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What’s your dream speaker setup?

jamespritche

jamespritche

New Member
I’m asking the way a friend would. Think about the sound, the look, the vibe. Do you picture a clean desk with small studio monitors or a full home-theater setup that shakes the room? Tell me what you’d build if budget wasn’t a problem.”
 
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Which dream. I still have my late 60's dream. I also have my early 2000 dream. But as for todays dream , that is not going to happen unless I win the lottery. Besides I have not auditioned all of my current dream speakers systems, so its not valid. for a While it was one of Steinway Lyndorf's line array systems. $ 1.100,000. Another possibility would be one of Mcintosh's line array systems , 2.0 K or XR 290 easily under $100,000. Third possibility would be a pair of Magicos M7's $375,000, and believe it not a voiced pair of Klipsch Jubilee's, $37,500, which I have heard un voiced. Some need to be bi or tri amped others do not so that adds to the price shown. But in any event I won't go back to tubes for the Jubilees. No way no how. Even though friends tell me thats the way to go. I heard them being powered by Marantz SS amps and it was not a good choice. To dry! Not harsh or honky horn sounding like most horn speakers. Not enough warmth which is very unusual for a horn loaded woofers.images-1.jpgimages.jpgIMG_3823.JPGdownload-1.jpgdownload.jpg
 
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I already have my dream setup, my trusty DIY GAMMA NLP-60A's, sporting GAMMA VLD-12 horn loaded ribbon tweeters with Howard Dawson ribbons, and my phase plugged GAMMA LA1231's without low pass filters and in an aperiodic box of 60 liters.

The GAMMA VLD-12's are absolutely amazing, they are certainly among the best tweeters you could get in the 70's, and still kick ass.
Their extreme linearity and fantastic imaging makes them great with all well recorded materiel, the depth of the image is just incredible.
The GAMMA LA1231's produce deep bass without resonances due to the aperiodic box, so no bass decay muddying up things, they are very detailed and pure.
They go all the way op to 4-5KHz and integrates very well with the ribbons, most likely due to the horn on the tweeters, the phase plugs, the very low excursion due to the big surface area and aperiodic box, all very fast, the woofers even have low inductance to help them along.
Mids off a 12" woofer is great, they have a lot in common with the AKG K240DF's in the mids, except that the DF's are polite, the GAMMA's are not, they sound very wicked, great for anything distorted.
The speed of these speakers is a thrilling experience, the slam and instant punch they do is so much fun.

If I where to get something else then the GAMMA's it would be a pair of Apogee's, got a lot of money saved up, so it could even be an expensive pair.
 
Mine would be a straight stereo set-up, no surround (that I would leave in the TV room). My dedicated stereo room would be at least 16x24, with the proper sound treatment to counteract reflections and standing waves. I would have the opposite walls (left and right when looking at the stereo) lined with solid, dark wood shelves full of records and CD's.

The speakers would probably be either Vandersteen 3A Signatures or possibly a home-brew centered around the great Heil AMT with a 6" mid-woofer and at least a 12" woofer. Amplification would be something at least as high-end as Luxman or maybe even higher like Goldmund. I would have a really nice linear tracking turntable, a quality CD transport and separate DAC, and possibly even a reel-to-reel.
 
For home use I don't really have a dream at the moment. Quite satisfied with what I have even though it's not audiophile bliss by any means.
I do dream of buying a particular kind of house on a specific kind of location though! I'll see which speakers to put in it when the time comes.

There is a dream though..
I 'do' a yearly festival weekend with a sizeable group of likeminded (in terms of music preferences) friends. Keywords: Lakeside, Forest, Remote, BBQ's, Swimming, Dance till you drop.
I'd love to build the following system for that, driven by Labgruppen amps (or similar, because of power/performance ratio) and powered by a portable battery power station (which also needs to power lighting and other effects). I'd also need a pair of fairly compact powered PA monitors for the dj 'booth'.
Come to think of it.. If we do four more editions I'll save us money vs. equipment rental..

4 x 21inch loaded SKRAM subs. Although 2 would already more than suffice.
SKRAM 21inch sub by Josh Ricci.jpg

2x JMOD 3 way tops, 2 x 12" and a coaxial compression driver.
JMOD+2.0+v21.jpg
P.s. You can find designs for the mentioned speakers here in case you'd like to build them yourself or have an advanced woodworking shop available to build them for you: https://www.jwsound.live/designs/
 
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Adda said:
I already have my dream setup, my trusty DIY GAMMA NLP-60A's, sporting GAMMA VLD-12 horn loaded ribbon tweeters with Howard Dawson ribbons, and my phase plugged GAMMA LA1231's without low pass filters and in an aperiodic box of 60 liters.

The GAMMA VLD-12's are absolutely amazing, they are certainly among the best tweeters you could get in the 70's, and still kick ass.
Their extreme linearity and fantastic imaging makes them great with all well recorded materiel, the depth of the image is just incredible.
The GAMMA LA1231's produce deep bass without resonances due to the aperiodic box, so no bass decay muddying up things, they are very detailed and pure.
They go all the way op to 4-5KHz and integrates very well with the ribbons, most likely due to the horn on the tweeters, the phase plugs, the very low excursion due to the big surface area and aperiodic box, all very fast, the woofers even have low inductance to help them along.
Mids off a 12" woofer is great, they have a lot in common with the AKG K240DF's in the mids, except that the DF's are polite, the GAMMA's are not, they sound very wicked, great for anything distorted.
The speed of these speakers is a thrilling experience, the slam and instant punch they do is so much fun.

If I where to get something else then the GAMMA's it would be a pair of Apogee's, got a lot of money saved up, so it could even be an expensive pair.
Click to expand...
Show us please! I've never heard of these (probably age related!)
 
jamespritche said:
I’m asking the way a friend would. Think about the sound, the look, the vibe. Do you picture a clean desk with small studio monitors or a full home-theater setup that shakes the room? Tell me what you’d build if budget wasn’t a problem.”
Click to expand...
What's yours? :)
 
just dave said:
View attachment 3637032
Easy one.
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and wasn't there an even earlier version with multiple small drivers instead of the single woofer made?
EMIRM, interesting, pretty sure that's the Strathern midrange, The 'other' ribbon transducers infinity used before developing the emit and emim.


I've pretty much got my dream system, magnepan 3.7i, M&K dual 12" push/pull subwoofer, JL audio fathom subwoofer(unhooked up as I don't need it most of the time, only when the EDM gets real loud)
only if a pair of 20. fell in my lap would I change now
 
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Apreggiator said:
Show us please! I've never heard of these (probably age related!)
Click to expand...

Well GAMMA drivers where made by Vissokogovoriteli in Bulgaria, and a probably best known there, and in Scandinavia under the brand GAMMA.
Back in the 70's they where so cheap that they sold really well and as a result are quite common on the used market, usually for very little money.
I bought the woofers NOS from hifikit.se as my old GAMMA BK3013a's where worn down.
The BK3013a's don't last as well as LA1231 and are cross compatible, almost the same driver, but new glue and sorrounds did the trick.
My VLD-12's are from the 70's, they last forever.

I can't get my camera to work so we have to make due with this pic:

AUT_3112.jpg
 
Adda said:
Well GAMMA drivers where made by Vissokogovoriteli in Bulgaria, and a probably best known there, and in Scandinavia under the brand GAMMA.
Back in the 70's they where so cheap that they sold really well and as a result are quite common on the used market, usually for very little money.
I bought the woofers NOS from hifikit.se as my old GAMMA BK3013a's where worn down.
The BK3013a's don't last as well as LA1231 and are cross compatible, almost the same driver, but new glue and sorrounds did the trick.
My VLD-12's are from the 70's, they last forever.

I can't get my camera to work so we have to make due with this pic:

View attachment 3637230
Click to expand...
Cool, thanks for sharing. Read that the VLD series are ribbons, interesting!
 
So in other words I have a minimum of $1M budget. Honestly I have no idea because I have no idea what is out there in that price range consequently I'd need to do extensive research and resist the temptation to jump at the first spectacular thing I run into because there may be far better still just waiting for me to find.

So- I guess I don't have a dream system is my answer, but I would like to hear the JBL 4369 when it's available.
 
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My favorite JBL's are the 4435 and the DD 67000 Synthesis. The first is a two way system where I would place it on end and rotate the horn 90 degrees. DD 67000 is the best JBL I have heard. Though I want to hear the M2 monitor Some day.
 
I've had the bronze Quads for a dozen years now. I had wanted a pair since 1980, so they were a dream deferred for 33 years.

IMG_5202.JPG

I added the longer legs. The rear leg of each speaker is screwed to the floor. Doggy damage has been minimal, so far. They have spoiled me, for sure. ;-)
 
twiiii said:
My favorite JBL's are the 4435 and the DD 67000 Synthesis. The first is a two way system where I would place it on end and rotate the horn 90 degrees. DD 67000 is the best JBL I have heard. Though I want to hear the M2 monitor Some day.
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them jbls, doh. got to hear some everest 66000s at Capitol Audiofest this year. my dream speaker did not disappoint. simply not enough superlatives for me to describe the thrill. ditto the m2.
 
so far, the jbl everest have been my dream speakers.
heard some 66000s at Capitol Audiofest this year. my audiophool life is nearly complete now short of owning a pair.
there was no room and no speakers. just beautiful sound on an unimaginable scale everywhere.
some people cannot be happy. i read someone commenting they could hear bass resonance from them. f#$%, really? some of the best speakers in the world and all they could think of was bass resonance in an untreated hotel room???
im glad im not that sophisticated.
a contender is acoras big towers that i also heard at the show.
they were like sitting front row.
the jbls, doh, were just no room, no speakers, all gorgeous sound.
 
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