Internet Direct Speaker Brand Comparison

[gene]

This is what keeps us coming back Gene. You're awesome!

I actually spoke to the owner of NHT on the phone today. He knows and really digs our site. What an honor as I also loved their brand growing up in my high school days. They've been struggling to bring the brand back and it appears to me they are doing it the right way. 30 day risk free trial, premium finish standard, good parts, and solid design! I hope we can help them rebirth this great brand.

 

[Steve81]

I actually spoke to the owner of NHT on the phone today. He knows and really digs our site. What an honor as I also loved their brand growing up in my high school days. They've been struggling to bring the brand back and it appears to me they are doing it the right way. 30 day risk free trial, premium finish standard, good parts, and solid design! I hope we can help them rebirth this great brand.

The sad part is a little over ten years ago, I was living in Benicia, CA and didn't have a clue about NHT at the time. Cambridge Soundworks OTOH had a shop in the local mall, so that's where I got my start.

Edit: I guess CSW is also an ID, but they're barely even a shadow of what they once were at this point, so I'm not inclined to bother with them.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

The NHT SuperZero + SW2P were my first 5.1 "audiophile" system - about 18 yrs ago. They were great.

Man, time flies.

 

[panteragstk]

The sad part is a little over ten years ago, I was living in Benicia, CA and didn't have a clue about NHT at the time. Cambridge Soundworks OTOH had a shop in the local mall, so that's where I got my start.

Edit: I guess CSW is also an ID, but they're barely even a shadow of what they once were at this point, so I'm not inclined to bother with them.

I have a CSW 4.1 computer speaker system I got about 12 years ago that still sounds better than any new computer speaker system I've hard in a while.

 

[funky waves]

I didn't see the following ID Speaker brands in this list:

<2K
Pi Speakers
ARX Speakers
Soundfield Audio

>2K

Theorionspeakers.com
Gedlee
Vapor Sound
Audiokinesis
Seaton Sound
JTR Speakers
Grimm Audio
Selah Audio
Clearwave Speakers


And also, Magnepan's MMG I believe is an ID only speaker, even though they're fundamentally a B&M company. It should be worth noting since it's a very good option at ~600 dollars.

Also, I don't know why it was said that Funk Audio only makes subwoofers. One of the posters here on Audioholics was raving about their 8.2 MTM speakers with the dual 8 inch high efficiency faital woofers and larger format high efficiency planar tweeter. It also had the 7.1 two-way tower before:

Those discounts are already factored into an MSRP. I don't see it as a pro or a con.



Again, this isn't free, it's just already factored into the price, and very much brand specific. Aperion for example offers a hand rubbed piano gloss for much less than that.



They're not "feasable" to build B&M either, though. Those speakers are into the five digits.



Not sure how this is an "advantage". I've seen plenty of ID companies in Soundstage and Audioholics. SOme of those other ones give totally useless, smoothed graphs that don't tell you anything about the speaker. All that really leaves is stereophile, whose frequency response graphs are a bit of a gong show but their normalized polar response is useful.

Yes we have always had speakers in our lineup, and yes right now we have nothing listed available, but that is because we are working On a whole new lineup of speakers, starting with the 8.2.P, 8.1.P, and 5.4.P center channel, available for prerelease orders right now, more information will be made public very soon.
Here is a quick and dirty rendering of the 8.2.P

 

[bogrod]

Yes look at Axiom they used to be well liked 10 years ago but when a company doesn't push the boundries of performance and price and stays with the same products than you can't expect them to be the forum darling anymore. That goes for any company, you have to innovate and stay ahead of the game and not lag behind with the same high profit low quality products. What if Paradigm didn't revise there Monitor line and stayed with the same original models and just continued to sell them as is without going through the various V1, V2,V3 ect... Do you still think people would walk into a store and buy them when they had the option fo purchasing a newer modern product?

Do you think Bose would be successful if they just stuck to there original models? And never developed the small cube packages and all in one packages? Probably not.

I guess what I'm saying is ID can be just as successful as B&M brands as long as they innovate and continue to push price/performance, along with great CS and high quality products.

Axiom's issues go a little further than just not updating their speakers. They've shown (in an AVS thread) their lack of some of the fundimentals of speaker performance (comb filtering being one example IIRC) that you would think a company claiming 30 years of experience would at least be familiar with.

With that said, you can't even guarantee that an ID speaker company provides sound engineering principles with the design of their speakers, let alone other criteria.

 

[gene]

Guy we published a video comparing ID vs B&M Retail Speaker companies to supplement this article.

Check it out.

 

[AllanMarcus]

I don't think Gallo sells the CL3 anymore. It's been out of stock for over a year, and Underwood appears to have purchased the inventory, and is selling them for $999/pr. I do not think you can return them. http://www.underwoodhifi.com/products/gallo-acoustics

 

[Hub67]

After a lot of searching - I ended up going with the EMP Tek Impression Series along with (2) HSU VTF-15H MK II subs (w/DSpeaker). For reference that is a 120" Screen Innovations - room is 15'6" wide - Pioneer SC Dolby Atmos 5.4.2 set up. Sounds great

 

[Tao1]

I prefer locally owned stores if I can, since it is nice to support the local guy. There are a few locally owned audio stores here which is pretty amazing, considering the proliferation of large corporate chains.

Unfortunately it seems that locally owned stores in Canada have problems selling stock of certain brands (in general, not just audio). Exchange rate, distributor availability, and shipping costs can really kneecap a locally owned store or chain. Usually stores will deal in only a handful of different manufacturers, simply due to better availability or prices due to better service from the distributors.

That is a factor when a lot of research (at least preliminary research) in what item suits you needs is done over the internet. Personally I run into the situation a lot of the time where I want something specific, but none of the locals can get it in. This leaves me to get it from the manufacturer's e-store.

Not being able to buy items in province also bypasses our provincial consumer protection legislation which gives us minimum warranty protections, which can include extending warranty duration based on relative price of the product (high priced stuff should have better guarantees), and having the manufacturer pay shipping costs for warranty work. Shipping costs alone are a big deal for Canadian consumers, especially for larger objects.

 

[nfafan]

I'm suffering from acronym overload.

Roger that. Hung up on Bowel Movement...

 

[smurphy522]

Why is Emotive mentioned? They have since at least 2014 only offered their in-wall/ceiling and outdoor speakers and as of the last few months listed as closeout. Though fine speakers when they were making them the X-REF and Ultra lines have been laid to rest for some time now.

 

[slipperybidness]

Why is Emotive mentioned? They have since at least 2014 only offered their in-wall/ceiling and outdoor speakers and as of the last few months listed as closeout. Though fine speakers when they were making them the X-REF and Ultra lines have been laid to rest for some time now.

Emo Pro Studio Monitors

 

[smurphy522]

Emo Pro Studio Monitors

Yeah thanks for pointing that out - they are pro-monitors (i.e. powered speakers) though, not what is mentioned in the article's table nor comparable to the others mentioned in the article which focuses on home audio/home theater speakers from ID vendors.

Granted Emotive is a great ID company I was simply pointing out they do not offer any speaker lines in this field any longer.

 

[gene]

Yeah thanks for pointing that out - they are pro-monitors (i.e. powered speakers) though, not what is mentioned in the article's table nor comparable to the others mentioned in the article which focuses on home audio/home theater speakers from ID vendors.

Granted Emotive is a great ID company I was simply pointing out they do not offer any speaker lines in this field any longer.

They will be soon which is why I left them.

 

[smurphy522]

They will be soon which is why I left them.

Great! Glad to hear they are only temporarily out of that arena.

 

[slipperybidness]

They will be soon which is why I left them.

Come on, spill the beans! Any more info to add????

There has been some speculation that a new passive Emo line might just have the AMT Tweet borrowed from the pro line. Any info to that end?

 

[slipperybidness]

Yeah thanks for pointing that out - they are pro-monitors (i.e. powered speakers) though, not what is mentioned in the article's table nor comparable to the others mentioned in the article which focuses on home audio/home theater speakers from ID vendors.

Granted Emotive is a great ID company I was simply pointing out they do not offer any speaker lines in this field any longer.

Agreed.

It seems odd to me, the large number of product turnover that Emo has. All that work and development, then sell it for 2 years and then retire it. Seems like they do that with more products than most brands.

 

[gene]

Agreed.

It seems odd to me, the large number of product turnover that Emo has. All that work and development, then sell it for 2 years and then retire it. Seems like they do that with more products than most brands.

Agreed, not a fan of that either.

 

[choombak]

SVS Bill of Rights is applicable for anything purchased from SVS - the article needs an update, free return shipping is applicable for all speakers, not just Ultra.