Just in case anyone is searching in the future it seems like

WAVE Limited
Canning Mews
7 Canning Street
EDINBURGH
EH3 8ER
0131 229 8870
Dave Watson
07710 474665
catchall@wavelimited.co.uk

are the Edinburgh shahinian dealers.

Thanks to those of you who helped me track this down.

Ian

....or e-mail Shahinian directly. I get personal attention from Vaskan Shahinian (son of Dick)....not often that a founding family member takes an interest....

....personal service that!!!!

....glad you are sorted Ian. To my ears I have yet to hear a better speaker than the Obelisk at any price....let us know what you think if you audition.

John Burns'll sort you out one way or the other. Great chap and since he's Scottish he may want to travel a little. I've played with the Compasses and although they're fantastic at certain things (solo piano sounded positively real on a CDX2/202/200), they didn't seem to rock particularly well.

I suggest you place Wilson benesch Arcs on your list too...

The Wilson Benesch Arcs are very detailed but in my system somewhat Bright. However, they do rock along and the base, for a relatively small speaker, is very good.

John has a great reputation amongst Shahinian dealers in Europe. Unfortunately , the Slovenian importer does NOT.

If you want to dive into the Shahinian world, stick to John, and you might enjoy the ride, very much. Dick Shahinian has desigend speakers that are emongst the most astonishing designs available today. If you are "into" classical and/or acoustical Jazz, you've found the right trace to follow.

Congrats, and enjoy !
Stefan

Glad there are more Shahinian fans out there - I agree with ps that you emerge sock-less from a listening session, and that's only the compass

Brian

Thanks for all your inputs - enough speakers already

ok 24hrs in and I've given the ATC SCM35 a good listen since getting in from work.

I like them a lot. Beautiful detail, tight bass
all the notes in the right places ( or should I say at the right times). They really shook the place with 'The Real Me' off Quadraphenia by The Who (Keith Moon's drumming on that track is amazing but that's another story...). And the rain at the beginning made me think we'd sprung a leak! The sock is officially off!

Kuma, I can't detect any problem with the 200 driving them (at least not at the levels I listen at - between 8 & 9pm with CDs). They sound plenty loud but then again I'm not a punk any more .

The good thing for me is that I think I could
easily buy and enjoy these speakers even if nothing else I look at in the coming weeks does the business - or I do my back in lifting cabinets - The ATCs are 4X HEAVY.

The Mystiques are back in for now but sound thin in comparison (quelle surprise) but definitely very musical. I still intend to try and get hold of a pair of Elite SE's but I suspect the bass extension of the ATCs will win the day there.

Watch this space.

Ian

Ian

quote:

I still intend to try and get hold of a pair of Elite SE's but I suspect the bass extension of the ATCs will win the day there.

Not only the ATC can do a realistic drum kit,( I'm also Keith Moon fan ), try a piano solo.

I don't think I've encountered any other speakers that can render a piano as well as the ATCs. The Elite actualy does very good piano up to a certain frequency but when it hits uppermidrange somewhere it sounds peaky.

I am surprised to hear the 200 is coping with the 35. That's cool.

The ATC are heavy. Should see the drivers inside. They are one of the best available.

quote:

Originally posted by IanGtoo:
Sonus Faber Auditors: I love stroking these speakers - but they did not do it for me sonically. Lovely for vocals and piano but didn't paint the whole picture.
Ian

For the "whole picture", you must add the REL subwoofer. Not surprising you would find something missing (ie., bass) after auditioning floorstanders. I'd recommend trying them again with a quality subwoofer. But if they just don't float your boat, that's fine, too.

Having been to many audio shows and dealers, I still have not heard anything at any price, I like better than the Vienna Acoustics Mahlers I have. They brilliantly master the entire sound spectrum, create the “illusion” of live music like no other speaker, and are beautiful to look at. However, a fairly large room, a healthy dose of power, and a lot of set up patience is needed to stage their magic.

Tom

Does anyone know if ATC do an active 35?

Richard

I use JM Lab 927 Anniversary with 72/250. Used to have Guarneri's. JM's much better all rounder. These give me great pleasure with no 'nasties'.

ok progress is slow but fun.

On Saturday we went back to Dealer A (see first post) for another listen
in the dem room.

First up was a re-listen to the Martin-Logan Clarity: Hybrid
Electrostatic/conventional. This time, perhaps having lived with some better
speakers at home for a week, it was much easier to assess these guys.
The electrostatic twinkling is airy and magical but the integration of that with the rest of
the music was sadly lacking. These are off our list.

Next up the Living Voice Avatar-II's. These are the up-rated versions of the
Auditoriums we heard a fortnight ago and get a big thumbs up in the style dept.
These were very clear and accurate. The bass was quick to start and stop, I had
some doubts about it's extension even on pieces of music that are not
bass-heavy.(but more of that later). Anyhow these burst the bank a little but
were impressive.

Finally we slotted the Living Voice Auditoriums back in to convince ourselves
that the Avatars were really better - and they were.

At that point, and having already arranged to borrow the Spendor S8es for the
weekend I figured we'd go for broke and home dem the Avatars at well and have a
shoot out at home over the next few days.

So after a lot of box carrying we found ourselves at home with
the Spendors, the Avatars and the ATC SCM35s which we've had all week,

I should say up front that I believe all three (or should that be six)
of these speakers to be excellent and what follows is in our
room with our ears and our taste (or lack of it as some would maintain!)

We decided after a quick re-listen to the ATCs to put the Spendors in for
essentially 24 hours for a good listen. Fist impressions were good. The Spendors
are very unruffled performers that neutrally convey an impression of all parts
of the music. Bass was tight and accurate with good extension.
Compared to the ATCs I found them a little polite, on down and
dirty rock music some of the edge was rounded off and the excitement
reduced. I was reminded of when an opera singer tries to sing a pop song, they
just can't rough it up.

So back to the ATCs on Sunday for another longish spell. At this point I felt
happy that there was not much the Spendors did better than the ATCs.
Perhaps, just perhaps, on some classical recordings the upper ranges were a
little airier. And they looker much better. As the ATC dealer himself
mentioned 'one good thing about the ATCs is that the will not go out of
fashion, as they are out of fashion already!'

So - good but no cigar for the Spendors.

Next in came the Avatar and with them our problems started.
This company is not called 'Living Voice' for nothing. The vocals and high end
on these speakers is delightful in every way, musical, transparent, easy to
follow and very detailed. Clearly better than already good the ATCs.
However the bass was sadly lacking. We tried moving the speakers around
to various positions relative to the back wall etc but all that changed was the
tone of the bass that existed it did not re-introduce what we knew from the
ATC's to be on the recording.

For Riitta the lack of bass was more than compensated for by the better
voicing on the Avatars. For me the preference was the other way around.
We listened until we were exhausted without really learning anything new.

So today the ATC's go back, we have the Avatars for the rest of the week and
then we're on holiday for a week. We'll try to find the best of both worlds
when we get back.

Current plan is to chase the Edinburgh Shahinian dealer who has been
hard to pin down, take a listen to some Neat Vito's which have been SE'd to
special order and seem to be at a good price locally, and visit Glasgow for
an Allae demo.

If nothing emerges from all that, I could happily live with the ATC's.


Ian

quote:

Originally posted by Allan Probin:
I'm very interested to hear how you get on with the ATC SCM35s, particularly with the bass interaction with your room. Is your room normally susceptible to bass problems ? I'm particularly interested in how tuneable the bass response is by moving the speakers closer too or further from the wall.

Allan

We played with the placement of the ATCs but did not find them to be too sensitive to their placement. We typically had them 30-40cm from the back wall. Our room is a very funny shape with an open staircase rising between and behind the speakers, so one speaker has a solid wall behind it and the other the open space above the first 2 stairs.


I haven't noticed in particular bass problems with this room, It's strange shape may mitigate any double resonances.

Ian


Ian

FWIW I have just upgraded by Shahinian Elfs to a 4 yr old pair of ARCs and they are quite phenomenal! I have only had them running since friday and they are sounding better and better since they have been dormant for 2 months whilst being shipped.

The Elfs are excellent speakers but having moved into a new house with a much bigger listening room they did struggle a little sometimes. The ARCs blow them away with more depth, bass, and a lot more detail.

I can throughly recommend Shahinian speakers and well worth the effort tracking them down.

Cheers
Bruce

Ian,

You're very lucky to have all these speakers at your disposal. I'd love to be able to hear and compare the ATC 10-2, 20SL and SCM35s in my room but there doesn't appear to be any ATC dealers within 100 miles of where I am here.

Allan

Ian

Went through a similar process with similar speakers 6 months ago and agree with many of your sentiments (although I found the dynamics of my listening room significantly changed the characteristics of some speakers - the Allaes were a firm favourite until I got them home!)

As always it is a personal taste thing but as Thomas50 says the Wilson Benesch Arcs are in that price range and well worth a listen. I dismissed them out of hand at first for being a stand mounted speaker and refused to listen to them. But after a lot of frustration at not finding "exactly" what I wanted my dealer persuaded me to take a pair home for the weekend. I now own a pair and for me they work wonderfully well with my set-up which funnily enough is the same as yours!!

Good luck with your searching.

Hi Ian. I know I'm coming in late on this thread but I would add my (contraversial) vote that you try the PMC's on home dem.

Although I've not heard the OB1's, I'm using FB1's off a CDX / XPS / 102 / 180 / FC / NAPSC.

I think they work really well. I know they seem universally 'dissed' on this forum but I really can't see why...

Ian:
I can't remember the name of the dealer in Glasgow but they're a chain with several stores throughout the UK. A telephone directory should solve that mystery. In any event, they handle the full line of Naim gear, and new for them, Audiovector speakers. These little known gems set a new appreciation for what great transducers can do with music. At least un the underground room I heard them in, they put out a soundstage that went way beyond the boxes and deep as you'd ever want with all the PRAT you can handle. Certainly worth a listen. I heard them last Fall passing through Glasgow and haven't been able to forget the experience. I believe they're made in Denmark. Perhaps it was the room I heeard them in but they were some fabulous.
Best.
David