Warm, creamy & smooth system for my metal/rock collection

[admin_exported]

Hi I have a rather small room left in my house and I want to use it as a dedicated audio room. The room s only 3,32 meter wide and 3,67 meter long.

I want to buy a new system for my' 70 '80 , '90 metal, rock collection. Metallica, Black Sabbath, Led Zep, Megadeath, Pearl Jam, Candlemass etc.

I owned al lot of Sennheiser headphones from 40 till 200 pounds and I love that warm, smooth, creamy sound of the Senns with this kind of music,

Now I was wondering can I get this kind of sound with a traditional Speakers, Amp, cd player system in a small sized room like mine for about total of 2,500 pounds. I want to buy new stuff so I can demo it.

Any suggestions worth demoing?

thanks a lot ,

George

 

[Anonymous]

check out yamaha's soavo range. i've worked alongside these for quite some time and to my ears they've always been a silky warm sound without sacrificing detail by going muddy. as for an amp i've found the cambridge 840 sound great with these.

not sure how much all that accounts to in pounds i'm in Australia where the mark up on Audio is HUGE!!! it's usually cheaper to order online from overseas at full RRP then it is to shop around and get a good deal over here....

how much does that suck

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your info:

-Yamaha Soavo 2 ( best for my room i think)

-Cambridge 840 amp+cd

is on the demo list.

Any more suggestions?

 

[Anonymous]

If you find the sound a bit to bright try substituting the amp/cd for the new musical fidelity m3 gear. it's fairly neutral gear but it's tight and fast - great for a rock / metal collection. alongside the soavo you should get an overall rich and detailed sound with crisp but not overbright treble.

depends if you want bright treble though. make sure you take a variety of your own music when demoing.

i haven't had much experience with dali speakers but from what everyone says they are very warm speakers. as to whether you loose clarity though i'm not sure.

 

[Anonymous]

mmm.. dali,

in my price range and room size it would be the mentor 1 i think, never heard the mentor range.

 

[Mike_Schmidt]

As a metal head myself Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Tool I have found staying away from any metal tweets is a good place to start and a good cable will do wonders I know there expensive but if you can find any Cardas on line that will help tame em. Racks are also important they can make your system go aghhhhhh to oh! think wood! but what ever you buy and you will find the best advice here take this from me at least one pair of Cardas cable somewhere.

 

[Anonymous]

There's a lot of the 99 series Quad kit being sold for low prices due to the new range coming along. This stuff is great, detailed, smooth and Quad!

Check out this one for example. This one is at Lintone Audio so you may be able to demo.

 

[Anonymous]

Moorgate Acoustics have some too, not to mention some Rega speakers that might work well. Depends where you live I guess!

 

[poldo]

exposure, i loved it with rock metal, maybe with tannoy rev. sig dc4t, neat motive 2 or spendor sa1 in small room, or a total rega set?

 

[SteveR750]

See my sig for what is IMO the best rock / metal / NWOBHM system for around that budget, tho the speakers were used and around half the retail price.

 

[the record spot]

Consider some active speakers - Genelec 8040A (I heard the 8030A at £800 and the bass on those was astounding) at around £1200. Then you just need to sort out your source. Don't be put off by the size, these things can slam out the beats - heard two demos this year and been blown away on both occasions.

Watch out for the pricing on actives - a lot of places price them as single speakers so you might think you're getting two for £420 when you'll only walk out the door with just the one!

http://www.htfr.com/more-info/MR330745

 

[Craig M.]

going on a SoS review, those genelecs are unlikely to be warm, creamy or smooth.

 

[the record spot]

They're one review and having heard them, they're not harsh, excessively revealing or uninvolving. In fact, they're anything but the typical neutral monitor sound a speaker like that is traditionally designed for. Very acceptable domestically and worth looking at. And no, not "warm, creamy or smooth" but then that seems more like a description of a good pint than anything worthwhile in meaning for a speaker!

 

[Anonymous]

I listen to fairly similar stuff to you - most types of metal, 70's / 80's rock, etc. I found that DALI Ikon 6 (I have mk1, which can be had for around £600 ex-demo nowadays) sound great with distorted guitars and have a tight control on the bass. Dali's are fairly laid-back and neutral with open mid-range In my opinion the are some of the best speakers for metal/hard-rock. Rega CDPs (Apollo for around £475 and Saturn for £875, i think) are excellent value and sound great. Rega CDPs are very musical and have strong bass with great timing.

I know you said you wanted a smooth and creamy sound, but I think for metal you do really need to have a fairly accurate and clear sound - otherwise guitars would sound too muddy and might lack punch. Avoid Cyrus gear (very bright!!), and though Naim tends to be a bit aggressive sounding, I think that Naim amps could work really well in context of DALI speakers / Rega sources (i.e. with less in-your-face components), so if you're considering DALI & Rega, I recommend looking up Naim amps. As you might guess, the recommendations are based on my own system!

If I had £2500, I would get ex-demo DALI Ikon 6mk1 (£600ish) (or the newer, more expensive Mk2 for £1200 brand new), Rega Saturn CDP (£875), and Naim 5i (£770), and spend the rest on a good set of cables! Or maybe Ikon 6 mk2's with Rega Apollo instead if you want everything brand new - since I think mk1's aren't made any more, but a few shops might still have them.

Also consider an all-Rega system (they make amps and speakers too) and maybe Naim CDPs, although I think that Rega's sources are far better than their amps, and Naim's entry-level sources do sound quite trebly.