I've been enjoying my Studio 2Pi Towers, hooked up to my custom Dynaco Mark III, for the past 12 months... Overall, I am satisfied with what the 2Pi Towers can deliver, except I wished there is a bit more bass... Anyways,I am thinking about building another pair of speakers for stereo application and move the 2Pis to home theater use.

So here is my question: After reading the archive about various 4Pis it seems that the stage 4 Pi is the way to go, from a pricing perspective is the stage 4Pi three times better sounding than a 2Pi Tower ($80 vs $285)?
Also, for the folks that has both 2Pi Tower and 4 Pi I am interested to hear your recent thoughts about the two speakers...

Please help me choose my next project, something that is better than a 2Pi Tower without breaking my piggy bank...

Thanks in advance.

The 3x difference in price you quoted only accounts for components. When you take into account material for cabinet and your time to build, the difference becomes smaller. In fact, I would argue that because the cabinet for the Stage-4 is smaller, cabinet time and material would be less than the Towers. Compare the cost of finished speakers between Stage and Towers on Wayne's PiSpeaker site.

In terms of improvements, I believe the Pi Speakers with compression horns are in a different league than the Studio Pi's. I have not heard the Stage-4, but have built and lived with the Towers and the Theatre-3. From top to bottom, the Theatre is more refined. Both the Tower and Theatre-3 go deep in bass, but the 3 is more controlled and tight in sound. Midrange is smoother in the Theatre, without the bite in the upper-mid that the Tower has. None of this is saying that the Towers are bad. It's just that the Theatres are better. I'm certain that the Stage is even better than the Theatres.

In terms of trying to get more bass than the Towers, I'm pretty sure you will NOT find it in the Stage-4. The Stage offers improvement in quality, not quantity. If more bass is all you're after, an option would be a subwoofer based on a LAB-12, which Wayne has plans for.

Gar.

Another thing, is the sound stage and dynamics similar or different between Theatre-3 and Towers?

Thanks,
Norbert

Sorry, but I don't quite understand the description of "narrow" bass. If by narrow, you mean soundstage, it's more likely a room placement issue. Or do you mean narrow as in frequency range (ie bass is dominated by one particular frequency).

Norbert