Advice on speaker upgrade $1500 or so budget

Very nice!

 

Right on !!!! glad to see/read that you love them. I feel much the same about my new Parasound P 7 preamp. VAs are a brand that's been on my 'list' should I ever get a higher powered amp ... my 8Wpc 300Bs likely wouldn't be a good match. I loved some reviews of their other models several years ago, and sort of forgot about them - so I've added links to my 'Speakers' folder should I ever get the chance to actually consider that.

One of the reviews (I can't find it at the moment) described the particular VA model as being the most communicative speaker the reviewer had ever heard in terms of emotion - which may be an attribute that takes some 'break in' time to bring to the forefront. I know that (at least the last two) speaker upgrades I have done have taken several days or even longer to get to the 'final' stage in sonics. You may be more and more jazzed with them as time goes on and the woofers "loosen up" a little and the crossover components settle in. When you get a $h!t-eating grin on your face and especially when tears start welling up, you know you're 'getting there'.

Edit/PS: one thing I've noticed about the P 7 (besides more detail/resolution, but maybe it's related) is the sense of rhythm that I hadn't noticed (as much or as clearly) in music and of course especially percussion and background instruments. I need to listen to my Rush collection too (I've been dwelling on female vocalists and other genres) ... Neil Peart is certainly on my 'top couple of drummers' list, and know there's some amazing things in his playing. I look forward to hearing lots of stuff I never heard before as well ...

PPS: Someone in a forum I read mentioned the review I was looking for:

"TAS had a glowing review of the VA Mozarts a couple years back - greenpig 09:06:49 11/05/07 Sallie Reynolds praised them extremely highly, along with the Spendor S8's (I think). The odd thing, though, was that the Spendors went on to appear in all the TAS recommended lists, but the Mozarts were never mentioned, although both speakers were recommended wholeheartedly in the original reviews. That always struck me as peculiar."

I subscribed to The Absolute Sound during that time and remember the review (and also that the Spendors got put in their 'list' but not the VA). If I find quotes from the review, I'll post them. When I read the review, I got a massive case of wanting to immediately buy a pair ... but of course I was 'broke' at the time.

AHA! www.bm.rs/VAMozart_TAS_0106.pdf
should get you the review copy. I misremembered, it was the soundstage and midrange magic that brought tears to her (the reviewer's) eyes ... all the other stuff she said made me want to run out and buy this speaker. I bet with all the other stuff, the emotion comes thru better too - that may have been what affected the reviewer as well.

 

Rick58:

I know originally VA had the just plain Mozart's. Later they updated them to the SE version and I read somewhere that sound update was very substantial.

When I was auditioning speakers I found myself going back several times to re- hear the Mozart's. Something just kept pulling my back to them. After the third time it became obvious to me that these were the ones.

I've been listing to all my music and just can't get over how well they sound and I thought my setup before was pretty good but obviously not up to these great speakers. There is a clarity in the bass that I never heard before. Bass guitars sound like they are playing right in front of me out of their own amplifier.

As far as power, I have my Oppo 103 feeding a digital HDMI feed to my Denon x4000. The X4000 pre out are feeding my Emotiva XPA-200 amp and it don't have to work that hard to bring the Mozart's to life.

 

http://www.soundstagehifi.com/index...ozart-grand-se-loudspeakers&catid=55&Itemid=4
seems like you have a good arrangement (similar to the one described here). I'd probably have to get used to sitting >8' from the speakers tho! If/when I get to the point of having the higher powered amp (Parasound A21?) and being able to buy new speakers, I'll have to go and listen to some ... in a showroom/other environment, likely, but we'll see how that goes.

Actually, I'm about 12.5' from the front wall (behind the speakers) and 11' from the wall behind me (speaker fronts are 7' from the wall behind them in my current monitor setup). So if "my" VA MGSEs were placed 4.5' (or a little less) from the wall, it could work ... the area "behind" my seat is the 'formal' dining area, which isn't used much, but I can't move into that 'space'. Daydreaming ...!

 

BTW, just curious, you said these were $1800 at a dealer? I'm guessing they were floor models or whatever, as new ones seem to be >$3500 (was the price in 2011 when reviewed here:
http://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/308-vienna-acoustics-mozart-grand-se-loudspeakers ).

Excellent deal, in any case!

 

Hi,

Any reason for not using the OPPO's DAC?

Your Denon X4000 has the Texas Instruments PCM 1690 24/192 DAC
Your OPPO 103 has the Cirrus Logic CS 4382A 24/192 DAC

At least worth a play off.

You may find the OPPO's DAC handles DSD better or just plain sounds better with everything.

OPPO analog out to the Denon's analog ins with pure/direct modes engaged could well beat what you are hearing now!!!


Cheers,

JohnL

 

Well I use the X4000 for movie 5.1 sound so I just have HDMI for the blu ray output.

Yes, I did wonder how the Oppo's DAC would sound over the Denon.

I guess I could hookup both and just switch the Oppo output through the remote back to HDMI when watching movies?

 

Yes, they were floor models. They said they had about 70hrs on them so just breaking in.

 

The "Vienna Mozart's" if you can get them for fifteen or the Golden Ear Triton 7.

 

Better way than that.


Just connect Analog outs from OPPO to CD Analog ins on DENON.

Then just.........Select CD input of DENON for STEREO listening or...........

Select whichever DVD/BD HDMI input on DENON you currently use for MOVIE listening/watching


That's it!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks Linger63 for the tip !

 

The KEF LS50's 50th anniversary's are sweet too at that price point.

 

Yes, I listened to those and they were amazing. I really wanted to get them but they just wouldn't work in my seating arrangement. My main listening position would be to far away from their sweet spot.