28-Feb-2016, 13:39
Time for a change! As you might have guessed, I don't tinker much with my system as I'm very happy with the way it sounds and prefer to enjoy listening to music than worrying about whether I'm wringing the last ounce of sound quality out of it.
But...I decided a few months ago that I'd had enough of trying to use a sub-woofer to add bass to the Guarneris. Although I had it working well enough -- and for what it's worth I think the Gravis can be quite musical and subtle -- I concluded that it was going to be troublesome if not impossible to make it sound "just right". This is partly because my system is in our living room, so I very much don't have free rein to put speakers wherever I want to. And, if I'm honest, partly because I didn't want to spend ages messing about with measurements and re-building configuration files to tune relative delays between the mains and sub. (Great that it can be done, though!)
I've had the Guarneris for nearly fourteen years and never looked at another speaker. Well, more or less. I love their sound, and for a lot of what I listen to I really didn't think they could be improved on. The only "problem" is that they just don't do deep bass, for obvious reasons. That's a compromise I'd expected and was broadly happy with -- I'd rather have less bass than wrong-sounding bass.
It would be great to have the lovely mid-range and treble of the Guarneris plus the bass weight to do justice to full-scale orchestral and rock, though...surely that must be possible?
With an itch to be scratched, then, late last year I did some research and drew up a list of speakers that might give me the kind of sound was looking for. I had a budget in mind. I had to be able to get a home demo. Because of their location, they had to be stand-mounted and good-looking -- at least enough to look like furniture rather than hi-fi equipment. Actually my wife vetoed the list before I got too carried away; that ruled out a lot of possibilities that might have otherwise fit the bill, and in some ways made the choice much easier.
In no particular order, as they say, here's the short list I ended up with:
1) Sonus faber Guarneri Evolution
2) Franco Serblin Accordo (Project->Accordo)
3) Kaiser Kawero! Chiara
To be continued...
But...I decided a few months ago that I'd had enough of trying to use a sub-woofer to add bass to the Guarneris. Although I had it working well enough -- and for what it's worth I think the Gravis can be quite musical and subtle -- I concluded that it was going to be troublesome if not impossible to make it sound "just right". This is partly because my system is in our living room, so I very much don't have free rein to put speakers wherever I want to. And, if I'm honest, partly because I didn't want to spend ages messing about with measurements and re-building configuration files to tune relative delays between the mains and sub. (Great that it can be done, though!)
I've had the Guarneris for nearly fourteen years and never looked at another speaker. Well, more or less. I love their sound, and for a lot of what I listen to I really didn't think they could be improved on. The only "problem" is that they just don't do deep bass, for obvious reasons. That's a compromise I'd expected and was broadly happy with -- I'd rather have less bass than wrong-sounding bass.
It would be great to have the lovely mid-range and treble of the Guarneris plus the bass weight to do justice to full-scale orchestral and rock, though...surely that must be possible?
With an itch to be scratched, then, late last year I did some research and drew up a list of speakers that might give me the kind of sound was looking for. I had a budget in mind. I had to be able to get a home demo. Because of their location, they had to be stand-mounted and good-looking -- at least enough to look like furniture rather than hi-fi equipment. Actually my wife vetoed the list before I got too carried away; that ruled out a lot of possibilities that might have otherwise fit the bill, and in some ways made the choice much easier.
In no particular order, as they say, here's the short list I ended up with:
1) Sonus faber Guarneri Evolution
2) Franco Serblin Accordo (Project->Accordo)
3) Kaiser Kawero! Chiara
To be continued...
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
