Al ears
Well-known member
- Nov 23, 2008
- 13,033
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My 685 Mk1 had unbelievable soundstage width and height, and a fair bit of depth too
Al ears
Well-known member
- Nov 23, 2008
- 13,033
- 7,792
- 64,070
To be frank the 685s were the only moderately priced B&W speakers that I have owned and enjoyed.
The Triangle Esprit Titus is a little speaker which is capable of pretty impressive scale. Layers building, climaxes, quieter passages are all wonderfully rendered on this speaker. But scale is just one of its many attributes. This summer I heard and have tried out in my system some pretty big hitters but none have come close to the talents of the Triangles. In my system I had Dynaudio Emit 20 and SF Lumina ii, and neither worked as well as the Titus. I also heard Dali Opticon 2 mk ii and Dali Rubicon ii in a shop demo and in neither case was that taken, but the source was Spotify on a Bluesound Node, which I'm really not a fan of.
But if anyone is a fan of the Node, mine's still for sale! Hope I'm not flouting any rules here.
But if anyone is a fan of the Node, mine's still for sale! Hope I'm not flouting any rules here.
I remember these back in the day, and yes, I think you're right this was great box!
Mmmmhh, I originally replied just with 'no' but I bought a new pair of Ushers S520's many, many a moon ago. I already had a pair of said Missions 751 which I picked up cheaply. They did not stay long. - I thought at the time the Ushers were much better but to be honest I can't recall how exactly they sounded.
record_spot
Well-known member
- May 30, 2015
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The original ones I think? The Freedoms didn't half suck when they swapped out the tweeter for that silk dome thing. Bad move. Robbed them of the life that made the originals really sing.
record_spot
Well-known member
- May 30, 2015
- 502
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Fundamentally different speakers. The 520s were raved about by Hi Fi World, but I'm guessing they were pretty smooth (or "warm sounding"). The 751s - and I had the original 751s and 752s - came with a great midrange and bass, but the kind of clarity, thanks to the mesh dome tweeters of the original, that I've only heard in actives. Mine were paired with - at the time - an Arcam Alpha 5 amp. Later, when I had the 752s, they went with a Sansui AU-217 and it was one of the best setups I ever owned. Also tried it with a Sansui AU-717 which was a terrific amp, but had issues as it was getting on for 30-odd years old at the time and the volume pot (sealed) was a PITA to get cleaned out. It went to the skip a decade ago.
Thanks for that - I've never heard the Freedoms directly against the originals. I've been half-looking for some Freedoms to do an actual test, but maybe I won't bother. I have (original) 752 and 753 at the moment. They are going to be part of a 5.1 system, but the amp will also be used for 'movies' in a 7.2 or even 9.2 config, so I was thinking to add in some 751 as the rears.
record_spot
Well-known member
- May 30, 2015
- 502
- 406
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