Speakers

Hi guys

Any views on the following three: B&W CM9, Proac Response D18 and Spendor A6?

I have Carver/Gale mix at mo so I'm sensing the B&W will be more Gale-like but detailed and musical while the other two may be a bit bass-light and polite. But I could be talking a lod of ba**s. Any views, please?

 

Vintage Gale or the new stuff?

 

Vintage: 401As

 

If you put them up for sale at ebay you will have your hand bitten off. Why do you want to change them? If you like these you are highly unlikely to like the speakers you list.

 

It's a toughie. Had them ages and they've evolved with me but just come out of a demo room with some breathy MA towers and they sounded just so musical. Stuck a Creek CD player on and it trounced my Arcam Diva. Got it back home and the differences seemed quite minor - so either speakers or amp (Carver, Meridian pre-amp). Ideally I'd like to try alternative stand jobbies in my living room, but can't see that happening. So, bit of a dilemma.

They're all re-drivered, crossovers re-done, reclothed in brown with brass endcaps Look nice...

* You have a famous name from hifi's past. You aren't the amplifier guy by any chance? Hope you don't mind me asking!

 

Not famous, more infamous

Still irritating the rest of the industry with the truth. Met Ira Gale once, a complete nutter (in a nice way) too many strange ingested substances. These are seriously good loudspeakers, but a bastard to drive due to the two parallel low imp bass drivers.

 

Much respect, Mr D! Never met Ira but respected his work. Think you have to think ouf of the box, sometimes, to break new ground.

So, er, would you be leaning toward the biggest musical improvement being a two grand amp or a two grand speaker? (Now, let me guess...) All rather subjective, because I'm skint, but I have had other (but cheaper, ie Roksan Kandy) amps driving the Gales, which worked, but they didn't seem as inviting as the sound in the demo room. Was going to throw some money (again, see previous warning about being skint) to bring some speakers and amps over to my pad, and we'll see what happens. Seems the only way - I can't get my gear into a demo shop easily and there's nowt similar to it anyway.

 

What you need to do is advertise a bake-off at your gaff and get people to bring things they think will work in your system, both speaker and / or amps, or just speakers if you have given up on the 401's.

The best place to do this at the moment is hifiwigwam as they have an established forum for promoting these, but it would be great if you (Rob!!?) could start the same process here. You can put it up at hifisubjectivist as well as bake-offs are encouraged and have a seperate forum there as well.

All you need to do is put up with a few strangers, but like hobbyists, in your gaff and give them some tea and snacks. They are normally good social events as well.

The other alternative is bring the Gales to the London Bake-Off show on 31st Oct.

 

For people who are interested in Ira http://groups.google.com/group/gale-audio/web/the-gale-story

 

Happy to consider all option here.

I don't really visit Wigwam, what's the deal there?

PS: Fully support Richard's view on the Gales which are excellent if in good condition. They can really stress an amplifier so if what you have is struggling it would be worth trying something able to deliver lots of current. They can also really heat-up amplifers when driven hard.

 

They have a separate Bake-Off forum to actively promote them http://www.hifiwigwam.com/forumdisplay.php?28-Bake-offs-and-shows it is the only thing I like about the forum, but I have been told both by members and by management that I am not welcome to attend them so presumably this is another trade prejudice, though it seems to be selective as Murray Johnson (aka Guy Sargeant of Pure Sound) attends loads of them.

 

I'll take a look later. No reason we cannot do something similar, in fact it happens now and then here without promotion.

 

We've never had a separate forum for it but in the distant past we've had threads on bake-offs and piss ups (or whatever Thorsten called it). There is absolutely nothing stopping anyone from starting a thread if they are interested in hosting an event. I'm not convinced a separate forum is needed though.

 

Hi Rob

I'm not anti-Gale. Love them, in fact and have tweaked and nurtured mine for the best part of 28-odd years. But something's not quite right after the CD player demo. Currently I'm using (a rebuilt) Carver Cube - 250 watts a side, with a modified Meridian 101 pre-amp and separate power supply, and they go to very high levels. Lower down, though, they have that lovely Gale smoochiness. But would a modern £2000 speaker knock them into touch? Or a modern 1-2 grand amplifier? I have no idea - and that's what nagging away. Most people would blame the Carver but it knocks the Roksan Kandy combination into the dust. Moi = confused!

 

Ok - done

I'll make it a sticky.

 

Trying to read between the lines..... something like this -

1) tried arcam vs creek in hifi demo room, quite noticeable difference
2) tried same at home, very similar sound
3) wonder if its the speakers (?)


Most decent hifi shops have spent substantial sums making their 'demo room' sound as good as possible. A good sounding demo room shifts boxes, a bad one doesnt. It's worth them spending thousands.

Most audiophiles balk at either the cost, effort/disruption, or perception of ugliness of acoustic materials.

reality is a bit different -


cost - well not really if you spend thousands on hifi equipment, it's a perception of value rather than cost
effort/disruption - no worse than changing the carpet in effort/disruption
ugliness - you can cover acoustic panels in nice material, artwork etc.



I heard a £1,500 system sound better than a £100,000 system last week - all because of a wonderful acoustic space, proffessional set up that probably cost maybe... oooo at a guestimate £5k to do.

....
this leads to another question of course...
if we walk away from spending money making the listening room good enough to 'hear' differences, then is it worth spending the money for such minor differences?



slightly off topic, a musical friend of mine once said '' If anybody ever says to me they don't like the Beatles, I mentally dismiss anything they ever say about music ever again". I laughed at the time, but know where he's coming from.

I feel that way about people who dismiss the importance of this critical area of music reproduction, and their views on hifi.

 

You lost me, but ta anyway...