What stereo(s) do you listen to? What do you want?

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

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They are very tonally accurate and the imaging is dead-on.

A first, then.

Originally Posted by audiophilia

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A first, then.

My thoughts exactly. Any Dunlavy, even blindfolded with one arm tied behind its back, walks all over Wilson.

--Andre

Originally Posted by Andre Yew

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My thoughts exactly. Any Dunlavy, even blindfolded with one arm tied behind its back, walks all over Wilson.

--Andre

I strongly disagree. I have never heard Dunlavy speakers sound good. Several audio writers I know agree with me on this.

Originally Posted by audiophilia

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A first, then.

Audition them. They are really that good. I used to not like the earlier Wilsons as they were bright but they have fixed their past weaknesses. I think the Sophias sound better than the new Watt Puppies.

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

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Several audio writers I know agree with me on this.
Then, it must be true.

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

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Audition them
I've heard them many times. I quite like them, especially when compared to the largest models, WAMM notwithstanding.

Originally Posted by audiophilia

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Then, it must be true.

Yeah, after I wrote that I thought that's not a great argument - appealing to audio writer's authority.

There is one who I really know well and greatly respect since he is not easily impressed.

I heard Focal Electra or something with Berilium tweeters (large 2-driver bookshelves. Usher Dancers were nowhere to be found in NYC. I suspect they are more popular in Atlanta due to their name Focal sounded unremarkable (tweeters sounded tinny,as I expected) and that is saying it without taking in account their price. However taking in account their 4ooo+ retail , I would say they are peace of garbage and should be thrown in a Hudson river from GWB. I heard also VAcoustics bookshelves -garbage Focal 800 series 4-driver floorstands -garbage Focal 700 series 3-driver floorstander (may be 726) -e-e-e ok no upper treble though, but very well integrated drivers nothing sticks out ,could have been a wonderful budget speaker at $1200 if not for total lack of treble extension. CE some German garbage LArge square boxes with 2-drivers, sounded as ridiculous as they looked. What else Oh yes Focal bookshelf 2-driver at 1000 retail had the most realistic image but woofer and tweeter were talking over each other and in different directions. Devore Gibbons 3 or 8 don't remember 2-driver floorstander- garbage woofer talks over everything ,perhaps inverted location is to blame. Devore mini bookshelves (whatever their actual name is) - sang very sweet at low audio volumes ,but once turned up just a bit fell apart as house of cards. I heard something else there ,it was a huge store with many rooms, but I have not heard anything I wanted to take home and listen to. So we went to Cafe society across the street and drown our audio sorrows in wine. 99.9% of speakers are total drek, pathetic exercises in cabinet making.

What store was this? Sound by Singer? Stereo Exchange?

I heard the Devore Super 8s and they are nice in some areas. Setup and quality of dealer is a huge factor here.

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

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What store was this? Sound by Singer? Stereo Exchange?

I heard the Devore Super 8s and they are nice in some areas. Setup and quality of dealer is a huge factor here.

Yes it was S. by Singer.
Their upper end room was equipped with ridiculously looking turn table made out of remnants of a Russian tank. It sounded worse than Rega P3 with a broken lift in the budget room.

I liked their budget room set up where you can instantly switch between speakers by pressing buttons. However such set up cannot be producing any sales ,as it is far too easy to distinguish poor speaker from even poorer, of which they had a bunch.

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

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I strongly disagree. I have never heard Dunlavy speakers sound good. Several audio writers I know agree with me on this.

Dunlavy designed speakers for mid-field mastering purposes, and have characteristics well suited for this. The narrow dispersion means great imaging at the monitoring position at the expense of a room filling sound. They are especially loved by jazz and classical mastering engineers, but not a great choice for audiophiles at home who typically have zero acoustic treatment.

Originally Posted by unpainted huffheinz

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Dunlavy designed speakers for mid-field mastering purposes, and have characteristics well suited for this. The narrow dispersion means great imaging at the monitoring position at the expense of a room filling sound. They are especially loved by jazz and classical mastering engineers, but not a great choice for audiophiles at home who typically have zero acoustic treatment.

Well I know the record engineering as well and I just don't like them. Maybe I have not heard them in the right room but I must have heard a dozen or so high end Dunlavy rigs.

Finally got my Denon DL 110 cartridge for my LP12. Sounds good, that's all I can say

Originally Posted by chobochobo

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Finally got my Denon DL 110 cartridge for my LP12. Sounds good, that's all I can say

Congrats!

Living room home theater
TV: Sony Bravia 46V3000 LCD, 1080p resolution and upscaling built in
Sources, in order of use: Apple Airport Express, Comcast HD-DVR, Samsung (edit 8/22): I had thought it was a Toshiba when I first wrote this post, but I was wrong. Shows how much digital sources matter! Model # is DVD- HD841.) SACD/DVD-A/DVD player, Wal-Mart VCR
Amplification: Denon AVR-4306 receiver with Audyssey MultEQ XT room correction
Mains: Tannoy System 12 DMT II drivers and crossovers in bespoke low diffraction (no protruding elements, 2" roundovers all around) sealed cabinets (Bessel alignment)
Surrounds: Tannoy System 800 nearfield monitors, firing up in bespoke cabinets
Subwoofer EQ: Velodyne SMS-1, DSP in sub amps
Subwoofer amplification: Crown XTi1000, Crown XTi2000
Subwoofers: Tannoy B475 (18" woofer, ported cabinet) behind listening position, DIY with Exodus Audio Maelstrom-X in a Bessel sealed cabinet in front-right corner.
Room treatments: Bookshelf behind listening position
Cables/Interconnects: Adequate to the task.
Power cords: You're kidding, right?

No vinyl, but I plan to add a good turntable at some point. CD/Apple Lossless sounds much better to people with good hearing, but I have a lot of great records from my mom.

Other important info: mains are run in "LFE+Main" mode to allow for maximal excitation of room modes in the upper bass, and thus smoother in-room response. Lots of people put a high-pass filter on their mains. I think that is a mistake, unless they are dynamically compromised to begin with. In which case, better mains should be on one's shopping list!

Nearfield/bedroom rig:
Sources: iMac, Pioneer Elite SACD/DVD-A/DVD player from an HTIB setup.
Amplification: Pioneer Elite slimline receiver from same HTIB setup (MCCAC room correction circuit turned off, because it's worthless)
Mains, left and right: Tannoy System 8 NFM II
Mains, center: Tannoy S8iw in sealed box (same drive-unit as the 8 NFM II).
Subwoofer line driver: Modded ART CleanBOX so that it's flat to 5Hz instead of sharply rolling off at 30Hz.
Subwoofer EQ/amplification: Crown XTi2000
Subwoofer/cat-scratching post: DIY with a JBL W15GTi (consumer version of the drive-unit in JBL's flagship Vertec series professional subwoofers) in a sealed box with a Linkwitz Transform for Q=0.577 and listening position F3=16Hz. carpeted for her pleasure (and my cashmere's salvation!).

Headphones:
Traveling: Etymotic for Altec Lansing iM716 with HeadRoom Total AirHead
Home/mastering: Sennheiser HD-580 with HeadRoom Total AirHead
Exercise: Sennheiser PMX-100, Koss KSC-55 with KSC-35 earclips, Koss KSC-75

Car:
Source: iPod, Denon DCT-950R CD/tuner
Room correction: Alpine PXA-H650 (Audyssey MultEQ XT)
Amplification: JL Audio 450/4
Mains: Aura Whisper 2" widebander (used by Siegfried Linkwitz in his "Pluto" speaker) playing from 250Hz up
Midbass: Peerless SLS8 playing from 250Hz down in front doors

Other:
MacBook
3TB of RAID-protected external hard drives for lossless music storage
60GB iPod
1GB gum stick iPod shuffle
M-Audio FireWire Solo for measurement purposes
Calibrated Behringer ECM-8000 measurement mic (Velodyne-branded)
FuzzMeasure Pro measurement software for OSX
Cheap camera tripod for Audyssey and Behringer measurement mics

Planned upgrades: Possibly a new receiver for the main system to take advantage of Audyssey's new Dynamic EQ technology, and someday I would like to trade in the already wonderful Tannoys for the best speakers I've ever heard by a million miles, the original (15") GedLee Summas.
A new receiver for the nearfield rig when somebody comes out with a slimline one incorporating MultEQ XT or similarly effective technology.

Originally Posted by dkzzzz

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See everyone are saying Sonus Faber is great. My concertinos home are ****, simply put. They sound like two plastic buckets, have no realism, no sound stage and very pathetic highs. everything sound boomy an bassy on SF just the way they look. It is leather and mahogany sound.

That sounds about right. Sonus Faber knows how to design a pretty cabinet and select expensive drive-units, but they don't know how to design a crossover.

You asked about a bookshelf speaker for classical and jazz. In general, small speakers don't impress me. Accurate sound reproduction requires efficiency and volume displacement ability, which tiny speakers don't have.

That said, the best small speaker I've recently heard is the KEF Reference 201/2. With a good subwoofer setup, they're really good on small jazz sets and tolerable on large orchestral works, though if you like Mahler you'll be hearing a lot of dynamic compression. (No speaker system is going to sound good without multiple subwoofers, because placement to make the mids and treble sound best is awful for bass, and vice-versa. And a single subwoofer or a bunch stacked up is going to excite only a few modes in a room, leading to at best a small sweet spot and lumpy bass response in the rest of the room.) Not surprisingly, the 201/2 also measures extremely well, with a smooth, even power response. (There's no such thing as a badly-measuring, good-sounding speaker, no matter how many fans of badly-designed speakers like Sonus Fabers and Wilsons cry otherwise.) See http://www.soundstagenetwork.com/mea...ers/kef_201-2/