If you had to choose a NON planar speaker, what would it be?

User211 said:

Not unless you post a pic, Steve

Wilson System 7 - most awesome high volume bass I have ever heard in a domestic situation (Jim's old speakers, Kedar). On the end of 600 Watts class D, the volume control set to absolutely massive, the speakers showed NO sign of giving up. None. Still more headroom left, I reckon, but our ears couldn't take anymore!

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Just for you...one of my WP8s....

RAH said:

Shahinian Acoustic loudspeakers are the most musical loudspeakers i have heard.
In all other respects they are very very good too.

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RAH,

I will always remember hearing these at "THE SHOW" when it was held at the Alexis Hotel, across from the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, when I was attending the 1995 (?) CES show. Same show when I met Dennis Rodman / Chicago Bulls at the Hard Rock bar at 10AM or so after my wife and I finished breakfast and were heading over to the Alexis. He was apparently part owner of that Hard Rock at the time. Couple of babes on his arm and totally smashed. Ahh, the good old days.

Richard / the designer - creator of Shahinian was demoing and they were in a god awful room but sounded incredible. Especially on classical material. Something very special indeed.

I hope Richard is still alive but if he didn't drop alot of weight, I doubt it. He was unfortunately, by any standard, very obese at that time.

GG

Zu Audio Omen Defs and a small watt SET amplifier.

Dispite our differences I have to agree I have owned his Obelisks & they were great.

slowGEEZR said:

Just for you...one of my WP8s....

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Excellent colour Steve. Really like it. They use automotive paints don't they? Do you know what car it came from?

Rich said:

This is kind of an irrelevant point, Adam. ML's don't really sound like other electrostats either. I have listened to ELS designs from ML, Sanders, Quad, King's Audio and a few others, and all of them have unique sonic differences. The point Jon was making is that ELS speakers and line array speakers have certain sonic attributes in common because of the way the sound wave is dispersed, and those who enjoy ML's just might also enjoy the sound of a line array speaker. I tend to agree with him, having heard the Scaenas as well as the big Macintosh line arrays. Of course, Jon is biased. Just look at his center channel.

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Sonic differences maybe, but for Sanders / Quad / Sound Lab (haven't heard the KingAudio) I would immediately pick them as a 'stat if I were to listen blind. The only other speaker I have heard that I would immediately pick as a 'stat (ie - a speaker that would fool me into believing it was a 'stat) is Audio Physic.

bonzo said:

W.r.t line arrays, the Wisdom Audio are pretty awesome

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They are a planar magnetic........and they are friggin' awesome, that's for sure.

See my post from the Sydney audio show.........(post 4)

http://www.martinloganowners.com/fo...io-Show-Sydney&p=152229&viewfull=1#post152229

There are cheaper ones for the Wisdom that I have heard than the one in your post. 18k for the pair, and they come with a room correction box that is 7k. I am going to audition an even cheaper set - 12k for the pair, but those are point speakers and not line speakers, though right now I have no idea what that means to the sound. Will let you know in a month or two

I think I'm going to go to Guildford's show to hear Dan's amps and the latest crop of Wilson's etc in a couple of weeks. Will take a camera

http://www.guildfordaudio.co.uk/

bonzo said:

W.r.t line arrays, the Wisdom Audio are pretty awesome

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+1

Some of the most impressive sound I heard at the '09 CES was the intro of Wisdoms new line arrays, they built a room-within a room with 5 of their largest arrays built into the floating wall, coupled with their huge subs and their room corrected front-end, it was the best sound in show, whether music or movies, it was simply brilliant.

For an HT setup, if you have the coin, the Wisdom's are hard to beat.

amey01 said:

Sonic differences maybe, but for Sanders / Quad / Sound Lab (haven't heard the KingAudio) I would immediately pick them as a 'stat if I were to listen blind. The only other speaker I have heard that I would immediately pick as a 'stat (ie - a speaker that would fool me into believing it was a 'stat) is Audio Physic.

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Adam, yes, there is something about the lack of crossover effects plus the intrinsic 'speed' of that a large ESL conveys that are quite unique. But I also have heard all the other ESLs and while they share a lot in common, they do have their differences. Mostly having to do with either room placement or their bass integration. Sanders has that bass integration nailed the best IMHO.

To me, the only other speaker that might fool me into believing it's a stat were those large Wisdom Audios. And they are planar line-arrays. No single-tweeter based speaker could ever fool me (he says confidently), as the dispersion characteristics are just vastly different.
Not to say I can't enjoy one, as I think the Meridian DSP8000 is one of the best box speakers I've ever heard, it just is not a line-array.

Rich said:

... I tend to agree with him, having heard the Scaenas as well as the big Macintosh line arrays. Of course, Jon is biased. Just look at his center channel.

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Hey, I resemble that remark

Unabashedly biased towards line-arrays here.

Justin I will be at the Guildford show too, probably on the Saturday

My brother lives 7 mins drive away trying to arrange something with him. Might see you there. Then it's the Bristol show...

No hifi in Bristol. I will also be at scalford and Brighton. For those on this forum that don't know, the Scalford show has owners of the most active UK forum displaying their own fine tuned systems. Purely non commercial. Nice idea

User211 said:

Excellent colour Steve. Really like it. They use automotive paints don't they? Do you know what car it came from?

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It's a custom paint from them, custom in that it costs extra. I know they will paint any car color, but I don't know if this color is the same as any car.

bonzo said:

No hifi in Bristol. I will also be at scalford and Brighton. For those on this forum that don't know, the Scalford show has owners of the most active UK forum displaying their own fine tuned systems. Purely non commercial. Nice idea

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But getting more commercial, LOL. Dealers appear these days.

Bristol isn't worth the travel from London, but since I live here it'd be rude not to go