A few know I've been waiting for my BMRs to come in from
@Dennis Murphy / Philharmonic Audio.
This has been a long strange trip for me, getting to this point. I'm very glad I am
part way on my journey, and I wouldn't have gotten here without the help of many here at Audioholics... which includes the introduction to Philharmonic Audio.
Considering I was almost pre-sold on the more well established brands, especially Monitor Audio Silver series, that I even began to look outside of the box at all was a minor miracle. My imagination detoured me all over the place... even once (or seven times) considering just buying a full set of Emotiva Airmotivs so I could get on with life. Regardless, I kept researching, saving, and finally when I started auditioning speakers and was almost ready to fly off to Utah and visit Tekton, I had the opportunity to audition the Phil 3s first.
Suffice it to say, a two hour drive and an hour in a strangers home was nothing compared to plane tickets and a hotel, so off I went down-peninsula. Little did I know... that my search would end that night.
On Friday, the last 2 of 3 BMRs arrived to form the temporary front three of my rig. Later this week, I will have a pair of Mini-Phils and AAs arrive to round out the Surrounds and Rears in a 7.2 set-up I'll be using until around May. I spent that day rearranging, hooking up new amps, finding interconnects, cutting new speaker cable, and performing the meditative exercise of stripping wire and attaching banana plugs. By the end, I only had enough in the tank to make certain they worked!
Yesterday, I played! And wow. No room correction. Nothing. I turned off my subs and just let the BMRs do it all.
I never envisioned myself owning standmounts as my L/R. These
easily hold their own against everything else I auditioned in full 3-way towers at over twice the price! I will not belittle my experiences with the KEF R900, MA Silver 500, or Martin Logan Motion 60XT (among others) by saying they don't have their value. They do. The BMRs, to my ears, are easier to listen to than the KEFs, they fill the room with glorious sound just as well, and they have a more-open and more-natural quality of sound to me that the other speakers did not exhibit as well as the BMRs do. I say this as a trained, performing musician (though I left that life behind many years ago. I am a Chef, now.)
So no flowery words here... no attempts to describe soundstage... and no attempts to write an actual "review:" That's
@shadyJ's job!
But, WOW!
Lastly: today I dialed things in more and re-integrated my Outlaw X-13s. (I suspect I might have the subs still set a little too loud (currently set at -15dB on the sub, ~1/4-1/3 gain.),but feel good about everything else.) I have the crossover in my AVR set to 60HZ right now as I get more used to the BMRs performance: that ScanSpeak 8545 7" woofer is pretty impressive in what it is delivering. The LPF is set at 100Hz. (Speakers are, of course, set to small.)
Both Janos Starker performing Bach's Suites for Cello (Mercury 432 756-2) and Keith Jarrett performing Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues (ECM 1469/70) sound, well, real. That's what has been on as I wrap my evening.
Seriously, WOW!
Thank you, Dennis! I can't wait until the Phil 3s are done.
Cheers!
(photos tomorrow, after my 2-miles at the pool!)
