OH, FYI I just found out Dennis has shut down his speaker making business, although he continues to work through Jim Salk, so hopefully he continue selling the BMR's.
Has anyone else heard this?
Glenn
Dennis retired a bit ago. Sad, but I am happy he is well! His speaker designs are fantastic, and his work continues through Salk!
The BMRs are continuing to be available through Salk, as well as DIY Kits through Meniscus Audio (with Cabinets through Speaker Hardware).
As a devout Philharmonic Audio-Dennis Murphy Fan Boy, I will say that the speakers you are considering are Wonderful. My Phil 3s were built as an "every-man's option" to the SS8 from Salk. They were selling at half the cost and were basically as good!
That said, I am certain that the Salk offering has a slight level of refinement to it that will make it a wee bit better.
(Especially since the Phil 3s are not being produced anymore.
)
Now, on to a more realistic item... I love my BMRs. No doubt. I use them for Surround duty and at Center. I am a
Music First kinda guy and am working on building my 5.1 music collection. That said, using BMRs for Rear Surrounds is a bit of overkill. My Mini Phils do
Very Well filling in that rear section. This includes listening to DTS 5.1 which uses a Rear Center instead of Surround Rears... If you set up 7.1, it will send the Rear Center to the Rear Surrounds.
This is a very rare situation, I think!
My advice is to talk to Jim and get his recommendation for your room and listening habits. Set up the best 5.x bed layer for your room.
(I leave the LFE number to decide later... two should suffice, but three would be better.
)
Add to that with the next grade down of rear surrounds (but with matching tweeters if possible, and only if you REALLY engage in critical listening with discrete multichannel source material!). A good 2-way speaker with Raal 64-10 tweeters would suffice for this, or listen to Jim's advice.
If you decide you need to pursue Atmos, this is even lighter duty in some ways... I would recommend you find good quality (not exceptional quality) ceiling speakers that will fit your room. They do not need to be timbre matched to the rest of the system. A simple truth.
Dennis' speaker designs are high quality, always. He tends to focus on wide dispersion speakers which create a very realistic soundstage which is VERY EFFECTIVE with Orchestral and Acoustic Jazz, for example. His Voicing is Neutral and Accurate. This translates fine, IMO, to Home Theater. But again, I am a Music First kind of guy and I appreciate that Sound Quality.
...
Stay tuned: more to come.
