Hi all,
I'm looking for suggestions for passive main speakers to build a surround system around.
The speakers will be visible, so looks matter, and in that regard I find the Blades more attractive than the Perlistens (although the S7ts look pretty nice in natural ebony). I generally consider Sonus Faber speakers to be the world's most beautiful-looking, so the Blades are a departure, but they do look cool in a sculptural way. I don't like the look of utilitarian studio monitors, so no black boxes please. They should either be cool and sculptural, or like fine woodworking with metal accents.
I have no particular budget, but so far my short list consists of the Perlisten S7t, the KEF Blade Metas (though I'm unsure whether to go for the One or Two), and the Revel F328Be (though I don't love the wood on these). Magicos seem well-regarded, but I have yet to audition any.
The room will be 18' x 21' x 8.5', so 3213 cubic feet (91 cubic meters) and is not yet built, so any acoustical treatment that won't significantly reduce the room's size is possible if needed. I have an Anthem AVM90, which can manage up to 4 independent subs. My amplification is two Apollon PET 950 monoblocks.
I auditioned the Blade One Metas in the store for over an hour and was super impressed by their bass, imaging, and soundstaging. Try as I might, I could not convince myself that the sound was coming out of them! I've been an audiophile for 30 years and I've never experienced such a coherent acoustic image before. The bass was extended and visceral, even without a sub, which I believe helped create the very believable soundstage. As an example, in the song "Shallow" from A Star Is Born, the sense of huge live venue was totally palpable. It was incredibly effective and emotionally moving.
I've auditioned the Perlisten S7t with a subwoofer in my home for over a week now, and I can't say they have disappeared, or moved me in the same way, but it seems possible that the room is largely to blame? I'm going to try an audition in a treated room at the dealer after I return the speakers.
In a double-blind speakers shootout that I participated in recently, I liked the Revel F226Be. It turned out that the F328Be in that shootout had a problem with a very rolled-off treble, so if it's better than the 226, then I think I would have liked it a lot.
Past speakers that I have owned and enjoyed are the B&W Matrix 801 S3 in a fully-treated, dedicated media room. Stereo music was great, but the HTM1 center channel struggled to deliver intelligible dialog for movies. I also enjoy my Proac D15s in a reflective untreated family room for ambient, uncritical music listening. Timbrally, in that space, the D15s sound just right to me. I've auditioned some Sonus Faber speakers in the past and found them to have a tipped-up sibilance that really bugged me. The cabinetry was so beautiful-looking that I really wanted to like them, but couldn't.
Given
all that, my questions are:
1. In other threads I have seen mentioned the existence of a thread on State of the Art Loudspeakers, but I can't find it. Does such a thread exist? I have kept up with MKR's fantastic
thread.
2. Given my room size, would the Blade Ones or the Blade Twos be more appropriate? There doesn't seem to be a consensus on this and I can't audition the Blade Two Meta.
3. Which other speakers should I consider?
4. Are any Sonus Faber speakers serious contenders for state of the art, or should I forget about this brand?
5. What other speakers image and soundstage as well as the Blades? Is the Blade's disappearing act explained by measurements and if so, how?
6. Regarding my experience with the Perlistens and the Blades, I'm not looking for "which speaker is better" but rather an understanding of the meaningful differences between them and, where possible, which measurements might explain those differences. I know the S7t has less bass output, which I both hear and see in the response graph.
Phew, thanks for sticking with this, and any suggestions
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