Status Acoustics Titus 8T Floorstanding Speaker System Review

[monkish54]

I applaud your enthusiasm, but I'll believe it when I see it. Go to sleep already!

I can't do that..I'm too busy making ridiculous bets!

Night everyone!

P.S. I though his name wasn't, "Grant?"

I'm far too tired to spell out his actual handle.

 

[KEW]

That's highly debatable, as many "competent DIYers" probably don't have access to the resources that the big companies use to design and manufacture their products.


I have no doubt that those are awesome.

Many smaller companies like Salk don't have the resources of the big companies, but seem to put out very nice and competitive products. I'm not sure where a company becomes large enough or what specific resources you are referring to, but don't underestimate the ability of a person with the will, as exemplified by Salk, Linkwitz, and Murphy.

That said, if I were to DIY, it would be using someone elses design. I recognize I don't have the experience required, and am not inclined to acquire it.

 

[gene]

I don't have any remorse at all, the Salon 2 continues to amaze me even after two years, but I'm always looking around for something better, and I'm not in any way brand-loyal or defensive of whatever decisions I made in the past.

The Salon 2 impressed me recently by reproducing my wife's rock & roll drum kit very realistically. See this thread. (Mick Fleetwood uses essentially the same kit.) But I can't help wondering, would the 8T sound even better overall? I suspect it would, due to better dynamic capabilities, so the Salons haven't taken me off the market.

One issue for me in purchasing would be that I don't think the 8T would fit in my room with proper positioning. The 8T looks like it needs *a lot* of space. I'm not sure why, but I'd also be reluctant to buy a speaker that needed four people to set it up. I used professional movers to unpack and initially set up the Salon 2s (the dealer wasn't local), so perhaps I'm just being silly, but the 8T seems to take serious set up considerations to the level of the YG Anat.

And I have to admit that I'd be concerned that the 8T would almost have to be considered a "final purchase", because I suspect the secondary market for it will be essentially non-existent for an individual, meaning I couldn't sell it myself. Technology does move on, even for speakers in this class, so resale is a consideration. Best case scenario with selling highly marketed high-end speakers is that you take a 30-50% haircut from your new purchase price (not MSRP) when you resell, but I suspect the only practical way to trade-out the 8T will be a dealer trade or take a 75% haircut and sell it to one of the high-end middlemen that specialize in this sort of thing.

Yes the 8T is a much more dynamic speaker but I've found even at moderate listening levels, having that much cone area in the midrange just makes brass instruments sound so lifelike and open. It's like a line array but without the typical source stretching they often suffer from.

I understand about the moving part and settling on "speakers for life". It's a tough decision but I can tell you I've been listening to speakers all of my life and would have no problems with these being the final pair in my listening room

 

[gene]

It does make you want to DIY clone one though

They were thinking about coming out with an EMP version of this speaker for a much lower cost. Who is interested? I think you should all start sending emails to them now

 

[Nuance AH]

Many smaller companies like Salk don't have the resources of the big companies, but seem to put out very nice and competitive products. I'm not sure where a company becomes large enough or what specific resources you are referring to, but don't underestimate the ability of a person with the will, as exemplified by Salk, Linkwitz, and Murphy.

That said, if I were to DIY, it would be using someone elses design. I recognize I don't have the experience required, and am not inclined to acquire it.

Right, I don't disagree with that. I would not call Salk, Linkwitz or Dennis Murphy a typical DIYer, though.

 

[gene]

I never said or implied that

But when someone that's worked with speakers his whole life spends a long term project to make a statement product it's fair to expect that it will be slightly better than what mostly any enthusiast can make

It took RBH a decade to make this product. Getting the cabinetry and especially that bracket done was no easy task. Getting the engineering resources to invest in this project for such a small company again was no easy task.

A company like Harman could surely build a product like this to but their high end division has a very small budget and their products don't market to the upper echelon customer like this one does. I've had many conversations with Dr. Floyd Toole on this very topic. Infinity used to have a great system called the Prelude MTS, much better than anything they have in their product line today, but selling big expensive speakers to a continually shrinking market is NOT the kind of game most big companies want to play.

RBH is a small company passionate about the hobby of great sound. This product was clearly engineering driven over marketing b/c I can tell you they won't get rich selling 3-4 pairs/year of these!

 

[gene]

As I understand, One of the advantages of the 8T is the complete lack of dynamic compression at any level, one of the reasons being the the MMTMM loading

is this quantifiable?, any way to measure or explain to which extent they are superior to competing products

Above 2.7KHz you have only one driver, so here the compression artifacts while come to play again, or?

Will 8T be able to recreate a symphonic orchestra realistically, at realistic levels?

Yes it's quantifiable by me measuring 115dB output in bass and running out of amplifier power before the drivers or ports lost output. Yes its quantifiable that my in-room distortion measurement was below the noisefloor of my room at 95dB almost 15 feet away from the speakers. Yes its quantifiable based on the physics of driver mechanics and the amount of cone area dedicated to the mids and bass. Yes it's quantifiable based on the incredible tweeter design from ScanSpeak that has extremely high power handling, low Fs and great dispersion. Multiple tweeters weren't needed in this design as you can note from the comments in my review.

 

[Nuance AH]

It took RBH a decade to make this product. Getting the cabinetry and especially that bracket done was no easy task. Getting the engineering resources to invest in this project for such a small company again was no easy task.

A company like Harman could surely build a product like this to but their high end division has a very small budget and their products don't market to the upper echelon customer like this one does. I've had many conversations with Dr. Floyd Toole on this very topic. Infinity used to have a great system called the Prelude MTS, much better than anything they have in their product line today, but selling big expensive speakers to a continually shrinking market is NOT the kind of game most big companies want to play.

RBH is a small company passionate about the hobby of great sound. This product was clearly engineering driven over marketing b/c I can tell you they won't get rich selling 3-4 pairs/year of these!

But Gene, Monkish is going to create a speaker better than this one with $6000 by the end of next year.

All kidding aside, perhaps I missed this, but did you purchase the review pair, Gene? The 8T is one heckuva speaker...

 

[frostbyte]

So a DIY is going to do with $6k what is $22k Salon? Are you going to also calculate how many hours you put in so we can then calculate a wage to pay yourself and add that in to see if you really saved yourself anything or just the time involved? ^_^

 

[GO-NAD!]

I wonder when ADTG will be getting his 8T's....

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

" As you can see the response is extremely linear above the splice point maintaining a +/- 5dB frequency response out to 20kHz".

You mean +/-2.5dB FR?

Oh, you mean from 20Hz. Because from 200Hz-20kHz, it's +/-2.5dB.

 

[Nuance AH]

I wonder when ADTG will be getting his 8T's....

Oh snap!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I wonder when ADTG will be getting his 8T's....

Not in this lifetime.

 

[gene]

But Gene, Monkish is going to create a speaker better than this one with $6000 by the end of next year.

All kidding aside, perhaps I missed this, but did you purchase the review pair, Gene? The 8T is one heckuva speaker...

Yes I sold my T30s to a gentleman that came all the way from Canada to pick them up. My wife gave me the green light so I took the plunge and although it was a big purchase, the smile we each get on our faces listening to music at night with a glass of wine is well worth the admission price

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

You give me one year** and a 6K budget (probably much less but wiggle room is good.) and I will at least equal the $22,000 Salon 2. If it measures significantly worse*** than the Salon 2 for On-axis, off-axis, cabinet resonance, etc. You can have the speaker.****

You know SVS Magazine measured the FR on the Salon2 to be +/-1.3dB from 28Hz-17kHz. That's going to be very tough to beat.

 

[Nuance AH]

Yes I sold my T30s to a gentleman that came all the way from Canada to pick them up. My wife gave me the green light so I took the plunge and although it was a big purchase, the smile we each get on our faces listening to music at night with a glass of wine is well worth the admission price

Oooh man - I am sooooo jealous! Congrats, Gene!

 

[gene]

" As you can see the response is extremely linear above the splice point maintaining a +/- 5dB frequency response out to 20kHz".

You mean +/-2.5dB FR?

Oh, you mean from 20Hz. Because from 200Hz-20kHz, it's +/-2.5dB.

Good catch. I meant 5dB total. I will correct now. thanks.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

It's amazing that a speaker this giant that weighs this much with tremendous dynamics can measure this flat on and off-axis.

From 200Hz-20kHz, it's flat +/-2.5dB. From around 500Hz-15kHz, it's really, really flat about +/-1.3dB.

That's the kind of speaker I like. Awesome dynamics. Awesome SQ. Awesome bass. Awesome measurements. Awesome built quality.

Unless I win the lottery, I will never own it, though.

 

[cpp]

Yes I sold my T30s to a gentleman that came all the way from Canada to pick them up. My wife gave me the green light so I took the plunge and although it was a big purchase, the smile we each get on our faces listening to music at night with a glass of wine is well worth the admission price

That's awesome Gene so now you don't have to rent a crane to get those speakers back down from the second story

 

[gene]

That's awesome Gene so now you don't have to rent a crane to get those speakers back down from the second story

no doubt but I do live in fear that the second story of my home may one day collapse due to all the weight of the home theater equipment and my riser platform. There have been a lot of sinkholes in my neighborhood