19-Mar-2015, 00:20
Cheers, Ian!
My speaker history is a bit complicated. I bought the Devialet back in the summer of 2013. For some reason I'd decided that I needed to start my big system upgrade with the amp. So the Devialet arrived. Then I needed to find some speakers that would do it justice. I did a couple of comparative demos, with the Cremonas up against Harbeths and the new Sf Olympica range. The Cremonas just seemed right. And since we were thinking of moving house (so whatever speakers I bought would be temporary), the Cremonas at a decent ex-demo price made good sense.
In the meantime the whole house move thing was on and off. During one of the 'off' periods I heard the Martin Logan Montis and was blown away by them. Deal done. I tried to sell the Cremonas, but couldn't find a buyer. So they went into storage.
As it happens, the Montis weren't the right speakers at all. They were too big for my room, and I soon came to feel that the Dev couldn't drive them properly. I've come to the view that, while the Dev is one of the very best amps for driving electrodynamic speakers, it couldn't cope with the peculiar needs of the Montis, with their horrendously low impedance at high frequencies. ESLs are capacitors that feed off voltage, whereas electrodynamic speakers are resistors that love current. I think the Devialet can't deliver the voltage that the Montis need and goes into clipping at high frequencies. It sounds a bit thin and rough. This came home to me when I tried the Sanders Magtech power amp with the Montis. It sounded so much better that the Dev.
in the meantime we had actually moved house, and now I had a new problem. I had space for two systems: the living room downstairs and my study upstairs. And I had an assortment of kit that kind of fitted the space. The Montis and Magtech would be in the living room, and the Dev and Cremonas would be in the study. Still, the Cremonas felt temporary. So I decided to try and sell them again and find something that would give me a bit of the amazing ESL vibe that I get from the Montis.
And that's where I am now.
Sorry for the long and tedious story!
My speaker history is a bit complicated. I bought the Devialet back in the summer of 2013. For some reason I'd decided that I needed to start my big system upgrade with the amp. So the Devialet arrived. Then I needed to find some speakers that would do it justice. I did a couple of comparative demos, with the Cremonas up against Harbeths and the new Sf Olympica range. The Cremonas just seemed right. And since we were thinking of moving house (so whatever speakers I bought would be temporary), the Cremonas at a decent ex-demo price made good sense.
In the meantime the whole house move thing was on and off. During one of the 'off' periods I heard the Martin Logan Montis and was blown away by them. Deal done. I tried to sell the Cremonas, but couldn't find a buyer. So they went into storage.
As it happens, the Montis weren't the right speakers at all. They were too big for my room, and I soon came to feel that the Dev couldn't drive them properly. I've come to the view that, while the Dev is one of the very best amps for driving electrodynamic speakers, it couldn't cope with the peculiar needs of the Montis, with their horrendously low impedance at high frequencies. ESLs are capacitors that feed off voltage, whereas electrodynamic speakers are resistors that love current. I think the Devialet can't deliver the voltage that the Montis need and goes into clipping at high frequencies. It sounds a bit thin and rough. This came home to me when I tried the Sanders Magtech power amp with the Montis. It sounded so much better that the Dev.
in the meantime we had actually moved house, and now I had a new problem. I had space for two systems: the living room downstairs and my study upstairs. And I had an assortment of kit that kind of fitted the space. The Montis and Magtech would be in the living room, and the Dev and Cremonas would be in the study. Still, the Cremonas felt temporary. So I decided to try and sell them again and find something that would give me a bit of the amazing ESL vibe that I get from the Montis.
And that's where I am now.
Sorry for the long and tedious story!
Sonos Connect (W4S) > DSpeaker Antimode 2.0 > Sanders Magtech > Martin Logan Montis
Sonos Connect (W4S) > Devialet 200 > Vivid V1.5
Silver Phantoms (just the two)
London
London
