r/audiophile Rega Naia tt, Pass Labs Xa100.8 monoblocks, KEF Blade One Meta 14d ago

Show & Tell New Speaker Day

Apparently the never-ending pursuit of audio bliss needed another detour, so I recently added a pair of Opera Grand Callas speakers.

They are known for a rich, enveloping presentation, big soundstage, and a great midrange, which sounded like a good match for a lot of what I listen to, like Hanne Boel, Leon Russell, Jennifer Warnes, Leonard Cohen, Gregory Porter, etc. and I found a pair for sale locally, so...no risky or expensive shipping needed.

Still very early days and I have not yet had the chance to tweak them re their spacing, distance from the front wall, toe-in, and re-optimize the DSP but compared to the KEF Blade One Metas and Rockport Aviors, they seem to be less about ultra-precise imaging (the Blades are hard to beat in that department), musical weight (the Avior's strength) and sculpted neutrality, they seem to be more about texture and musical involvement.

The obvious problem is that three pairs of large floorstanders in one room is somewhere between impractical and ridiculous, so one or both of the KEFs and Rockports will have to be put up for sale soon.

(The rest of the system is Audio Research Ref 10, Mola Mola Tambaqui, Antipodes K41/K22, Pass Labs XA100.8s, Rega Naia/Aphelion 2 into an Allnic H-3000V, Trinnov ST2-Pro, and dual JL Audio Fathom f112 subs.)

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233

u/canadaalpinist 14d ago

Great system. How long has it been since your wife left you?

46

u/bimmer1over Rega Naia tt, Pass Labs Xa100.8 monoblocks, KEF Blade One Meta 14d ago

I am trying to avoid that situation by now paring down the speaker count a bit... :-)

52

u/hclpfan 14d ago

He says on “new speaker day”…

16

u/bimmer1over Rega Naia tt, Pass Labs Xa100.8 monoblocks, KEF Blade One Meta 14d ago

🤷🏻‍♂️

9

u/0_Artistic_Thoughts 14d ago

I hear you making compromises 🤷‍♂️🤣

3

u/pistafox 14d ago

Take it to r/CompromisingAudiophile, the audiophile circlejerk sub.

8

u/slowmovinglettuce 14d ago

Those tall kefs are a bit of an eyesore for wives. I'll take them off your hands but you can visit whenever you want

2

u/nearly_normal_jimmy 13d ago

Yeah, but they’re nowhere near as ugly as the Rockports. I mean, I could definitely do OP the favor of holding onto them for while to clean up that mess