looking for floorstanding speakers in the $500-$1000 range..

[rojo]

And from what I see no grilles. Honestly not interested in anything that doesn't have grilles. They may not completely protect the speakers, but they do hide the temptation to push the domes in or color them with markers. I have young kids...

Hugo just posted a notice that XTZ Sound has a 15% off sale through January. And yeah, I was just coming back to comment that although the XTZ speakers are never shown with grills, I see in this review that magnetic grills are included, at least with those models. It might be worth contacting XTZ's customer service to ask about the 95.44 towers specifically.

Honestly, though, active parenting is a much better deterrent than grills. I've never run my MB Quarts with grills, but I've made it clear to my daughter from infant to 5 that she should never put her booger fingers on my speakers, television, or any home theater electronics (except the Blu-Ray player). And when she starts dancing or playing American Ninja Warrior and gets a little too close to the electronics, I give her a gentle reminder to back away from it. I also promised to teach her to operate it all once she learned to read. It's never been a problem.

 

[jjwelly]

thanks rojo, I actually sent this exact question to XTZ about an hour ago. If grilles are available for them, might be hard to pass up. Other options in this thread are good too..

 

[little wing]

There is a floor standing model from ELAC that got excellent reviews and they come in at well under 1k

 

[jjwelly]

I've made a list of all the speakers mentioned in this post, along with a few others I've ran across. Something I realized during this search is the cabinet/size means more to me than I thought. Or rather I figured I would not run into so many ones I had issues with. Even the ones I'm leaning toward has me on guard since it's black wood vinyl veneer. Sound wise, well I think I'm going to have to trust all of you who know way more than I. I trust every single speaker suggested here would probably make me very happy. So my focus was on finding a speaker that is floorstanding, but around the 36" height, with either black or dark wood color, and NON glossy. But that has proven rare it appears to me. So, here I am with my choices.

EMP teks: high gloss only-no go
Chanes: 40", black vinyl. a good option, sure wish it wasn't vinyl..
Aperion intimus: 37", stealth black finish. can't find any pics showing me how the finish looks.
Fluance sig series: 47". too tall..
Fluance XL7F: 46", too tall..
Fluance XL5F: 40", but probably just too low end for me..
Klipsch RP-280F: 43" tall, borderline too tall. don't know of the finish/material..
XTZ sound 95.44: 42.5 tall, borderline too tall. tried to contact them about grilles, no response. not impressed with their customer service..
SVS primes: 37", black vinyl. another good option, but again wish they weren't vinyl.
ELAC: not sure on these options, but i'm entertaining them as well.

So just updating the thread on where I'm at. Pretty busy lately and in no hurry, but do want to keep the thread alive until I make a decision and purchase. Thanks again for everyone's input.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I've made a list of all the speakers mentioned in this post, along with a few others I've ran across. Something I realized during this search is the cabinet/size means more to me than I thought. Or rather I figured I would not run into so many ones I had issues with. Even the ones I'm leaning toward has me on guard since it's black wood vinyl veneer. Sound wise, well I think I'm going to have to trust all of you who know way more than I. I trust every single speaker suggested here would probably make me very happy. So my focus was on finding a speaker that is floorstanding, but around the 36" height, with either black or dark wood color, and NON glossy. But that has proven rare it appears to me. So, here I am with my choices.

EMP teks: high gloss only-no go
Chanes: 40", black vinyl. a good option, sure wish it wasn't vinyl..
Aperion intimus: 37", stealth black finish. can't find any pics showing me how the finish looks.
Fluance sig series: 47". too tall..
Fluance XL7F: 46", too tall..
Fluance XL5F: 40", but probably just too low end for me..
Klipsch RP-280F: 43" tall, borderline too tall. don't know of the finish/material..
XTZ sound 95.44: 42.5 tall, borderline too tall. tried to contact them about grilles, no response. not impressed with their customer service..
SVS primes: 37", black vinyl. another good option, but again wish they weren't vinyl.
ELAC: not sure on these options, but i'm entertaining them as well.

So just updating the thread on where I'm at. Pretty busy lately and in no hurry, but do want to keep the thread alive until I make a decision and purchase. Thanks again for everyone's input.

what was you didn't like about ascend cmt340se's?

edit:
tbh: At that price range and you being so picky about their appearance rather than performance, seems counter logical to be me.

I'd personally skip all flatulence brand options as their build quality is extremely inconsistent - time after time members find their speakers with bad wirings and/or terrible crossover. Besides nice finish I don't understand that the all the fuss is about.
Anything from Klipsch sucks (aka not neutral) at that price point. Chane - I have yet to see ONE, just one objective review, just one measurement from ANY of their speakers.

Seriously - SVS, ELAC, ZTZ, Ascend and Aperion are probably your best options (imo Ascend will sound best) - pick one. Test it at home and keep or return for something else.

This chase for perfection based on specs alone could be done only so much before you ran into wall.

 

[jjwelly]

sorry, I too noticed I forgot to include this one.

won't say I've ruled them out.

but they can't be made of quality/similar materials as the stands, so best I can hope for is some vinyl material and hopefully they match each other. I appreciate the fact that they offer stands, and that they can be made sturdier with sand or similar item.

they are tall as a combined unit with the stands. I believe they are 45". May be too tall, and the fact that they are two units makes me less forgiving to their negatives.

I'm sorry to be so much of a PITA with looks. And again I'll stress that I'm not focusing on audio quality which should be what I put most emphasis on, but I do have my reasons for focusing on the aesthetics.

 

[rojo]

Just curious, but why the limit on height? As far as height affects sound quality, the important feature is tweeter height. With the Ascends in MTM configuration, the tweeters should be right at eat level on the matching stands.

@AcuDefTechGuy are there any RBH offerings besides the EmpTeks that would meet op's requirements?

@jjwelly if you could increase your budget we might be able to find additional options, such as the JBL Studio 580. What was your objection about the KEF towers again?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

@AcuDefTechGuy are there any RBH offerings besides the EmpTeks that would meet op's requirements?

No. The SV6500 towers would be more like $2200/pair.

 

[Diesel57]

IMO, the appearance of a speaker will never outweigh the quality of the sound that speaker produces nor a quality built speaker. You can't hear or listen to a speaker with your eyes nor will the appearance provide you with longivity only a well built product gives that...Cheers

 

[cel4145]

I'm sorry to be so much of a PITA with looks. And again I'll stress that I'm not focusing on audio quality which should be what I put most emphasis on, but I do have my reasons for focusing on the aesthetics.

No problem. There are good looking speakers that also sound good

Have you looked at KEF Direct? KEF has their Q series towers on sale. Nice looking to me.
https://www.kefdirect.com/speakers/hi-fi-speakers/q-series.html

Music Direct often has good deals on Focal Chorus, such as
https://www.musicdirect.com/speakers/focal-chorus-726-v-tower-speakers-pr
I know that they are not for everyone, but I've always liked how they look with the grills off.

 

[3db]

If you're not opposed to buying used, try and find a pair of PSB Image T6. They received stellar accolades from all of the audio mags and came highly recommended. If you can't find them, then look at the PSB Imagine XT series, another very neutral speaker with a nice flat frequency response.

 

[KenM10759]

KEF Q500, 36.1" tall, black oak (non glossy) finish. $700 a pair shipped. Q700 are 38.1" tall, $1,000 a pair shipped.

 

[jjwelly]

Just curious, but why the limit on height? As far as height affects sound quality, the important feature is tweeter height. With the Ascends in MTM configuration, the tweeters should be right at eat level on the matching stands.

@AcuDefTechGuy are there any RBH offerings besides the EmpTeks that would meet op's requirements?

@jjwelly if you could increase your budget we might be able to find additional options, such as the JBL Studio 580. What was your objection about the KEF towers again?

Hey rojo: on the height limit, well, I guess it's just one of those things that I care about. I have speakers in the 36" range, which looks about right with my current AV cabinet/TV setup. I could go larger, but I am giving preference to speakers in this size range. As you all have surely picked up from me already, looks play an important role in my decision.

My budget can increase. On the KEF's, those actually have escaped my radar. You mentioned refurbed KEF's, but I'm not interested in used speakers, so I passed on them without much notice until these last posts referring to the KEF sale going on right now. Q500 and Q700 are well within my budget, and they look pretty nice. Not perfect but none have been so far. Each has something I'm not 100% sold on. So both Q500 and Q700 are on my serious list.

I'll go ahead and list the others in serious consideration.

KEF Q500
KEF Q700
Chane A5RX
Aperion Intimus 5T
SVS Prime tower
ELAC Uni-Fi UF5

 

[jjwelly]

IMO, the appearance of a speaker will never outweigh the quality of the sound that speaker produces nor a quality built speaker. You can't hear or listen to a speaker with your eyes nor will the appearance provide you with longivity only a well built product gives that...Cheers

I know you are right, but to some (me in this group), visual appearance has importance. I work in the architectural industry, have a design background. Sorry, but looks are a serious consideration.

 

[jjwelly]

No problem. There are good looking speakers that also sound good

Have you looked at KEF Direct? KEF has their Q series towers on sale. Nice looking to me.
https://www.kefdirect.com/speakers/hi-fi-speakers/q-series.html

Music Direct often has good deals on Focal Chorus, such as
https://www.musicdirect.com/speakers/focal-chorus-726-v-tower-speakers-pr
I know that they are not for everyone, but I've always liked how they look with the grills off.

Thanks for pointing me to the KEFs. I'm not considering both the Q500 and the Q700...

Also I like the Focal too, but I want either black or dark wood. Only ones I find are light/medium wood in my price range..

 

[jjwelly]

KEF Q500, 36.1" tall, black oak (non glossy) finish. $700 a pair shipped. Q700 are 38.1" tall, $1,000 a pair shipped.

Thank you. These are on my list now..

 

[KenM10759]

My son owns the Q500 and loves them. His are the European Walnut finish, I think I got the last pair KEF had because my dealer told me KEF advised them they could only ship 2 of the 3 pairs they'd ordered for stock and there wouldn't be any more.

When they first picked up the KEF line, the Q500 were the ones they preferred in their smaller (15x20') room for surround systems. His impression was that the larger ones had more influence from the passive radiators that didn't do much good. Not being rear ported (or front, for that matter), the Q500 is fine being up near a wall.

Check out this review. I was surprised they bothered, most of the reviews that publication does are much higher priced speakers.

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/kef-q500-loudspeaker/

 

[Diesel57]

My son owns the Q500 and loves them. His are the European Walnut finish, I think I got the last pair KEF had because my dealer told me KEF advised them they could only ship 2 of the 3 pairs they'd ordered for stock and there wouldn't be any more.

When they first picked up the KEF line, the Q500 were the ones they preferred in their smaller (15x20') room for surround systems. His impression was that the larger ones had more influence from the passive radiators that didn't do much good. Not being rear ported (or front, for that matter), the Q500 is fine being up near a wall.

Check out this review. I was surprised they bothered, most of the reviews that publication does are much higher priced speakers.

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/kef-q500-loudspeaker/

Ken, just want to be sure I'm on the right page, Kef-q500 isn't available anymore?

 

[cel4145]

Ken, just want to be sure I'm on the right page, Kef-q500 isn't available anymore?

Check KEF Direct. I think only the black oak are left in that model.

But if you find a dealer in your area who has them, you can ask them to price match if you want the walnut.

 

[Diesel57]

Check KEF Direct. I think only the black oak are left in that model.

But if you find a dealer in your area who has them, you can ask them to price match if you want the walnut.

Thanks Cel...