WD25T comparison

I must admit some of the margins are pretty ridiculous. That said, you tend to find this in other low volume markets (and let's not mention jewellery or perfume!).

The market that really gets me though is cables & add-ons

Oh and rip-off Britian, i.e. for eastern kit (china & the like) US price $3K UK price £3K

[Cobblers]

We use (very) S/hand Auditoriums (not avatars)

Bear in mind the high rejection rate for drivers at LV the costing of the drivers has to factor in all the drivers that don't make the grade. This isn't about quality but properly matched output.

The drivers are perfectly matched quad (essential for decent stereo from d'appolito apparently).

This is quite different from ATC who use vastly more expensive and more highly engineered drivers, but do not pay that much attention to pair matching (check out most technical reviews).

Sad but true LV is a tiny cottage industry company. Such companies need high profit margins to continue to exist at all.

[Ianm2]

hi cobblers, yes I have seen a couple of worrying things about atc, one review said they got the polarities wrong, and gave measurements, and I had the scm7s that sounded one of the very worst I had ever heard, like their was a big hole in the middle, but my point was really what you get materially for your cash

lv they will get vifa to match them prior to despatch no doubt I was qutie a fan of the auditoriums, if a bit fruity bass and hooded mid/top, but good fun

peter used to use scm20 towers personally 10yrs or so ago....

[Cobblers]

Originally Posted by Ianm2

hi cobblers, yes I have seen a couple of worrying things about atc, one review said they got the polarities wrong, and gave measurements, and I had the scm7s that sounded one of the very worst I had ever heard, like their was a big hole in the middle, but my point was really what you get materially for your cash

lv they will get vifa to match them prior to despatch no doubt I was qutie a fan of the auditoriums, if a bit fruity bass and hooded mid/top, but good fun

peter used to use scm20 towers personally 10yrs or so ago....

LV buy the cones and baskets seperately in higher quantities than they intend to use, and build the drivers up themselves from the parts.
This way they pair match the drivers themselves, they don't sound such a rip off, now do they?

Yes I remember Peter using those when he wrote for Hifi News.
Dad used to have the standmounters and the floorstanders for a while.

They do sound good when driven hard.
I think this is part of the problem, most speakers tend to have an optimal volume where they come alive. ATC takes the "loud" in loudspeakers literally and can reproduce accurate sound spls probably better than anything else on the market. I do not agree with those who say they sound good at low volumes.
I used to use Petercom designed Hb1's at the time, and found them far more lively and believable at sensible volumes than the 20's. Of course the 20's were smoother and went far louder with super clean reproduction with pile driver macrodynamics.

That could be just my experience though and I have heard that Billy Woodman admitted that the original SCM20's were overdamped.

If I was a rich man I would definately have active 3 way ATC's in one of my systems dotted around the mansion!

[david counter]

Originally Posted by Cobblers

LV buy the cones and baskets seperately in higher quantities than they intend to use, and build the drivers up themselves from the parts.
This way they pair match the drivers themselves, they don't sound such a rip off, now do they?

sorry
they still sound a rip off to me, even retail the drivers are for nothing,
so even if you paid double for having them hand built they still wouldn't justify the end price of the speakers

[Ianm2]

I am afraid I wouldn't trust kevin scott to build up drive units when he can't even design speakers, and gets vitavox and simon shilton to design, or used to.

Its a precision task. vifa? or some bumbling amateur

he probably has to do it that way, because the drive units are no longer made, and vifa won't turn over their production line for just a few drive units. that's mroe the truth.

And from my friend in the industry, some of these types will say anything, steal patents and co., try to shut down suppliers to force competitors out of business, so I really don't trust them. and having seen chip application notes used and then makers claiming they are their own design, then rubbing off chip numbers to stop someone else from finding out.

this is why everyone now won't tell you anything or is so protective, because they can't trust anyone commercially and they don't want you finding out the truth

it really is one of the most untrustworthy industries there is, just don't believe anything anyone tells you until you know they are decent.

but they still sound quite nice, and you clearly have a bit of taste there, decent speakers

sorry to sound funny but I react rather unpleasantly to being over charged to that degree, I mean £1500 for 2 mdf xover boxes and a little more, the guys a conman and I don't like conmen at all

So is the consensus that the WD25T is on par/close to the Auditoriums/S8s? and are there any other speakers (up to £2K) that you think I should take a look at?

thanks

[Cobblers]

"sorry to sound funny but I react rather unpleasantly to being over charged to that degree, I mean £1500 for 2 mdf xover boxes and a little more, the guys a conman and I don't like conmen at all"

£199 s/hand is ok though

[david counter]

exactly!

[Cobblers]

Originally Posted by shellac

So is the consensus that the WD25T is on par/close to the Auditoriums/S8s? and are there any other speakers (up to £2K) that you think I should take a look at?

thanks

If you were using very high powered solid state and were expecting to reproduce high spl's then ATC scm35's or the new 40's would be a nice choice.

Harbeth Compact 7's (they have tight bass now apparently)

genuine Proac's (not ebay copies)

Quad electrostatics.


JUST READ THROUGH THE POSTS, NOTICED YOUR AMP.
Given you're choice of amp I would suggest buying fully built wd25T's with the excell tweeter, do not pass go!