Speakers - Planning the next upgrade..

[JMac]

Okay, so I'm thinking of moving on from my currrent speakers and looking for what people think I should try. My system is a Musical Fidelity M1 SDAC and 2x M1 PWR running as dual monos. Speakers are currently Tannoy DC6 stand mounters. All of my music is digital now.

Its difficult to explain but the system just doesnt 'sing' or engage to any great degree. Budget for speakers is up to £1500.

 

[iceman16]

Hi JMac.. Are you still planning to get a standmount or floorstanders? What's the size of your room?

 

[JMac]

I'm thinking its got to be stand mounts due to the room layout. The room is a rectangular loft room probably 15m by 5m but I mainly listen whilst working at my desk working, and the desk is located to one end of the rectangle. The space behind me is used for storage, printer, scanner etc etc.

Speakers are currently about 18 inches from the wall and 2.5m in front of my seating position.

 

[supertweeterz]

Last month I was looking for £1500 speakers and considered The Proac Response D1's but on demo they lacked a little bass, after reading a favourable review and seeing them in the dealers shop out came the new B&W CM6 S2's - they added that low level bass info I was missing, and the wife liked the looks too, happy days

 

[Reijer]

Congrats with your new B&W's.

 

[JMac]

I do like B&W CM speakers but not sure how they'd play with the musical fidelities and not sure home audition is an option.

 

[davedotco]

I'm thinking its got to be stand mounts due to the room layout. The room is a rectangular loft room probably 15m by 5m but I mainly listen whilst working at my desk working, and the desk is located to one end of the rectangle. The space behind me is used for storage, printer, scanner etc etc.

Speakers are currently about 18 inches from the wall and 2.5m in front of my seating position.

Two thoughts.

Just how much do you expect from a hi-fi system? My usual response to situations of this type is to choose a system that is as accurate and neutral as possible. Then if the music fails to engage me, I 'bin' it and move on to something else.

Given your current equipment and your listening setup, I think a quality pair of active nearfield monitors would do the trick. The Quested S7R are within budget and offer a very british, almost hi-fi take on studio monitoring. Plenty of other options of course but the Questeds bring a quality to music playback that is easier to come to terms with than some price competitive models.

Bare in mind that your power amplifiers will be surplus to requirements, you could sell them and put the money towards the larger and more capable S8R.

 

[steve_1979]

For that budget I would be looking at Quested S7R, AVI ADM9 or the AVI DM5 with AVI subwoofer.

 

[Al ears]

Even with your layout I think it might be a little shortsighted to not actually include floorstanders. Some are specifically designed to work in small /close to wall situations.

Perhaps you might like to audition the the very nice Acoustic Energy 103's and save yourself a bob or two on speaker stands

 

[gasolin]

If you like bass, Adam A8X

 

[letsavit2]

I just googled my speakers, bloody hell they are £800 now.....

anyway neat motive 2 do not care for position, sing and have bass with money left over.

 

[Kefref]

Im a little biased towards kef speakers, ive owned a set of Q1's, and after hearing a friends set of Reference 104ab's and after that his 104/2's I tracked myself down a set.

Ive now had my 104/2's for going on 10 years, and must say I dont think that you can not get better bang for buck than a 2nd hand set of kef reference speakers....anything after the 104ab's will blow your socks clean off!

I compared my 3rd hand £500 30 year old speakers to a set of new £1500 speakers years ago when I was auditioning amps and remember being particularaly underwhelmed.

The new speakers (seem to remember they were monitor audio) just didnt have the bottom end, sound stage or stereo separation offered up by the 104/2's.

Obviously they may require a little attention after 30 years but boy do they pay dividends!

 

[JMac]

http://i.imgur.com/0qDmD7a.jpg

I hadnt entirey discounted floor standers but was just a little concerned they may be a bit OTT for the layout. I can move the desk further away from the speakers but I wouldnt be able to widen the distance between the speakers. I think its more about what will work well with the Class D M1 amps and SDAC as I dont want to change these until later next year (ideally). I'm building my system in a tick-tock method of improving the amp, then speakers, then amp, then speakers etc