daveneumann
Well-known member
I have about 70 hours on them now and last night everything seemed to come together perfectly. It was the first time that I can truly say they were as enjoyable as my previous Quad 2805. I loved the Quads, but reliability issues forced me to trade them in on the Spires.
The Spires deliver more detail than the Quads, and uncover little musical nuances I have not heard before. They also have real bass and more extended highs. Listening to a German pressing of Dire Straits first album last night, I found myself thinking that it just doesn't get much better than this!
The only thing that the Quads did better was to highlight vocals and vocal layering. Regardless of the music and playback level, they always seemed to spotlight vocals more than any other part of the music. With the Spires, the vocals aren't so much spotlighted as just mixed with the rest of the music.
My room is 12 X 25 X 8 with an angled ceiling. As many others on this forum have said, careful set-up has payed off. I started them 81" apart (at the inside edges) and with each couple of inches I have moved them closer together, the center image has become more solid with greater dimensionality. They are currently 74" apart and this seems to be ideal. They are toed in slightly more than the 1/3 recommendation by ML. They are tilted slightly downward so the centers of the panel are firing straight at me, by extending the rear spikes. This tilting also helped to solidify the center images, without lowering the soundstage too much. My listening seat is 100" as measured from my ear to the top of each panel.
I still have to experiment with moving them out further from the front wall. Currently they are 52" out (as measured by the top of the panel) and I have the bass control on -2, but sometimes I am getting some bass boom. That will be my project for today.
Bottom line, these are great speakers!
Rest of system: Raven One TT, Graham Phantom II, Dynavector XX2, McIntosh C2300, McIntosh Mc275, Adept Response 6, Cardas Golden Reference wires, WSS power cords.
The Spires deliver more detail than the Quads, and uncover little musical nuances I have not heard before. They also have real bass and more extended highs. Listening to a German pressing of Dire Straits first album last night, I found myself thinking that it just doesn't get much better than this!
The only thing that the Quads did better was to highlight vocals and vocal layering. Regardless of the music and playback level, they always seemed to spotlight vocals more than any other part of the music. With the Spires, the vocals aren't so much spotlighted as just mixed with the rest of the music.
My room is 12 X 25 X 8 with an angled ceiling. As many others on this forum have said, careful set-up has payed off. I started them 81" apart (at the inside edges) and with each couple of inches I have moved them closer together, the center image has become more solid with greater dimensionality. They are currently 74" apart and this seems to be ideal. They are toed in slightly more than the 1/3 recommendation by ML. They are tilted slightly downward so the centers of the panel are firing straight at me, by extending the rear spikes. This tilting also helped to solidify the center images, without lowering the soundstage too much. My listening seat is 100" as measured from my ear to the top of each panel.
I still have to experiment with moving them out further from the front wall. Currently they are 52" out (as measured by the top of the panel) and I have the bass control on -2, but sometimes I am getting some bass boom. That will be my project for today.
Bottom line, these are great speakers!
Rest of system: Raven One TT, Graham Phantom II, Dynavector XX2, McIntosh C2300, McIntosh Mc275, Adept Response 6, Cardas Golden Reference wires, WSS power cords.
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