these speakers caught my eye and i was wondering if anyone had heard them. they're a fairly recent offering and as such there isnt much opinion about them on the net. what little there is seems very possitive.
Hi Bvan, I have listened to the whole Studio line and think thay are fabulous. I'm saving for Studio 110's (although the Paradigm S2 is also a show stopper) as they fir my room nicely. I'd like to hear them against your Dyn's. Very different sound but quite competitive with each other. The Studio 140's are incredibly dynamic and efficient (the latter wouldn't have anything to do with your curiosity would it?). The ProAc's mate very well with our PL2's but then again so do some other low efficiency designs such as the Spendor S5e (great synergy with the PL integrateds).
yeah, the efficiency thing did pique my interest. but my dyn's arent a problem in that department, not for my ears at least.(i dont think i'll ever need crank the 40watt pl2's dial part 10 o'clock)
can i ask in whats regard do you think the proacs and the dyn's differ in their presentations?
there is nothing i'm not happy with about the dynes(relative to what i've heard from any other setup), but there is always room for improvement in any speaker. i think what i might value most at present is a speaker that can engage fully at low volume. dont know whether higher efficieny speakers might do this better?
was planning to get a sub for the dyn's one day, but seeing as i have foregone the ability to equalize a sub by buying an amp with no pre-out, i might concider fuller-range towers. in which case the the proacs will be up for concideration.
Bvan, I'm using an Era Design 10 sub with my PL2 and it works beautifully. I used banana plugs from the back of the binding posts on the PL2 to the speaker level in's on the Era. I've never had a sub integrate this well before. Trust me if you like the Dyn's just get a quality sub to go with.
I'm not just looking at the ProAc's, I'm also looking at the Era Design 5's. A very fine speaker and in the same league sonically with the ProAc's and Dyn's. They may be a bit shy dynamically but I won't know until I can do a home demo. Frankly I'm in no hurry as the system sounds excellent as-is.
Nuck, the 110's are $1500 and the 140's are $2800.
thats a big price difference between the two. wonder what the difference is between them?
they both go down to 25hz. very low, but also surprising that the 130 can go as low with one less driver, dont you think?
the 130 is 88.5db vs the 140's 91db. but as was suggested on the dynaudio thread, the bigger speaker may actually need a bigger amp to controll those woofers?
i read somewhere on tube talk that some tubes(push/pull rather than SE?) work better when outputting about 10 watts than they do outputting 1 watt. in my case, for lower listning levels, the less efficient speaker may therefore be the better bet?
art, i'm certainly not a disbeliever in subs. its just that i've always felt the flexibility they give in allowing bass EQ is one of the bigger advantages they have over floorstanders.(you should try something like the behringer bfd, if you havent sufficiently bass-traped your room allready). there is always the velodyne with built in EQ option i guess.
I believe that I have one of the best subs on the market at any price. Very satisfied with the performance. I have a friend who uses the same sub with his Maggie 3.6's and says it's the first sub he's been satisfied with for his Maggie's. As he owns an audio store and has a number to choose from including the Vandersteen's that quite a compliment.
The 130's are $2300.
"the 130 is 88.5db vs the 140's 91db. but as was suggested on the dynaudio thread, the bigger speaker may actually need a bigger amp to controll those woofers?"
One of the reasons I kept my Studio 20's and not the 40's. The 20's are easier to drive and mate better with a tube amp.
The 140's line up with my Psb Stratus Silvers on paper, anyhow. I wonder how that would pan out A/B? I have driven the Psb's to very high levels(personal time). I suspect that the 140's would also deliver HQ at high levels.
the proacs look pretty tube-friendly on paper, but i'd like to see how flat their impedence curves are relative to the dyn's. seems this more important than sensitivity and nominal impedence.
art, out of interest, have you measured your subs in-room freq response? how flat have you managed to get it?
"the proacs look pretty tube-friendly on paper, but i'd like to see how flat their impedence curves are relative to the dyn's. seems this more important than sensitivity and nominal impedence."
Indeed.
"art, out of interest, have you measured your subs in-room freq response? how flat have you managed to get it?"
Just with my ears......lol!
No, honestly for me If I felt compelled to measure etc it would take the pleaseure out of audio for me. I tune the sub until the only way I know it's there is because my speakers appear to have greater bass extension. Other than that if you notice the sub somethin' ain't right.
My guess is that Art listens at the HQ level at 36-38 Hz, The classic Brittish bump(via speaker, amp or recording), which comes well below the first at 80-120.
i know how you feel about measurements, none the less that side of my brain does take over sometimes.
after i had set my sub up by ear, and was happy with its sound(or lack thereof if you know what i mean), i bought a spl meter and dvd with low frequency sweeps. it took me a while to recover from the depression. peaks and dips of up to 12db each way. so i got a $100 behringer parrametic eq and tweeked my sub to be flat within 3db. switching the eq on and off the difference was truely massive by the usual measure of things in this hobby. my room dimentions are not bad, but unless you have the perfect golden ratio and a lot of bass traps i would recommend this inexpensive tweek. sorry for the proselytizing zeal
cheers
b
re my interest in proacs and low vol listening, the change to tubes did help, giving a fuller, weightier sound at low volumes, but what i'm chasing now, and wondering how the proacs at do, is dynamics at low volumes.
