[Nathan Ivey]

I am upgrading my pre-amp now, next my amp, then speakers.


My new pre-amp will be a THETA Casa Nova which was bought through a GP.


Next I will be looking at speakers and I have been curious how people feel about say Martin Logan's and Magnepans V Hales or Sonus Faber? I mean can a planar speaker do HT effectively?


Those are the four brands that seem to interest me most. Two of each! We'll what do you think?

 

[avdoc]

It depends on the experience you want. If you like lots of volume, planars probably won't get you there. If you prefer finess to muscle, I think they work quite well. I have magnepans all around and wouldn't trade them for anything (except bigger magnepans). The key to using magnepans in home theater is to get a good subwoofer.

 

[Nathan Ivey]

Dozy,


For goodness sake get yourself a sub and put your magnepans back in front.


Do you have a thermometer you may be sick?


I want to try out some planar speakers after I get my new amp and pre-amp!


Anyone?

Anyone?


else use planars..........

 

[Zoun99]

Nathan,


I have a home theater setup based on Martin Logan speakers, and I love it. I wouldn't go for conventional speakers for any reason.


My main driver to go for planar was that I'm more an audiophile than a videophile. When it comes to music, I just can't handle it on specific home theater speakers.


Planars don't go loud enough? Well, I'm not death and do not need the reference level to enjoy a movie.


Planars are not dynamic enough? I agree with someone who posted that what people call dynamics generally refers to distortion. Planars are as dynamic as conventional speakers, but with much less distortion, thus less aggressive (and less impressive in some ways) when listening at high volume.


Planars lack low frequency response? Yes, and it's almost impossible to match planars with subwoofers (At least I still haven't found the right mix, essentially because the planars are too fast).


What I love with planars is their soundstaging. The reproduction of a realistic soundfield is based on the phase response of the speaker, and planars are much more phase linear by nature (or by design). I belong to these people who think that the phase response of a loudspeaker is more important than its frequency response.


Hope this helps!


Didier.