Get these and dont look back for Under $30

[tom67]

Listed among best speakers under $1,000 by CNET with 6 1/2 inch driver....we are talking the cost of fast food for 3 here......I'm too old and lazy....someone here needs to buy and report....very reliable well known company too


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20005175-47.html?tag=mncol;txt

 

[InTheIndustry]

Listed among best speakers under $1,000 by CNET with 6 1/2 inch driver....we are talking the cost of fast food for 3 here......I'm too old and lazy....someone here needs to buy and report....very reliable well known company too


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20005175-47.html?tag=mncol;txt

Parts Express is about a 15 minute drive down the highway from me. I purchase different odds and end connectors, bulk wire, patch cables there for our custom install projects. They have had these playing in their showroom there for a few months now. I think they sound gross. But, and hear me out on this, their showroom isn't sonically friendly. All hard surfaces: Concrete floors, etc. and a really high metal ceiling in a very very large space (for this small a speaker). I've had to ask them to turn them down before because they're so nasty. Perhaps in the home these are great? I have heard the PSB B652's the reviewer compares them to. Not what I would compare them too but, uhhhh... OK. To each their own.

I will say this, though, their Dayton Audio Rock speakers are PHENOMINAL. They compete, IMO, with almost any rock speaker I've ever heard (I have tried many!) and are a steal at what they ask for them. The fit and finish on the rocks are great and it actually looks like a.... rock. Their standard outdoor speakers are an awesome value as well. Tough to justify spending more on a pair in the < $500pr price point and these are around $120pr.

Just my experience.

 

[JerryLove]

I don't like the review.

First, it goes out of it's way to try to say "don't you know I'm smart?". For example:
"See, I told you Dave's an audiophile, we use language like that to describe speaker designs."


Then some very odd statements like:
"acoustic suspension woofers tend to sound better than ported ones" - let me toss out both my Paradigm Signatures and my B&W 801's.

"Lightweight cabinets tend to make for a "lively," exciting sound" - No, they make for cabinet resonances and distortion as the cabinet becomes an out-of-phase and highly colored driver. There's real room for debate on the level of influence a given cabinet will have... but it's not a good thing.

Finally, there's the issue of speaking of subjectivity as objectivity (which could already be said of the two above):
"I'm certain I recently discovered the absolute diminishing returns point in hi-fi loudspeakers." - This is entirely unquantifiable. How would I go about proving these to be more than "five-times-better" than a $5 pair of computer speakers?

 

[j_garcia]

Yes, I didn't like the review either, but I get the point he is making. It is a good speaker for the price. They've been selling these low end speakers for years, so this one must have something nicer about them. Polycarbonate tweeter, which usually doesn't work for me, though for $25, I'd be willing to give it a listen

 

[markw]

Been there, done that.

I heard about this at another site and got a pair yesterday. My opinions can be found a few posts down in this thread at another site at which I inflict my particular version of angst.

Cliffs notes: Great value. No brainer for a small, inexpensive HT system. Lacks musically, though. IMNSHO, of course.

 

[tom67]

Hey....a lot of these cheap speaker posts are anecdotal from untrained users....Here we have a genuine expert in the form of Mr. Guttenberg who has been around for a while (printed the first Bible I believe) and worked under Julian Hirsch at Stereo Review....Plus there is no white van here....Parts Express is well respected seller...I sometimes think these marvelous values bring out the primal audiophile fear ...."what if they are better than my $3,000 speakers?". The spring clips are a turn off but make no difference in the sound and very few of us move the speakers every day anyway....these could be the Insignias or the Radiients of the next generation.....as a bonus, they are a suspension design which has gone largely unheard for two generations....Markw owns them and gives them the thumbs up....

 

[highfigh]

Hey....a lot of these cheap speaker posts are anecdotal from untrained users....Here we have a genuine expert in the form of Mr. Guttenberg who has been around for a while (printed the first Bible I believe) and worked under Julian Hirsch at Stereo Review....Plus there is no white van here....Parts Express is well respected seller...I sometimes think these marvelous values bring out the primal audiophile fear ...."what if they are better than my $3,000 speakers?". The spring clips are a turn off but make no difference in the sound and very few of us move the speakers every day anyway....these could be the Insignias or the Radiients of the next generation.....as a bonus, they are a suspension design which has gone largely unheard for two generations....Markw owns them and gives them the thumbs up....

The Guttenberg Bible was the first printed with movable type, not the first to be printed. I believe it was a young Steve Guttenberg who was given the task of crawling into the printer to clean it after the job was done.

 

[highfigh]

I bought a pair for a customer early this year/late last year and posted a short review, basically saying that I was surprised that they didn't suck for that price and that I have heard many speakers that cost a lot more, but sounded like crap if they were compared with the Dayton. I seem to remember someone having done a mod for them with much more extensive crossovers and possibly some bracing. One of the ones I got had a dislodged cap on the crossover, but it was easy enough to fix.

I don't think I would put them up against speakers that retail for $1000, though. Great sound? No, but they are a great value.

 

[markw]

Markw owns them and gives them the thumbs up....

...with what some might consider serious qualifications. For $15 each, waddaya expect? My standards are different for a White Castle slider and a burger at Texas Roadhouse.

 

[tom67]

agree with markw and sometimes speakers are like cars.....If you have a nice one, you actually enjoy owning a "beater" to drive to work and drive hard...just fun to play with and occasionally find a "diamond in the rough"

 

[tom67]

Guttenberg

The Guttenberg Bible was the first printed with movable type, not the first to be printed. I believe it was a young Steve Guttenberg who was given the task of crawling into the printer to clean it after the job was done.

so perhaps Steve was that stuff that squirts out of a machine that you avoid

 

[zieglj01]

Buy a pair and donate them to Goodwill - then move on.