I visited a really great Hi-Fi shop in White Plains, NY called Lyric Hi-Fi and had a meaningful discussion on cars, life, and audio. We talked for about 30 minutes before I sat down to demo some speakers and equipment. I listened to Hansen, B&W, Totem, Audio Physic and Magnaplanar loudspeakers. The B&W speakers were the 802 - really nice and buttery sounding powered by MacIntosh Amps and PreAmp and the source was a Rega 3 turntable. Very old school - very cool. The Hansen were overly bright and I suspect not yet broken in. Another B&W was the 804 or 805 diamond series. Also nice - but not as welcoming as the 802. The Audio Physic was the Tempo I had auditioned on a prior visit except this time I played hard rock and shred metal to see how they would sound. They were decent but really excelled at the classical and solo piano material from the first visit. Rammstein, Megadeth, and Metallica were a little too much for their small drivers. The totem speaker was a bookshelfModel One and sounded great with dense Orchestral music - Brahms Second Piano Concerto. The Totem to get is called the Wind and they will call me when it blows in. Get it? HahHah!
The biggest surprise for me was the Maggies 1.6 @ $1750 hooked up with a center channel Maggie and a B&W PV1 subwoofer. I asked Scott to turn off the subwoofer and I fell in love with the sound of the Maggies midrange. Great. Now i like BIG speakers.
My wife took off from work on Thursday and is going to check out a few dealers with me and wants to hear the Maggies. She said if we can color match a paint sample to the grill cloth fabric and paint the room so the Maggies blend in - she would have no objection. I want her to hear the 20's from Maggie since that is where they really shine. Anyone familiar with QUAD?
Sub wise I listened to the B&W PV1, a second wood finished bigger B&W and a Revel sub. I wasn't really that impressed and wanted - MORE POWER. More marching band drumbeat hitting the chest feeling. I'm happy my wife is interested in my new hobby.
I purchased 2 EVENT ASP8 Studio Precision Series Active Monitors from Sam Ash along with a new Synthesizer today. They have BALLS TO THE WALLS - in a good way. VERY muscular. Not whimpy at all. THUMP-THUMP at incredible volume levels for the Korg Radius Synth. The salesman told me to hook them up to my current LCD TV and prepare to be amazed. I'll try that out tomorrow as it is after midnight now and I'm looking forward to my bed instead.
If any of you guys live in the NY area and want to go out auditioning with me - let me know. It would be great to hang out and listen to subs and speakers. Another set of trained ears would be a gift.
Goodnight,
Eddie
