General Speaker Advice and Recommendations

oops yes I guess they are disc.

I use a pair on my TV, pretty good and able to be driven with a small decent quality chip amp.

 

I have the graham ls5/9 here! Im comparing them to my harbeth shl5+. love em so far

 

What amp are you running, Murphy? Could you comment and contrast when you've had more listening hours please? Cheers!

 

Speaker amps:
Sony TA-F707ES
Vista Audio Spark
Volt+ TPA3118 boards.
Topping tp-20
Art0 class d
LM3875 gainclone: inverting mode, with buffer, regulated powersupplies.
DIY DHT PP 6B4G
Audion Golden Night 300b SET

im using mainly my Vista Spark, my Sony 707, the Volt+ and the Gainclone.


will report in a couple of weeks, but so far, the Graham are quite amazing.

 

Hey Guys,

NOTE: I'm not going for ultimate sound quality here, my goal is to downsize from the towers, whilst retaining similar, or better sound quality. Is this possible without spending a fortune? I don't know.

I'm a total speaker noob in terms of what is out there apart from quite a bit of knowledge about studio monitors. I don't know much about "audiophile" speakerdom, the various brands, what is good value, what is totl etc...I have always focused my time and energy on headphones.

Currently in the basement I have a Klipsch "home theater" type set up. The main towers are the ICON WF-35's.



First question is, in terms of speakers, are these any good?

Lets set of a budget of $1000CAD ($800USD)

With the goal of downsizing in mind, what would you guys recommend? The KEF LS50's seem to be popular, and would work size wise, but I have no clue how they sound, and no clue if they would work in a home theater type set up, as well as listening to tunes.

Also, I'm trying to figure out something for my Mum. She was at a friends house and they had a "Sonos" set up. She loved that they could stream music from their iPad. She asked me if I could do some research for her and see if there was anything similar I would recommend. I'm getting a distinctly consumer/Bose vibe from Sonus, in that their streaming capabilities might be great, but lack in the sound quality department. Are there any other brands I should be looking at that would be cheaper/better sound quality?

Thanks for the help guys, I'm a bit lost here.

 

• Is your mom an audiophile? Sonos speakers aren't audiophile quality, but would that matter to your mom?
• You don't have to use their speakers; Sonos also has streamers that can hook up to an existing stereo or speakers of your choice.
• For integrated, multi-room operation, Sonos probably has the most developed, user friendly system.
• To simply cast audio from iPad to speakers, cheaper alternatives are Chromecast Audio and AirPlay (e.g. with Apple Airport Express).
• Depending on what features your mom wants, even Bluetooth speakers may work.

 

As far as speakers go I was really impressed with Silverline Minuet if you can find them not sure of current variants.

As far as Sonos goes, I had the setup back years ago. Decent sounding for non-audiophile freaks and impressive at new years eve party to pass around the control device and let folks choose their tunes.

 

As far as something to stream from a phone or iPad for your mom, the Vanatoo speakers are only a stereo solution (not multi-room), but they're pretty good. I also think some of the others here have checked out the Riva Wand series and are pleased for a more similar solution to the Sonos.

 

She is not an Audiophile. She does enjoy decent sound quality, but I suppose everyone does. I try to make sure she has the best sound she can get for the price, or close to it. I will check out Chromecast etc...Lots of studying to do still. Thanks for the help.

 

I just saw that pure audio project has announced they will be putting voxativ field coils in the Trios 15. They aren't listed on their website yet..
http://www.pureaudioproject.com/product/trio15-voxativ-open-baffle-speakers/
There is not much info on any of their line up from reliable sources, I was hoping some of the RMAF attenders from our community could comment?

 

I believe it’s just been dialed in and will make its public debut at the NYAS in two weeks.

 

Any thoughts on the trio 15 or quintet?

 

I have had the trio 15 Voxativ (Pi Fe) for the past few weeks. It is highly resolving with a neutral sound signature that can be dialled further by careful toe out / in according to the recording. Some space behind the baffles is needed. Coherence is fantastic and the bass is highly defined but not pronounced. Great speakers for neutralheads. I'll write up a more detailed impression after some more time with these. I recommend to listen before purchase though as sound lacks any boxy boominess. Sound is thus clear, and upfront kind of Utopia-like in my room that also envelopes the whole ground floor.

Staging, imaging, spatial localisation of instruments and coherence in the mid to treble area is fantastic. Listening to Kleiber's Beethoven 5th symphony, I could localise the different depths and heights of the right and left timpani sticks. Microdetail and microdynamics are excellent through my Yggdrasil Rag. Some aspects of the sound reflect the neutral solid state nature of the Rag and the highly resolving neutral Yggdrasil. A well chosen tube amp may pair better with different tastes.

 

I know some folks here had Phil BMR speakers but their ownership didn't last long. What did you move to?

The value seems really great but if there is something missing then the value is kind of moot...

 

I can't speak to these speakers directly; however, they're ~84.5db (2.83v/1M) with a 6Ω nominal impedance. There could be a bit of gear incompatibility as they're relatively inefficient.

 

I had them and enjoyed them for a bit, but I think the BMR driver was the weakest link. Dennis chose it for its wide lateral dispersion, but it took a backseat to the Scanspeak woofer and RAAL tweeter. The midrange was a tad recessed and it just wasn't very resolving. I realized that it was changing my listening habits and I was listening more to songs that specifically made the ribbon tweeters sparkle. Also, my room is tiny and it wasn't very good in a near-field application. They seemed a bit laidback so it was easy to relax and have them play music for hours and hours.

I ended up replacing them with Pranafidelity Bhavas (recommended by a few members here). They are much more resolving, coherent through all frequencies, more alive/dynamic (engaging?), and project a better soundstage at a close distance. Much better for my room and preferences.

 

That was perfect, cheers! I suspect those qualities carry over a bit to Salk as well...

Another I'm thinking about is from Tyler Acoustics - Linbrook Signature H4. One uses Seas Magnesium while the other uses Revelator and BE tweeter.

I'll have to do some research on how the Seas and Scanspeak differ in flavour as technically they are both very good.

 

There’s a lot of different enclosure types out there. Can anyone tell me what audible differences they have?

Here is a list:

Sealed box
Bass reflex
Transmission line - open or closed, TQWT
Backloaded horn - includes Nagasaki-Olson
Open baffle - H-frame, U-frame
Passive radiator

This doesn’t even get into baffle shape, but that starts getting really complicated.

 

Is there a way of measuring possible delay between subwoofer and bookshelf speakers, or does it come down to moving them around / trial and error? My setup sounds fine, but I want to get everything in perfect sync if that's easily achievable.

 

@Cspirou, in really general terms bass reflex, transmission line and backloaded horn all boost the bass response. You can get a lot of bass out of bass reflex, but they can be a bit loose. The back-loaded horn will tighten it up at the expense of very large speaker enclosures. The transmission line is more moderate in size, but boosts less.

A passive radiator is a compromise between sealed and bass reflex, but generally a bit closer to the bass reflex end.

Open baffle are dipole radiators: similar to Maggies or an electrostatics if you've heard them. But they need a lot of bass driver because there's no boost at all.