Dylan
Member
- Thread Author
- #1
I’ve been a big lurker and a small contributor to this forum and I’d like to introduce myself.
My wife and I moved to a high rise condo in Washington DC two years ago, after living in Raleigh, NC for 20 years. I’m a retired patent lawyer.
I’ve chronicled my stereo history in another forum. As a former intellectual property lawyer I don’t feel comfortable violating their Terms of Service by reposting here, but you can access these posts (if interested) in the What’s Best forum under the thread “Hi from Raleigh, NC”. I don’t have enough posts yet to include the link. I’ll add it when I have enough posts.
I’d like to describe the evolution of my stereo in moving from Raleigh to DC. In Raleigh, after decades of changes, I was thrilled with my stereo-Tannoy Canterbury SE speakers, Ayre electronics (C5xeMP SACD player and AX5-20 integrated amplifier) and Transparent cables. The system resided in a large lower level room. Long story in how I got to this system, but that’s in the other thread that I linked to above.
Although we are thrilled that we retired and were moving to downtown DC, there was a major challenge for the stereo- how to get the big, coherent, natural sound I loved in a small (12x13 feet) room, without visually and sonically overpowering the room. I spent a fair amount of time listening to speakers and fell in love with (and bought) the TAD ME-1 standmounts. They had a concentric midrange/tweeter that would provide coherence like the Tannoy, and had a small footprint that would not visually overpower the room. I played with placement for a long time, using the Jim Smith method of finding the best position of the couch in the room to maximize bass response (using a $5 iPhone real time analyzer app) and put in a sound absorbing panel to reduce the influence of a window alcove on the sound. The sound was smooth and coherent.
Unfortunately, over time I realized that the TADs were giving me an accurate but microscopic sound that was like looking through two small windows into the music playing inside. The size and majesty was simply not there. I also realized that the standmount speakers took up as much floor space as a floorstander might (maybe even more as the stand bases were wider than the speakers to prevent tipping). This led me to reconsider floor standing speakers after about a year.
I listened to a bunch of floor standers, none of which floated my boat. Due to the small room and the close listening distance, a typical floor stander’s sound would not integrate into coherence. Rather, you could hear separate sounds from the midrange and tweeter (and sometimes the woofer), which would shatter the illusion of music being performed in the room. Also, rear firing ports were problematic in overpowering the room.
I then found out about Fyne Audio, a new company formed by the managers of Tannoy when Tannoy threatened to move the company to Asia. On paper, they fit the bill- dual concentric speaker for coherence, the promise of the Tannoy tone, an omnidirectional bass port that would excite the room less and a deep, narrow footprint that might not look too overpowering. My dealer (Tenacious Sound) had just gotten in the line and I heard them at Capital Audio Fest 2019. With the promise of a 30 day money back return, I ordered them.
I could not be happier. First, they sound utterly coherent, and tonally vivid. Bass is full, extends to below 30 Hz, and you can feel the bass as well as hear it. They also have very high dynamic range for the times I can crank it up (and even at low volumes). Large windows into a live performance. And visually, they look less clunky and more streamlined in the room. Lesson learned for me- although standmounts may be right under some circumstances, there is nothing like a full range speaker for me. I couldn’t be happier.
What’s in the future? I wanted to try streaming and bought a Lumin T-2 a year ago while I had the TADs. I loved the organic, coherent sound and the opportunity to explore new music. Over time I found I listened to physical media less and less, so I’m now selling my SACD player. I’d love to move higher up the Lumin line and run the streamer directly into a power amp for simplicity. I’m a big fan of “less is more” and still recall fondly my older stereo that had a Wadia SACD player running direct into a Levinson amp. We’ll see what happens.
Once I have the requisite number of posts, I’ll post pictures of my Raleigh stereo, the DC stereo with the TADs and the current DC stereo with the Fyne’s.
Thanks for reading.
My wife and I moved to a high rise condo in Washington DC two years ago, after living in Raleigh, NC for 20 years. I’m a retired patent lawyer.
I’ve chronicled my stereo history in another forum. As a former intellectual property lawyer I don’t feel comfortable violating their Terms of Service by reposting here, but you can access these posts (if interested) in the What’s Best forum under the thread “Hi from Raleigh, NC”. I don’t have enough posts yet to include the link. I’ll add it when I have enough posts.
I’d like to describe the evolution of my stereo in moving from Raleigh to DC. In Raleigh, after decades of changes, I was thrilled with my stereo-Tannoy Canterbury SE speakers, Ayre electronics (C5xeMP SACD player and AX5-20 integrated amplifier) and Transparent cables. The system resided in a large lower level room. Long story in how I got to this system, but that’s in the other thread that I linked to above.
Although we are thrilled that we retired and were moving to downtown DC, there was a major challenge for the stereo- how to get the big, coherent, natural sound I loved in a small (12x13 feet) room, without visually and sonically overpowering the room. I spent a fair amount of time listening to speakers and fell in love with (and bought) the TAD ME-1 standmounts. They had a concentric midrange/tweeter that would provide coherence like the Tannoy, and had a small footprint that would not visually overpower the room. I played with placement for a long time, using the Jim Smith method of finding the best position of the couch in the room to maximize bass response (using a $5 iPhone real time analyzer app) and put in a sound absorbing panel to reduce the influence of a window alcove on the sound. The sound was smooth and coherent.
Unfortunately, over time I realized that the TADs were giving me an accurate but microscopic sound that was like looking through two small windows into the music playing inside. The size and majesty was simply not there. I also realized that the standmount speakers took up as much floor space as a floorstander might (maybe even more as the stand bases were wider than the speakers to prevent tipping). This led me to reconsider floor standing speakers after about a year.
I listened to a bunch of floor standers, none of which floated my boat. Due to the small room and the close listening distance, a typical floor stander’s sound would not integrate into coherence. Rather, you could hear separate sounds from the midrange and tweeter (and sometimes the woofer), which would shatter the illusion of music being performed in the room. Also, rear firing ports were problematic in overpowering the room.
I then found out about Fyne Audio, a new company formed by the managers of Tannoy when Tannoy threatened to move the company to Asia. On paper, they fit the bill- dual concentric speaker for coherence, the promise of the Tannoy tone, an omnidirectional bass port that would excite the room less and a deep, narrow footprint that might not look too overpowering. My dealer (Tenacious Sound) had just gotten in the line and I heard them at Capital Audio Fest 2019. With the promise of a 30 day money back return, I ordered them.
I could not be happier. First, they sound utterly coherent, and tonally vivid. Bass is full, extends to below 30 Hz, and you can feel the bass as well as hear it. They also have very high dynamic range for the times I can crank it up (and even at low volumes). Large windows into a live performance. And visually, they look less clunky and more streamlined in the room. Lesson learned for me- although standmounts may be right under some circumstances, there is nothing like a full range speaker for me. I couldn’t be happier.
What’s in the future? I wanted to try streaming and bought a Lumin T-2 a year ago while I had the TADs. I loved the organic, coherent sound and the opportunity to explore new music. Over time I found I listened to physical media less and less, so I’m now selling my SACD player. I’d love to move higher up the Lumin line and run the streamer directly into a power amp for simplicity. I’m a big fan of “less is more” and still recall fondly my older stereo that had a Wadia SACD player running direct into a Levinson amp. We’ll see what happens.
Once I have the requisite number of posts, I’ll post pictures of my Raleigh stereo, the DC stereo with the TADs and the current DC stereo with the Fyne’s.
Thanks for reading.
