Have you ever looked into Tekton speakers, the Encore’s are ones I’m interested in. I would really like to listen to them before purchasing, a trip to Salt Lake City to listen to a set is a little much and explaining that to the wife. Every once in a while they show up on US Audiomart, it kills me how these guys run through audio equipment like changing underwear. The cable thing is the biggest racket going.
I think I’ve seen pictures of this white whale, if I remember right the woodwork was beautiful. I wonder how it sounded. My humble system is just a small component of my life. I used to be a street racer and it consumed me. I worked for Louie Unser, Al Unser’s brother in Fullerton Ca. Years ago. I make a conscious effort not to become too obsessed with my interests now. Some of these audiophiles are mental.
First I've heard of them. My initial reaction on seeing them is that design doesn't seem like it should work. So it probably is either horrible or brilliant. Many review quotes on the site, as you are surely aware, lean toward the latter, and quite strongly, often citing the right things (e.g. dynamics)...huh....
You're right about guys cycling thru stuff - I'm more the "pieced things together over time and now it works so well I'm glad to not mess with it further" place around all of it. These are also getting well into the "way more than you need to spend" category* where like I say I'm generally more about "busting through the price point and retarded Stereophile high-nose-angle reviews."
*I really learned my lesson on this one when a friend had a pair of really cheapo Technics rack-system-style speakers (12" woofers, cone mid and tweeters) that he ran with a big honkin' pawn shop receiver (I forget what) and a digital EQ with correction (white noise/mic and all that). That setup sounded far better than it "should" have, by quite a bit.
Oh and regarding W vs A, yeah of course, just generally once in this class of gear a big W number generally means they probably have the A part covered. Given their thirst I'm sure those L7s are what would be generally termed a "difficult" load so something with inadequate power supply/too small of caps/both would probably fall flat on its face pretty fast.
The wyred4sound sx1000r’s are incredible, the Crown made them sound like four drivers making music, the 1000r’s made it all come together without the drivers calling attention to themselves. I really didn’t notice it till I switched, it was a huge improvement. One of the complaints about class d amps is they sound sterile and dry, the Wyred4sound amps don’t, they really sound wonderful in my opinion. I have to say though, I haven’t listened to really high end amps in a while. My friend has some older Mark Levinson amps hooked up to the big Polk SDA’s. I think my system walks all over his and he agrees. I’ve never been a Polk fan, they sound fine but they just miss something. I have to have a capable speaker because my taste in music runs the gamut. His Polks are just too laid back I guess, the L7’s I think are way underrated, but I’m a big fan. They say they sound best with short ceilings and my basement is about 8ft so that might be why they sound so sweet. If they have a shortcoming I would say it’s the tweeter’s. Really other than the upgrading the L7’s i think a nice tube preamp and I’m done. I’ve done the home theater thing, but honestly with a great set of speakers surround sound is a waste. My two channel sounds better even with room correction. I love Blu-ray concert’s on the projector, lots of
fun.
If your friend hasn't upgraded the tweeters in the SDAs (i.e. if they are those silver/fried-egg looking things, which are fairly harsh) he should. Polk makes a replacement that is close to the original Peerless (IIRC) ones. As far as I know you can still get them, their support for legacy stuff is pretty impressive - at least it was when I did mine (Monitor 5s from Ebay for the small kitchen/dining area setup) a few years back.
(As for Polk in general, I think the 80s Monitors were the sweet spot - in fact IIRC MP said he liked the sound of the Monitor 7 the best of everything at the time - and are very nice for moderate listening. Not as happy when pushed past that.)
I have a pair of Polk CRS, I stole them for $50. They sound nice, I made a set of cables to connect them together. I did the one tweeter unhook which helped. The problem with them is the tiny sweet spot, move your head and you lose it. I forgot how much power decent bookshelf speakers need. I have slowly turned up the crown and it’s at full power and the Bic’s are handling it fine. The cabinet’s are what really impress me, they are built like a tank. Walter Trout sounds great, cables come for the sub today, can’t wait. Turns out this is going to be a great sounding little system for pennies. I’ve read about the Polk upgrade, I think each has 4 tweeters if I remember right, I think his problem may be his room is too small for the Polk’s.
Have you ever looked into Tekton speakers, the Encore’s are ones I’m interested in. I would really like to listen to them before purchasing, a trip to Salt Lake City to listen to a set is a little much and explaining that to the wife. Every once in a while they show up on US Audiomart, it kills me how these guys run through audio equipment like changing underwear. The cable thing is the biggest racket going.
PS you could build this...may need to build a house around the project first
https://www.audioheritage.org/html/perspectives/drews-clues/audiophile.htm
$18,000 in 1988 yikes
And that's just the parts, not the home renovation
I think I’ve seen pictures of this white whale, if I remember right the woodwork was beautiful. I wonder how it sounded. My humble system is just a small component of my life. I used to be a street racer and it consumed me. I worked for Louie Unser, Al Unser’s brother in Fullerton Ca. Years ago. I make a conscious effort not to become too obsessed with my interests now. Some of these audiophiles are mental.
First I've heard of them. My initial reaction on seeing them is that design doesn't seem like it should work. So it probably is either horrible or brilliant. Many review quotes on the site, as you are surely aware, lean toward the latter, and quite strongly, often citing the right things (e.g. dynamics)...huh....
You're right about guys cycling thru stuff - I'm more the "pieced things together over time and now it works so well I'm glad to not mess with it further" place around all of it. These are also getting well into the "way more than you need to spend" category* where like I say I'm generally more about "busting through the price point and retarded Stereophile high-nose-angle reviews."
*I really learned my lesson on this one when a friend had a pair of really cheapo Technics rack-system-style speakers (12" woofers, cone mid and tweeters) that he ran with a big honkin' pawn shop receiver (I forget what) and a digital EQ with correction (white noise/mic and all that). That setup sounded far better than it "should" have, by quite a bit.
Oh and regarding W vs A, yeah of course, just generally once in this class of gear a big W number generally means they probably have the A part covered. Given their thirst I'm sure those L7s are what would be generally termed a "difficult" load so something with inadequate power supply/too small of caps/both would probably fall flat on its face pretty fast.
The wyred4sound sx1000r’s are incredible, the Crown made them sound like four drivers making music, the 1000r’s made it all come together without the drivers calling attention to themselves. I really didn’t notice it till I switched, it was a huge improvement. One of the complaints about class d amps is they sound sterile and dry, the Wyred4sound amps don’t, they really sound wonderful in my opinion. I have to say though, I haven’t listened to really high end amps in a while. My friend has some older Mark Levinson amps hooked up to the big Polk SDA’s. I think my system walks all over his and he agrees. I’ve never been a Polk fan, they sound fine but they just miss something. I have to have a capable speaker because my taste in music runs the gamut. His Polks are just too laid back I guess, the L7’s I think are way underrated, but I’m a big fan. They say they sound best with short ceilings and my basement is about 8ft so that might be why they sound so sweet. If they have a shortcoming I would say it’s the tweeter’s. Really other than the upgrading the L7’s i think a nice tube preamp and I’m done. I’ve done the home theater thing, but honestly with a great set of speakers surround sound is a waste. My two channel sounds better even with room correction. I love Blu-ray concert’s on the projector, lots of fun.
If your friend hasn't upgraded the tweeters in the SDAs (i.e. if they are those silver/fried-egg looking things, which are fairly harsh) he should. Polk makes a replacement that is close to the original Peerless (IIRC) ones. As far as I know you can still get them, their support for legacy stuff is pretty impressive - at least it was when I did mine (Monitor 5s from Ebay for the small kitchen/dining area setup) a few years back.
(As for Polk in general, I think the 80s Monitors were the sweet spot - in fact IIRC MP said he liked the sound of the Monitor 7 the best of everything at the time - and are very nice for moderate listening. Not as happy when pushed past that.)
I have a pair of Polk CRS, I stole them for $50. They sound nice, I made a set of cables to connect them together. I did the one tweeter unhook which helped. The problem with them is the tiny sweet spot, move your head and you lose it. I forgot how much power decent bookshelf speakers need. I have slowly turned up the crown and it’s at full power and the Bic’s are handling it fine. The cabinet’s are what really impress me, they are built like a tank. Walter Trout sounds great, cables come for the sub today, can’t wait. Turns out this is going to be a great sounding little system for pennies. I’ve read about the Polk upgrade, I think each has 4 tweeters if I remember right, I think his problem may be his room is too small for the Polk’s.