What Speakers for Musical Fidelity and Clearaudio?

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Anonymous

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I think we'll need a little more info than that
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iemslie

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I'm looking for some ideas for speakers to go with the following system.
Clearaudio Concept TT, Musical Fidelity M1 DAC (using PC as source) and an M3i amplifier which is an imminent purchase.
Budget is around £1000 and I'm open to stand mount or floor standing speakers
The room is approx. 3.5 x 4.5 metres and contains the usual living room furnishings.
The speakers will be located fairly close to the longer wall (solid brick), about 30cm gap maximum.
Ideally the speakers need to be quite aesthetically pleasing (Other half likes B&W CM series, grilles off).
Music tastes are pretty wide ranging but mostly soul, funk, prog rock, bit of electronica.
Have listened to CM5 with Roksan and CM8 with Arcam, Cyrus and Audio Analogue and I'm quite tempted by the CM5 but wonder how it will perform with my set up.
My local HiFi shop stocks the following along with MF, which would make things a lot easier
Monitor Audio, Totem, Focal, B&W, Spendor, ATC, Triangle and Proac, all within my budget give or take a bit.

Obviously I'm open to all suggestions, however auditioning could be tricky but I might be prepared to travel further if a 'match made in heaven' is suggested.

Thanks for any help, suggestions, comments.

Cheers
 

CnoEvil

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Your list of speakers have very different presentations, so you need to pin down the type of sound you prefer:

Spendor/Proac - smoother and more laid back.
Triangle/MA - more forward, brighter and livelier
Totem - somewhere in between
Focal/ATC - Neutral
B&W - haven't heard them recently, but the older ones were too bright for my taste.... though there have been good reports of the CM8s & 7s by owners on here.

The above assessments are purely my view, and my choice would be with Spendor/Proac/PMC - you need to find what "floats your boat" at home with your kit.

Cno
 
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Anonymous

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Cno is very accurate in his post.

I've been an MF buff for years now and one thing strikes me the most about partnering their kit. It's that it demands a very balanced speaker to sound its best. So the likes of ProAc and Spendor with MF kit is 99% of the time, a great idea. From experience, the Studio range from ProAc work incredibly well with the M3i and M6i, if you could get a hold of a pair of Studio 140's to try, the amp will truly impress you.

The just-out-of-line Monitor Audio GS series are actually reasonably good with the MF integrateds too. GS20's would be suiting to your budget and may prove the ticket if you prefer a slightly warmer, more relaxed presentation than the ProAc or Spendor combo.
 

iemslie

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Thanks for the replies. I’ve not heard anything by the likes of Spendor, PMC or Proac before, so I’m keen for a demo of these. I certainly like the idea of a more compact monitor however bass response is a concern based on some reviews; some of my regular playlist is very bass driven. That said the same was true of the CM series which I found to be perfectly acceptable. I guess the only way to find out is to try ‘em!

The Studio 140 might be a little too much over budget, so I might not necessarily listen to those just to avoid temptation. We’ll see….

I’ve managed to find a hifi shop a little further afield (Music Matters in Birmingham), so I’ll give them a call and see what I can arrange in the coming weeks..

Cheers.
 
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Anonymous

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Look for ex-dem Studio 140's, those usually go up for sale at about £1050. Incredible value!
 

audioaffair

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Good analysis of those different speaker brands. ProAc Studio 140s are wonderful speakers if you can get them within budget - we've had these on demo with an M3i amp and CD and its a good match given the more forward sound of the MF. Focal 816V are worth a try as well to hear a more neutral alternative (indeed these are some of the most neutral £1000ish speakers we've heard)
 

iemslie

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Well I've arranged a demo locally (Music Matters haven't gotten back to me yet despite emails and a phone call to make arrangments, perhaps they're busy or don't need my trade!)

Looking to demo Spendor S3/5R2 and SA1 (the SA1 stands are nice, if not a bit expensive)

B&W CM5 and CM8

I'll have a listen to Proac Studio 140 if available for demo, however from the pics on the web the other half may not like them.

I'm keen to stick to budget or come under it so in some ways I'm hopeful that the CM5 or S3/5R2 take my fancy.

Not sure how well these will work with the MF and wondering whether the Spendors will provide enough guts at the lower end. Reprts suggest they're a bit lacking in that area, but we'll see. It's all subjective in this game afterall.

Having listened to the CM5 with other amplification and walking away impressed I'm hopeful that they'll work well with MF.

Anyone heard CM5 with MF M3i? Would be good to have some view/opinions.

I'll report back myself in the next couple of days.

Cheers.
 
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Anonymous

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Well, for what it's worth - I have the MF M6i with B&W CM9 speakers and I love my setup.
 

iemslie

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Thanks for all replies.
I had a listen to a few speakers this weekend. Tried standmounts and floorstanders in the £1000-1200 range:- B&W CM8, Spendor A3, MA GX50 and Proac Studio 115. I wanted to try out some floorstanders as the other half prefers the look of them (she hates speaker stands).

I'd heard the CM8s before with Arcam and Cyrus and whilst I liked them I didn't feel they were controlled enough, possibly due to lack of power. This time around the MF would be providing additional power to the speakers which I hoped would rein them in a bit. Also, I positioned the speakers fairly close to the rear wall, as they would be at home. The top end and mids were very detailed as per the previous session. However the bass was a touch boomy (due to positioning I suspect) and also a bit muddled at times. This appeared to impact on the midrange considerably with certain tunes. It was as if any music with a heavier low end was spoiling what was an otherwise clear and precise performance. I decided to pass on these after only 20 minutes listening. I think with the right amp and some space though, these would be pretty damned good. Just not for me unfortunately, and a shame because they look fantastic and the fit and finish is very appealing.

The Monitor audios were a very compact speaker, in fact a lot smaller in the flesh than i imagined. Considering their small size they were a great listen. Low frequencies were not handled too well on some of my test tracks, possibly to be expected for the size of the speaker, and the top end was a bit harsh at times when pushed and driven really loud. At lower to mid volumes they were great though. Nice overall package but the finishing was not as good as I would expect for the price. Nice veneer but the speaker drive unit facias was poorly and unevenly mounted which I could see by eye and this was particularly noticeable by touch.

The Spendor A3s were extremely good; lovely sounding in pretty much all respects. Positioning did not appear to affect them at all, in fact pushed right back the bass was more pronounced and improved greatly. It's difficult to say anything too negative about the A3s other than perhaps they felt a little too relaxed at times. I have heard these described as "too polite" and I think that is a good description. A great fit and finish and a really nice pair of speakers in almost every respect. I spent a long time listening to these, not at all fatiguing and worked well with the M3i

The Proac Studio 115. Wow. These were extremely good. I can't really explain this too well other than to say that they handled all the test tracks, at all volume levels, within the limits of comfortable listening. They were unfazed throughout and just performed exactly as I wanted. They were simply superb. The Studio 115 are not the best looking speakers, let's call them functionally designed, nicely finished though and solid to boot.
So, not wanting to mess around any further I plumped for the Proacs. It was a bit of a toss between these and the Spendor A3s and I suspect that if I'd not heard the Proacs I would have left the shop a happy A3 owner. However for me the studio 115 were just too good to pass up. Now to find some visually acceptable speaker stands for the other half.

Not related to the above. 4th attempt to post this. Posting on this forum's a flippin' nightmare.....
 

iemslie

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/sites/whathifi.com/files/images/large_Tracks_0.JPG

Just in case anyones interested.

Here's a list of the tracks I took to the demo. I just grabbed a random selection, but turned out to be a fair mix of genres. Cheers.

edit:- Tried to make the image clearer. Hmmm, not great...oh well.
 

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