rshapiro@uunet.UU.NET (Richard Shapiro) (11/19/90)
In article <7698@uwm.edu> iex!neptune.iex.com!perkins@uunet.UU.NET (Bill Perkins) writes: >In article <7665@uwm.edu> uwm!decwrl!cae780!donald@mps.ohio-state.edu (Donald Maffly) writes: >>>Spica Angelus -- $1300 great imaging, but not alot of deep bass > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > all definitely true > [stuff deleted] > >>This leaves you with about 2K on speakers. >> >>American makes that I'd suggest you listen to are: >> >>Vandersteens 2ci -- at $1100 dollars is known for making good deep bass. >>Theil 1, -- $1200 -- very articulate in the highs > ^^ Thiel 1.2 > Actually the bass of the Angelus is just fine for most music. The bass is quite tight and it won't vibrate through your body in most circumstances, but it seems (subjectively) quite accurate to me. Many American box speakers are much too bass-heavy for my tastes. If you need big *accurate* bass, you'll have to go to a bigger and much more expensive speaker. The imaging capability of the Angelus really needs to be stressed. If your set-up is right, the speakers come close to disappearing. You can see them standing there (they're hard to miss :-) but there's no sense whatever that they are the origin of the sound. It's really quite an amazing illusion. I don't think any other speaker in this price range can deliver this kind of transparency, certainly not Thiel or Vandersteen. The Angelus sound wonderful with a Counterpoint tube/fet hybrid amp... The small Thiel's are a different sort of speaker and I think they're the other reasonable choice in this price range. The tonal balance is smoother than the Angelus, but they're much boxier sounding, imho. Depends on what your priorities are, I guess. As for the Vandersteens, I was unimpressed. I thought they were quite similar to the Angelus, but less transparent. Perhaps slightly heavier bass, but, again, I think this supposed inadequacy of the Angelus is being made into more of a problem than it is.