Quote:
Originally Posted by all2ears
Thanks for everyone's input - As a reminder the parameters were replacing a dedicated Home Theater / Listening Room into a down sized home 15 minutes from the grandson's little league field - The set up would need to be located in an open living space .... living, kitchen and dinning all one room
I auditioned the SabrinaX in three separate showrooms ....... one with an Audio Research 160M tube amp, one with an MC462 and one with both an MC462 and an MC255 - No need to go into detail as that was pretty the much the consensus on options
Long past my tube phase and finding great comfort in giant autoformers I went with an MC452 .... also because I already owned one - That said somewhere down the road there will be used SabrinaX's going up for sale and a fella on a budget who caught a set and paired then with a 250watt SS amp would not be sorry - That combination did put out a respectable sound stage
One thing for sure these are the most finicky speakers I've ever spent time with .... when we swapped out the MC462 for the MC255 the whole presentation of the speaker changed - It wasn't bad .... it just wasn't what it had been - The dealer did a reposition and everything was back in bloom .... I mean it was only inches - Then when we switched back to the MC462 same thing - He laughed and said that's why the blue tape was on the carpet - I've never seen inches make such an impact on a speaker - To be clear they never sounded unpleasant but when dialed into their zone they are first rate speakers for their class
When I demo speakers I use a few tracks from the Stereophille Speaker Evaluation Discs - One of the tracks has a gentleman talking to a stationary microphone as he walks around a church including standing at the back of the church and facing the rear wall - The SabrinaX is one of a handful of speakers that aced that test - Beautiful imaging ... nuff siad
In different showrooms testing low frequency response tone drop off ranged from 40Hz all the way down to the published 31Hz - Again a finicky speaker that needs critical placement to do it's best
I did a slew of uncompressed WAV music tracks (Maria Rita - Agora So Fata Voci ... for a treat google that YouTube video) and even with overly bright recordings from the 1970's (Stones - Beast of Burden) to old technology 1950's Jazz (Miles Davis - So What) the speaker put out a first rate sound stage - On 24 bit FLAC files they hit the"sounds like band is in my living room" level - Bottom line the SabrinaX did a terrific job of presenting the music - My musical favorites don't use synthesizers so initially I'll probably forgo the subwoofer and enjoy the music in pure stereo and see how things go over time
I did have mixed feelings on the Wilson Watch 3 Center Channel - Not many dealers stock them and almost zero online chatter - It's a pricey box but considering the company it will be keeping that made sense and the specs were excellent - The sensitivity of 95db meant i might be able to use my Mc205 and still have two free channels for surround and two more reserve channels for growth - Also engineered for positioning about 14" to 20" from the floor ... a 6" spread meant t wasn't remotely as finicky as the SabrinaX regarding placement - A dealer offered to bring one in for an audition ... it took a few months
Charles had me thinking if I even needed a center channel so I tried with and without the center channel - I demo'd a few BluRay discs (Star Wars Scenes / James Bond - Skyfall Roof Top Motor Cycle Race / Submarine Movie etc) - My conclusion was I didn't need a center channel ... then again I didn't need a 450 watt stereo amp .... or need silver electra cables - The Watch Center 3 was added to the list of things I didn't need but were very much worth having in my life .... By the way Charles I did check out your system ..... awesome
Movie wise and Video Game wise the system will need a sub but since I may not need the sub for music I'll start of with an ancient Velodyne DD10+ and go from there - The sub doesn't need to be musical it only needs to blend a rumble when the star ship launches or we attack the Enderman in MineCraft
Summing it up if you have a dedicated theater there are better choices in this price range (I still love Revel Ultima Salons and their Voice 2 center is the gold standard) but if you have a small living space and a big budget you'd be hard pressed to find a better set up - These are 38" of what Wilson does ....... yet another instance where size doesn't matter
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all2ears, One of the better posts I have read. It's more valuable than most reviews. I hope that you can aquire a Sabrina X.
Best
Charles