New Speak's

ALL212 · July 2017

Let's see I've been through...
Bose 901's in a prior life
Boston Acoustic A400's
Various JBL and other Boston Acoustic speakers.
4 pair of Dahlquist DQ-10's, all rebuilt.
Magnepan MMG's with rebuilt crossovers and Mye stands.
Carver Silver Amazings, rebuilt.

I figured the Carvers would end the journey, however, that was not to be. As some of you know I'm an Odyssey Audio addict (12 step program didn't even dent the affliction). A pair of Lorelei's showed up on the 'gon for a reasonable price and reasonable driving distance. So... I have some new speakers (new to me).

Initially I had these in the test rig. No room to breath - right against the wall. Other than the bass they had potential. A couple of fellow Polkies dropped by and after listening to the Carvers we put the Lore's in the main rig. They've not left since.

These have the Scanspeak D2905-970000 tweeter and Scanspeak 18W/8545-00 midwoofer in just an open, ported cabinet. The entire thing weights in at just under 100 lbs per speaker. The prior owner put on some very nice spiked outriggers. As I'm prone to do I removed the bottoms and found that the crossovers are Sonicap caps, Alpha core 12g film inductors and Mills resistors. The only exception is the big inductor and it's a large gauge air core copper wound thing - you can just about fit a can of pop into the center of it. The cabinet is unbraced and open, no transmission line. Just a box with some damping in it.

I've always liked the sound of a ribbon tweeter. I didn't think I'd ever go back to "monkey coffins". I'm not so sure I'll ever go back to ribbons now.

These are possibly just a basic step up from entry level Lorelei's with the Sonicap's and Alpha core's. They are advertised down to 32hz but in their current position you can push some 20hz out of it. The fronts are about 4' from the back wall and there is probably 4' from the speaker to the side walls. They are about 7' apart and just barely toed in.

Soundstage is almost perfect. The Carvers might have the edge on that. Mid/highs are deadly - spot on and you'd swear the vocalist/instruments were in the room. Bass is deep and powerful, surprisingly so for such a small speaker and an open, single port, cabinet.

The current mission - save up enough to bump up the Odyssey speaker line!

mhardy6647 · July 2017

Well -- I certainly like the looks of 'em.
Clean.
No-nonsense.
Elegantly simple.

PS I have lately been running (borrowed) Goertz 14-ga 1.8 mH copper foil inductors on the Frankenaltecs' woofers -- I am a fan (FWIW).