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Kaiser Sosze
02-05-2005, 08:38 PM
Well on the the advice given here, every individual must listen to know what 's good for them when it comes to speaker selection, and I now realize why.
I took a trip to a high-end Audio store in manhattan (innovative audio Video) , My first expirience from something other than a bestbuy type place. Well they sure took their time with me making me feel comfortable, even though I was in the market for budget speakers. I went their to audition B&W's DM600's , $450 pair bookshelf, had good reviews from what I found and thought it was a attractive speaker. they sat me down in one of their 6 studios to listen. I thought it sounded good, but was not as impressed as I thought I would be.I'm new to this so I can't give you an audiophile type review.
So the salesman setup a better model for me to listen to, the CM series. The CM2, $900 pair, Was told $810 before I left, and even more attractive. Well what a difference, that is the impression I was expecting from quality speakers,from my one of a kind white van platinum studio elite series. To me, The instruments from the record were more sharp and easier to individualize and separate. the 600's had more of a blended sound. I don't know the terms yet to use , but I heard each note easiers and more distinctly
Anyway, I see what how things get better as you go up the ladder. I thought they sounded great and think is the type of sound I'm looking to upgrade to. I can only imagine what the serious stuff sounds like.

risabet
02-05-2005, 08:57 PM
Well on the the advice given here, every individual must listen to know what 's good for them when it comes to speaker selection, and I now realize why.
I took a trip to a high-end Audio store in manhattan (innovative audio Video) , My first expirience from something other than a bestbuy type place. Well they sure took their time with me making me feel comfortable, even though I was in the market for budget speakers. I went their to audition B&W's DM600's , $450 pair bookshelf, had good reviews from what I found and thought it was a attractive speaker. they sat me down in one of their 6 studios to listen. I thought it sounded good, but was not as impressed as I thought I would be.I'm new to this so I can't give you an audiophile type review.
So the salesman setup a better model for me to listen to, the CM series. The CM2, $900 pair, Was told $810 before I left, and even more attractive. Well what a difference, that is the impression I was expecting from quality speakers,from my one of a kind white van platinum studio elite series. To me, The instruments from the record were more sharp and easier to individualize and separate. the 600's had more of a blended sound. I don't know the terms yet to use , but I heard each note easiers and more distinctly
Anyway, I see what how things get better as you go up the ladder. I thought they sounded great and think is the type of sound I'm looking to upgrade to. I can only imagine what the serious stuff sounds like.

Welcome to the world of audio. A never ending search for the absolute sound. Should we be worried about a movie character moniker?

shokhead
02-06-2005, 06:51 AM
Did you try some 602's or 603's? Are they playing them on the same type of reciever you use? Did you bring in your own Disc's to listen to?

Kaiser Sosze
02-06-2005, 07:48 AM
Did you try some 602's or 603's? Are they playing them on the same type of reciever you use? Did you bring in your own Disc's to listen to?

no to all, i forgot to bring in my own stuff, they used a rotel receiver , basic model, i have a Onkyo702

RGA
02-06-2005, 10:29 AM
Actually I don't believe it's necessary to bring your own discs. Bringing your own music will create an expctation bias because you are used to the way you THINK or BELIEVE the music should sound and if you here something different yu may not immediately like it...but the new version may be more correct than the way you think it ought to sound. This article has been printed in magazines and is fairly used for any listening purpose and has nothing directly to do with the company who wrote it. http://www.audionote.co.uk/anp1.htm

I think B&W is a good starting point to what Higher end stuff is about - but it sure isn;t the end - the CM is actually quite overpriced for what you get IMO -- it was designed for appearance mainly...so just think for the same money you'll probably do a fair bit better if you keep looking.

shokhead
02-06-2005, 10:39 AM
Nice article but i'm old school and a firm beliver in listening to something you are use to. I would listen to other stuff as well but i do want something i know.

Jimmy C
02-06-2005, 12:43 PM
Well on the the advice given here, every individual must listen to know what 's good for them when it comes to speaker selection, and I now realize why.
I took a trip to a high-end Audio store in manhattan (innovative audio Video) , My first expirience from something other than a bestbuy type place. Well they sure took their time with me making me feel comfortable, even though I was in the market for budget speakers. I went their to audition B&W's DM600's , $450 pair bookshelf, had good reviews from what I found and thought it was a attractive speaker. they sat me down in one of their 6 studios to listen. I thought it sounded good, but was not as impressed as I thought I would be.I'm new to this so I can't give you an audiophile type review.
So the salesman setup a better model for me to listen to, the CM series. The CM2, $900 pair, Was told $810 before I left, and even more attractive. Well what a difference, that is the impression I was expecting from quality speakers,from my one of a kind white van platinum studio elite series. To me, The instruments from the record were more sharp and easier to individualize and separate. the 600's had more of a blended sound. I don't know the terms yet to use , but I heard each note easiers and more distinctly
Anyway, I see what how things get better as you go up the ladder. I thought they sounded great and think is the type of sound I'm looking to upgrade to. I can only imagine what the serious stuff sounds like.

...brands do they sell? My friend and I are looking for the next store to try out new stuff. Between the two of us, we're looking at speakers and integrated amps.

Thanx for any info...

RGA
02-06-2005, 05:06 PM
Nice article but i'm old school and a firm beliver in listening to something you are use to. I would listen to other stuff as well but i do want something i know.

But how do you know you know it? That is the point of the article. If you listen mainly to classic 70s rock a speaker with a big artifical bloom may make it more pleasing than one that is more truthful to the recording...of course you would certainly be in your rights to buy the speaker that is less accurate but which plays the music like better. Indeed, I like the Reference 3a MM De Capo better than most loudspeakers but it isn;t necessarily the most accurate - then again what is?

You could probably follow that article even with recordings you know - probably good to choose cds or lps you have not heard for a while and to see which set-up finds the most difference between them.

Bob Neil wrote a review of the AN DAC 4.1 versus his favorite Naim CD player and it seems to hold that the Naim sounded absolutely fantastic in that it had a presence on every disc played while the AN Dac was more truthful by revealing no stamp on the presentations. The problem is that it takes more time to actually do this and far easier to just listen for what we like.

Do whatever works best for you but it is a good idea. http://positive-feedback.com/Issue8/audionote.htm

theaudiohobby
02-07-2005, 03:34 AM
Nice article but i'm old school and a firm beliver in listening to something you are use to. I would listen to other stuff as well but i do want something i know.

spot on, listen to a 'large' selection of what you know, a couple of unknown tracks are okay, but auditioning material should not be wholly unfamiliar, else there is no reliable frame of reference.

Pat D
02-07-2005, 10:28 AM
Nice article but i'm old school and a firm beliver in listening to something you are use to. I would listen to other stuff as well but i do want something i know.
Yeah, I think Peter's questions are pretty well useless. I mean, any little difference from what he says logically should require a "No" as an an answer. They are carefully crafted to seem to mean more than they actually do, and so are quite ambiguous. I certainly use some of a core group of recordings which do sound different with different speakers and which tend to show off their weaknesses and virtues but after that I listen to lots of other things, either my own, what the dealer suggests, etc. So, I can honestly answer "No" to that question and all the others. But so what?

If I just take what the dealer suggests, many will pick recordings which they think will show off their products. I try to use things that will likely trip up a speaker with serious flaws.

Another chief area of difficulty is that all recordings sound different. So, the problem arises as to just what differences are relevant in his method of "Comparison by Contrast." I can't see that the article tells me and so it is not much good to me. But, if one picks and chooses from the somewhat contradictory advice given there and it works for them, more power to them, I guess.

I can say that I have done very well in choosing speakers, I tend to keep them a long time, and I still like my older speakers, basically the old Kef 104aB speakers I had for years and the Quad ESL-63's that blew the power supply a while ago (expensive to repair considering a listening area far from ideal for them). I don't need Peter Qvortrup's advice on speakers.

Aric M L
02-08-2005, 07:25 PM
$450 is a bit heavy for these speaker, you shoudl aim for $400 or I've seen them for $375, maybe you could sweet talk lower, as you could on any speaker as per the CM's