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Quality or quantity....
I recently bought a Decware superzen as I fancied a tinker with a flea powered amp as I'd read so much positive stuff about them. I also bought some highly efficient 97dB WLM speakers.
I'm in a position where I actually quite like the sound of my leben and Audionote Es,which combined are probably worth about £1850.
The WLM and decware combo are of a similar value.
I've tried all variations and the Leben and WLMs are 'probably' the best all round solution(including visually!)..but above my budget.but in terms of sound quality the Decware is nicer but is limited in its volume and grip capability compared with the Leben. For 90% of my music it probably meets my power and volume requirements but now and again, when the opportunity arises, I like to wang it up.
My question is
Would you choose better sound quality with some minor volume restrictions and accept them
Or A bit more power for those 'wang it up moments' but looking at ugly speakers and a slight reduction in overall quality.
Or do I run the Decware and WLMs and buy a cheap t amp or something similar for when I want an electronica or ZZ TOP day!
I'd like to keep it all but I have to replenish our saving account. :)
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For me Steve, its sound quality everytime.
the cheap t amp sounds a good solution for those "wang" moments.
Are wang moments allowed, at your age? Be careful.
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With 97dB/W speakers you shouldn't need all that much power to go loud!
A common issue is that people tend to over estimate how much power they need for "normal"/not annoying the neighbours or upsetting the missus type volumes but vastly under estimate how much is need to go really loud! 1WPC is actually amazingly loud and if averaging 1W many would want the volume turned down... to go from that to genuinely realistic volumes (if the speakers are capable of these levels) may require 300WPC!
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Steve the Zen Is about 1.8 watts if memory serves correctly. My solution when I had one was to buy another and bridge them into mono. I think Steve Deckert explains how to do this on the Decware site. Think he estimates you get 6watts then. It was not the loudness issue for me it was bass grip, although I absolutely loved the little Zen. Wished I had kept one to be honest.
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I'd agree and say you should be able to get decent volume, but the two things you describe aren't mutually exclusive. It seems to me you want to hunt out speakers that will do both for you.
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Without a doubt I pursue awesome sound at ultra-low to moderate volumes and am willing to sacrifice ultimate volume. A lot of systems require welly to come on-song more difficult to achieve an open sound when the volume is low. In anycase my amp would easily blow my Royd RR3s, they are not volume monsters.
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I have always sacrificed quantity for quality except for a mad moment or two a few years ago. Happily I am back on track and where I want to be.
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Bourney, I will take those WLM's off your hands and then you can eliminate them from the mix! Sadly, I am on the other side of the big pond....A nice problem for you to have in my opinion! Have fun!
