General Speaker Advice and Recommendations

Discussion in 'Speakers' started by shotgunshane, Mar 7, 2017.

  1. Luigi Pichardo

    Luigi Pichardo New

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    Has anyone heard The Dynaudio Special 40 speakers and for what they are worth are there more preferable speakers it its price range that are more refined and in general better than them +$500 -$1000 ? Based off hear-say they seem pretty damn good for far-field living room listening.
     
  2. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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  3. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Depends what you’re looking for sound wise. For their size and price range, I can say I’ve heard “different” and maybe somewhat better from my perspective, but it depends what your priorities are. The special Forty’s are near the top of my budget envelope for speakers and I would recommend them for certain aspects and tastes/rooms, but not all, and I’ve not really listened to much above their price bracket.
     
  4. captkirk

    captkirk Khan's BFF

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    Anyone have any experience with the LINN Keilidh speakers?

    There's a set up-for-sale locally and was thinking it may pair well with my Klout.

    Most information I find on the webz seem to report positive impressions, but information without context is mostly useless, so looking for feedback from others here that may have references I'm familiar with.
     
  5. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    Have you had a chance to compare the Navis with your Genelec 8040B? They are targeted at a very market, and I would expect a very different sound character.
     
  6. JustAnotherRando

    JustAnotherRando My other bike is a Ferrari

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    I build an OSMT kit a couple of weeks ago. It was really fun and I'd like to try more. The product pages of Parts Express and Meniscus are not terribly informative, and I've found a couple of sites with rather outdated information. Could anyone recommend a reliable place for DIY speaker information?

    I'm really limited to kits as I have minimal working space (dinner table) and tools (a drill).

    I'm also very intrigued by the Akikika amp posted earlier today and am looking into semi-cost-effective shipping options .
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2019
  7. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    Diysoundgroup.com is pretty good. Their forum is pretty sparse, though. Build threads and discussions tend to be on the Techtalk forums for Partsexpress.
     
  8. Streamline

    Streamline New

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    What do you all think of the vintage ADS L710 (6 Ohm nominal, 93 db)? A pair came up in my area, and I'm tempted but I can't find comparative impressions. Just something to play around with; a case of "I have a Ragnarok; it can drive speakers; let's get some musical and sensitive smallish speakers". For some context, I downsized from a decent two channel system (Odyssey Stratos, Revel Ultima Gems) not too long ago, and really miss it. City apartment, not going to be playing it very loud. For $475 ($300 for the speakers, rest for stand) am I paying more for cult collectibility rather than just the sound?
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2019
  9. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    I have no personal experience with them, but found these couple threads:
    Looks like they were designed by Michael Kelly, who now owns Aerial Acoustics. I will say that of all the dynamic speakers I've heard over the past few months (Focal Kanta No. 2, Paradigm Persona 3F, Klipsch Forte III, KEF LS50 / R11, Spendor D7, and Aerial Acoustics 6T and 7T), the Aerials have been my favorite by far. I do think the seller of those L710s is asking too much: https://www.hifishark.com/model/ads-l-710. May be worth a demo and a low-ball cash offer if you like them. ;)
     
  10. Mystic

    Mystic Mystique's Spiritual Advisor

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    Thanks to sbaf, my first big speaker purchase I went straight for big woofers and horns. Since my DIY is not up to par at this point in time I went ahead and purchased a pair of these:

    Klipsch Heresy III
    IMG_20190419_191626.jpg

    While these certainly sound better than my previous Dayton Audio Towers, my cheap Yamaha receiver is not even close to ideal to power these.

    Having 99db sensitivity (8ohm technically, but closer to 6ohm) I have a wide assortment of tube and low power class A amps to look at. I was thinking of getting a Saga for a preamp (unless my ZDS does a good job).

    The amp I'm most interested in right now is the Schiit Aegir, though being such a new amp impressions are few. Want to keep it comfortably under $1000 USD. I thought about a Studio Jr as an upgrade for both speakers and my headphones, but I think I lean closer to the DNA camp for headphone gear and will probably end up with a Stratus at some point.
     
  11. Luigi Pichardo

    Luigi Pichardo New

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    Anybody had first hand experience listening to a pair of Salk Song 3 Encore 's?

    I hear they have a devoting following on audiocircle and in terms of a non-fatiguing gratifying listening speaker they seem like a possibility for its price range.
     
  12. Luigi Pichardo

    Luigi Pichardo New

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    What salk model could be blown away from what speakers. Thanks.
     
  13. Streamline

    Streamline New

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    Thanks for those two high-content links; my google-foo is terrible.

    I'm going to blame it on the long holiday weekend and lots of free time, but I did end up auditioning those ADS L710. For the condition they were in (plug-and-play) and the included stands, the effective price I paid ($410) was fair. The stands legitimately go for $200, and coming from the weird economics of headphone-land, vintage stuff is dangerously cheap -- kind of the best $210 I've ever spent for a transducer.

    Bad google-foo notwithstanding, I might be the first to ever plug these 40 year old speakers into a modern Yggdrasil A2/Ragnarok stack. It went as well as you'd expect -- these were made for a warmer and less ruthless time apparently. On well recorded stuff like anything from ECM it was pretty good, but Zeppelin IV was way too in-your-face, bordering on crunchy. Scratch that actually, it was crunchy. Just way too tilted bright. I dug out an old REL Storm III and that filled in the lowest register and balanced out the treble quite a bit. I've never had much luck with the REL, and now I think it's because I've always had ported enclosures (a Dynaudio 1.8 mk 2 for years and then the Revel Gems for many more years). It's so much easier to integrate a sub into sealed enclosures -- I used the bass on my LCD3 as reference and it dialed right in. The L710 has a claimed -5db point of 25hz, and my by-ear turning says that might actually be the case in my 20x15 room. Yggdrasil was still way too much, but the warmish NW-ZX2 into the Ragnarok works really really well. The speakers & sub disappear with the ZX2/Ragnarok combo into a pretty big sound stage and a really satisfying sound. Good treble extension but no longer crunchy. Just by dumb luck, the L710 turns out to be exactly what I was going for -- a cheap smallish musical speaker that isn't coupled to the floor (unless the neighbors are gone and I turn on the sub) that can be driven well by the Ragnarok.
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2019
  14. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    They are decent and do work well with a Klout. Bass quality isn't the best given the x2 6.5" drivers and neither is extension.
    Will need a sub for sure. The highlight was the small tweeter, a Hiqufon.

    Didn't do anything great, but most importantly no huge flaws which me made lose interest in prior speakers that I owned. I used them for the better part of 7 years. For the right price, sure, but check the drivers, especially the tweeters.
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2019
  15. Victor

    Victor New

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    Is there any retailer in the EU like madisound? All this talk about how easy it is to assemble these cheap kits and make great speakers has my interest, but the shipping + importing adds 150% to the price :/
     
  16. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    There's got to be. Seas is based in Norway? Any local cabinet makers? Seas provides exact plans.
     
  17. elguapo

    elguapo Gringos falling from the skys

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    http://www.audiocomponents.nl/
     
  18. Victor

    Victor New

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  19. Lautreamont

    Lautreamont New

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    I haven't tried heard speakers in the $4-7k range but I have the Elac Navis and if you feed them a good signal they are extremely impressive. High quality recordings are just a joy to listen to with the Navis. And they scale like crazy. The better your gear on the front end and the better they will sound. I did something as seemingly subtle as swapping the stock fuse in my DDC for an audiophile fuse and it noticeably bumped up the SQ I heard from the Navis.
     
    Last edited: May 2, 2019
  20. m.i.c.k.e.y

    m.i.c.k.e.y Facebook Friend

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    I too in the market for a powered, wireless capable bookshelf speaker like the ELAC Navis ARB-51. As the previous poster had said. A thumbs up for its analog insputs of being not internally converted. Will scale depending on the quality of its feed.

    Now I am torn between this and the Canton Smart Vento 3.
     

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