Say 18x13 feet average, give or take two get in either direction, not built for audio, so maybe pillars or corners and bass issues with big full rangers.
Today a special listening
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Say 18x13 feet average, give or take two get in either direction, not built for audio, so maybe pillars or corners and bass issues with big full rangers.
You’re not going to easily find anything that can match the sound quality of a vintage Celestion SL600 or a vintage Grundig 2500 monitor speaker.
david
IMHO this is small room, 18x13 is 21 square meters. Some studies I have seen on listening rooms carried in Europe referred to 30 square meters for audiophile rooms. In such rooms I would prefer a 3 way speaker, such as the Sonus Faber Amati Futura or Wilson Sabrina to a 2 way. Some 2 way speakers need large rooms to show their real capabilities - the Mini II and the old Extrema are two of them.
The 2700 euro Heco direkt is superb. Bill replaced his focal maestro utopia in a 24x15 room (challenging room shape) and Cyclopse his raidho D3 in a smaller room. Both much happier. It's not exactly a monitor but a small speaker. It is amazing what small speakers can do by getting the room out of the way and giving a complete sound picture.
[...]Then I got married. Sold all audio gears because my wife didn’t like messy wires in living room
Sorry for being OT.
You recovered big time from that state of no hifi gear
Or was it just the cables that where the issue?
You hide the cables quite nicely behind those Gammas
In these times of crazy prices in high end (audio, automobiles, art, anything) you need to stand out by a big margin to be recognized
I guess the stands are onother 20k ?
Sorry for being OT.
You recovered big time from that state of no hifi gear
Or was it just the cables that where the issue?
You hide the cables quite nicely behind those Gammas
I think his wife must be a turntable collector
@Ron,
Hi Ron,i guarantee a very good listening,then price is ridiculous.
And there are a lot of good things to have good music at any price.
One time i brought to my friend home my third system i had,Leak tl 12 plus mono with a very special small monovia
My friend had Wilson Alexandria 2 with Krell Evo One
We connected the Leak directly to his CD DCS,and he told me the voice were much better and natural with Leak and Monrovia than his system
Hi Ron,i guarantee a very good listening,then price is ridiculous.
And there are a lot of good things to have good music at any price.
One time i brought to my friend home my third system i had,Leak tl 12 plus mono with a very special small monovia
My friend had Wilson Alexandria 2 with Krell Evo One
We connected the Leak directly to his CD DCS,and he told me the voice were much better and natural with Leak and Monrovia than his system
I still own what I consider the best mini monitor I have ever listened if we want to have a "reach and touch" holographic soundstage filled with filigree but solid objects - the B&W silver signature SS25. However these speakers are excessively selective of system and recording. But I listened to some tracks of B&W and RR CD recordings sounding phantasmagoricaly present with them, either with Atmasphere OTLs or Krell SS! But a simple change, such as changing an IC or power cable could destroy the feeling of being there. Matching was really critical. People who love Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band should listen to it played through them.
I always preferred them with digital than with vinyl, typically at 7 feet distance.
Yes, the B&W monitors we heard on the last Italian trip, with Gian and his friend Marco, were among the most impressive of set ups, at 7 feet into the room. The soundstage started behind and the wave came in from as if the speakers did not exist. The guy who set them up, Dimitri, is considered by these Italian guys to be the best set up guy in Italy. Marco went back home and tried to move his Alexandria X2s2 to get a similar stage.
And yes, micro, in that room, Marco and Dimitri preferred the metronome streamer to the metronome CD player (not the top one), and in the other room we preferred the kronos Sparta with a 2k cart and the Luxman phono to the top metronome transport plus dac combo
And yes, micro, in that room, Marco and Dimitri preferred the metronome streamer to the metronome CD player (not the top one), and in the other room we preferred the kronos Sparta with a 2k cart and the Luxman phono to the top metronome transport plus dac combo
Just for accuracy - the Direkt is *not* a replacement for my Focal Maestro. That is to be determined. I am looking at options right now. They were purchased for my bedroom. They are very enjoyable speakers and do a lot well. They are not that small though (versus a monitor) and require plenty of distance into room to work really well ime. In order to “replace” the Maestro then the Heco Dreiklang would need to be heard in my room. My room needs something more substantial to really lock in and control the room with the levels I like. That said, the Direkt is very good and great value.
Sorry...i know you are looking at Dreiklang, but you are wary of big speakers that can overload, correct? Even monitors improve with distance into the room, but can do without better than big full Rangers, as can Heco.
Sorry for being OT.
You recovered big time from that state of no hifi gear
Or was it just the cables that where the issue?
You hide the cables quite nicely behind those Gammas
Dear Christoph,
My wife said turntables are like art sculpture. I quickly said back to her she has eyes and vision like top CEO. Then I showed a picture of AS 2000 to her and got down on my knees.
You just have to know what to do at the right time.
Tang
I will have to ask for your permission to look into your vault sometime
Tang
Vaults!
david
Totally right. I am indeed wary now of big complex and large multiway designs in my room now for certain.
Tango said:
Hi Jeffrey, I agree with Tango. I have heard the Q1 on three occasions, but never in my own system. I found it to be an incredibly transparent transducer, but it left me cold. I don't know if it was the set up, the associated gear, or the speaker itself, but it just struck me as less involving. It looks like a chopped off version of the Q3 and just seemed like a budget version of their Q series. The Mini II was a statement product at the time, a complete vision and the best monitor Magico could then make. It was wildly expensive. It is beautiful. And I agree that it sounds more natural in my system than the Q1 ever did when I heard it.
Some say the Q1 tweeter is much better and that the cabinet is more inert. That may be. A technician who replaced one of my drivers told me that he also owns the Mini II and prefers it to the Q1. I think he compared them directly a few times. He sited the mid/woofer as sounding more like real music. I suspect that if I replaced the Mini II with the Q1, I would have now moved onto another speaker, probably a small three way floor stander. Instead, I decided to keep the Mini II and build my system around that because the sound is excellent, and it looks tremendous in my room.
The Mini does need a lot of power. I replaced my XA100.5 with the 160.5. These amps have 320 Class A watts into the 4 ohm load of the Mini II, plus more power in Class A/B. As I continue to refine my system, the Mini II does not seem to be the weak link. There are times I would like a bit more extension, like when I visit MadFloyd and hear his M Pros play cello or piano. I have tried to integrate subwoofers on two occasions and prefer them without. The subs I tried detracted from the overall clarity of the system, though they did provide greater extension. It was a trade off that I decided I could live without.
Thanks Bruce. I agree. If I had a bigger room, I would love to have a pair of the old M5s. I heard them once and they sounded exactly like the Mini II only bigger and more extended. On orchestral music, they were unbelievable. Of course the reviewers skewered them and the Mini II when the Q5 and Q1 were released. Now the M5 can be had for about $20K and the Mini II for about $10K, IF YOU CAN FIND THEM. I don't know if the Q5 or Q1 will be considered classics in years to come.
I agree, and this room/speaker matching is often overlooked. In the right room, with the right gear, a small 2 way can load up the room nicely, and if the listener and speakers are in the optimal positions in the room, the speakers will disappear like few larger speakers could ever dream of. Small speakers do have their limitations though. I depends on budget, space, and the type of music one likes. As Al wrote earlier, every speaker is a compromise of some sort. And if one can't find any faults, then it's probably the speakers outrageous cost.
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