Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Associated equipment used for the review included the SOTA Cosmos turntable, SME V pickup arm, Krell KC-100 cartridge, CAL Aria CD player, Klyne SK-5A preamp, Forté 1a, Classé DR-9, and Mark Levinson No.23 power amps, Monster M-1000 interconnects, and Monster M-1 and AudioQuest Green Hyperlitz speaker cables. Approximately 75% of the program material used was analog LP, the remainder CD.

Acoustat recommends that the Spectras be broken in before serious use. Accordingly, I connected them up to the video system in my den/video room for several weeks while I became acquainted with my new primary listening room, using B&W 801 Matrix Series 2s. When I felt I had a reasonable handle on the new environment (which seems superior to the old, all things considered), the B&Ws were moved aside and the Spectra 11s took their place.

Initially I set them up about 4½' out from the long wall, 8–9' apart, and toed in toward a listening position located 91/2' from the plane of the loudspeakers. While this eventually proved to be a near-optimum location, I did experiment with other positions. Eliminating the toe-in and facing the Spectras directly forward caused the stereo image to lose focus and the highs to recede—something they did not need. A loss of focus was also experienced when moving the speakers closer to the rear wall. Placing them across the short dimension and about a third of the way down the room reduced the immediacy of the sound and decidedly thinned out the low end. I ended up with the original placement, aided only by the addition of Tiptoes, which made a small improvement in the already very fine image focus.—Thomas J. Norton