switching to a lean-sounding QED speaker cable to sap away the excess richness in the bass frequencies

Presume you have them fixed firmly to hefty stands placed well out into the room? It can help...

That said my brother's pair dosomething similarwith his Roksan electronics.

Get some AE1s next time - they might actually do justice to your system...

[SSM]

Biscuit wrote:

well, only 23.5 months to go before you can change Solid - so don't worry about that bloated horrible bass :green:

Well, I did say I'm keeping them for the next 24 months and so it shall be.

Never said anything about not switching the amp:green:



And there is no need for anyone to dredge up my 2006 no-upgrade promise in that thread. Seems each time I make a new year's resolution, it's broken in no time.

[SSM]

earl of sodbury wrote:

Presume you have them fixed firmly to hefty stands placed well out into the room? It can help...

That said my brother's pair dosomething similarwith his Roksan electronics.

Get some AE1s next time - they might actually do justice to your system...

The AE1 is butt ugly.:puke:And anyway I've become addicted to the Quad L's shiny lacquered surface. Love looking at my reflection on it and fluffing my hair



I may fall into a deep depression should I give up my 12Ls.:raoflmfao:



Interesting that you should mention Roksan. I have been wondering if the Caspian M Series-1 integrated would be the perfect match for the 12L.Heard it in action before and it sounds rather like aCyrus 8vs that has beenblessed with a hint of valve smoothness in the midband. Tight and precise, yet fluid too. I don't see how it could cause bass problems with the 12L.



SS

[earl of sodbury]

solidstateman wrote:

earl of sodbury wrote:

Presume you have them fixed firmly to hefty stands placed well out into the room? It can help...

That said my brother's pair dosomething similarwith his Roksan electronics.

Get some AE1s next time - they might actually do justice to your system...

The AE1 is butt ugly.:puke:And anyway I've become addicted to the Quad L's shiny lacquered surface. Love looking at my reflection on it and fluffing my hair



I may fall into a deep depression should I give up my 12Ls.:raoflmfao:



Interesting that you should mention Roksan. I have been wondering if the Caspian M Series-1 integrated would be the perfect match for the 12L.Heard it in action before and it sounds rather like aCyrus 8vs that has beenblessed with a hint of valve smoothness in the midband. Tight and precise, yet fluid too. I don't see how it could cause bass problems with the 12L.



SS

Are you blind, or mad? Or both? This is one gorgeous speaker. And it it has metal-coned drivers such as you have become accustomed to with your Epi. Ah, perhaps you thought I meant the recently-re-releasedMk. 1?

FFS DON'T put Quad and Roksan together!!! Unless you actually enjoy the sensation of having a freshly-sharpened pencil rammed into your auditory canal... Which, with your nostril shaving peccadillo in mind, is just faintly possible....

The Quads are bling for the shiny-happy-people and are severely outclassed by the rest of your system (IMHO of course;)). I suspect they are designed to compensate for Quad's electronics slightly pipe'n'slippaz presentation, because with mostboogie-capable electronics they sound damn harsh and not a little boxy to my raddled old lugs.

My bro is considering either a pre with tone controls or a wholesale move to valves to try to de-harsh his system, but won't hear of getting rid of the root cause...

[SSM]

earl of sodbury wrote:

Oops. I mistook this good-looking AE for the other AE (Mk.1)that crustyloafer shown me a while back - the ones with the flaring nostrils...

Sorry, but have to disagree with your assessment of the Quads. The Epos' high frequencies are brighter in comparison IME. The Quads' are very smooth yet informative. Our senses of hearing must be worlds apart.And boxiness is a non-existent problem - the Quads have spacious imaging equal to the Epi.

The only snag I have is over-emphatic bass which occurs primarily with techno and electronica pop. Classical recordings are none too affected. Perhaps it's still early days and the whole system needs a few more weeks to bed down.

SS



ps: tell your brother he has good tastes in speakers and that he needs only to upgrade his bright Roksan Kandy amp (that's the one, IIRC?) to the Caspian. The Kandy'sHFs are Jap-crap-shrill, that I know, while the Caspian's are bright yet totally palatable in an audiophile way. And should he want something other than another Roksan, there's always your smooth X-150 you could sell him.

[earl of sodbury]

solidstateman wrote:

earl of sodbury wrote:

Oops. I mistook this good-looking AE for the other AE (Mk.1)that crustyloafer shown me a while back - the ones with the flaring nostrils...

Sorry, but have to disagree with your assessment of the Quads. The Epos' high frequencies are brighter in comparison IME. The Quads' are very smooth yet informative. Our senses of hearing must be worlds apart.And boxiness is a non-existent problem - the Quads have spacious imaging equal to the Epi.

The only snag I have is over-emphatic bass which occurs primarily with techno and electronica pop. Classical recordings are none too affected. Perhaps it's still early days and the whole system needs a few more weeks to bed down.

SS



ps: tell your brother he has good tastes in speakers and that he needs only to upgrade his bright Roksan Kandy amp (that's the one, IIRC?) to the Caspian. The Kandy'sHFs are Jap-crap-shrill, that I know, while the Caspian's are bright yet totally palatable in an audiophile way. And should he want something other than another Roksan, there's always your smooth X-150 you could sell him.

Ah, it's early days and the denial is strong, though I'm sure our hearing is plenty different given you're about half my age...

You may well be right about run-in time, seem to remember plenny Quad L owners reporting long run-in times.

You're right about the Kandies - they try too hard, but even with the MF kit the Quads still sound shouty and hard to me. Was also pretty underwhelmed by the Caspians I heard (pre-power) in a dealers a while back, very "ordinary" sound for the money, but then it was a less-than-ideal setup. One thing's for sure,my lovelyX-150 is going nowhere! It's all a matter of taste though, so time I STFU

churz, eofs

[ClassikFan]

eofs



I know from reading your posts over a long period of time that you have never liked Quad L range of speakers.

I would therefore like to invite you to come and listen to my system with the 11L's driven by the Linn Classik and my Michell Gyro.

I know that these are not the best speakers you can buy, but within my room and my system they do a pretty good job and (I think) have no particular vices. I would love to get your opinion (good or bad). Please pm me if you would like to take up my offer.

Classikfan

[ErikFH]

solidstateman wrote:

Yes, but I've got the bigger MF amp. 50 amperes peak current...

...vs your 24 puny ones

Little off topic, but feel that MF specifies their current models somewhat abundantcompared to previous models. I swapped the ´100 amps´A5for the ´72 amps´ A308 thoughthelatter has (considrably) more control over the Dyns. The 308 usestwo transformers to drive the power output, theA5 only one.

[SSM]

ErikfH wrote:

solidstateman wrote:

Yes, but I've got the bigger MF amp. 50 amperes peak current...

...vs your 24 puny ones

Little off topic, but feel that MF specifies their current models somewhat abundantcompared to previous models. I swapped the ´100 amps´A5for the ´72 amps´ A308 thoughthelatter has (considrably) more control over the Dyns. The 308 usestwo transformers to drive the power output, theA5 only one.

You have a point. Despite what MF's publicists say, new ain't always better than old at MF A single large power transformer don't amount to much if its current has to pass through small output devices.

That said, to my ears, Ice's A3.2 (24A) is quite a soft-bellied amp. Its upper frequencies are a shade reticient and bass can be a bit waffly. It belongs to MF's earlier generation of fluffy-sounding amps. (IMHO of course)

Now outperformed by the X-150 (50A)and even the X-80 (28A, Ice's old flame)



I am surprised by your findings on the A5 amp: its beefy 250W is already decibel-overkill, AFAIC. Then again, Dynaudio speakers are notoriously tough cusomers.

As forall these current ratings,what do they actually mean? I seeRoksan lists its Caspian integrated as 50Apeak current, yet on a HFCsupertest it is measured as 25A peak.Exactly half. Do I take this to mean current-per-channel?If so, given MF's tendency to window-dress its products, the A5, 308, X-150 are actually 50A/ch, 36A/ch, 25A/ch respectively.

And the A3.2 is just 12A/ch:raoflmfao:



SS

[roll_with_it]

Hi Solidstateman,

I was just wondering, how did you R90 perform compared to the likes of the ELS3?

I remember a review in HIFI World (I think) raving about the R90 not so long back. Always liked their looks too.

[SSM]

Hi Roll with It,

I don't own the R90.

But have heard it, and the ELS 3 is definitely better and bigger-sounding, if a bit staid-looking by comparison. If the R90 is used as a stereo pair, you will need a sub. The floorstanding R270 is a better bet than the R90, but imho, part of its asking price goes towards that funky lifestyle design. For dedicated stereo duties, an Epos M5 or MA RSI can't be beat.

And then there is the Quad 12L

[earl of sodbury]

ClassikFan wrote:

eofs



I know from reading your posts over a long period of time that you have never liked Quad L range of speakers.

I would therefore like to invite you to come and listen to my system with the 11L's driven by the Linn Classik and my Michell Gyro.

I know that these are not the best speakers you can buy, but within my room and my system they do a pretty good job and (I think) have no particular vices. I would love to get your opinion (good or bad). Please pm me if you would like to take up my offer.

Classikfan

Hi Classik, a brave offer, and one I would like to accept at some point. To be fair to Quad owners I've heard both 11Ls and 21Ls sounding decent in a couple of systems - both notably warm and smooth IMHO, one was (IFIRC) Linn/Marantz/Audiolab, the other Quad. I have never yet heard 12Ls or 22Ls sound anything other than harsh/lumpy respectively, though in the latter case they were paired with MF kit!!! I do acknowledge that all this is highly subjective - they're not bad speakers, though a little overhyped IMHO, and not to my personal "taste" - but then I like MF... :dude:

churz, eofs