Nearfields for audiophile listening?

Discussion in 'Speakers' started by sashafuckinggrey, Feb 27, 2016.

  1. HAL9000

    HAL9000 Almost "Made"

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    Have you heard them? If so, what do you think?
     
  2. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    @Toolkit make sure you measure only one speaker at a time. Also there are panels you can buy or make that are on stands. That's what i do to not mess up the walls, also comes in handy when i change things around again.
     
  3. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    Presonus sucks penis. Fluid is gross sounding just like your newer Mackies.

    If you want GOOD, dark rich and sexy MONITORs, go Quested. They are monitor monitors and will rape poorly recorded, mixed, or mastered music. The cheaper 8" is 3000 a pair. The killer 8" is 5000 a pair. The passive 8" is 2k a pair.

    Adams A7X are euphonic and sound good. The made in China cheaper Adams are awful. HEDD are improved Adams. I prefer soft domes.

    The best made in China monitors right now are the KRK V6S4 and V8S4. They sound warm and killer but have some hiss.

    Active stuff I'd recommend in order of price. I've tried most of this crap:
    JBL LSR 305 mk II
    KRK Rokit 5 G4
    Yamaha HS 8
    KRK V6 and V8.

    ================ END OF COST REDUCED CRAP ====================

    Dynaudio BM6a and BM15a. BM15a are almost midfield.
    Barefoot Footprints.
    Quested H108, S8R, and V2108. V2108 are also almost midfield. There's a big step up from everything below them but are dark.
    ATC SCM20 ASL and SCM50ASL. Yes the 50s can be used nearfield. The bigger ones can't. The tweeters and midrange are a step up from Quested's Morell tweeters but ATC doesn't make anything like the 8" woofer Questeds.
     
  4. frenchbat

    frenchbat Almost "Made"

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    I own them, but don't keep your hopes up for a review. I'm still playing with the placement in the room, and have zero time to write a wall of text.

    In pirates' speak they fall in the "not shit" category. Fairly balanced FR wise with good bass to start with, but that also depends how your room reacts to the slight dip at Xover freq. Not analytical in any way imo but i'm not a euphonic gear user in the slightest so keep that in mind. Imaging and resolving ability are good. Engagement factor is good too.

    I have the feeling they aren't too sensitive to the room, unless I'm just lucky with mine. A very good entry point for someone who wants to get into monitors.
     
  5. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    The Quested V3110's are my dream speakers. I made a poor man's version by stacking my S7R's on top of 10" subs crossed over at 100hz. Sounds damn good and looks cool.
     
  6. Toolkit

    Toolkit New

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    They're not at great till SW has their way, but they were only $400 a pair. I have a short time to decide. I don't know about you, but I don't make that much money. Some sacrifices need to be made.

    I am just incredibly drawn to novel or different ways of doing things. At its core, it acts as a value proposition.

    Lol you trying to kill my love of music or something? I can just imagine what I'd even do with them, probably load Katy Perry as the first song or something extremely crunchy and distorted.

    Huh

    Is LYD7 the replacement for bm6a? What exactly makes dynaudio special? The specs don't look particularly eye catching and their website didn't really sell any unique or proprietary technology.
     
  7. yunie_

    yunie_ Acquaintance

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    I have to get back about the graham ls6 i bought under the recommendation of @rlow and @murphythecat

    this is multiple hours after listening to it and comparing with atc scm11, proac sm100 and falcon ls3/5a

    1. I bought the falcon ls3/5a after being seduced by it at a local hifi fair. but comparing with the graham ls6, it just isn't as good. I can't quite point my finger at what it is though. perhaps being in a larger box gives it better scale.

    2. for my music taste now, vocals and instruments, the ls6 is the best of the bunch. I was playing some vitamin string quartet and to quote the cliche, 'transported me to another place'. god, i really hate this cliche quote but that is exactly how I felt.

    3. ls6 also plays emotions the best. the falcon may rival it, but the ls3/5a bass bump is very prominent in my listening location. not sure why the ls6 doesn't suffer the bump as much. Maybe it doesn't have the bass bump that most ls3/5a are suffering from? on a side note, sm100 is the worst when it comes to emotion.

    4. the ls6 bass port is quite frankly, disgusting, or at least with my speakers placement which is around 25 cm to wall. as boomy and loose as I've heard any speakers does bass. I cannot listen to hip hop on these. just tons of flabby bass ruining the whole song.

    5. thank god though, as what rlow has suggested, putting socks in the port made the bass much controllable, though again like what he says, you really lose a lot of low end. according to soundonsound, bass started to roll off from 100hz. that's roughly what I heard as well.

    I'm starting to look at the ls5/9 and read extensively about its comparison with ls6. apparently they sound pretty much the same with ls5/9 tweeter being a little more forward. if it offers tight bass down to 50hz, I may seriously consider them.

    I just don't understand why they must be so much more expensive. they REALLY do pay a lot of licensing fees to BBC i suppose. LS6 without the BBC licensing is so much better in value than ls3/5a and ls5/9.

    and there's just no demand for 2nd hand graham it seems, even if i decide to flip.
     
  8. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    cool stuff! I wonder if you optimized the speaker position. maybe the bass ports of the ls6 excite a particular bass mode of your room?

    I think you can easily resell the ls6 at the same price you paid it for used. hell id buy your pair if the price is right

    the ls5/9 were lovely. I remember the midrange purity and especially the emotions. I didnt like the tweeter iirc there was a small 3db peak around 6khz which bothered me.
     
  9. FeddyLost

    FeddyLost New

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    I think it's due to waveguide around H or maybe something like that.
    It looks like you'd better optimize placement and room interaction first.
    There are lot of instructions of DIY absorbers everywhere, try to search gearslutz for example.

    First you have to FIND this sweet spot.

    "Brutally honest" it a hyperbole or maybe expression of someone familiar with speakers with "smiley" FR and wrong, but euphonic sound.
    In my experience the worst result of clean and low-colored sound reproduction is a great number of boring and unprofessional musical products in your collection. Not just "bad recordings" but plain bad singers, bad composers and musicians, and this can be heard even through mp3 encoding artifacts...
     
  10. bilboda

    bilboda Florida boomer

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    but maybe the music was recorded with euphonic speakers/ headphones leading to unpleasantness with honest speakers.

    I like my Drop JBL's set up as nearfield. Rarely hear crap from these so I don't worry about it too much. I don't record anything. I would like to add subwoofers but due to condo and shared space, it's just not feasible.

    I'll be going with LX mini's someday, maybe with subs set to go no lower than 35hz and just not have to worry about the room or neighbors.
     
  11. FeddyLost

    FeddyLost New

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    I've never heard about euphonic speakers in any commercial studio. If some sound engineer tunes his control chain to euphonic sound, he'll soon get out of industry, i think ...
    Actually, I've never heard any really euphonic instruments in nearfield except maybe good fat bass guitar.
    Heve you ever heard something like "if my system would play like this orchestra, i'd throw it out"? ;)
     
  12. bilboda

    bilboda Florida boomer

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    Don't know crap about recording but from the discussion in this thread, the speakers/headphones and equipment vary widely. While perhaps not ultimately euphonic when compared to home speakers/headphones, some gear would be moreso than others , so brutal honesty during recording must vary and perhaps vary a lot.
     
  13. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Or balls in stereo? Is this bad? Although I admit it is something I don't expect from speakers, maybe I could get used to it.

    Or maybe the very idea awakens my primordial sharp-teeth fears.
     
  14. yunie_

    yunie_ Acquaintance

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    I have not optimised but intend to do so soon. the bass ports definitely excite the bass mode. I did move the speakers out of the corner a few times to test and the bass quality did improve significantly but it is still flabby and loose. Loose enough to still be one of the worst ported speakers I've heard.

    seriously, I don't understand why they put such big bass port to extend the bass down to 40hz. keeping it to 50hz with quality would make it so much better. Strangely, the spendor classic 3/1 seem to have a huge bass port at the back as well, with similar specs. I didn't find any review of it mentioning the flabby bass so not sure how it performs.

    I've seen the LS6 regularly sold for good prices on hifishark. you can check it out. i have to say though, the quality of the veneer on the ls6 is seriously lackluster as compared to the falcon ls3/5a

    did you keep the ls5/9 in the end? the tweeter bothered you because it became too bright? how is the bass performance?
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2020
  15. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    yeah, the graham ls59 finish was just bad.

    eneded up keeping the harbeth shl5plus over the ls59 after comparing in my room for a few months. the bass performance of the ls59 is excellent though, but yeah i thought the treble was to my taste a bit too much. great speakers but kinda pricey at the same time.

    what did you didnt like in the scm11?
     
  16. dematted

    dematted Friend

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    I just got the JBL LSR305, and I have to say, I'm mostly unimpressed with these. They do three things pretty well: speed, dynamics, and detail. But a lot else is left out. In particular, the timbre felt off to me, and they didn't sound particularly natural. In fact, it seemed to me as if the only thing being presented was the "bleeding edge" of the music, leaving it having a presentation that lacked depth and musical nuance. While this was alright for modern pop and electronic music, when I listened to older acoustic and rock'n'roll recordings, I found myself cringing at the way these presented music. I will be returning them.
     
  17. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    Could be placement affecting the sound. Desk bounce, boundary reflections and wall gain can really screw up a normally flat response. Or maybe you placed them in the middle of the room on stands and just don't like them, also valid.
     
  18. squishware

    squishware Friend

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    Are you feeding them balanced? What DAC? Just curious.
     
  19. dematted

    dematted Friend

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    Yeah, I'm not feeding them balanced, and I'm just using a Modi 3 dac. Not doing anything particularly sophisticated with them, really. That's probably a big part of the problem.
     
  20. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    I had a Modi 3 and SYS hooked up to the same pair of monitors. You should set your input sensitivity set at -10dbV for an unbalanced connection, if it's not already. If you do decide to hang on to them, get some sorbothane isolation feet.

    I hear where you are coming from on the timbre and it not sounding natural. 305s definitely have a sound to them. It's also easy to hear the cabs resonating. Modi 3 was weak at acoustic and rock music on the 305s IME. These monitors do scale with better DACs.

    BTW is this the mkII version?

    JBL has genius engineers to take some junk that belongs in a scrapheap and make them sound pretty f'ing good for bargain priced monitors.
     

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