General Speaker Advice and Recommendations

See my post above.. got one in the house ready to be assembled. The Pureaudioproject Trio15 Voxativ's sound at Munich show was fantastic. Open baffle goodness with a Voxativ widebander that manages to control the highs and produce heavenly mids. The 15 inchers produce palpable well defined bass that is gorgeous. The crossover is a simple serial one that allows the Eminence drivers to transition into the Voxativs.

@Serious has a similar DIY setup. I heard the paper Voxativs on the PAPs at the show and on Serious' speakers. I loved their sound for classical music but opted for the wooden drivers for added accuracy with less paper colouration.

 

Hehe... that'll teach me to refresh my browser before replying.

 

The listening position for those is really low, the speakers are too short (unless you are like 4 feet tall or sitting on the floor to listen).

 

Yeah...that bugged me a little bit I have to say. It is not a dealbreaker for me though. The sound was too good to let go. I had several discussions with Ze'ev, the company owner, regarding solutions.

The center of the Voxativ driver is at 65cm from floor and there is a tilt of aprox. 2.5-7 degrees fom floor towards listener.

I will try it as is first as the tilt maxed up could be enough. The vertical off axis listening may be beneficial for even tonality.

If the lower than ear level is an issue I can put the Voxativ on top with both the Ob-A15 Neo Eminence woofers at the bottom. However this would potentially compromise the advantages of a D'Appolito driver arrangement.

Alternatively I will construct a 20cm height stage to put the speakers on. This would lift the Vox towards ear level but lose the beneficial floor baffle effect.

Now, if you are crazy and have enough room space PAP have an upgraded frame that adds 4 further woofers so that there are 2 woofers on each side of the widebander. These look super awesome but won't fit in my space or in my wife's mindset to say the least!

 

While we're on the subject of full-range drivers, anyone have experience with the Zu Audio speakers? The Omen II and Soul seem to have the same height-problem as the Trio15s, and the step up to the Soul Superfly or Druid is a bit much to just take a punt on.

 

The Zus are pretty clear and dynamic and okay at resolution, but the whizzer cone effect on them is particularly bad, to the point of compromising tonality. Its not excessively bright per se but it detracts from immersion severely. That said I did hear them with a warmbutt Line Magnetic 211 amp so its probably brighter than I heard it.

 

I miss having speakers for my desktop in a nearfield situation.

Looking for something budget but can't decide whether to go for actives (JBL LSR305 or Mackie MR5 mk3) or for passives with an Amptastic Mini-1 Tripath amp. The passives I've been considering are from Q Acoustics, Dali, Monitor Audio, etc. Can't find any straight up comparisons of JBL305 vs bookshelf speakers.

Have been reading alot about the JBL305's, seem pretty amazing except I'm sure the reported hissing would bother me. Would be connecting them to Gungnir Multibit. Would the ADC in the LSR305's undo the multibit goodness?

Just bought some vintage Technics SB-F2's to try. Read some good things about them (linear phase) but not very optimistic. One small problem, I don't currently own an amp But could borrow a vintage Rotel RA-610.

In the past I have owned KRK RP5 G2 and Focal CMS50. They didn't hiss too much IIRC.

I could really do with some advice, I'm in somewhat of a quandry. Can't decide what to do

 

I really love my Swan M200MKIII nearfield monitors. They are powered monitors and are bi-amped. They sound great are relatively inexpensive!

 

Any recommendations for a cheap <$300 floor standing speaker pair for use in a 2 channel home theater setup? Don't want to invest as much as I do in my music setups but want something better than the built in TV speakers. Floor standers so my dog doesn't crush herself under a pair of bookshelves.

Half an hour of searching Amazon and I found these:
Onkyo $250:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E...qid=1504630275&sr=1-10&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65

Dayton T652 for really cheap $118:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00Q...udio+tower&dpPl=1&dpID=316mBPBtdzL&ref=plSrch

 

I searched this thread and not a single mention of Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2? I mean cmon.. aren't they the best bookshelf speaker in the $1k to $2k price range? RAAL 70-20XR ribbon tweeter with a custom SEAS woofer. Paired with a Rythmik FV15HP these have made me completely ignore headphones. The only competitor in the realm of ribbon monitors might be the Scansonic MB-1's that are supposed go be trickld down Raidho speakers

 

I have a feeling a lot of speakers in the 1-2k price range would make anyone ignore headphones. They've been mentioned in other threads, as have similar offerings from Dennis at Philharmonic Audio.

 

@Mystic, I haven't heard them in years, but Boston Acoustics used to make some fine budget speakers.

https://www.amazon.com/Boston-Acous...o_browse-bin:2494594011,p_89:Boston+Acoustics