Hello,
I would like to replace my Linn Sara speakers that I purchased in late 80's but for which I picked maybe a very good amplifier but a wrong one for driving these very much demanding speakers: a Naim Audio NAP110 amp + NAC42 pre. A month ago my NAP110 has been serviced and tweaked and the NAC42 pre-amp has been upgraded to 42.5. More power but still not enough for the Linn Sara.
What my present system succeeds to represent the best is small scale music (chamber music, one singer + one to three instruments, small Jazz bands, acoustic instruments) but large scale symphonic orchestra music sounds flat, very confused and lacking in accuracy. What is also missing is a good punchy bass (specially low frequency)
Last week I have auditioned at my place,a pair of DIY shelf speakers each with a Seas Prestige tweeter and woofer. They gave a better bass and a better representation of large symphonic music than the Saras but the beauty of the upper and mid-range that the Saras give me was gone, so I am looking elsewhere.
My budget is around $2000 and I would like to audition several speakers and to get the most accurate picture of how my audio system will sound I decided to do the auditions only in the "audio corner" of my living room and with my own system. Most dealers selling the speakers that I may be interested to audition do not want to hear about letting me audition the speakers at my place and the others may consider the possibility but only for two or three pairs of speakers for a day or two, so I have to narrow my choice of speakers and carefully pick the two or three speakers that I will audition at my place.
From the little research that I have made to pick the speakers available in Israel where I live, and that may work fine with my amps, the potential speakers seem to be the ProAc Tablette Reference 8 or ProAc Studio 110. The dealer who proposed to let me audition the ProAc at my place asked me "and what about Audio Note?". This was the first time I heard about the Audio Note speakers, so I made a lot of Google research during the last week and after reading many review and owner comments I developed an interest for these speakers specially the AN line and in particular the AN-E.
I have several questions that I prefer to ask you first before I ask the dealer:
1. I understand that the Audio Note speakers are conceived to work best with their back close to the wall ( no problem, that's the way the Linn Saras work) but also close to the room corner and there no way that the speaker may be close to any corner where I listen music at home ( the corners are about 2 meters from the speakers). How will it impact the quality of the sound?
2. the size of my "audio corner" (about half of my living room) is is 2.40 meters long (the distance between the external sides of my speakers) and 3 meters wide (the distance between the wall behind my speakers and the wall behind my sofa). The distance between the centers of my two speakers is 1.80 m, the distance between the front of my speakers and my ears is 2.50 m and the distance between me and the back wall is 30 cm. Is this an OK room for the AN line and the AZ line ?
3. is the fact that my amplifier is a 40 watt power transistor amp and not tube/valve, may be a problem. In other words, do you have any experience or know of Audio Note speakers working successfully with Naim or other transistor amplifiers?
4. about 40% of the music I listen to is classical (chamber and symphonic), 40% is small Jazz ensembles (vocal and instrumental) and the rest rock/pop mainly from the 60's. Are all Audio Note speakers fine for the kind of music I listen to.
Thanks.
