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Review 2 of 2
Price Paid:
$1200.00
from E-BAY Summary:
Prior to this review, I was using a pair of Paradigm 100v2 speakers. As time has gone on, I have upgraded around my 100's for years. Everything I did made the 100's sound better, yet I felt something was missing...I feel that Paradigm's benefit greatly with NOS tubes, replacing the lean sound, with a full rich nice full bodied sound. I could not afford anything that was much of an upgrade, and in many cases, I could have spent a lot more for less product. When I saw the Aurum Cantus Music Goddess ll on e-bay I investigated a little. I found out the link between Levinson's Red Rose Music, and one of the Leisure series of speakers from Aurum Cantus.You can look that up yourself.... I decided to take a chance and buy this floorstander on E-Bay. I figured if they not as nice as the 100's I could re-sell them!
Well, 100+ hours later, I will be selling the 100v2's. It took 60 hours before I even liked them, but they have improved ever since....My main concern was Bass, they seem to play deeper than the Paradigm's(110 lb. each), but are lacking the mid-bass of the 100's, that is not always a bad thing, but it is a minus.The 100's have 4 drivers, the Music Goddessll(70- 80 lb. each) has a 8inch woofer ported to the rear, a 5.25 inch midrange driver, and a ribbon G2 tweeter. Past that, the Music Goddess is clearly superior in (in my case) every way. The Paradigm has a great midrange, and I feel the ribbon tweeter on the Goddess seems to make up for the ok midrange. In other words, it sounds great!!! The ribbon tweeter is fantastic sounding! If your system is bright, this could be a little too much however, as the ribbon tweeter picks up everything.....In my case, microphonic tubes announced themselves, and I had to change to different Siemens tubes... The fit and finish is fantastic, I have yet to see a photo that does this unit justice. I have the rosewood finish, and they put 29 hours of polishing into each speaker, and finish with piano paint. They look like very expensive speakers, and in my case the imaging and soundstage is fantastic. No boxy sound at all, but be careful!!This unit is at the top of the 3 tier pricing employed by our Chinese friends...And it has been re-fitted with new crossovers, and fine tuned. Buying direct from China , could leave you with a speaker that is made for people making 1000yr in their own country.A good value, but the modifications made in Canada make this an incredible value. I believe that the company doing the modifications is either coming out with a new model, or dumping them so people like me can review them....These speakers represent a truly amazing value for money. I thought the same of Paradigm when I bought my 100's 5 years ago. I had 9000 dollars on me, and I picked the Paradigm's because of their ability to do everything well, especially rock and roll.
Forte Model 6-amp-modified (re-biased) to a model 4-class A with 124,000caps-200 watts-8ohm Pre-amp Van Alstine Transcendence 7ECR-Valvo-12AT7-BAT VK-D5-Siemens-6 Siemens 6922-stock power cords-homemade interconnects-Q-10 DH Labs speaker cable- Strengths:
Truly beautiful sounding, amazing extension thru the tweeter. Heavy Bass and a sweet midrange. Construction is outstanding, wife will love the looks! Weaknesses:
Not a great heavy metal Primus, Ozzie,Metallica speaker. But still a good one, I would be careful regarding
brightness, and power! It is rated 50-200 watts, but sucks up the power more than the larger and similar 89db rating 100v2. 100 watts might not be enough! Smaller sweet spot due to ribbon tweeter. Similar Products Used:
Klipsch La Scala, Paradigm 100v2, B&W 805, Apogee Duetta, lots of other speakers.
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