Wm goes Thermionic

Very true. Luckily I dont like low sensitivity speakers - mine are 92 db/wm. Sometimes big does actually mean better

I compared with avant garde duos.

Seriously though - its all good! Diveristy is good for all of us in the audio community!

 

even with 8 watts, 92db speakers should get you about 101db, which i would suggest is louder than would be comfortable.....

 

I will get out my spl meter and check - as I recall my system can peak to 122dB. Not sure how loud I have taken it though. Metal doesnt sound great with valves and horns in my experience - but I stand ready to be corrected. The system works well with delicate music too - on female voice it sounded better than with a set of valve based amps and avantgarde duos. Guess I am not ready to go thermionic quite yet...

 

well an afternoon at merlin's confirmed that from the seating area, 95db was more than loud enough!

 

Did you play any punk? ;-)

 

Howabout a seperate thread how great are my atc's please

 

WM, you'd better watch: you might find that the second system starts to displace the first one. Anyway, we mustn't be seen to agree - it's bad form, as I don't really rate ATCs (or at least was at best underwhelmed by the 2 sets of 50s and the 1 pair of 100s I've heard, impressively loud and clear though they all were).

So, horses for courses...

John (proud to wear his MiniMax on his sleeve as his main system)

PS. Would love to try a pair of AvantGardes, but my wife thinks they look 'orrid. Heaven forbid she should see some of the speakers out there

 

John,
I was being micky takey as its the 'in speaker' presently, Me I feel they're just a quality studio monitor
AS for the MM making first system, hummm. its good but a seriously long way to travel before it approachs how I feel music should be.
Lets just say if the MM is 100% then the first system is 500% and leave it at that.
Do you have the matching power amp as well then John?

 

People hear what they want to hear.

 

Yes I dont like atc either.

Avantardes are good but they are so damn directional! Move your head 1cm and all the treble vanishes from one speaker unless they are positioned just so (and even then). Treble can be a bit fierce without a valve pre to smooth it out a bit. My only quibble was that the bass wasnt that integrated or impressive. Guess you might need the basshorns to do that properly .

 

http://hi-end-audio.com/foro/viewtopic.php?p=4992&sid=5b0b1100110e155dab4d2177663a8084

 

anniversary

sorry still not tempted - I have found a pair of bb5-xbd-a with my name on. Hope you understand!

 

I honestly don't care what you use: I'll never hear it.

And, hey, it's hi-fi, guys. All opinions are valid, even the wrong ones!

 

thats exactly right bub

the definition of a wrong opinion ''someone who has a different opinion to me''

 

Lol. Almost always the case. If only people could own up that their own opinion is sometimes incorrect. But what a boring forum this would be then!

You never know bub - if you are well behaved I might let you in.

 

you start us off then...

 

Lead by example merlin.

 

Have done many times. Now it's your turn. After all you suggested it didn't you - or was that just a petty attempt to have a dig at another member?

 

Hi,

Well, I measured the SPL during a performance of Mussorskies "Pictures" in the RFH, 2nd or 3rd row center (eg. loud seats).

The quietest passages where around 35db, the loudest 95db, all unweighted but slow average. Knowing the ballistics of real music and of the meter I would suggest that peaks where at least 15-20db higher than the slow average I measured. This was NOT particulary loud.

My current system can come with only slightly compressed recorded music to similar SPL's, but just about and the strain becomes notable and I am sure that high peaks are in fact clipped, but as SE Valve Amp's clip gracefully and recover well from instantanious overload this is not very noticable.

For the record, I have 99db/1W/1m (and not 2.83V/1m, which can be highly misleading) Speakers and Amplifiers in the "8W Class", 108db/1m and in my situation with 3m listening distance 105db undistorted peaks for a stereo pair are possible, with probably around 6db overdrive inaudible.

BTW, 1200W with 92db/W/m would in theory produce 123db, however, as any dynamic speaker is subject to thermal compression these 123db are not achievable, in fact, I'd be surprised if at 1200W not at least 4-6db thermal compression make themselves felt.

It would be good to know the conditions under which the 122db SPL was measured....

For the record, I make all absolute SPL measurements with pink noise and unweighted, slow average (unless specified differently), an approach that usually yields the lowest measured SPL of all methodes but which I found to have a good match to subjectively percieved SPL.

Ciao T

 

Actually I beleive Bottleneck started that line of discussion. Noones having any dig. Though I dont recall you ever making any such admission to my knowledge

3dsonics - yes thats true however the 126db refers to peak - which will be higher than continuous and which makes up the difference. Is your location a literary reference by any chance? I havent measured the speakers myself I just note the figures on the spec sheet - they may well be overegging the pudding by a few dB.