[Don Quichotte]

Hi everyone! Should the dice fall right, I might soon be able to start buying the components for a new, much better audio system. Please advise me because I can’t listen the specific models I’m interested in, I’ve only heard their more or less close relatives. Some relevant information (sorry for the long post!):

1. Room: about 23 square meters, about 0.6 meters empty space behind the speakers, placed on the the long wall, about 2 meters apart and 2-3 meters to the listening spot.

2. Music: mainly classical and jazz, also some rock (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, King Crimson...), pop (Sade, Jewel...) and, rarely, electronic music (Vangelis, Jarre etc.). A lot of piano.

3. Preferences: the correct reproduction of piano is of utmost importance; in general, I want great reproduction of the acoustic instruments. I want to hear easily the differences between various timbres, the materials the instruments are made of etc. I also care a lot about good microdynamics and macrodynamics; tactile, detailed, effortless and lively sound at low to medium sound pressure levels; fluid, relaxed and extended highs with good speed (I love my Stax headphones!); colorful and linear midrange (not thin because of a dip in the lower midrange or with exaggerated presence zone), full and reasonably punchy bass down to 30-35 Hz, good soundstage width with a feeling of space. I know, I want a lot. I hate an (even slightly) bleached, grey, monochrome sound. I want a lot of light in the sound, and prefer it slightly warm.
In terms of future matching: I hate amplifier hiss, so the future amplifier will have to be very silent, hence no tubes I guess. I know, Proacs love tubes. Maybe I’ll try a pair of Schiit Aegir power amps, for a start, I don’t know yet.

4. Acceptable compromises for me: I can live without bass extension below 30Hz, great soundstage depth, soundstage height, the ability to play very loud, a very wide sweet spot (although I’d prefer good horizontal dispersion).

5. A few relevant past experiences:
a) Spendor D7 (with Pass Labs pre / power, PS Audio CD player and dac): not for me, great detail and extension but much too incisive, the tweeter was almost screaming, elevated presence zone (or maybe it was a bit higher) with a recessed midrange below.
b) Harbeth M30.2 Anniversary (with low powered Sugden @! SE class A amplifier): too anemic / polite, needed more power IMO, made me realize I need greater scale so probably a bigger speaker
c) Proac D48R (with Devialet 250, highly treated, almost anechoic rather small room - 24 square meters perhaps?): incredible highs! Best upper piano notes I’ve ever heard. Very detailed, tactile and extremely silent background (both the room and the amp contributed). A bit dry and clinical mids and bass - must have been the amp? The violins did not have enough sweetness, for example. In spite of the lively and very detailed sound at low levels, I think I needed a bit more body to the bass and probably to the mids (not the bass amount, it was definitely enough, but, I don’t know, midbass fullness? maybe the overtones of those midbass notes were recessed, creating the impression of bassy but without enough fullness, it's hard to explain) so I was tempted to crank up the volume. When I did it, the bass immediately over-pressurized the room. Remarkable sound, anyway, maybe the best I’ve heard.
d) Spendor SP2/3R2 (with Densen top of the line integrated amp and M2Tech dac): the most balanced sound I’ve ever heard, everything was in the correct proportion. Great wooden and textured sound of the cello and in general the reproduction of the acoustic timbres was great, good scale of the orchestra (that pleasant sound a big box is able to reproduce!), nice and deep enough bass (but it was a bass-y sounding room, so I don’t know about that..), silky and nuanced highs. I liked everything about them, and listening to a Spendor A7 later on (with a similar if not identical tweeter) was further confirmation that I like this tweeter.

I’ll probably get a chance to listen to the Harbeth SHL5+, but I don’t expect to like it more than the Spendor Classic sound.

So I expect the Spendor Classic 1/2 to win on tone, timbre, scale and naturaleness and the Proac D30RS to win on extension, detail, effortlessness and pristine highs. What do you think? What do I do?

Thanks for your patience!

 

[Shahram]

Did you ever get a chance to demo the Proac D30RS?

 

[Don Quichotte]

No, unfortunately I couldn't audition either of the 3 speakers mentioned in the title. Also, there's frustratingly little information about them available, especially about the Spendors. As you can see, nobody answered to this thread until now...

 

[Shahram]

Yeah I hear ya. Not much info on the Proacs or Spendors. Check out HifiWigwam forums. Most people on there are in the UK/Europe, but lots of great threads on Proacs and Spendor among other speakers. I heard the Spendor D7 in NYC, and liked them a lot, especially the imaging, but they were a bit too bright for my taste, which I think is similar to what you heard. Anything too peaky in the treble is just going to be fatiguing for me. I'm ok to give up some detail in the highs so I can listen for long periods of time.

Did you decide on any speakers?

I'm soon going to demo some Proac and PMC speakers at dealer here in the California Bay Area. Would like to upgrade my old Monitor Audio speakers. Also need to check out the KEF R5 for a cheaper option.

 

[music_man]

I do not know. I wanted the D Two but have yet to hear it. I currently have bookshelves 20x that price though. So a store that sells Proac says it will kill my six figure bookshelves. Then I talk to the store where I bought mine and he told me those new ribbon tweeters sound completely fake and unnatural. This is why I say you always must listen. Especially in your case if you are spending 8 grand. I just have not because the only Proac dealer, the parking is almost impossible and I drive a Lamborghini. I am not taking that risk over some cheap speakers. I do not mean to sound like a jerk but you must understand my position too.

 

[Shahram]

Yeah I agree. Buying speakers blind is just silly. Amps and other components likes DACs you can probably rely on reviews, but not speakers.

6 figure bookshelves?? What are they?

Dude - sweet ride. What model Lambo?

 

[music_man]

Sonus Faber Ex3ma,
they were actually only listed at about $65,000 and only sold at a dinner party to the industry. Magazines, Audio retailers ETC. To take them off the hands of the editor of a well known publishing I did in fact pay about $175,000. It is no secret I have some money but if you look at al my posts over the years I think you will find I am by no means a jerk either.

huracan performante,
This too was rather difficult to obtain and I love it. I have actually not driven it over 50MPH and the limit here in parts is up to 85, most 70. I am just too afraid to hurt it. Which is the exact reason I will not go park it in a "rough" neighborhood.

Besides, I kind of doubt $1,800 speakers are better than mine. He just want to sell them. they will say anything to you.

Yes, we agree. Speakers for sure you must listen to them.

 

[Don Quichotte]

Yeah I hear ya. Not much info on the Proacs or Spendors. Check out HifiWigwam forums. Most people on there are in the UK/Europe, but lots of great threads on Proacs and Spendor among other speakers. I heard the Spendor D7 in NYC, and liked them a lot, especially the imaging, but they were a bit too bright for my taste, which I think is similar to what you heard. Anything too peaky in the treble is just going to be fatiguing for me. I'm ok to give up some detail in the highs so I can listen for long periods of time.

Did you decide on any speakers?

I'm soon going to demo some Proac and PMC speakers at dealer here in the California Bay Area. Would like to upgrade my old Monitor Audio speakers. Also need to check out the KEF R5 for a cheaper option.

I have read all I could find about the Proacs and the Spendor D7's on the HifiWigwam forums. Unfortunately, there's almost nothing about the Spendor Classics and the D7 is quite a different story.

In the mean time, yes, I have bought something, a pair of Martin Logan electrostats (the Classic ESL 9). Which sound quite spectacular on some tracks / albums (great scale, imaging and soundstage, upper midrange purity and effortlessness etc,) but not quite on everything. I'm not sure I'll keep them though, they are very revealing and need a lot of care in terms of positioning, room treatment, sitting in the sweet spot, matching equipment etc. to sound their best and I kinda grew tired of my own obsession for the better and miss the simplicity of my old studio monitors that sounded quite good (not as good, of course) almost regardless of the positioning, room, where was I sitting etc.