Hello…I sold my Legacy Aeris speakers. I am considering FR 30’s, B & W 801 D4’s, Eggleston Works Vigintis, KEF Blade One Metas or Wilson Alexia 2’s. Does anyone care to opine on these choices? Have any of you owned any of these, and if so, please share your thoughts.
Regards,
Steven
FR20’s & 2 REL subwoofers with speakon connections from your amplifier. There are FR20 & FR30 threads on the forum where multiple forum members, including me, describe their sound.
While I have heard the 801D4 sound good at times, I have also been disappointed with their sound on several occasions.
In what way did the Legacy’s disappoint you?
They did not…in fact, they are the best speakers I have owned or heard. We are selling our home and moving into a condo and I just dont think four 12 inch powered woofers would be appreciated by neighbors or the HOA. I have listened to the speakers on my list (except the FR 30’s) I know they all are reasonably full range, but the bottom of the Aeris is just amazing.
Steven
Understood. When I moved to a condo, I also realized that my speakers needed to fit the newer surroundings. I’m over-the-moon happy with my Watt Puppy 50th speakers.
FR30 needs room to breathe, so it really depends on how big your listening room is. To establish a good soundstage depth, my FR30 is 6’ out of the front wall. In fact, I believe they need to be moved out more, but I’m not the boss of the house.
The back of the speakers will be about two feet from the front wall. If that isn’t enough, perhaps I should eliminate the FR 30’s from my list.
Steven
I had placed FR30 three feet from the wall when they first arrived. The soundstage was flat, and the bass was booming. Moving them out has helped a lot, and gradually I settled with 6’ out of the front wall. Everything was improved by a great margin (my room is about 32’ deep).
My room is 25 feet deep, but I wont be allowed to pull speakers much farther out into the room.
With that two feet from the back wall ‘‘restriction” you really should look for a speaker that is either front or down ported. Two that come to mind are Gershman and Reynaud but I’m sure there are others.
I believe the Bowers port downward. I could pull a few of the others out a bit more, but the FR 30’s are very deep and two feet would be the max.
I can vouch for the Wilson Alexia 2’s. My room is !8’ x 13’ x 81/2’. I don’t need a subwoofer as the speakers extends to 19Hz. Playing organ music, it can rattle the windows and give me a strong skin massage to boot. I’m not talking about loose rumbling HT type of bass that HT subs gives you, but real define type you hear from real live bass instruments. The dynamics from these speakers is about the best I’ve ever heard, especially from in my room. With real high quality componemts and cables, the sound is shockingly real. The resolution is extremely high, every little tweak seems magnified with these speakers. The Alexia 2’s reveals the difference in my Dac’s right away night and day. Before, my vinyl was so superior to my Dac that I almost gave up on digital because it was so hard to listen to right after listening to my vinyl. Now with my new Playback Designs MPD 8, that has change. The sound with digital now has just as much body, texture, soundstage, and organic with even more micro detail and clarity. Yes with almost all my recordings that I have both in vinyl and digital, the digital now brings out more emotions in me. But I am still going to keep my vinyl because I have so much extradinary recordings in vinyl that I don’t have in digital, and they still do sound ridiculously good. There seems like there are no limits to how good the Alexia 2’s can sound. It just got a whole lot better with my new Transparent opus MM2 interconnects I just put in. The difference is not trivial. Only problem, they are not cheap, or I would get a full loom right away.
That is a beautiful system you have. I auditioned the Alexia 2’s and really enjoyed them. Although I did not audition them on the same day, my opinion is they sounded very similar to the Bowers 801 D4 Signatures. Both were detailed and dynamic.
When you go out to audition speakers, make sure you bring your own music or have them play music you know well. Lot of times they just play only music that sounds good with that particular speakers.
Happy Cake Day!
Happy Cake day!
Thank you, guys! Love all the people, and this forum!
If it weren’t for the long long waiting time I would recommend Decware/Turning Point Audio HRv2 speakers. I have two pair of the previous HR-1 model and they completely destroyed my speaker envy–fourteen years ago. They have never been my weakest link; LOVE their presentation.
Happy cake day Waymen!
Having a pumpkin cake this morning to celebrate your big day from the east coast, then I’ll walk the dog to digest. It’s not my dog but my kids’, and I will run a bit with the dog then take care of her poop. 
