Upgrading from MX2's and need some input.

Hi!

I have only heard the Tannoys you have listed... I really prefer my 603s. I haven´t seen any special on them. Not a brilliant sound at least. They didn´t sound bad but they definitely weren´t impressive or special in any way.

But as you´ll probably know you can´t buy a speaker wihout hearing it, so try to listen some speakers. Take a full day and travel to somewhere with a good audio store with big stock and hear a lot. That´s the only way

In my oppinion sound is a very very personal thing. I can tell you or someone on this forum can tell you that hates some of the speakers you have listed and if you listen to them you can love them. You can be influenced too (psiquically influenced I mean) by the things we can say here, so better you go and listen to some speakers on the price range you want.

Seriously please audition them befor you buy.

Essentially you want good bookshelves.....

Dynaudio is good...I have heard it....Qual 11L are sweet but I like the 12L better, better mids and lows...tonally very nice...bronze audio has impressive specs but I prefer 12L.

Kef is one manufacturer that I quite detest...so KEF is out for me.

Tannoy has this concentric tweeter technology with a super tweeter which I heard but wasn't greatly impressed with it, would still settle for Quad 12L and then Dynaudio in that order.

But if you need a real good bookshelf which blows your mind...then try the Cadence Arita....believe you me there is nothing better on bookshelves. You might have to pay a bit more but they are worth every penny.

By the way what amp and source do you use or plan to use ?

Hi there!
Yes, Dynaudio is good. KEF too. But as Manek says you must listen to the speakers by yourself! Take a CD you know very well so you will see how good they are.

Oh trust me, I would love to go and listen to them all. But there is no store that I know of that carries all these speakers, and the nearest one that might is about 4 hours away.

I was really interested in the Sensys DC1's, hoping that they would provide a similar experience to my MX2's. Webon, when you listened to the DC1's do you know if they were properly broken in? The reason I ask is because from what I've heard dual-concentric speakers tend to sound lifeless, with poor low end until they have been completely broken in.

The gear I have is the NAD C370 (amp), NAD T572 (cd/dvd), Dual (vinyl player), and TaraLabs (interconnects).

Hmmm I don´t know but I think the were broken in. It was an exposition. You can see my little and poor review here:

Exposition Review

Anyway it was a 5.1. So they were connected to a 5.1 amplifier and I could´n listen to them concretely, I hear the entire system. Maybe if you listen to them with a good STEREO amplifier the sound is much better. It´s possible, my 603 sounded more poorly with the ONKYO 5.1 amplifier I heard to them the first time.

So my opinion is not very helpful

bigred...

If I were you I will travel that distance....take a day off and do some speaker searching(thats what i did)....otherwise you will never know how the others sound and after a while you may want to kick yourself for not trying the others out.

By the way...where do you live....maybe I can try and find a good store for you ...

Yep, that´s what I did too. 1:30 travel to listen to a pair of B&W 603 and a pair of JBL XTi80.

A 4 hour travel can be very good if the dealer has some speakers ready to play.

why not call them and ask which pairs they have for a demo and then make your choice where to go.

Well the other problem is that if I go that distance, and get someone to setup all those speakers for me they are going to expect a sale, and rightfully so. But they won't be getting one. AFAIK, I need to go back to the store I bought my MX2's from to get the trade-in credit.

I don't really have a problem traveling to check out speakers, but an 8+ hour round trip of just driving, not to mention the hours spent at the store is too much for me.

Basically I guess I was just hoping to eliminate some of the one's I had nominated, and get a few new suggestions, so that in the end my list was a little shorter, hopefully allowing me to go to one of the closer Hi-Fi stores to do the listening.

Ok understood...
My list would be dynaudio or quad 12L and then quad 11L

so you have to buy your speakers at the same shop where you bought the first ones? so talk to that dealer and tell him you want to listen all his speakers within your price range. that shouldnt be a great problem for him.

Yeah but they don't carry all these brands, and eventhough they sell Tannoy they don't have any DC1's in stock.

With in my price range they have a few speakers that I have already listend to, but none of them really impressed me.

Oh yeah Manek, to answer your previous question I live in Canada.

I've given you my verdict bigred.....let me know if you need any more inputs....I believe PSB is not a bad speaker after all...PSB is a canadian brand..try and stratus or the image series....bookshelves....they also have a 3 driver image series speaker 3LR which servers as a front and if you want stereo speakers if you buy two.....

hey bigred. if they dont carry all brands you want is there any speaker thats ok or do they just sell bullshit?

bigred...which speakers do they have in stock anyways ?

They sell a lot of B&W stuff, some Tannoy, PSB, Klipsch and couple pairs of Linn.

The problem is that they have almost nothing instock thats in my price range. They also aren't willing to bring anything in so I can have a listen before I buy...

thats a really bad dealer....
B&W bookshelves like 303, 601 etc leave a lot to be desired.
303 has very good mids and highs but low end is crappy...
601 has a very painfull tweeter....
I dont know if you like using sub woofers but 303 with a matching sub would be a decent choice or if the dealer has the 309 floorstander of the same 303 series then they are not bad either and are not costly.

Hmm a subwoofer. I had looked into getting one a while back. What might you suggest I try and have a listen to? Something in the sub $1000 area.

Unfortunately floorstanders are pretty much out of the question for the time being. I just don't have the space. Also I'm not too crazy about B&W stuff. From all of the ones I've heard they left much to be desired. I know lots of people like them, but they just didn't sit right with me.

Hi!
So you want bookshefl speakers and a subwoofer? That sounds good. Anything not the better than a floorstander but it a good solution also!

the only problen with the bookshelves and the sub combo is that the bass in the sub is alwats late and slow. The bass timing is never right...but it makes good listening sometimes...

bigred whats your speaker budget in US dollars ?

Yeah the more I think about it the more I realize that I don't want a sub. At least not yet anyways.

My budget including my trade-in value is just over $1100 (US).

Then Dynaudio's the only spekaer you can buy blind...out of your list...others have a typical sonic signature and you would need to hear them.

After reading some more reviews I think I will be happy with the Dynaudio 52's. Everyone remarks that they are crisp with great dynamics and great low end punch. Too bad they have a vinyl finish...

One thing that I noticed is that they are not bi-wireable, yet the speaker wire I have is. Will that cause any problems?

if you got a bi-wiring speaker cable and the speakers cant be driven bi-wired you can use the cable by using just one of the two cables within the bi-wiring-cable.
i wouldnt buy dynaudio without listening but manek's right they are very good.

sledge is right....
just use one pair per end per channel.

Well I thought I would give you guys an update. I've decided to go with the Tannoy DC1's. I had a chance to listen to them in a nice room and I was impressed.
I also got a chance to listen to some of the other speakers in my list, and although I liked some of them as well, the character of the DC1's won me over.

Thanks for all the help.