ART Loudspeakers

Sonic Dreamer

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Hi one and all,

I have just come across one of those esoteric hi-fi brands, namely ART Loudspeakers, whom I can't find any reference to on this Forum in recent years, nor in recent editions of the magazine. All comments and observations on their products are welcome, particularly the Moderne speaker range.

I have just started to review the prospect of buying dedicated audio speakers and was leaning in a Spendor A6 or SP2/3R² direction. I tend to like a warm, smooth sound rather than an attacking, lean sound.

Cheers,
SonicD
 

lordmortlock

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I had a listen to the Moderne 4 Stiletto at HiFi Gear in Gloucester at the beginning of the year when I was trialling a Cambridge 840a which I took along. They were by far and away the best speakers I heard that day - really tamed the (imo) harsh top end of the cambridge. Pretty too.
 

chebby

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Started by the same people who used to make the Systemdek turntables in Troon, Scotland (Derek and Ramsay Dunlop).

Sorry, that probably does not help you. Just a bit of trivia.
 
A

Anonymous

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Hi

I have ART Emotion floor standers....nothing I heard in the price range came close.....previously had Dali Helicon, B&W 804s, Wilson Benesch Arc. The ARTs are incredible, I use with valve equipment so has a lush but open musical sound
 

TheHomeCinemaCentre

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I would urge you to have a listen. If you like what ART you will be hooked on their sound. They tend towards a very transparent sound with perfect imaging. ART have been makig speakers for a good time now so they are not a fly by night operation. I got hooked about 7 years ago on their Expression and things have moved onwards and upwards since then.

The Emotions are one of the best speakers I have heard as well - although we have a brand new pair of Deco 15's in the shop right now and they are something special.
 
Sonic Dreamer:

Hi one and all,

I have just come across one of those esoteric hi-fi brands, namely ART Loudspeakers, whom I can't find any reference to on this Forum in recent years, nor in recent editions of the magazine. All comments and observations on their products are welcome, particularly the Moderne speaker range.

I have just started to review the prospect of buying dedicated audio speakers and was leaning in a Spendor A6 or SP2/3Rý direction. I tend to like a warm, smooth sound rather than an attacking, lean sound.

Cheers,
SonicD

A pair of ART Stiletto's are on fleebay at the moment. I hear they have a great reputation, that's about it.

Edit: May be mistaken, but weren't ART connected to/or used alongside Wilson Benesch?
 

Thaiman

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Hi

If you get the right set up, ART could be the last speakers you will wish to own (unless you are mad like me!) My review of Emotion is below:

http://community.whathifi.com/forums/p/128213/129344.aspx

I also had experienced with other range too and all of them sound very good. The new Deco 15 look very promising with a proper three ways design (which was only fitted in very expensive Deco 20 before now).
 

Sonic Dreamer

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Thaiman:

Hi

If you get the right set up, ART could be the last speakers you will wish to own (unless you are mad like me!) My review of Emotion is below:

http://community.whathifi.com/forums/p/128213/129344.aspx

I also had experienced with other range too and all of them sound very good. The new Deco 15 look very promising with a proper three ways design (which was only fitted in very expensive Deco 20 before now).

Thaiman, what made you go for ADAMs speakers as opposed to ARTs?
 

Thaiman

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Sonic Dreamer:Thaiman:

Hi

If you get the right set up, ART could be the last speakers you will wish to own (unless you are mad like me!) My review of Emotion is below:

http://community.whathifi.com/forums/p/128213/129344.aspx

I also had experienced with other range too and all of them sound very good. The new Deco 15 look very promising with a proper three ways design (which was only fitted in very expensive Deco 20 before now).

Thaiman, what made you go for ADAMs speakers as opposed to ARTs?

I would never choose ADAM over ART normally. It's a long story but bare with me
emotion-1.gif


ART Emotion sig and Mcintosh are just fantastic together, I really did like the combo although ART do also sound sublime with GamuT D150 which is a many audio reviewers prefer chioce. However I have later discover Vitus ss010 amp which, to my ears, is the best amp I have ever heard....anywhere! The problem is the vitus is only a 25 watts amp! and yes, it sound a lot more powerful than the rating suggest, it never quite have ART under control. The treble become a bit too bright when push hard, the synergy just weren't there.

The ADAM Pencil was bought as a stop gap pair on the logic of "if the amp is first class then studio speakers should show it well", Adam end up stay with me longer than the expected but I just order myself a pair of Audio Physic so they might be trade in soon (3 weeks waiting list on AP though).

ART Emotion signature still remain the best pair of speakers I have owned, it just that I found an awesome amp that doesn't like ART.
 
Sonic Dreamer:Goshhhh, are ART really so esoteric as to only generate 8 replies, from this abundant trove of commentators.............

Well, yes! The problem with ART, like Exposure, ATC etc. is they have very limited and/or poor distribution network, which can be slightly irritating -- welcome to the wonderful world of hi-fi.....
emotion-1.gif
 

Thaiman

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plastic penguin:
Sonic Dreamer:Goshhhh, are ART really so esoteric as to only generate 8 replies, from this abundant trove of commentators.............

Well, yes! The problem with ART, like Exposure, ATC etc. is they have very limited and/or poor distribution network, which can be slightly irritating -- welcome to the wonderful world of hi-fi.....
emotion-1.gif


Plus there are an anti A.R.T group! shocking isn't it? The problem you mentioned PP, lacking dealers network, that's why most people only have heard them at the hifi show - which not ideal. Most speakers were builded to work in a real world living room and not a massive confrence hall. ART dealer also like to demo them with 50 watts Mcintosh which never gonna fill a big...big room with music. if they were to use a power house like GamuT D150 then ART would be a lot more poppular than they are now.
 
Thaiman:plastic penguin:

Sonic Dreamer:Goshhhh, are ART really so esoteric as to only generate 8 replies, from this abundant trove of commentators.............

Well, yes! The problem with ART, like Exposure, ATC etc. is they have very limited and/or poor distribution network, which can be slightly irritating -- welcome to the wonderful world of hi-fi.....
emotion-1.gif


Plus there are an anti A.R.T group! shocking isn't it? The problem you mentioned PP, lacking dealers network, that's why most people only have heard them at the hifi show - which not ideal. Most speakers were builded to work in a real world living room and not a massive confrence hall. ART dealer also like to demo them with 50 watts Mcintosh which never gonna fill a big...big room with music. if they were to use a power house like GamuT D150 then ART would be a lot more poppular than they are now.

I think, in the main, there maybe anti ART group partly because the reasons I gave. It's easy to either ignore or have a pop at something you either don't know or unfamiliar with.....
 

neil fd2

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I also have ART Emotions. In the last 2 years i`ve had Proac ref 8 tablette signatures, Usher cp6371`s & Monitor Audio pl100`s. I love the emotions which i`ll hopefully upgrade to signature level shortly. I`d say if i replace them in the future it`ll be with something from the same stable. They`re superior to anything else i`ve ever owned by a long way. Well worth a listen if you can.
 
A

Anonymous

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I've owned the Emotions and moved onto the Signatures. These are the first speakers that made me forget about the kit and think only of expanding my music collection. I feel lucky to own a pair.

A.R.T. make some truly great loudspeakers, plus you'll never get to deal with any nicer guys than Derek or Ramsey. I can never see myself moving away from the A.R.T. brand, I just 'get' them. One thing is for sure, all you get with A.R.T is the music!
 

Sonic Dreamer

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kingsxfan:

I've owned the Emotions and moved onto the Signatures. These are the first speakers that made me forget about the kit and think only of expanding my music collection. I feel lucky to own a pair.

A.R.T. make some truly great loudspeakers, plus you'll never get to deal with any nicer guys than Derek or Ramsey. I can never see myself moving away from the A.R.T. brand, I just 'get' them. One thing is for sure, all you get with A.R.T is the music!

KingsX, thanks for your comment, gosh you have some serious kit!!! Actually, I was dealing with Jordan Accoustics, but I did speak to Derek as well. Paul at Jordan Accoustics kindly lent me a demo pair of Deco 8 Signatures forthree weeks. I was really disarmed and taken with their transparent clarity, but felt there was a bit lacking in bottom end dynamic with the two-way configuration for the cost of the speakers. Every other speaker I listened to at Sevenoaks Hi-Fi (Holborn) and Grahams Hi-Fi in London were are least three-way, if not four-way, which obviously emphasised the bass more. I primarily listen to rock music, so bass is very important in the portrayal. I'm at the point where I think the Deco 15 Signatures is the way to go. I can't imagine anything else out there is going to cut it.

BTW, do you like the band King's X, I have not heard any of their stuff since "Gretchen Goes To Nebraska?"

Cheers,
Sonic D
 
A

Anonymous

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Sonic Dreamer:kingsxfan:

I've owned the Emotions and moved onto the Signatures. These are the first speakers that made me forget about the kit and think only of expanding my music collection. I feel lucky to own a pair.

A.R.T. make some truly great loudspeakers, plus you'll never get to deal with any nicer guys than Derek or Ramsey. I can never see myself moving away from the A.R.T. brand, I just 'get' them. One thing is for sure, all you get with A.R.T is the music!

KingsX, thanks for your comment, gosh you have some serious kit!!! Actually, I was dealing with Jordan Accoustics, but I did speak to Derek as well. Paul at Jordan Accoustics kindly lent me a demo pair of Deco 8 Signatures forthree weeks. I was really disarmed and taken with their transparent clarity, but felt there was a bit lacking in bottom end dynamic with the two-way configuration for the cost of the speakers. Every other speaker I listened to at Sevenoaks Hi-Fi (Holborn) and Grahams Hi-Fi in London were are least three-way, if not four-way, which obviously emphasised the bass more. I primarily listen to rock music, so bass is very important in the portrayal. I'm at the point where I think the Deco 15 Signatures is the way to go. I can't imagine anything else out there is going to cut it.

BTW, do you like the band King's X, I have not heard any of their stuff since "Gretchen Goes To Nebraska?"

Cheers,
Sonic D

Yes, I know Paul at Jordan. He's given me some extremely sound advice and he knows his stuff when it comes to ART. He very much helped me on my way to achieving my goals with hifi, especially with my speakers.

The Deco 8 actually go down to 31Hz and spec wise, are quite linear in their response with only +/-3dB variation across 31Hz - 20kHz. With performance like this they will be quite revealing of your equipment and the recording. What you're hearing is probably a very balanced reproduction.

Many speakers have a hump or emphasis in the bass or high frequencies, or a dip in the mid-band which highlights the mid to lower bass regions to give the impression of impact or maybe what you are describing as a dynamics.

It appears there are many people who are not comfortable, or totally unfamiliar with the reproduction of a linear speaker. When they do hear them, they think something is missing, when all that is missing are the sometimes wide errors in frequency response/curve.

A lot of people who dislike ART have only ever heard them for five or ten minutes at a show or-the-like. Anyone who has spent time with mine in my set-up has really, really enjoyed them, go figure!

The Deco 10's go right the way down to 23Hz and are only +/-2dB across their audio band 23Hz - 25kHz which is truly superb linearity, but you'd expect such performance for the outlay. The Emotions, which are very, very similar to the Deco 10's, do seriously deep bass, but it has to be on the recording to be felt and heard. If its not not there, you won't hear or feel it.

If you can hold of a pair of Deco 10 Signatures or Emotion Signatures to listen to, you may hear your music collection in a totally different light. Good luck with your speaker hunt anyway.

Regarding Kings X; I've liked the band for about twenty years, hence my internet handle being Kingsxfan!

Cheers.
 

Sonic Dreamer

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Can someone please explain the primary differences between "linear" and "non-linear" speakers, regarding construction and performance.

Okay, so ART speakers are linear, so I suppose I kind of know what that is, but how are "non-linear" speakers diffeerent?

Are B&W 800 Series and Spendor A6 or ST speakers, etc. linear?

Cheers,
SonicD
 
A

Anonymous

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I've heard the Decos - they sound horrible and look like a pile of ironing boards.
emotion-41.gif
 
A

Anonymous

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Sonic Dreamer:

Can someone please explain the primary differences between "linear" and "non-linear" speakers, regarding construction and performance.

Okay, so ART speakers are linear, so I suppose I kind of know what that is, but how are "non-linear" speakers diffeerent?

Are B&W 800 Series and Spendor A6 or ST speakers, etc. linear?

Cheers,
SonicD

The 'perfect' speaker would output the same sound pressure level across the audible spectrum if it was fed with a test tone (again, spanning the audible spectrum) across its given frequency response, for arguments sake say 20Hz to 20kHz with 0dB as the reference.

No speaker in its own right can achieve this without some form of correction or 'equalisation', these methods generally being frowned on within the hifi community. To simplify, nearly all speakers will output an uneven level of sounds across its frequency response, being lounder or quieter as you move from the bass region up to the treble region. The output across its response would look like hills and valleys if you plot them on graph.

The ideal would be to have a totally flat, or as near as flat response, so every frequency was output with the same sound pressure. A speaker that could be 'considered' linear will not deviate very far from the ideal which would be 0dB across the frequency response. So a speaker that 'measures' a variation of +/-2dB across its entire frequency response could be considered linear or close to the ideal.

A speaker which has variations of say +/-5dB will have some pronounced peeks or dips in its output which the listener may notice as being prominent or what some may describe as a characteristic, bassy, forward etc. It really depends where these peeks and troughs occur accross the audible band so this is really a generalisation.

So ,our the B&W's linear? You'd have to look at the measured performance across a number of areas. At the end of the day though, if you like something or the way it sounds and it brings you pleasure, thats the main thing. Measurements are not the be all and end all, but they can help you understand why you like, what you like.
 
A

Anonymous

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Ken McBlain:I've heard the Decos - they sound horrible and look like a pile of ironing boards.
emotion-41.gif


Then don't buy them. Simple
emotion-2.gif
 

Sonic Dreamer

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Ken McBlain:I've heard the Decos - they sound horrible and look like a pile of ironing boards.
emotion-41.gif


Ken, the cynic in me thinks you are already a member of the forum and created a new user account (only two posts in, hmmmmmmmmmm.), to launch this erudite salvo decimating the ART Deco speakers.

Did you listen to Deco Standards or Signature speakers and in what circumstance, i.e. in a shop or in your own home?

Please quantify and elucidate upon "horrible".

I listened to a pair of Deco Sigs in my own home for three weeks with all my own kit and at no time could I have deviated from an other than superb assessment. The level of detail, transparency, warmth of sound and their ability to run with the music was captivating.

Even if one was not well disposed to the Decos, I fail to see how one could come up with the dismissive indictment you have.

Cheers,
SonicD
 

floyd droid

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Ken McBlain:I've heard the Decos - they sound horrible and look like a pile of ironing boards.
emotion-41.gif


Out of interest what speakers do you have ken, go on indulge us.
emotion-14.gif
 

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