Philharmonic Audio - Dennis Murphy - Page 114

Thanks, buddy, good to hear you are "enjoying the heck" out of them, but, hey, I am not surprised!

 

Nice to hear the comparison with the 103 and 95 OPPO, I find the 93 perfect for me and the 103 has some upgrades.

 

Keep us posted!

Thanks for the comments. A good tube amp with the Phil 2s. The very thought makes me salivate!

Bob

after some time with these speakers, i may want to try different tubes in the amp. i'm actually waiting for some reviews on the mk3 before trying it out. and just to clarify, fsimms, i have the monitor2s, not the philharmonic2s. my tube amp is only 6.5wpc, but neither woodsart nor i can really crank the dial up much more than a 1/4 of the way before it gets too loud. we both own the musical paradise mp-301 (woodsart has the mk2, and i have the slightly updated mk3) and both also own the monitors. i basically bought the speakers and the amp off his recommendation and have been very happy with it. now i just need to start populating my CD collection and ripping my music into FLAC files. =)

Oh that makes me happy, I am just one of the "frugal Freds" meaning I don't generally buy more than I need, well most of the time!  And the Mk2/3 301 is amazing at 260/299. It supplied enough juice for the CAOW2s and now the Philharmonitor2s. And also with the new Triton I just built.    The quality is very good, sound is superb, particularly paired up with the MSII+ DAC.  This combo makes the monitors sound like hugh towers.....like the Phil2s......

 

Jomama, if you have a Ipad/laptop or near a PC, try Grooveshark.com, Slacker Radio or Spotify.com, these produce really good quality!

 

Soon maybe I can upgrade to another tube.....well maybe!

woodsart - you did all the research for me! all i had to do is write checks, pay credit card bills, and wait for fedex. this sound system was a long time waiting for me...i had researched far and wide and went from looking at buying polk towers from newegg on the cheap to getting a pair of def tech mythos to landing a pair of martin logan x-stats on closeout. i'm glad i didn't pull the trigger on any of the previous, as they just would not have been suitable for my purposes. the monitor2s are really a perfect fit, in terms of size and performance, for my needs. i had also researched AVRs and was about to drop $1200+ for a pioneer elite, but with the oppo and an integrated amp, i no longer had a real use for the AVR. if i build out to a 5.1 one day, i may get an AVR, but i'm not in a rush to do so.
i unfortunately don't have a way of connecting my ipad/ipod or PC to the oppo. i think i'd need a DAC for that. that's one reason why i wanted to hold out for the oppo bdp-105, since that player will have the capabilities of a DAC that can take in digital signals. i have, however, upgraded to pandora one. the audio quality of pandora one is pretty good. i'm going to prob buy a bunch of used CDs over time and rip them into FLAC files for playing thru the oppo.

???

Which ones do you have? Dennis makes .5 cu ft and .75 cu ft speakers - both with either straight or curved sides.

i have the .75 cu ft curved puppies. but i believe these may be the last pair of monitors that dennis will be making. he mentioned as much a page or two ago on this thread.

All this tube talk is making me crazy

Excuse me as I go downstairs and listen to my Philharmonic Model 2s on some real solid state power with the volume cranked to 11 (dennis for warranty purposes I mean... 6).

The mamma dude got the last of the monitors with the Parts Express cabinets. Such a pain they were. The finished baffles had to be routed for the drivers, which my cabinet maker complained about at every opportunity. And fitting the rather complex hand-wired crossover inside was a near-impossibility for the .5 cu ft cabinet, and merely really difficult for the .75 cu ft. Plus the supplied packing material was marginal. One pair had to be sent back twice due to Fed Ex games of sport. However, I will be selling an identical-sounding .5 cu ft monitor with a pre-installed crossover and routed baffles in the near future. It uses the SB Acoustics 6.5" woofer instead of the Seas woofer, but the tweeter is the same. The cabinets are higher quality than the Parts Express, but will only come in a very dark cherry finish, and the tweeter baffle will be silver and rectangular. They will be sold from stock, so delivery time will be within days rather than weeks. I would attach a pic, but avs is having problems with that and other functions right now.

Dennis,

So how many PE monitors were made in total?

(I do wish I had that idea earlier that someone here made where you should have individually signed these puppies.)

Did the dog slobber on that speaker stand? My basset is very good about that sort of thing. When she gets to shaking her head, I take cover.

Any of you guys have your Phils toed in?

Off the top of my head, I don't even know. I toe and untoe them on a whim. Can't claim to have ever heard a useful difference.

Tried it, then untoed them. Didn't seem to make any difference either.

Same for me. I've toed them in, and untoed them a few times and didn't hear any difference. I leave them untoed because I think it looks better.

Forget toeing them in, I wish I could put them in a bigger room. I think the space they get is so much more important than to toe or not to toe. When I had them pulled out farther from the back wall, it also gave them more room L/R and I think it sounded so much better. Ahhh someday.

Interesting. I wanted to ask that question earlier.

I only have the monitors (Fountek ribbon and Seas 7") but I find if I toe them in slightly, the soundstage is wider but the placement of the instruments are less precise. If I toe them so the line sight crosses in front of me, that the instrument placement is more precise, the singer seems to come from a more precise area but the soundstage is much narrower, mostly in between the speakers. I find that if they are straight out that I can hear some info coming from between the speakers but also from each of the two speakers.

Hi. Interesting topic. Toe-in is really only needed when the speakers haave been optimized for on-axis response, both in terms of frequency response and phase integration. All of the Philharmonics have the flattest frequency response about 15 degrees off axis (which approximates your seated listening position at around 10 - 12 feet from the speakers), and the phase integration is also virtually as good as the on-axis results. Both the RAAL and Fountek ribbons have superior off-axis horizontal response, so there is no reason to point the drivers directly at the tweeter axis. Of course, if experimenting with different degrees of toe-in constitutes a gratifying domestic sport, then by all means experiment.

At my age, moving speakers around for such a sport would require a .... ah .... toe truck.

Sorry...couldn't resist.

15 degrees off axis being ideal? Then that means that the optimum listening distance depends upon how far apart the speakers are from each other.

OK--but you have to choose some listening position. I can't optimize for every distance. Once you get back beyond 8 ft, the changes in listening angle aren't all that great.

Hey Fuzz, what would you consider a bigger room, dimensions my friend Thanks
Jeff

I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with Dennis Murphy, and it was an absolute pleasure. He is a true gentleman and a scholar, and he has better hearing than anyone I've ever met. Not only is he a great guy, but his products sound great. You'd be crazy not to buy from this guy!

It was great hanging with you this weekend, Dennis!

I sit about 5 feet from them. So slight toe-in then?

Hmmmmm I get an error statement everytime I try to quote somone--no one else having that problem? Anyhow, if you're only 5 feet away, a little toe-in probably would be in order.

Eh? What's that you say? Could you speak a little louder? Hearing ain't what it used to be. But I think you were being complimentary. The pleasure was all mine. Nuance (and the Big Red Machine) manfully manned the Fried room for 3 days straight and couldn't have done a better job. And while we're doing the recognition thing--thanks to Jim Salk for picking up the tab at the world's most expensive steak house. Maybe I need to start advertising in the greater Denver area. There must be some real money out there.

OK--I can do it if I right click on "quote" and open from the menu.

I tried both toe in and straight on with the 2's I had. I found the imaging to be better with the speakers shooting straight. That was the first time I've ever preferred speakers not toed in FWIW.

Well, I'd like to be about 12 feet away from the speakers with a minimum of 2 feet behind and probably 4 feet on either side. I'd have to sketch something out to get a good handle on the exact dimensions, but right now everything is a bit cramped. My entertainment stand is about 6ft wide and I'd like to give ~1 foot in between the speakers and the stand. So maybe something like 20+ feet on the wall all that stuff would be on. Then ~2+ feet from the back wall and another 10-12ish feet from the front of the speakers. Now the only issue you could run into is a very large room and if the Phils can be driven to a level that is acceptable to the listener. So you want space behind the couch as well since you don't want the listening position right up against the back wall, so I have 20 X 24 X 8 = 3840 feet cubed. I think the Phils could handle this, but that sub's would probably be needed, well at least for me.

Don't get me wrong, this is something like my dream room. Even in this cramped space I've had two guys come over so far and just love how they sound. I love how they sound. I still don't think they're even 100% as they are now. I just haven't had a couple days to really get them zeroed in. Even though I only have experience with them in my room and my space, I can see how they would be versatile in a wide variety of rooms.