MARCH 2006
February sure went by fast.
I have the Eico finished and am pleased with how things went. I put in about
twelve hours total desoldering, figuring things out, soldering, cleaning, and
testing. I installed 12 new caps, 24 new resistors, and replaced the AC
cord. Sine waves through the amp look great on the oscilloscope. I hope to
have the article about the work itself on the site in the next day or two. A
listening article will follow.
I reorganized my living room recently to try and make it more useful as a
listening/reviewing room. In doing so, I have found that the JBL L110s just
don’t work at all well in the new configuration. I’m going to need some new
speakers and this is going to present some problems.
I really want to keep the Eico so that means any new speaker has to be
pretty efficient; I’m thinking 90dB at least. I would also like something with
reasonable bass performance--into the mid 40 Hz range anyway. And
probably a floor-stander to avoid having to worry about stands.
To purchase anything, new or used, will require selling something, probably
the JBLs, to help finance it. Ergo, there isn’t going to be a lot of dough to
spend. I’m estimating that I may be able to scrape together about $600-ish
under ideal circumstances. So the question becomes is there anything out
there for this kind of money that is good sounding enough to buy?
So far, I’ve spent considerable time looking through the 2006 Stereophile
Buyer’s Guide for possibilities. I have to admit that I am encouraged by how
many speakers I am finding that look good for my needs, at least on paper.
Prices range from as low as $300 each to about $750, retail list. The lower
cost speakers are something I may be able to consider new, given the right
deal; the higher cost speakers would have to be purchased used. I made a
list of about six brands and a dozen models to research and consider
further.
Unfortunately, only one brand on my list, Definitive Technology, even lists
dealers in the St. Louis metro area. Yesterday, I decided to stop by the local
Ultimate Electronics store to see if I could hear either the Definitive
Technology BP10B or BP7006.
The DB10B isn’t stocked and the only pair of 7006s on display are in the rear
channel of a home theater. So much for listening to anything at my local
dealer. Since I was there, I did listen to a couple of Klipsch models, a KEF,
and some Infinity Beta 50s.
The listening set up Ultimate has is really poor. There is nothing resembling
a typical home living space; it is hard to even sit midway between the
speakers in their listening rooms. (It’s still light years better than anything
at Best Buy or Circuit City.) The salesman who waited on me was great,
though. He was knowledgeable, helpful, pleasant, and actually interested in
audio. I talked about what I wanted in my living room system and he told me
about his car set up. That part was good but the reality is that I am going
to end up buying my speakers via the Internet. Listening to them before
purchasing them isn’t going to happen so they will be purchased based on
the reviews that I find. I don’t want to go off on a tangent here, but it just
emphasizes the dependence many of us have on reviews. You can’t hear the
equipment at a local dealer, no one sells it used, and you can’t borrow it so
you just have to put your faith in the reviewer. You won’t know how well
your tastes align with the reviewer’s until you own the product.
Anyway, the one useful thing that came out of this visit is that I was
impressed with the Infinity Beta 50s. They sounded noticeably better than
anything else I heard and weren’t speakers I went in to hear or had
considered. This led to looking for Infinity reviews which led to the review of
the Infinity Primus 360 in the June 2005 Stereophile*. On paper, this
speaker looks really good, the review was pretty much a total rave, and the
test results were exemplary. They list for $658 per pair. This is at least
encouraging.
Nothing much is going to happen, though, until I can raise some money.
While I work on that, I’ll continue to look around. Maybe the hot setup is
something I haven’t even considered.
We are planning on traveling to Canada at the end of the month to visit
some colleges. I hope to find the time to check out some audio stores in the
Toronto area (and maybe shop for speakers). If anything interesting
transpires, I will fill you in next month.
Kent Johnson
February 28, 2006
*I paid scant attention to this review at the time as buying new living room
speakers wasn’t anywhere on the horizon.
February sure went by fast.
I have the Eico finished and am pleased with how things went. I put in about
twelve hours total desoldering, figuring things out, soldering, cleaning, and
testing. I installed 12 new caps, 24 new resistors, and replaced the AC
cord. Sine waves through the amp look great on the oscilloscope. I hope to
have the article about the work itself on the site in the next day or two. A
listening article will follow.
I reorganized my living room recently to try and make it more useful as a
listening/reviewing room. In doing so, I have found that the JBL L110s just
don’t work at all well in the new configuration. I’m going to need some new
speakers and this is going to present some problems.
I really want to keep the Eico so that means any new speaker has to be
pretty efficient; I’m thinking 90dB at least. I would also like something with
reasonable bass performance--into the mid 40 Hz range anyway. And
probably a floor-stander to avoid having to worry about stands.
To purchase anything, new or used, will require selling something, probably
the JBLs, to help finance it. Ergo, there isn’t going to be a lot of dough to
spend. I’m estimating that I may be able to scrape together about $600-ish
under ideal circumstances. So the question becomes is there anything out
there for this kind of money that is good sounding enough to buy?
So far, I’ve spent considerable time looking through the 2006 Stereophile
Buyer’s Guide for possibilities. I have to admit that I am encouraged by how
many speakers I am finding that look good for my needs, at least on paper.
Prices range from as low as $300 each to about $750, retail list. The lower
cost speakers are something I may be able to consider new, given the right
deal; the higher cost speakers would have to be purchased used. I made a
list of about six brands and a dozen models to research and consider
further.
Unfortunately, only one brand on my list, Definitive Technology, even lists
dealers in the St. Louis metro area. Yesterday, I decided to stop by the local
Ultimate Electronics store to see if I could hear either the Definitive
Technology BP10B or BP7006.
The DB10B isn’t stocked and the only pair of 7006s on display are in the rear
channel of a home theater. So much for listening to anything at my local
dealer. Since I was there, I did listen to a couple of Klipsch models, a KEF,
and some Infinity Beta 50s.
The listening set up Ultimate has is really poor. There is nothing resembling
a typical home living space; it is hard to even sit midway between the
speakers in their listening rooms. (It’s still light years better than anything
at Best Buy or Circuit City.) The salesman who waited on me was great,
though. He was knowledgeable, helpful, pleasant, and actually interested in
audio. I talked about what I wanted in my living room system and he told me
about his car set up. That part was good but the reality is that I am going
to end up buying my speakers via the Internet. Listening to them before
purchasing them isn’t going to happen so they will be purchased based on
the reviews that I find. I don’t want to go off on a tangent here, but it just
emphasizes the dependence many of us have on reviews. You can’t hear the
equipment at a local dealer, no one sells it used, and you can’t borrow it so
you just have to put your faith in the reviewer. You won’t know how well
your tastes align with the reviewer’s until you own the product.
Anyway, the one useful thing that came out of this visit is that I was
impressed with the Infinity Beta 50s. They sounded noticeably better than
anything else I heard and weren’t speakers I went in to hear or had
considered. This led to looking for Infinity reviews which led to the review of
the Infinity Primus 360 in the June 2005 Stereophile*. On paper, this
speaker looks really good, the review was pretty much a total rave, and the
test results were exemplary. They list for $658 per pair. This is at least
encouraging.
Nothing much is going to happen, though, until I can raise some money.
While I work on that, I’ll continue to look around. Maybe the hot setup is
something I haven’t even considered.
We are planning on traveling to Canada at the end of the month to visit
some colleges. I hope to find the time to check out some audio stores in the
Toronto area (and maybe shop for speakers). If anything interesting
transpires, I will fill you in next month.
Kent Johnson
February 28, 2006
*I paid scant attention to this review at the time as buying new living room
speakers wasn’t anywhere on the horizon.
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