Meadowlark Osprey??

Hi all,

First time on Zerogain. Does anyone have any experience with these speakers? They would replace my Vienna Acoustic bach and go with my all Naim CD5/Hicap/112/Hicap/150. I heard hotrod Shearwaters on an extended demo last year, but ultimately founf them a bit bass-heavy and dull, although the imaging was terrific.

Thanks,

Bruce

 

Dont you like the Bachs? I think theyre great speakers.

Hope you advertise them on the classifieds here, Im not looking personally but Id like to see them stay on-forum... they are too good for the great unwashed!

NB The two Meadowlark users in forum are wadia meister and Isaac. You might want to PM them if they dont post..


Chris

 

Bruce, I feel maybe they weren't run in, it took a good 500+ hours for them to come on song, as for dull sounding, not in the least,I think most people who've heard will agree, depends also on what your feeding them, if you are in the UK, then the demo would have been at JJ's (sounds of music?), and I would agree, however once run in they are superb.
The ospreys' are a different beastie, and bass is great on them, front ported this time, and a more up front sound, not in yer face, just presented 'to you' more, very rythymic & tight, they dig deep and very well extended at the top, imaging is again a strong feature of these fine speakers.
They are a fairly straight forward load, and even the 150 should be posed too much pf a problem, however I feel they like to be told what to do, home audition a must, speak to Conrad Mas @ Avid for further info. Wm
Chris there are 3 users of Meadowlark speakers how can you forget Mr motorhead Graham N he uses my old Hereon i's.


Meadowlark Ospreys

 

Point of information m'lud: whether MY Heron-i's can be called WM's or not is debatable - he rejected them after a few days demo and then started trying out the Shearwaters.

I'm a little unsure what kind of sound are you looking for - given that you sound a bit of a Naimee (e.g. "sistem" - note no insult intended, it's just not really me), but with fully paid up roundy speakers on the end.

The Ospreys look as if they are the Shearwater replacement, but moving a bit more towards the Herons (3 rather than 2-way). Note that they are BIG speakers (almost the same as my Herons) - that 11" extra height over the Bachs makes a big difference.

WM didn't like the Herons because he found them a bit slow - but he'll say that about just about anything - and a bit big for his room. Their life, dynamics and mid-top beauty were what impressed immediately, but I was originally a little concerned that they were a bit bottom-heavy. That was with the NuVista amp, and the system wasn't really well balanced - all components emphasising the bottom end. With the LC amp things are completely different and work really well - being maybe just a little bit shy in the area of male vocals. Bottom end grunt and female vocals are to die for, with great presence and clarity. I suspect this may be a decent tonal match with Naim electronics - but I have little experience there. Imaging in the sweet spot is stunning, and the speakers disappear completely (a big point for me - I really want as little as possible to remind me the musicians are not really here). The sweet spot could be bigger though, but that may be a room thing as it didn't worry WM, although there was such a strange image when I last heard his system (OK..it wasn't on song that day) maybe we have different standards there.

A big point in Meadowlark's design is the first order crossover providing minimum phase distortion - which I think makes a huge difference to the naturalness of the sound. The Herons were one of the only speakers to not sound cluttered there: the only others I heard when I was looking around were panel speakers. VA seem to make a similar point - so there may not be as big a difference there as with some other makes. I was quite impressed by Mozarts (although a bit bass shy and not really dynamic enough) and the Mahlers (although far too big for me)when I was looking, although I never tried them at home.

As WM said, depending on what you're after, the Ospreys could be well worth a demo. Meadowlarks are the closest to my ideal speaker I've yet heard.

I notice that you left their strengths in the region of the I-word out of your post over at PFM

 

Too true! Even music is too slow for our Tone these days:JOEL:

 

i wonder when he'll just go the whole hog and strap a ruddy great ferarri v12 (modded with a turbo / supercharger combo and nitrous assist, naturelment) to his wadia and headbang his way to australia.
cheers


julian

 

Frightening thought Julian! The Wadia Wagon World Tour 2004!

I hear he's already upgraded the caps on the fuel tank and radiator

 

My Kestrel Hotrods were lumpy and slow and generally 'orrible for the first month or two that I had them.

And they were ex-dem from JJ's, so if you've heard them there, don't go on that.

After running in (and now, finally, with their proper spikes), they're certainly not slow or lumpy. I'd certainly be extremely happy with any of the new range of meadowlarks.

 

Wouldn't use a prancing horse lump thanks, too un reliable & expensive, although they do sound Exquisite
Have to hold my hands up to the image thing on the day however, with the correct amp engauged, it's fine in the hifi elements again and those shearwaters once more are 'cloaked', mind you after the analogue stage mods they really did disappear, remember I don't have a large room 17' X 14' so they really should be farther apart, but classical has a different criteria from rock, besides which Graham is far more picky than I with placement & precise seating arrangements of the orchestra.
However, the meadowlarks are exceptional speakers, beautifully constructed & finished and sound superb. Wm

 

Best I've ever heard on the road is a Diablo. Aural sex. Unbelievable sound, I really thought there was Chieftan tank behind me the first time
Best non road sound were the Le Mans Astons from circa 1989. A glorious thrumming baritone, but totally outclassed performance-wise by the Jags and the callow teenaged Shumie's Sauber - but you had to have pit access to really appreciate that Second best sound was Johnny Herbert's Banzai-shreek Mazda 757 rotary.
Oh yes, speakers. Well if you *really* want to be blown away with timing and dynamics you need either the really huge Westlakes or the really huge Westlake clones.

 

best engine noise bar none would have to have been the merlin inside a spitfire doing a low, high speed pass at old warden a couple of years ago. even at a few hundred feet you could feel the bass of it shaking you. closest car noise would have to be either a viper or a jag xk 180 (the one they should have built) but i just love that great thumping noise you get from a big low tech engine.
cheers


julian

 

Much a you like that great thumping noise you get from your big low tech music system eh Jules?

 

Can't argue with that

 

seconded a good friend of mine saw this article about an ozzie who chopped off 2 end cylinders of a merlin and grafted them into his bike v2 3 litre or something 2 speeds fast & smile factor captain, so me mate did the same, totaly nuts, torque that would pull more Chrome of a tow-bar than Linda lovelace could

 

Tony, i saw the same thing a long time ago in a bike mag (when i was into bikes) i think this was about the same time as the origional v-max came out.
merlin,
come and have a listen.....
cheers


julian

 

As soon as possible old chap! My recent exposure to Naim has whetted my appetite

 

Thanks!

I new that this was the place to ask about speakers- total answers on naim forum so far = goose eggs!

I do like many things about my Bachs: there are a tad polite and slow, but also wonderfully warm, and nicely balance the cold to neutral sound of my naim gear. What I'm looking for is just a bit more of everything. My room is pretty large (45 feet X 20 feet X 10 feet), and although my listening point is usually about half-way back, the Bach's can sound a bit lost in there. Thus my interest in the Ospreys, and there is a used pair up for sale in Seattle where I live.

WM- Didn't mean to sound so negative about the Shearwaters- I did come very close to buying them last year. Maybe my expectatins were way to high based on what I had read, and maybe they were not fully run in as you say. They certainly peaked my interest in the Meadowlark line as a whole.

The other speaker I have been thinking about is the Audio Physic Virgo.

Bruce

 

Bruce, no probs, the not all things to every one, and do have a laid back character to them, but in my system have attack and drive that very few can match at any price, in your room size I fear they would be lost sir. Maybe the the new Night hawks, would be a good trade off I do also own the Blue heron II's, which are for a much bigger room. (superb)
I had a pair of well run in Virgo's 3's 18 months ago, on my speaker quest, these 2 are good (I believe Markus Sauer has some or maybe the avanti's),
The virgo 3's (although a lot of people prefer the MkII's) are fast (almost quick enough for me),argile and well presented, very good imaging & depth, slim profile too they do PRaT quite well & again quality build, one bug bear for me is the bass, with those side firing with a dummy drivers, with your size of room reflections may not be an issue, but I found them wanting badly in this dept, also from time to time, I found the bass lagging just slightly, but overall another good speaker. Wm

 

How did you feel about this Merlin? Can't have been very comfie

 

Re: Thanks!

I doubt any self-respecting Naimee has ever heard of Meadowlark, let alone heard what they do - and VA are pretty much beyond the pale too!

So any size problems you have are of completely different nature to ours - your room is about the same size as my entire house! - I was going to say that M'larks comments about the listening point needing to be about 3m from the speakers is about right - and that's about as far as I can get. In that size room (and wooden walls too ?) you're going to need some serious bass and treble oomph. The Herons have different crossover settings for room size, but I can't see any evidence of that on the Nighthawk or Osprey.

Good speakers, precise and clean (as you'd expect from Germans ) but verging on the lean - to the point of coldness. I heard them and their big brothers Avante IIIs (which I much preferred) at a couple of dealers. Even in a smaller room than yours (which is about the same size as my entire house!) I felt even the Avantes needed their accompanying subs (Minos - and a pair at that) to give them the body I wanted. They did work quite well with the NuVista, but were too cold for me on the end of a Gamut 200. The problem there (and the reason I didn't buy them) though was that set of speakers then came to about GBP 12k - rather beyond my budget (and it sounds beyond yours too).

I have heard some not too bad sounds coming out of the better B&W speakers on the end of Naim (can't remember exactly, but something like CDX+XPS/82/250?) although the 803s I heard were nowhere near as clean in the upper-mids as the Meadowlarks). Maybe the Nautilus 802s would suit (although they're not exactly pretty - and far too large for my room) if you can find some 2nd hand?

And another random thought - your room is probably one of the few that could probably take the rather imposing ProAc Future 1.0 or 2.0 (RdS here has the Future 0.5). I made a point of not listening to these as I was reliably informed I'd love them, but there was no way they would fit.