Yes,to my ears, after living with stats for many years, the GV did share some of the characteristics of stats.
The stats I've owned were fast. The GV were fast, most other cone speakers were somewhat on the slower more forgiving side. I would place the Tannoys in the forgiving camp.
Stats have coherence. I felt the GV were very coherent,you didn't have a lot of crossover electronics between the music the drivers and you. The GV seemed to sound like a single driver speaker.
Which was one thing I liked about the Tannoy, but the crossover(it was modded) was still interfering to my ears, especially in a direct comparison to the small Merlin. The Merlin was fast,but compared to the GV, it lacks some bottom end weight.
I preferred the Merlin to the Tannoy,and the GV to the Merlin, but that's not downplaying the Merlin.
People like the lack of box colourations of stats. The Tannoys depended on the large box enclosure to dig into the lower registers. Perhaps I would have liked the 15"HPD drivers in better cabinets. A lot of DIY mods for those drivers.
The GV had very little box colouration to my ears and sounded as fast as the Merlin and as coherent as some of my stats.
So I often times told myself that's why I liked those speakers, they shared more stat like qualities than most of the other cone speakers I've owned, and there have been many, including 15 ohm Roger's LS3/5A. Mirage M3si, Vr4,Meadowlark Heron,Mission 770,JBL L65 Jubal,and others over the last 40 years. Too many in fact.
That's the thing about this hobby. There are lots of combinations to consider and try out.
Strange Lacee, your "small" room is not much smaller than my 15 X 25 X 9 room. I can't imagine that 2 watts would drive the GV's.
I would not say that the GV's are a very efficient, in fact my old speakers were more efficient, and I tried a 12 wpc SEP amp with and a 35 wpc EL34 amp that couldn't light the room up the way my 85 wpc VAC amp does. Since the GV's are slightly less efficient than my old speakers were, I can't imagine driving them with less power. More power? Maybe one day. To each their own.
Interesting that you compare the GV's to electrostatics. The gent I bought them from said that the GV's were to only box speaker that he has ever heard that could compare to stats.
The Tannoys were used first with a Cary 300B Sei at about 8 to 15 watts of 300B power.
Then reading that the Japanese were using high power amps with vintage Tannoys led me down the high watt road of class D and the red dragons. I liked those amps. I never heard any of the nasty stuff others were ranting about class D amps from the dragons. Maybe it was the Tannoys smoothing effect.
I also had at that time a nice pair of Merlin Tsmx stand mounts.
Trade offs again, but the detail and information thru the Merlins was something that the old Ardens couldn't match. Which led me to investigate the GV which were getting some great press.
Tosh was very nice,he helped with the initial set up but I wasn't his only priority that day. He did tell me that he was working on a new flagship project,that kind of took the wind out of my sails , as I thought I had the flagship of the line. He did mention that his profit margin was considerably less than most other speaker manufacturers. He uses some pricey out sourced components in his designs and doesn't overly inflate their cost in his pricing strategy.
The Grand Veena seemed to be the best of both worlds.Combining detail with ease of listening.Perhaps not as room filling as the Tannoys were.
I had no desire to change out the Red Dragons, but the GV are said to really sing with tubes. So I was off to the races. When I did the amp comparison, I found that there wasn't a big enough difference in sound to warrant the change, so I stayed with the Dragons for a bit longer.
All IC and speaker wire was Nordost Heimdal V1 in these comparisons.
I was bitten by the bug to try a low watt tube set amp with the relatively high efficiency of the GV. I thought the Carissa was the best of the auditioning, at least to my ears. The only amp I really considered moving to.
I can understand the raised eye brows of going from 1000 watts to 2 watts, but I never really felt that I was ever short changed for power to drive the GV.
I don't listen to large orchestral works or music that would make demands on the amp or speakers.
So for my listening tastes and volumes 2 watts was all I needed. The DecWare reminded me of the Carissa in some the way that it just seemed to get out of the way of the music and not draw attention to itself. My friends were just as amazed at what the DecWare could deliver.
The size of the room was 8 foot ceiling, 14 ft wide, 24 ft long.It is now my home theatre room.
My goal has always been to retrieve as much music as I can from the recording in a manner that pleases my ears.
I am not someone who enjoys "warmth" or"musicality" at the expense of losing much of what went on in the studio.
The Tannoys were fun, but the little merlins showed me that there was a cost to all that fun.
Most tube amps have a signature sound,I usually know if I'm listening to an EL 34 or 45 or 300B design. The El84, to my ears seems to leave less of a sonic signature, or it's just that I like it's sound.
Truth be told I am also an electro stat fan.
I 've owned stacked Quad 57, the Quad 63, Martin Logan Sequel, two pair of Martin Logan CLS,and my first stat was the medallion mod Acoustat3 with CJ Premier tw0 pre and CJ MV75A-1 amp back in the 80's.
I have since gone back to the electrostat dark side,no make that the clear side of speaker design.
I now enjoy the Acoustat Monitor X (3 panel) stats with modified Acoustat OTL tube servo amps.
I've had this for over 3 years and I don't feel the need to move on.
I should add that the GV reminded me of an electro stat speaker, more so than other cone speakers I've owned.
Lacee, Talk about a transformational change!1000 watt amp driving Tannoys to a 2 watt SET driving the Grand Veenas. I have to ask, what were your improvements? what did you lose with this change? Very interesting path you took.
Interesting write up Lacee, though I can't believe you could drive the GV's with a 2 watt amp!! That must have been one small room. It must have been nice to meet Mr. Gorka. Did he help with set up?
I am very happy with the VAC's 85 wpc driving my GV's, but if I were to try a different amp, I would first probably try one with more power. My pair have the black finish, but I like the look of Shakey's better.
When I had my Grand Veena I auditioned quite a number of amps. I was using The Red Dragon 1000 watt mono blocks which had been driving my Tannoy Ardens.
I was looking for more definition and speed so I got the Grand Veena after reading about them and hearing them at a dealer. They were delivered by Mr.Gorka himself, right from the factory. Not because I was special, just because he was in the area visiting dealers.
It did make things a whole lot easier though.
The two boxe affair is rather large, so make sure you have a lot of space if you decide to bring them home.
I then tried a Mac 275, a Grant Lumley EL 34 tube amp, an Atmasphere S30 OTL, Audio Art SET Carissa, a Pass Aleph 30, and settled on a 2 watt Decware.
It was a tough choice, all were great. Some amps were borrowed from friends, some from dealers.
The Grand Veenas that I had ( the originals with the super tweeters), were revealing of the differences between the amps. No one would ever say all amps sound the same if they had these speakers.
The Aleph and the Atmasphere were surprises,great bass control.
The other amps were mostly mid range champs.
I enjoyed the Carissa, but my friend wouldn't part with it.
In fact he liked the combination so much, he went out and bought a pair of Grand Veenas.
I settled for the DecWare 2 watt SET using EL84 tubes.
In the smaller of my two rooms I never felt I needed any more power and was always very satisfied with the sweet highs and inner detail in that room. The old low power amp with high sensitivity speaker thing.
One thing I noticed with this speaker was that it was the first speaker I've bought new that I clearly heard it break in.
The first time was a pleasant surprise.The sound just popped out of the speakers.
Then after several more hours it improved again.
Never before or since have I had that experience with a speaker breaking in.
Since you've gone back to the Veenas,says it all.
Had I not had the good fortune to acquire my present set up I would have been quite happy to stay where I was.
But I do believe I would be looking for a second amp, just for fun.
As you may find out, these speakers sound their best when great attention is paid to set up. They will sound good out of the gate, but fine tuning will reap high rewards.
Keep listening and keep me posted on what you hear.
Very nice looking system Shakey! I just picked up a pair of Grand Veenas myself, very impressive sounding speakers. I wish I had a dedicated room, such as yours, and I could pull them as far out into the room as you do. My wife however would disagree. LOL!
They do love tubes though, I'm driving mine with a VAC Sigma 160i integrated amp. Possibly the best sound I've ever experienced in my room, though not nearly as much $$$ invested as I have had in the past.
The McCormacks, while fine amps, will be extreme overkill with Cornscalas. Keep in mind, you are going from a 4 ohm, 86 db sensitive speaker to one that is an 8 ohm load with 100 db sensitivity. I think even the Mid Monos are more than I need. That said, I think they are a better match tonally for the Cornscalas than the VTL was, as well as in power output.
So in the end, tubes with horns get my vote. Maybe something like a Pass Labs First Watt amp would work, but tubes would be my first choice.
Do you plan to build your own Cornscalas? Keep me posted on what you do.
I see you went from the VTLs to the Quicksilvers. No longer need the extra power or are the Quicksilvers better?
Im looking into making the leap into horns, the Cornscalas in particular, from Magnepans 3.6s. Currently driving them with a McCormack DNA225 which would be overkill for sure with the Cornscala . Do you think the DNA225, or any solidstate amp, would give a fair assessment or are tubes a must when auditioning horns?
The CS is more dynamic and play bigger as you might well expect. They also go toe to toe with the GV in imaging and high frequency extension. The GV is a great speaker and is more forgiving of less than stellar recordings. But horns just sound more "real".
It's not the sound for everyone, but I'm digging it.
