Topic: What do you value in a set of speakers? (Read 9039 times)

RexAeterna · « **Reply #50 on:** February 17, 2013, 08:44:12 PM »

hey, davebsc is here. didn't notice that. always gave top advice over at audiokarma.

anyhoo, i mainly like a good midrange overall. i can live if a speaker rolls off the low-bass and sub-bass since i'm mainly not into shaking the house or watch much movies whatsoever. i do appreciate good air as well to be honest cause it is a very nice sensation.

thing is too people tend to forget most these speakers are tested in an anechoic chamber so lot of times it can be hard to determine the speaker itself unless it's in a decent acoustically room. i swapped my speakers around in different houses and the room does make a huge difference in my opinion. only best way to solve this issue is i think is try to audition a pair at the store and if you like them, then give it a buy and then test it at your home and see how it on your equipment and so forth and if you still like it then awesome.

only other thing i can think of at the moment is find csd specs if possible for them cause lot of times sibilance and resonance is a room issue besides build-up of bass/boominess(it can also be lot of times too with amps cause i owned amps that made things sound more bassy and grainy).

speakers are usually more complicated i think personally than headphones(acoustically wise speaking). this is just my experience with passive towers and bookshelfs. i only ever heard a few pair of studio active monitors and remember liking the yamaha hs80m but remember it sounding a bit bright up top as well but it might of been the environment i auditioned them in. active studio monitors though are usually a better choice for most people cause they work better in decent rooms and don't have to worry about amps and other things as well.

DaveBSC · « **Reply #51 on:** February 18, 2013, 02:03:26 AM »

Quote from: omegakitty on February 17, 2013, 03:11:03 PM

Are they fairly neutral-ish? Mainly interested in Orpheus/Ulysses which on the surface look like a good value. Soft dome tweeter especially looks appealing, ie not a face raping Thiel. Who is their supplier of the mid driver?

I need to put a list together of speakers to hear at this year's RMAF.

Very neutral. The Ulysses also has an adjustable setting for the two Eton soft dome tweeters which can be set from -1dB, flat, or +1dB so you can tailor the HF response to be exactly how you want it. The midranges are modified Fostex FR drivers.

opera-kid · « **Reply #52 on:** February 20, 2013, 07:02:03 PM »

1. LOW DISTORTION!!! Nothing covers up distortion, the ear will forgive surprising frequency response deviations but distortion is a killer. Distortion covers driver resonances, big offenders, so I don't need to relist that.

2. Natural frequency balance. High end audio has gone way off track toward uber-detail but often gets the imperssion of detail with jacked up tweeters.

3. Reasonably flat frequency response through the mids on down to the bass. If anything, a subtle roll off toward the highs.

4. DYNAMICS. Hugely important to me, the others, above, are only listed higher as if I cannot tolerate listening to the speaker dynamics dont' matter.

5. Efficiency. It helps with number 4 above and I like not being forced into a huge solid state amp.

6. Coherence: I don't want to feel like I'm listening to a box of drivers.

7. Clarity and detail. Listed last because anything that satisfies the above probably has acceptable levels of detail.

8. Imaging. Pinpoint "bells floating mid air" only on some sounds does not mean imaging, to me it means an artifact that might point to a flaw in the speaker. Even if not, I don't need hi-fi tricks. I'd like a sense of location, but more importantly, I don't want those locations of instruments to move when the pitch or volume goes up or down.

9. Deep bass: if the speaker does all the above it will be likely to be a great speaker, why not then ask for bass also?

omegakitty · « **Reply #53 on:** February 25, 2013, 05:17:01 PM »

Follow up thoughts after auditioning several speakers. Some things I've realized - speakers with tweeters not at ear level sound really strange. High power tube amps (> 200 watts) sounded pretty mediocre to bad (ARC, VTL were not good. McIntosh were decent, but not great). At these high powers I would take a quality SS amp. My guess is one of the big limiting factors is the quality of the OPTs (I was doing some research on Tributes and O'Netics and these are expensive). Or maybe I don't like the "hardness" of all those pentodes.

If I don't go active, I will probably place a bit more importance on speaker sensitivity since I heard some very good under 30 watt tube amps from Shindo. And I know Allnic makes good stuff.

Jazz and classical can sound scary real on a good system in a good room. Even the poorly recorded stuff.

DaveBSC · « **Reply #54 on:** February 26, 2013, 03:29:40 PM »

High power SS amps that sound great cost a fair amount of money. Anybody can make a cheap A/B amp that pumps out 200W+ into 8 Ohms, even the bottom of the barrel brands like Adcom. With D it's even easier, slap a B&O module in a box and you're pretty much out the door. The "muscle" amps that actually sound good - Ampzilla, Simaudio don't come cheap.

The Modwright SE amps and the big Cary amps are excellent and not too expensive though, and of course Odyssey is always a solid choice.

omegakitty · « **Reply #55 on:** February 27, 2013, 04:48:23 PM »

Quote from: DaveBSC on February 26, 2013, 03:29:40 PM

High power SS amps that sound great cost a fair amount of money. Anybody can make a cheap A/B amp that pumps out 200W+ into 8 Ohms, even the bottom of the barrel brands like Adcom. With D it's even easier, slap a B&O module in a box and you're pretty much out the door. The "muscle" amps that actually sound good - Ampzilla, Simaudio don't come cheap.

The Modwright SE amps and the big Cary amps are excellent and not too expensive though, and of course Odyssey is always a solid choice.

There are some good options on the used market like Pass. And Pass longevity and service is something else. They will still support products from 25 years ago and have it back to you in a couple of weeks.

Cary tube amps and CD players I've heard were terrible and mediocre respectively.

I'm moving the Ulysses to the top of my must hear list after reading about them, I like that he makes pro audio speakers as well. After living with the BA for a while, I think I'd really like a pair of speakers that can pair with a neutral DHT amp (thinking of Karna drool $:-\$ ). Like it's hard to go back to listening to SS after this amp.

edit: IIRC you are not a Wilson fan. The latest Wilson speaker Alexia now uses a silk dome tweeter from titanium or whatever they used before. Might sound decent, but way more than I'd pay for speakers. Sort of funny to watch the promo video if you read between the lines hear Dave Wilson/engineering team say the Alexia and XLF are their two only good speakers.

ROK · « **Reply #56 on:** February 27, 2013, 07:18:18 PM »

Am I the only one here who has deep sub bass rumble on high priority?

DaveBSC · « **Reply #57 on:** February 28, 2013, 05:35:45 PM »

Quote from: omegakitty on February 27, 2013, 04:48:23 PM

There are some good options on the used market like Pass. And Pass longevity and service is something else. They will still support products from 25 years ago and have it back to you in a couple of weeks.

Cary tube amps and CD players I've heard were terrible and mediocre respectively.

I'm moving the Ulysses to the top of my must hear list after reading about them, I like that he makes pro audio speakers as well. After living with the BA for a while, I think I'd really like a pair of speakers that can pair with a neutral DHT amp (thinking of Karna drool $:-\$ ). Like it's hard to go back to listening to SS after this amp.

edit: IIRC you are not a Wilson fan. The latest Wilson speaker Alexia now uses a silk dome tweeter from titanium or whatever they used before. Might sound decent, but way more than I'd pay for speakers. Sort of funny to watch the promo video if you read between the lines hear Dave Wilson/engineering team say the Alexia and XLF are their two only good speakers.

Cary makes a lot of shit, some of it's good, some of it isn't. What I was referring to was the SA200.2, which costs about $4K and is excellent, better than the twice as expensive Levinson 5 series amps. Its been pretty humorous to watch the values on those amps drop like rocks. Reminds me of what happened to the Esoteric D-07 DAC. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but peddle them massively overpriced crap, and the market will eventually figure out what the product is really worth.

One of the worst listening experiences I've ever had was a Krell/Wilson system. That was not some hotel room setup thrown together for a few days at a show. This was a dealer showroom setup. It combined the worst aspects of both brands into a godawful mess - basically the room sounded like a giant Edition 8. I was out of there after half of one song.

DaveBSC · « **Reply #58 on:** February 28, 2013, 05:36:54 PM »

Quote from: ROK on February 27, 2013, 07:18:18 PM

Am I the only one here who has deep sub bass rumble on high priority?

You mean like '92 Honda Civic bass?

Author Topic: What do you value in a set of speakers? (Read 9039 times)

RexAeterna

Re: What do you value in a set of speakers?

DaveBSC

Re: What do you value in a set of speakers?

opera-kid

Re: What do you value in a set of speakers?

omegakitty

Re: What do you value in a set of speakers?

DaveBSC

Re: What do you value in a set of speakers?

omegakitty

Re: What do you value in a set of speakers?

ROK

Re: What do you value in a set of speakers?

DaveBSC

Re: What do you value in a set of speakers?

DaveBSC

Re: What do you value in a set of speakers?

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Author Topic: What do you value in a set of speakers? (Read 9039 times)

opera-kid

omegakitty

omegakitty

ROK