Rediscovering the addiction with some hard lessons.
grimmace19
Posts: 1,429
in Speakers
Good evening gents, been a while since I've been posting on here as I was really thrown by the redesign and pretty much absent from the hobby for some time now.
As most of you can see, I'm selling off my LSI system and looking to move onward and upward when my basement is finished. Everything is in the beginning stages besides the finances and having contractors out to lay it out and put in bids. With that being said, I've had my heart set on going with a full setup of Kef R series speakers. 700s up front, 300s on the sides and 100s for the back. I've loved these speakers for a few years now having heard them at a number of places and didn't really feel like I needed to expand my options. Well, today I went to Blu Note in Denver to re-audition and get a little bit more serious about pulling the trigger.
After going through my floor plan and figuring out what might best fit my needs, the 700s seemed like a great fit based on my room size so the auditions began. Some stuff I'm not familiar with, some that I brought myself with a fresh ear from my polks this morning. The sadness then kicked in, I wasn't impressed. The sound was muddy, notes didn't drift off but simply ended flat. I really questioned in my mind if the prospect of spending about 7k on a new setup was going to be even a step forward.
Having said feelings, I opened up and asked if within my price range what else they might recommend or steer me towards without destroying the budget and accomplishing my goals. They then hooked up a pair of Dynaudio Excite X34s keeping everything identical. Now, these are almost identical in price to the R700s but holy crap what a difference. Everything opened up, the punch I was looking for was back, and my heart was broken officially. It only took a few minutes of listening time to pinpoint the fact that the R series just wasn't for me.
The moral of my rambling is that this journey we are all on has so many different paths, twists, turns, and changes that we all must keep our ears open. I'm basically back to square one with what I want to do with my basement system other than stating that I'm still ready and more excited as ever to try something new.
As most of you can see, I'm selling off my LSI system and looking to move onward and upward when my basement is finished. Everything is in the beginning stages besides the finances and having contractors out to lay it out and put in bids. With that being said, I've had my heart set on going with a full setup of Kef R series speakers. 700s up front, 300s on the sides and 100s for the back. I've loved these speakers for a few years now having heard them at a number of places and didn't really feel like I needed to expand my options. Well, today I went to Blu Note in Denver to re-audition and get a little bit more serious about pulling the trigger.
After going through my floor plan and figuring out what might best fit my needs, the 700s seemed like a great fit based on my room size so the auditions began. Some stuff I'm not familiar with, some that I brought myself with a fresh ear from my polks this morning. The sadness then kicked in, I wasn't impressed. The sound was muddy, notes didn't drift off but simply ended flat. I really questioned in my mind if the prospect of spending about 7k on a new setup was going to be even a step forward.
Having said feelings, I opened up and asked if within my price range what else they might recommend or steer me towards without destroying the budget and accomplishing my goals. They then hooked up a pair of Dynaudio Excite X34s keeping everything identical. Now, these are almost identical in price to the R700s but holy crap what a difference. Everything opened up, the punch I was looking for was back, and my heart was broken officially. It only took a few minutes of listening time to pinpoint the fact that the R series just wasn't for me.
The moral of my rambling is that this journey we are all on has so many different paths, twists, turns, and changes that we all must keep our ears open. I'm basically back to square one with what I want to do with my basement system other than stating that I'm still ready and more excited as ever to try something new.
Comments
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You are staring deeply into the abyss, aren't you. I would try and talk you back, but nobody did that for me, so forgive me if I just give you a little push instead.
Dynaudio... I have heard great things about them, but have nothing more to add as I have not heard them.The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
Man those are great speakers for sure!
My problem is most of the speakers I want to try are ID only any are always in back order (ARx 5cs).....
That and they don't have a surround speaker with keyhole mounts lol....
Hoping this next year to make Apoxia in Chicago maybe meet up with @SCompRacer and some of the Chicago boys"....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963)
