[sachu]

well i'll want to pass on the DQ10s...
 
I am seriosuly looking into investing in a pair of planar speakers. Donald linked me to a pair of speakers earlier this year but i can't seem to remmeber the name of the brand. I think they retailed for 2k$.
 
Now that am moving to a place of my own and will have the luxury of being able to have speakers due to no annoying neighbours upstairs or below, i am looking into a few options..upto 1.5k any suggestions are welcome. Probably won't be till late feb before i make a purchase but it will take me that muchtime to research and if possible audition the options.

 

[wualta]

DQ-10s are definitely an Only If They're Cheap sort of purchase. Have you auditioned any Magneplanars? 

 

[sachu]

I haven't ...i keep searching for any being sold locally on craigslist from time to time but only lately have i been checking almost daily
 
I know Ken (of alo audio) has a pair of MMartin Logans he wants to get rid of..forget the model number.
 
Edit: looks like we have a magnepan dealer in downtown portland..will mosey over this weekend time permitting...

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

I haven't ...i keep searching for any being sold locally on craigslist from time to time but only lately have i been checking almost daily
 
I know Ken (of alo audio) has a pair of MMartin Logans he wants to get rid of..forget the model number.

 
I love planars and used to have some Quad ESL-57 back in med school in the 80's, which I used with an MK Subwoofer.  I really liked their imaging, although I ended up with some Polk SDA CRS speakers that had better imaging and much more flexible placement requirements.  I still have the SDA CRS after 25 years.  
 
I haven't heard any Magnepans since the mid 90's, but I seem to recall with a 200 watt heathkit amp they sounded very good with decent bass despite no subwoofer.  I've always wanted to buy a pair but never seem to have the right room to set up a set of planars.  In the current house I would have to set them up in our "electronics free" living room a few feet out from the wall, with my wife saying "over my dead body".
 
So, I have to satisfy my planar magnetic cravings with headphones instead.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Quote:

RDebbils: Is there evidence of crud adhering generally to the T20s? If so, I'd be thinking dishwasher for the most hopeless of the four. Purely as a what-have-I-got-to-lose experiment. Just a thought, especially if there are signs of critter infestation.

There isn't really crud except for some little white specs that look like lice or dandruff hair stuff.  So I alcohol swabbed the whole thing.  It's funny the lengths we go to for sound.  I got this one pair sounding really incredible and they are such a joy to listen to.  They sound less like headphones and more like music.  Not enough bass for me ideally, but I'm going to work on that.  I put tak around the driver housings against the baffle as people talk about in the T50rp thread, and I'm wondering if that killed the bass.  Doesn't seem like it would though, they're probably just slightly overdamped.
 
Wualta, you mentioned a while ago that if someone was going to use the Fostex orthos for recording or mixing/etc they might be better off leaving them stock.  I take it you were saying this because they were designed for that purpose as they are stock.  But don't they have a much more extended and accurate response damped?  I know it sounds better damped, but it also seems like it would measure better as well and therefore work better in the studio.

 

[nickchen]

Sorry to hear that you got so many defective pairs. Well, at least you've got a world class spare parts box now...
 
I think the T20v2 are fairly nice stock, especially in the mids section. But they do have issues in the bass section (a bit boomy), and trebles are at most work-to-rule. I've applied several damping steps meanwhile, which tightened the bass and digged out out the lacking treble. However, the mids loose a part of their glorious musicality when I've got the bass & treble where I want it. Guess I got to go back towards a more "veiled" sound sig.
 
I must say, tinkering on orthos seems to be different from tinkering on dynamics. The dynamic systems I worked on reacted much more extreme to alterations of their vincinity.

 

[dBel84]

Saachi - the planars I linked way back were the new maggies - 1.7 iirc. Reviews are mixed and there has been a fair amount of grumbling that the earlier 1.6 is the more desirable model..dB

 

[sachu]

The 1.7s were indeed what you linked me to..i realised that after i was browsing away..  
 
Am going to try listen to the 1.6s this weekend at the dealer place if they have one left. Though I don't quite know if i would want to own a pair of speakers that's colloquially is referred to as Maggies and would remind me of my crazy ex lol
 

 

[wualta]

Quote:

 
Wualta, you mentioned a while ago that if someone was going to use the Fostex orthos for recording or mixing/etc they might be better off leaving them stock.  I take it you were saying this because they were designed for that purpose as they are stock.  But don't they have a much more extended and accurate response damped?  I know it sounds better damped, but it also seems like it would measure better as well and therefore work better in the studio.

That was a special case. This goes back to the longstanding irreconcilable difference between audio gear used as tools vs. audiophile use. His business (and the role of his Fostex) was audio/video production, where standardization is more important than absolute performance. The Known Quantity is prized, just as standardized fastener sizes are vital in construction and manufacturing. The audio pro relies on his trained ears to listen around the flaws in his equipment to get the sound he wants. The audiophile traditionally has asked nothing more of his equipment than that it be a transparent window, not into the room where his music is being monitored, but into the ear-brain of the person pushing the faders. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sachu /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Though I don't quite know if i would want to own a pair of speakers that's colloquially is referred to as Maggies and would remind me of my crazy ex lol
 

Oo, ALWAYS get speakers that remind you of a crazy ex. Then you can play music she would've hated through them at 120dB. In fact, buy speakers she wouldn't let you have in the first place. Buy the speakers, drive the car, live the life..
 

 

[dBel84]

lol , quite unfortunate colloquial slip ..dB

 

[wualta]

And NEVER let your colloquial slip.

 

[sachu]

lols
 
well called the local dealer..might have a deal on a pair of 1.7s for 1600$ + 75 freight to my house (a customer return, retail is 2200)..no 1.6s are available.  
 
Gonna check out the 1.7s for a demo this weekend.

 

[wualta]

Take some good headphones along..

 

[Rick]

Quote:

well i'll want to pass on the DQ10s...
 
I am seriosuly looking into investing in a pair of planar speakers. Donald linked me to a pair of speakers earlier this year but i can't seem to remmeber the name of the brand. I think they retailed for 2k$.
 
Now that am moving to a place of my own and will have the luxury of being able to have speakers due to no annoying neighbours upstairs or below, i am looking into a few options..upto 1.5k any suggestions are welcome. Probably won't be till late feb before i make a purchase but it will take me that muchtime to research and if possible audition the options.

 
 
Not planar, but I just snagged a pair of JBL TI2K's 2 weeks ago. And all I have to say is WOW.
 

 

[elcoholic]

That's the beauty part.  Even back in '76  for like $900 a pair they were an amazing value.  I couldn't afford a top quality amp to run them so I went with B&O M70's instead.  At about $500 today a pair for a professionally refoamed and recapped set of DQ-10A's are very tough to beat well placed in the right room.  Of course the audio salon I bought from (that's what they used to call the high-end shops) had a set of 5kv Dayton-Wright electrostatics complete with the step-up transformers and their own Q bottles of argon that blew away the DQ's, but they were $15,000.  Of course then  you needed the biggest AR tube amp or the GAS Ampzilla to run them.
 
Quote:

DQ-10s are definitely an Only If They're Cheap sort of purchase. Have you auditioned any Magneplanars?