Looking for speaker opinions.

I live in an area where it's tough to demo speakers in home. I listen to 70 percent Metal-punk-Hard-core and 30 percent- Diana Krall, Duke Ellington, Jazz etc...

Current speakers, Dynaudio Excite 44's. c52 pre amp and mc 452 power amp. Medium sized room bordering on Large, very undedicated listening room right now..

In the Market for new speakers, 7500 Canadian dollars to spend. My short list

1-Klipsch RF-7 III

2-Second hand Focal Electra 1038Be

3-Tekton Double Impact

I would love to hear from some of you. I could really use the insight. Enjoy the music.

Mikey

 

«Dynaudio Excite X44»?
If yes, then by what reason

?

 

Are you just bored of the X44's... impressive specs and performance for the money... will $7,500 be enough of an upgrade?

 

I can't and won't answer for the OP, but I've always found Dynaudio speakers to be excessively bright. So if he's 70% metal.......

JMO of course.

 

Hi Mikey,
Welcome to the forum... Looks like you have nice amplification to power your choice of speakers and your budget allows many options. There is no better way then auditioning equipment in your own home and I know that Tekton allows returns. You may want to search for other direct from manufacturer or distributors that also allow this, in my area I support brick and mortar audio stores that allow auditions including for used gear. With your taste in music, room size, existing amplification and budget, I would be looking at large floor standers with a big woofer that does bass well for metal and rock and yet do credit to Diana Krall's vocals when you are in the mood for that.
Speaker preference is more subjective than any piece of audio gear.. enjoy the process.

 

Get the Focal's.
-Bill

 

Audio equipment doesn’t “understand” and treat metal, wood, vocals, birds singing etc. etc., but acoustical/electrical SIGNAL.
High quality equipment treats it with high quality, mediocre quality equipment with mediocre quality, poor equipment with poor quality.

And all frequency spectrum management in an audio system is the domain of frequency equalization.

 

Thanks for the education, but I know listening to metal through bright speakers makes my ears bleed.

 

Have you considered the JBL 4429? The 12” drivers should be capable of pressurizing a medium-large room and I would think they suit your preferred type of music and amplification well.

JBL - 4429 Bookshelf Speakers (Pair)

 

Maybe add Klipsch Forte III to your list as an alternative to the rf7. I have not heard them, but I have a pair of vintage Quartets that sound great and I've been wanting to audition the Forte III which is a similar design but bigger and bigger is always better!

Depending on who you order from, you should be able to audition most speakers and return them for a small fee. I think Crutchfied has decent policies in this regard.

 

I’ve never heard DIs, but Tekton Pendragons do quite well with those types of music. I would imagine the DIs are more of a good thing. The Pens can definitely fill a large room, provide solid bass, and present imaging of Diana and her group that is both spatially real and very much “live” with plenty of detail and nuance.

 

For those that do, I think that is their intention.

For metal (and loud), I would go with a horn loaded speaker with high sensitivity, like the Kplisch RF7 III.

Most speaker's that are going to be optimum for metal are not going to be optimum for Diana Krall.

 

There are many other great factory-direct options in addition to Tekton. You can get far greater value by going this route vs traditional dealer brands.

Spatial Audio
Zu Audio
Odyssey Audio (Lorelei / Kismet)
Ascend Acoustics
Omega
Salk Sound
Axiom
Q Acoustics
Ryan Speakers


My only experience with any of them thus far is with the Spatials. I'm finding their speakers are easily competitive with models selling for twice the price through traditional distribution channels.

The Q Acoustics Concept 500 at $6000/pair U.S. recently received class A recommendation in Stereophile.

One member here compared the $2700 Ascend Sierra RAAL Towers with the Focal Aria 936s at $4K/pair and preferred the Ascends.

The Odyssey speakers use drivers that are commonly found in $10K+ speakers.

AFAIK, all these brands offer 30+ day in-home trials.

 

If I was in Toronto like you, I'd be all over these beautiful mint ebony Monitor Audio PL200, but I've heard them and really like the sound, hard to recommend expensive speakers to someone unless they can audition, especially since this is no longer a current production model, and this guy already has them in their crates ...



MINT...Monitor Audio PL200s / Ebony / In Crates

 

I have similar tastes in music and run a pair of Tekton Impacts (non-double). They have a great "live" sound, which is the common theme in the Tekton lineup. For HC/Punk/Metal they fit like a glove with a beefy SS amp like your Mcintosh. Keep in mind, the Double Impacts are a pretty massive speaker. If you have the space, go for it.

 

I second the Tektons for metal.

 

As you are in Canada, I'd take a hard look at Axiom. I have the M100v4. Pretty beastly. I have a large room with high ceilings. I use them with KEF iq90 in a 2.0 set up. The M80 might be a better choice for you. Don't let the price fool you. These are high quality speakers. They have a return policy as well. Buy more music with the savings.

 

I’d probably go La Scala II with that sizeable budget or Harbeth Super HL 5+.



From the Klipsch forum:
“I have owned both at the same time. I went from a full rf7 setup to a full lascala setup. As others have stated the rf7's have more bass and are slimmer, but that is the only thing the 7's have over the lascalas. The lascala to my ears is a more natural sounding speaker i.e they disapear once the music starts. I never got that feeling from the 7's. I always felt like I was missing something when listening to the 7's in two channel. Not so with the lascalas. Even turning my subs off the lascalas still provide enough bass for two channel. A much more natural bass. As others have stated listen to both if you can as they are totally opposite sounding of one another especially in two channel.”

 

Wow, so much great information, Thank you all so much. gguy, I KNOW THat album picture, it's there in my shelves of 1500 cd's somewhere. What album was that. I think it was a Victory records band from years a go.

 

You might want to add the Elac Adante floorstanders to your audition list:

Elac Adante AF-61VR Loudspeaker

Elac Adante AF-61 loudspeaker

 

Revel Be F228be. $5K US. 27Hz to 44Khz. No sub needed.

 

La Scala's have natural bass, but not much below 60 Hz, count on a fast sub.

Your McIntosh Mcintosh MC 452 is about 445-WPC overkill for La Scala's. They are unbelievably sensitive.

Tubes would be a better choice, your ears will thank you...

 

Mikey, I also currently have the McIntosh mc 452, although I'm about to set it free, as it's a wonderful and powerful amp, but it's just too many watts for the speakers I own or will own.

I actually thought about buying Tekton Double Impacts about 6 or so months ago, but I called the guy who owns Tekton to ask him what he thought about those speakers with my mc 452 and he was very, VERY hesitant to say that amp is good (or safe) for his speakers and that scared me off enough to not try them. Well, that plus, the fact that I asked him how much it would cost me to send them back to him if I didn't like them and believe me, that ain't cheap! (Think somewhere around $400 to $500 for return shipping), plus I read online that a few people that did try to return them had one hell of a time attempting to safely re-pack them for the trip. In other words, buy and try those at your own risk!

 

I can't see any reason that you Mac would not be a good match for the DI's.

Personally, I can see a lot of reason's for not owning them. None of these have anything to do with the speaker's themselves, which I have yet to hear.

 

I’ve literally never heard Dyns described as bright.