hello people,
So I finally got the funds to buy a good stereo setup. It’s all part of a bigger plan to build a 5.1 or maybe even a 7.1 system .so it’s very important i get the foundation right.I have a cool 2 lakhs budget for the speakers and maybe 70 grand more for the A/V receiver .i auditioned the PARADIGM STUDIO 100 v5, KEF R700 and the GOLDENEAR TRITON 2 as they are all approximately in the same price range .i could audition the goldenear triton 2's for only about ten minutes.so i have to go back for a complete audition at least for an hour the way i auditioned the other two speakers namely the studio 100 and the r700. I also auditioned the Kef q900 which is about rupess 90,000.
now I'm no expert and at best a wannabe audiophile have some clue as to the vocabulary people with trained ears use to describe sound yet I am fascinated with good quality sound and imaging and clarity etc. so in my limited knowledge let me describe what I thought of each one of them because quite frankly I am confused and would love for you guys who have heard these speakers or own these speakers to tell me your impressions of them so that I can make the right decision because quite frankly I’m CCConfused!
Played some familiar tracks and some audiophile test tracks.
1)paradigm studio 100 v5-- These floor standers are freaking huge. They have enormous presence and look good with or without the front grill. Firstly they were not amplified by one of the more exotic or quality oriented expensive amplifiers. Instead they were hooked to a denon avr which was somewhere in their top of the line range I think pumping out 150w.The room was acoustically corrected too and by that I mean special material was used on the walls to improve/absorb sound.
SOUND QUALITY-good, good bass, engaging plays very loud without losing composure. Felt the female vocals a bit shrill at high volumes. Overall I liked what I heard .in my opinion the studio 100’s are more home theater centric ....i told you guys I'm not good with explaining sound so please bear with me
2.)KEF R700--- these floor standing speakers look sexyyy . In comparison the studio 100’s look like hmmmmm let say Schwarzenegger tough and strong.the KEF R700 too were connected to a denon avr. they too pumped about 150/165 watts.
SOUND QUALITY-AGAIN GOOD. Clarity was better and so were the vocals. They were smooth.....BUT at the cost of some bass...tracks that dint have a lot of bass in them were good. Put on psytrance hip-hop or any track with bass( I remember trying boom boom pow by the black eyed peas)and its missing the impact the STUDIO 100 had. yes I know that I’m going to get a subwoofer later on as part of my plan to build a 7.1 home theater so maybe the lack of bass impact is not such a bad thing.The kef r700 are more music centric. So yea overall good sound.
3.)GOLDENEAR TRITON 2--None of the speakers on this list are as controversial as the goldear triton 2's.These speakers have got rave reviews all over the internet but have got mixed reviews by actual owners and people who have demo'd them. They were the last speakers I auditioned and I didn’t get much time with them, say about 10 mins and I was pretty tired because the studio 100’s were in andheri (W) in a shop called “THE SHOP” and the r700 were in worli atria mall. The triton 2’s were in worli too. So I’m definitely gonna go back to audition them properly.
4.)Kef Q900—looked like any other floor stander. Nothing special. They retail for around rupees 90,000 only as opposed to the other speakers on this list that are double its price.
SOUND QUALITY—good sound quality .Did a lot of A/B ing with the r700 and the q900.now dare I say I could not hear much difference between them and the other speakers.yea the bass was again good. It was not boomy but controlled ad impactful at the cost of some clarity. It had the impact in bass centric songs that the R700 lacked. I’m speaking relatively of course. Listen to the r700 on their own and you won’t notice then heard the Q900 5.1 system. The guy guy played transformers dark side of the moon blu-ray. One word….AAAAwesome. The whole q900 5.1 setup retails for around the amount I would pay for the 2.0 setup of the other speakers. Confusedddd.
Now im aware that if maybe the studio 100’s and the R700 were paired with a better more expesive amplifier they would really show me what they are capable of and I would be able to hear a major difference in sound quality vs the Q900.AS of now the Av Rim gonna go for is either the Marantz 6007 or the Denon 2313.Confusedddd
So people please tell me what do I do. To all the people who own them have heard them or people who themselves need help please feel free to help discuss suggest and ask questions to help me make the best and right decision.
Thanks!
UPDATE!
Today i heard the GOLDENEAR TRITON 2'S at audio vision india, fort mumbai
GOLDENEAR TRITON 2'S--- They had the Tritons hooked to a 150w Onkyo AVR.They are relatively good looking,slender floor standers dressed up in black cloth. the room in which i heard the speakers was not acoustically treated.
SOUND QUALITY-the minute i started listening to them i knew there was something wrong.it just didn't sound good. the guy assisting me agreed too.the problem was the placement of the speakers.there was too much reverb going on. So we changed the location and placed it faraway from walls and other objects on the sides of the speakers.Now they sounded good.let me tell you the imaging on these speakers is freakinn crazy. i mean close your eyes and you can feel and pinpoint where the singer and the different instruments are playing in front of you as if they speakers arent there.but you have to feed them high quality flac or wave tracks to really enjoy them after all what you give is what you get. But the bass. i was not so sure about the bass. i mean the bass was there a lot of it since it has a built in 1200 w subwoofer but it was not controlled.maybe the AVR was not setup up appropriately.maybe because i heard it in room which was not acoustically corrected.so the audio vision dude is setting up the the tritons 2's as well as the B&W cm9 in one of their acoustic rooms to test the speakers tomorrow.lets see if there any difference in sound quality.so yeah good highs and mids but bass not so much but im giving them the benefit of the doubt
