OVERKILL????????

[jc1972]

Any views welcome, not to clue'd up.........

I have a rotel processor with the rmb1075 120w per channel power amp running a pair of mission 782se's, All highly recommended 5 star's by whfi at the time of purchase, And been very happy with it for last 6 years. Question is, Would upgrading the mission's for spendor a5, or a6's be worth it? Also using cyrus 6 se cdp, I know these are highly capable speakers(double price of the mission's), would they be under used, or not much of an improvement due to pre/power combo being at there limits musically.

cheers jc.

 

[plastic penguin]

The 782 SE's were highly praised; not heard them for about 7-8 years, but loved them, I seem to remember.

I heard the A5's two weeks ago and sounded sublime - albeit with a different system - so this is a real toughy. The best advice is to listen to some Spendors with your kit and see how they stack up.

Sorry, can't help any further.

 

[jc1972]

cheers for advice, the thought of taking 2 boxes with a joint weight of 30 kilo's fills me with dread.(and un-plugging everything!!!) But spose it's only way to be sure. The missions are good but listening to more music now than cinema and wondering if spendors would be big step up. you know what it's like, is grass greener and all that!!

 

[the record spot]

Don't I just! Can you possibly find a Spendor dealer who'll let you try them out at home, or some PMC floorstanders? That would give you a better idea in your home setting and it'll save you lugging the gear round to the shop as well!

 

[jc1972]

I can try asking, but cant see a dealer letting me take 2 grand speakers home, people on these forums seem to have found friendly dealers that let them test different stuff with their own kit, In my experience i haven't had much help at all,(maybe it's a london thing).

seem to just want your money!!

 

[jc1972]

Found local dealer who will let me bring in missions and hook em up to the newer rotel gear,(and high end 2ch amps) compare with the spendor's, kef's, and b&w's, etc... might ask if i can listen without knowing what ones are plugged in, (pepsi challenge!) and see if i can notice a big difference. Be interesting to see if highly regarded 7 year old 5 star speakers match up to new one's. And could also save a lot of dough looking for that ' upgrade' we all wonder about. Let you know how i get on if anyone's interested.

 

[Anonymous]

Where in London are you ..... ?

There are plenty of dealers who allow home dem's - but sometimes prefer you to try in the shop first, to narrow down the options.

 

[jc1972]

south east, i've asked before, no joy, but the shop i'm now going to said he might let me bring the speakers i like most home to demo, spose he realizes i'm a serious buyer.

 

[jc1972]

Right,some might find this helpfull,might save you some money,or like me,maybe wish you haden't looked for that 'upgrade' we all look for!

I had a demo of spendor a6, b&w cm9's against my old mission's running through my cyrus 6se cdp and the rotel rsx1560 av amp.(prob not as good for stereo as my power amp but the most similar he had). Firstly with my missions it didn't sound as good as at my place, A bit flat, Then the spendors, better but wouldn't convince me to buy them, And there a grand more than the missions were.Then the b&w's, Well, i don't know if there less fussy about pairing, but they were a considerable jump in performance, wanted to leave my missions at the shop and take them there and then.The guy at the shop then said we should change the source, so went to the naim cdx2 to really test speakers. spendors much better than before,the whole music experience was so much better with a top cdp. But again the b&w's were much better again, much better!.

By this time a decided more than just speakers was what i was going to need to get ' proper hi-fi', So we got rid of the rotel and used the naim naitxs amp. Jesus, i was starting to think about trading my new transit van in by now, It was brilliant, i took a mate as a second pair of ears and we both agreed how good everything was. Again the b&w's were much better than the spendors.

To cut the story a bit short, i'm now debating to sell my gear, and start with a separate av,amp and style speakers, Then really seriously consider that naim gear,( with the naim dac and sonos running through it the guy at shop says it's as good, if not better than the cdx2, and i agreed.)

As usual it all depends on what you can afford and where does it all stop!! to ram this home we were treated to a 60k naim sytem at the end. Unbelievable, really. So be warned when going for a simple demo to try and find that upgrade that might make your system better!!!

 

[the record spot]

Damn right; I've got a blank credit card with a £6k limit on it. You have no idea how hard it is at times to not just pick up the phone to Loud and Clear in Edinburgh and book out their dem room for a day.

However, their are natural barriers to this line of reasoning; thanks to a contract I entered into some years ago now, this would mean an additional cost spread out over several years on top of the cost of the new system. I believe it is called "maintenance" and it's what I'd need to pay Mrs. R_S until the kids were at least 18. As I'd like them to have a good chance in life and get a good education, make that about 22. So, another 20 years of coughing up on a grand scale, which means that the only Overkill I'll be going anywhere near is the one recorded by Motorhead.

 

[jc1972]

ha, I did try and convince my wife that buying all the above gear would, in fact, save us money in the long run, cos i would prefer to stay in more just listening to it rather than going to the boozer to watch football.

 

[Anonymous]

and jc1972 did she buy that??

 

[jaxwired]

Thanks for the great post. Very interesting. I can fully understand liking the CM9 over the Spendor A6. They are very different sounding speakers. I spent more than a year with the CM9s little brother, the CM7 which is very similar, but not quite as good in the mid-range as the CM9. The CM9 has cystalline clarity but with lots of exciting dynamic sound to boot. And plenty of solid bass as well. Very good speakers IMO. However, when it comes to neutrality and lifelike reproduction of acoustic instruments, the A6 is the clear winner. The CM9 sounds fanstastic, but there is some coloration to the presentation when compared to the extreme accuracy of the A6. Just depends what you're after.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. The CM9 does have one drawback. While it is quite handsome and modern in appearance, it has the ugliest plinth of any floorstander being sold today. Just horrible. Looks like they tacked on a big chunk of cheap MDF to the bottom. No curved edges or anything. Sticks way out on the sides too. What the heck are they thinking?

Look how awkward and ridiculous the plinth looks...you could leave it off of course, but then you can't use spikes...

 

[jc1972]

she aint silly!

 

[jc1972]

we'll have to agree to disagree, the a6's sound changed a lot when the amp's/cdp's were changed, from not doing a lot for us, (3 pairs of ears agreeing) to getting really good. But the neutrality you mention,whilst it may be to your taste ,seemed to relaxed compared to the cm9's. Everyone has different tastes i suppose. The cm9's were always good,really exciting listen,masses of detail, then brilliant when used with better amp/cdp, I spose it suggests the a6's need a lot of testing to find there best pairing of amp's/ cdp's.

I under-estimated how important a demo was,trying out all the different combo's of speakers/cdp's/amps,(and that brillaint naim dac). And we only used 3 different brands! great fun though.

and yeah the plinth is a bit pony. but with the grill off, makes up for it.