In search of a damn good pair of tower speakers for under 2500.00

KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Ninja
I have at least 8 independent audio-video shops within an hour of home and have visited 4, bought from 3. The one who didn't get my business was the ONE who treated me as though I had no money to spend. Fair enough then...I didn't. ;)

The one who treated me as though I could spend multiple thousands but wished to shop on performance, they got the sale on KEF R500, R200c, R100, ProJect RPM1, Bluesound Vault and a total of 3 SVS subs. The shop that treated me indifferently, I bought on price the NAD receiver. The third treated me well on an Audioquest Sidewinder interconnect warranty issue and since they have lines my preferred dealer doesn't, will have an opportunity to please me in the future. The "high end" shop seemed interested in my money until I stated something about "snake oil cables from the like of Synergisitic Research" in the context of an e-mail and all communication ceased. ;)

And for the record, the stuff I have bought locally has ALL been bought at prices I couldn't touch on the internet. The deals are there and the shops wouldn't be selling at those prices if they couldn't afford to.
 
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Ponzio

Ponzio

Audioholic Samurai
believe it or not there was an "enhancement" to the soundstage when they were properly placed at the same location of each speaker. bewildered I asked the store owner, why not just incorporate them into the design? embarrassed silence ensued, followed by praises for Totem's founder & resident genius. pardon me, I'm too lazy to research his name.

hence, why I never bought a pair of Totem's.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
believe it or not there was an "enhancement" to the soundstage when they were properly placed at the same location of each speaker. bewildered I asked the store owner, why not just incorporate them into the design? embarrassed silence ensued, followed by praises for Totem's founder & resident genius. pardon me, I'm too lazy to research his name.

hence, why I never bought a pair of Totem's.
Interesting. I was turned off by Totem's prices a long time ago. I never ran into those beaks, but Totem does seem to be committed to roping in customers by intriguing them with "added value by tweaking". The salesman made an elaborate pitch over how I could improve the speakers' sound by pouring sand into an empty chamber that Totem had so thoughtfully added at the bottom of the speaker cabinets.

At the time I wondered why Totem didn't just make their cabinets heavier in the factory. Of course, it saved them shipping costs to make the cabinets lighter and more vibration prone. But I also believe that their marketing people realized the value that simple DIY tweaking had for many audiophiles. Just like exotic speaker cables, pouring in your own sand made them believe they were becoming members of an elite club.
 
SoundHarvest

SoundHarvest

Audiophyte
[QUOTE Is there anyone here in audiophile land that has listened to the S ierra towers, and If there are any owners of the speaker, is the 700.00 tweeter worth it?
No one else has your room, hearing or preferences & why do you care what someone else thinks? Order them, try them & make your decision on how they sound to you in your room.[/QUOTE]
I was referring to the ribbon tweeter versus the metal dome. Is it more of a audiophile fad to have one? that sort of thing.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
I was referring to the ribbon tweeter versus the metal dome. Is it more of a audiophile fad to have one? that sort of thing.
Ribbon tweeters seem to be a noticeable improvement over most if not all dome tweeters. To me, they have a cleaner sound overall. Even the best dome tweeters can impart a sibilant ssss sound to some recorded music, but the ribbons I've heard don't. This difference can be subtle.

However, good ribbon tweeters, such as the RAALs, are expensive.

Ribbons are said to produce high levels of distortion at low frequencies (depending on which model ribbon tweet). Therefore just how they are integrated into a loudspeaker becomes important; the crossover frequency and slope, if chosen carefully, can avoid this problem.

They produce sound up to very high frequencies, well above 20 kHz, but that probably only matters to your dog. The best explanation of why ribbon tweets sound better is that their one moving part, the aluminum ribbon (which both carries the AC signal and moves air) is significantly lighter than the voice coil plus dome in a traditional tweeter. The ribbon responds much faster to a signal.
 
SoundHarvest

SoundHarvest

Audiophyte
Ribbon tweeters seem to be a noticeable improvement over most if not all dome tweeters. To me, they have a cleaner sound overall. Even the best dome tweeters can impart a sibilant ssss sound to some recorded music, but the ribbons I've heard don't. This difference can be subtle.

However, good ribbon tweeters, such as the RAALs, are expensive.

Ribbons are said to produce high levels of distortion at low frequencies (depending on which model ribbon tweet). Therefore just how they are integrated into a loudspeaker becomes important; the crossover frequency and slope, if chosen carefully, can avoid this problem.

They produce sound up to very high frequencies, well above 20 kHz, but that probably only matters to your dog. The best explanation of why ribbon tweets sound better is that their one moving part, the aluminum ribbon (which both carries the AC signal and moves air) is significantly lighter than the voice coil plus dome in a traditional tweeter. The ribbon responds much faster to a signal.
Thank you for the Info Swerd.
 
KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Ninja
GoldenEar is even better at it!

KEF does it really well too (Blade, Blade II), but you would need to 10x the budget.
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
I was looking at them for a good while. If i wanted a side firing woofer, why not Deftech? They are the masters of it.
Not sure they are masters of it, but do it on some of their designs. With a correctly designed cabniet, you can get sub 30hz bass out of an single eight inch driver at reference levels and linear.
 
rojo

rojo

Audioholic Samurai
Not sure they are masters of it, but do it on some of their designs. With a correctly designed cabniet, you can get sub 30hz bass out of an single eight inch driver at reference levels and linear.
Or sub 20Hz if you rate the frequency response on the same generous scale as Def Tech's marketing department.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Not sure they are masters of it, but do it on some of their designs. With a correctly designed cabniet, you can get sub 30hz bass out of an single eight inch driver at reference levels and linear.
Sub 30 hz at 115 dB from an 8 inch driver? Sure about that?
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
Sub 30 hz at 115 dB from an 8 inch driver? Sure about that?
The phil3 for one, in addition to a few multi driver speakers being 7" or larger where the additional drivers add spl not extension. Playing the phil3s at 85~90dbs in not problem which is a over reference when talking speakers not subs. 115dbs is also a burst , so there are a few towers that hit that as well with speakers under 10".
 
Steve81

Steve81

Audioholics Five-0
Playing the phil3s at 85~90dbs in not problem which is a over reference when talking speakers not subs.
FWIW, 0dBFS at reference level calls for 105dB from any given channel at the listening position (excluding LFE which is boosted by 10dB). THX prescribes an "average" level of 85dB, but that means little in the real world. There's nothing stopping a soundtrack from feeding loud, low, sustained bass to your L/C/Rs (or your surrounds for that matter...).
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
FWIW, 0dBFS at reference level calls for 105dB from any given channel at the listening position (excluding LFE which is boosted by 10dB). THX prescribes an "average" level of 85dB, but that means little in the real world. There's nothing stopping a soundtrack from feeding loud, low, sustained bass to your L/C/Rs (or your surrounds for that matter...).
Yes, thanks I understand what your saying, the Phil's shouldnt have no problem hitting that peak unless I'm misunderstanding the measurements with room gain applied at a somewhat normal distance of say 10', assuming acceptable distortion. Also assuming that when not talking movie soundtrack
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
The phil3 for one, in addition to a few multi driver speakers being 7" or larger where the additional drivers add spl not extension. Playing the phil3s at 85~90dbs in not problem which is a over reference when talking speakers not subs. 115dbs is also a burst , so there are a few towers that hit that as well with speakers under 10".
FWIW reference level would still need to be capable of 105 dB; at least that's how I read a claim of being reference level capable and from the measurements on the Phil3, it seems it is. I certainly would hope a speaker worth considering could handle an average level of 85-90dB, though.
 
Steve81

Steve81

Audioholics Five-0
the Phil's shouldnt have no problem hitting that peak unless I'm misunderstanding the measurements with room gain applied at a somewhat normal distance of say 10', assuming acceptable distortion.
There are a few owners running around that could chime in on how they do at reference level in their rooms, but suffice it to say they get pretty low and loud, and they sound great doing it IME.
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
There are a few owners running around that could chime in on how they do at reference level in their rooms, but suffice it to say they get pretty low and loud, and they sound great doing it IME.
I heard reference levels so here I am :p
 

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