Cannot seem to find an affordable upgrade from current speakers

[Seth=L]

I did nab a set of Boston Acoustics VR-M50 for about $150. They should arrive early next week and I'll give those a whirl.

 

[zieglj01]

I did nab a set of Boston Acoustics VR-M50 for about $150. They should arrive early next week and I'll give those a whirl.

A good price - hope it works out.

 

[Seth=L]

A good price - hope it works out.

I hear the VS260 is pretty good as well. The tweeter is quite different. Have you compared the VS to the VR-M series?

 

[zieglj01]

I hear the VS260 is pretty good as well. The tweeter is quite different. Have you compared the VS to the VR-M series?

No - I have not compared them.

However, I really like the tweeter in the VS260

 

[Seth=L]

My initial impressions of the Boston Acoustics VR-M50 in cherry.

They belay their size, but a large margin. I also didn't anticipate them being as small as they are. Bass is very impressive for how compact they are. They're about 2/3 the size of the IL10s and almost as heavy. Very robust little speakers.

The wood finish is understated in photographs, the cherry wood veneer is marvelous. It's a smoother cherry veneer than my previous Thiel CS.5s. The Thiel's overall craftsmanship was inherently superior in fit and finish as it concerns joining parts. That is to be expected.

The tweeter is super smooth, as smooth of a tweeter as I can remember. No hint of harshness while although very prevalent high frequency production occurs.

Midrange is different, but so far in a good way. It's going to take a little more doing to give a better description of the midrange as it's probably the most difficult range to describe without using words like "chocolaty". Female and male voices seem to be cleaner and more defined than before, less muck that clouds this range is the best way I can think to describe it without hurting my brain.

These may be exactly what I was looking for. I'd still like to hear what I a "polite" quality speaker like a Sonus Faber or Vienna Acoustics would sound like in my home, but those are expensive and I don't have that kind of appetite (read money) right now.

 

[zieglj01]

My initial impressions of the Boston Acoustics VR-M50 in cherry.

Glad you like them so far - a lot of people tend to under estimate Boston.
They have, and still do make some nice sounding speakers.

 

[Seth=L]

Glad you like them so far - a lot of people tend to under estimate Boston.
They have, and still do make some nice sounding speakers.

I underestimated everything about these. I'm quite impressed.

 

[Laurie Ziegler]

Seth
Are you near LA and still looking for Intermezzo 2.6p speakers (with stand)?
Laurie

 

[KEW]

Seth
Are you near LA and still looking for Intermezzo 2.6p speakers (with stand)?
Laurie

I don't believe Seth gets on the Forum on an especially frequent basis. So I will answer you in that I know he lives in the Midwest. Not sure if he is still interested in the Intermezzo or not, he will probably respond in a week or two if not sooner.

 

[Laurie Ziegler]

Thanks. Is it possible to close my account then? I can't ship even if he did want.

 

[Seth=L]

I don't believe Seth gets on the Forum on an especially frequent basis. So I will answer you in that I know he lives in the Midwest. Not sure if he is still interested in the Intermezzo or not, he will probably respond in a week or two if not sooner.

Learned the Intermezzo 2.6p is a far cry from what the powered variant is capable of achieving.

It won't surprise anyone. The Infinity IL10 is still my current personal fave. In fact, I like them so much, I got a second pair.

I pitted them against a pair of standard Ascend Acoustics Sierra 1s and the IL10s are still my preference.

Not entirely convinced anything that's reasonable will be a satisfying replacement. Closest thing I can think of that I would consider now would the Vandersteen 2CE/Sig.

I've got the IL10s running off a B&K Reference 125.2 S2 power amp, Adcom GTP-602 preamplifier, and Sony DVP-S9000ES SACD/CD/DVD player. Pretty satisfying rig.

 

[Seth=L]

It won't surprise anyone. The Infinity IL10 is still my current personal fave. In fact, I like them so much, I got a second pair.

Oh yes, I'm quoting myself. Am I insane? This hobby would lead me to believe that I am...yes.

So I was listening to Ivy Long Distance and the track "Edge of the Ocean" was causing a pretty exciting resonance with the IL10s. Annoyed I switched in the Ascends and voila, resonance alleviated. Listened to them quite a bit more with this CD in particular and was enjoying the experience. Tried listening to other material that I had already heard before on the Ascends and wasn't turned off by their performance. The last three days I've been listening them and the only faults I can come up with is that perhaps they aren't as involving as the Infinity's, the treble is only slightly more fatiguing than the Infinity's (which is not to say that either are particularly fatiguing, just that the Infinity's are a little more forgiving). It may be that the Sierra 1s tweeter has a resonant mode that the CMMD tweeter doesn't have, or maybe I'm just adjusting to them.

I pitted them against a pair of standard Ascend Acoustics Sierra 1s and the IL10s are still my preference.

Now it's a battle. The Ascends are certainly a more "performance" driven speaker. Accuracy is the goal with the Sierra 1s. The bass is more satisfying on the Sierra 1s as well. I've been thinking about getting them closer to the wall (something they Infinity's don't respond well to) to see if the bass performance suffers or improves.

Not entirely convinced anything that's reasonable will be a satisfying replacement. Closest thing I can think of that I would consider now would the Vandersteen 2CE/Sig

It's been so long since I had the Vandies. I remember they were a very "polite" speaker. This can be a blessing and a curse, depends on what you're listening to. I'm starting to get very curious about the RAAL and it's implementation in a number of speaker systems including, but not limited to the Sierra 2, Sierra Towers, Philharmonic Audio 3s, BMR, Philharmonitor, Slims Tower, and Salk Sound (various models). I'd really like to get a set of full range speakers. I don't want to fiddle around with subwoofers anymore. I want a simple to setup and use 2.0 system that I don't have to cram into the nook in my apartment to get sub 30Hz output, because the sound-stage suffers and is boxed in.