New Speakers to go with Paramounts

[Bottle Rocket]

Hi All,

I recently ordered the Paramounts which I'll be running through my Beepree from my MacBook (with a Fiio DAC). I'm looking for speaker suggestions that would pair well with this combo. I was leaning towards the Blumenstein Orca Minis, but also heard good things about the Tekton Lore 2.0. Any other suggestions or impressions of the above two speakers combined with the Paramounts would be much appreciated.

[Grainger49]

First, I like your moniker, it makes me smile.

There used to be a list of SET friendly speakers on the forum.  I'm at a total loss where it might be today.

Here is a short list of speakers popular with Bottlheads:

Blumenstein

Pi

The Horn Shoppe

Madisound (have to check for high sensitivity)

Triangle  (have to check for high sensitivity)

Altec

JBL

Klipsch

And I have seen a number asking about the Tekton line.

[Clark B.]

A plug for our own design: We drive Orca Mini's and Dual Dungeness Max Subs with 300B Paramounts as the reference system in our demonstration room.  We don't claim extremely high efficiency numbers, but the speakers do work very well with lowish wattage in the real world.  8-10WPC single ended amplifier designs make particular magic with the Mini's and Maxes.  Recent review:

http://www.tonepublications.com/review/blumenstein-audio-2-2-channel-speaker-package/

Cheers,

Clark

[Bottle Rocket]

Thanks for the suggestions Grainger, appreciate knowing what some of the main options are for this setup.

Also appreciate the feedback Clark. The minis must sound pretty good with the Paramount if it's your reference setup in the demonstration room. I was looking at the mini and maxes 2.1 or 2.2 packages as a possibility for my living room. I was wondering if there's a discernible difference between the minis in birch wood versus the bamboo?

Thanks,

Michael

[Clark B.]

The birch and bamboo are sonically almost identical.  Ever so slightly warmer sound with birch and ever so slightly more detail with the bamboo.  But this is splitting hairs.  With either finish, the internal bracing is identical, and this is primarily what makes the tone of the Mini/Max what it is.  My advice is to choose your finish based on looks and budget.

[Paul Birkeland]

How large is your room, and how loudly do you listen?

[Bottle Rocket]

My room is 15x20, however is partially opened to a kitchen area.  I usually listen about 10ft away at moderate levels.  Sometimes a little louder for parties.  Currently using Klipsch SB2's with no sub woofer. 

[Horatio]

As the proud owner of Bee-Pre + Paramounts I will throw in a recommendation for Orca's + Dungeness Sub. I have the pleasure of having Orca's, Orca Mini's and a couple of Dungeness's. Having played about with them in a few different combos, my current listening room is 28' by 18', I would say that I have settled on the full size Orca's with a single Dungeness Sub.

To give some indication of how they fill the room I usually find that I leave the 'coarse' volume setting on my BeeQuiet at -27db (notch 3 of 6) or -18db (notch 4 of 6) and it more than fills the room. In fact I often set it to -18db and then can happily potter around in the adjoining rooms with the music at a pleasant level.

And for the record the Mini's with a Dungeness Sub also sound good - but when it comes to decision time I personally choose the full size Orca's + Sub.

Bill

[fullheadofnothing]

You might want to try your amps with the speakers you already have and see how you like the pairing. They are more efficient than some of the options you are looking at.

[Clark B.]

As the proud owner of Bee-Pre + Paramounts I will throw in a recommendation for Orca's + Dungeness Sub. I have the pleasure of having Orca's, Orca Mini's and a couple of Dungeness's. Having played about with them in a few different combos, my current listening room is 28' by 18', I would say that I have settled on the full size Orca's with a single Dungeness Sub.

To give some indication of how they fill the room I usually find that I leave the 'coarse' volume setting on my BeeQuiet at -27db (notch 3 of 6) or -18db (notch 4 of 6) and it more than fills the room. In fact I often set it to -18db and then can happily potter around in the adjoining rooms with the music at a pleasant level.

And for the record the Mini's with a Dungeness Sub also sound good - but when it comes to decision time I personally choose the full size Orca's + Sub.

Bill

Bill, appreciate your feedback.  I found that those same settings of the Beepree worked well for me also.  One note for you is that we prefer the sound of the Dungeness Maxes with the Mini's, as the tuning of the Dungeness Max is more congruent with the higher roll off of the Mini's, and they were developed to work together.  The Orca Classics/Deluxes go best with the Classic/deluxe Dungeness subs, which were developed at the same time as well.  We still love both the Deluxes and Mini's for their respective sets of strengths.

Josh - In my experience, there is the rated efficiency, and then the actual efficiency of any speaker.  Most manufacturers like to give you the ratings of their speakers "down hill with the wind at their back," adding assumed factors like room and box gain to their advertised figures because high numbers sell better.  We prefer to communicate the rating of just the nude drivers, without any added assistance assumed, even from the stuffing-less enclosures we put them in (except in the case of the thrashers, which do get a little stuffing).

-Clark