Upgrade to speakers - Arcam amp / Project Essential.

Simon101

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I've recently moved house and have sited my hifi system in a larger room. The room is c. 5m x 7m. The system is an Arcam A18 amp and Project Essential turntable. I also stream Spotify and occasionally CDs via a cheap Yamaha CD player.
I have an old pair of Castle Knight 1s (around 11 years old) which are in need of replacement because they have seen better days due to several house moves / storage etc. I don't usually listen to music in one place. Sometimes in a lounge chair, sometimes at the dining able, so the difficulty I have is working out how big the speakers should be, as well as whch brand would best suit my set up. This table is about 3 meters from the speakers and the chair is around 6 meters away. I'm considering both the KEF Q150 and 350s as well as B&W 607s and 606s. I can't easily demo speakers as I'm miles from a dealer, so any advice would be very helpful...thank you
 
I have a Rega P3/Elys combined with an Arcam SA10 amp. Although not exactly the same as your system, I have both the B and W 686S2 and 685S2 (the predecessors to the B and W speakers you mention) and can confirm that (to my ears anyway) they work extremely well together. The 686S2's do take a little more driving than the 685S2's at 84db sensitivity, which is the same as the newer 607 I believe. I don't know about the KEF's you mention although they are well reviewed and have many fans on this forum so I am sure somebody might yet come along with an opinion. :) The B and W's to my mind are good "all-rounders" in that I play a variety of music through them and they always impress. Oh and my Marantz CD5005 CD player, which is a fairly budget level player, sounds excellent through both sets of speakers.Just my tuppenceworth hope it might help a bit .Good Luck :)
 
For that size room and distance from speakers I would look towards floorstanders or a larger bookshelf like the MA Silver 100.
 
Hello Simon.

I’d concur with the splendid fellow above sir.

That’s quite the big room and I’d go for a pair of good floorstanders.

If your budget can take the hit, then these are quite well revered; everybody likes AE speakers.


For a little less then these have also had excellent reviews, and are available in black, white and walnut.

 
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Thanks everyone. Really helpful. I hadn't really considered floorstanders. The room has a suspended floor with tiles. Would floorstanders work ok on that?
 
The room has a suspended floor with tiles. Would floorstanders work ok on that?
A stand-mounted speaker will still be standing on the floor. If you have issues then adding some isolation feet may help.
 
A fellow Arcam A-18 owner! :lesson:

My listening room is considerably smaller than yours. The only advice I can give is that my Dalis work really well with the A-18. Punchy bass, detailed mids, sweet treble, wonderful presentation of vocals. They were definitely the pick of the speakers that I trialled at Richer (Monitor Audio, Focal 906, KEF Q550).

Do you mind me asking....the Arcam A-18 often gets a bit of a bad write up on forums. What do you particularly like about yours?
 
A fellow Arcam A-18 owner! :lesson:

My listening room is considerably smaller than yours. The only advice I can give is that my Dalis work really well with the A-18. Punchy bass, detailed mids, sweet treble, wonderful presentation of vocals. They were definitely the pick of the speakers that I trialled at Richer (Monitor Audio, Focal 906, KEF Q550).

Do you mind me asking....the Arcam A-18 often gets a bit of a bad write up on forums. What do you particularly like about yours?

Of course I don't mind. I've read some iffy reviews of the A18 as well. To be honest it's the first 'proper' amp I've owned, having moved to separates 10 or so years ago.. It was an ex-demo at a very good price so didn't demo it against anything else and therefore haven't compared it against anything else so as far as I'm concerned it's great. I'm no hifi buff, as you can probably tell, so am happy with it but can't really give you a worthwhile opinion as to why I like it
 

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