Vintage Hifi Gurus....I need help

[alienmango]

Hi, basically I'm looking for a pair of big speakers that will do flat bass to around 60hz give or take (no 100hz peaks), don't care about response below 60 though it's not a problem if it's there.

Old/new/ancient I don't care, I just want something that will deliver clarity while walloping me with bass.

Rough limits are anything smaller than 15 inches wide and 6 feet tall.

I've heard the cerwin xls215 really I'm looking for something a bit more hifi, as it were.

Room is 9x5, high ceilings too (not sure exactly but easily 11ft)

Budget is £1000 (amp is nad c370 and don't want to replace it so spending more than £1k seems silly as I plan to keep this setup for a good while). I have a set of celestion a2's and i love the sound but they just don't get loud enough.

Thanks, willing to consider pretty well anything, good (not bad) and ugly.

 

[hoopsontoast]

PA Speakers if you want to do volume.

If you want hifi and SPL, something like the KEF 104/2 might do (without the Kube) although not sure how well they take abuse.

Have you considered DIY?

Is your room in feet? 9' x 15' and 11' ceilings?

 

[alienmango]

Considered DIY, built subs before but mainly worried about the crossover, would probably go active.

Could probably drive midbass with nad, got an arcam alpha 9 (requires £120-140 repair) I could use for mids, then could get seperate module for tweeters.

Main concern though is with all this expense+quality drive units (probably costing £800-1k) is the minidsp good enough? Is there an alternative?

Kinda hoping out there there is something long forgotton haha

 

[alienmango]

PA Speakers if you want to do volume.

Is your room in feet? 9' x 15' and 11' ceilings?

9metersx5 meters, 11 feet ceiling, sorry for the lack of clarity

 

[hoopsontoast]

I would say the MiniDSP is darn good, only 2-way on the basic board.

Its an option, could be easy for you to tailor the sound to what you want.

 

[alienmango]

If I understand right you take the output signal from a dac to an rca input on the minidsp where you can then tailor the sound on a computer and the output is then (in the case of the 2x8 output) 4 stereo pairs of rca outputs at whatever frequency you have set, which goes into seperate amplifiers directly to the drive units?

 

[Frank Harvey]

If you want hifi and SPL, something like the KEF 104/2 might do (without the Kube) although not sure how well they take abuse.

They will take A LOT of punishment!

A friend of me used to play them at gig levels with AC/DC in his living room with a Cyrus system using Mono X monoblocks. Honestly, it was like Angus Young was there in front of you!

 

[alienmango]

They will take A LOT of punishment!

Thanks a lot for the input David.

If I could pick your brain where would you recommend crossing them over assuming I have stereo subs?

 

[hoopsontoast]

If I understand right you take the output signal from a dac to an rca input on the minidsp where you can then tailor the sound on a computer and the output is then (in the case of the 2x8 output) 4 stereo pairs of rca outputs at whatever frequency you have set, which goes into seperate amplifiers directly to the drive units?

Yes, its an active crossover, with built in Parametric EQ.

But if you dont fancy the hassle, it seems that the 104/2 can take lots of abuse. Certainly sounded very good to me, if only I had a larger room.

 

[alienmango]

Quite frankly I'd love the hassle, the problem is the cost would be drastically more and there is no guarantee of what it will sound like. I'd also be able to run the kefs hassle free from my nad.

I'll have a think about it....