PSB imagine X1T vs ELAC debut F5.2 vs Q acoustics 3050i

[KrishnaAnish]

I would like to buy two tower speakers. The below are the short listed items.

• PSB imagine X1T
• ELAC debut F5.2
• Wharfedale Diamond 230
• Q acoustics 3050i

Could you please advice which one is better ?
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My purpose : Music 50% Films 50% | My Room size is 4.5m x 3.2m.
AVR : Yamaha RX V575.
Surround speakers : Martin Logan Motion 15 & Q Acoustics 2020i

 

[everettT]

Which one sounded the best to you?

 

[shadyJ]

In that price range I did like the Fluance Signature Three-way tower speakers. If you are not using a subwoofer, get the Fluance speakers over those. It will have a far superior dynamic range in bass.

 

[KrishnaAnish]

Which one sounded the best to you?

I didn't have an option to audition. My short list is based on online reviews only.

 

[ryanosaur]

If you cant go to the speakers, you'll have to take a chance on bringing them to you. I don't like it myself, and I stopped looking at most of the speakers I cant possibly audition, especially if you're concerened with the carbon footprint of shipping speakers back and forth!
My speaker auditions begin in a week if all goes to plan. But the reviews... It's like Billy Joel says, "you can't get the sound from a story in a magazine."
I guarantee I read all the same reviews you did, and your best bet is gonna be to order from somewhere with a great return policy. And hope you get it right by the second try. We can chat reviews all day, but its your ears and budget you have to satisfy.
Elac 6.2s, fluance sig, monitor audio bronze 5, Emotiva airmotiv, should be a great game of speaker roulette.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

I didn't have an option to audition. My short list is based on online reviews only.

May as well just throw darts and pick one then.

Reviews can only point you in a direction, they cannot make a choice for you. What I like almost certainly won't be what you (or another member here) likes. You have to make the choice yourself, based on auditioning yourself. There is no other way, unless you aren't truly interested in making the best choice ... which, in that case, brings us back to throwing darts.

Can't you travel and audition some of them? Buying without auditioning is just throwing money away, because you will lose half when you sell the ones you settled for (because buying without auditioning is just that). May as well drive 100 miles on a Saturday and check some out; it's cheaper in the end.

The Wharfdales are not towers. Don't forget to include money for stands in your budget.

Try and reduce the options to three, and ideally two choices. More than that, and you just confuse the issue, plus human nature is when faced with more than three choices, is to reject them all and start over or give up. So eliminate one or two from your list, and it's a bad idea to solicit other choices from members, even if they may offer superior options.

 

[everettT]

How did you like the QAcoustics you have? If you like their sound, order those.

 

[snakeeyes]

I would like to buy two tower speakers. The below are the short listed items.

• PSB imagine X1T
• ELAC debut F5.2
• Wharfedale Diamond 230
• Q acoustics 3050i

Could you please advice which one is better ?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My purpose : Music 50% Films 50% | My Room size is 4.5m x 3.2m.
AVR : Yamaha RX V575.
Surround speakers : Martin Logan Motion 15 & Q Acoustics 2020i

I have the 3020 and you have to use a 90hz crossover at AVR for its 5in driver. The 3050i should get to an 80hz crossover with its 6.5in driver and larger cabinet. The tweeter and crossover are decent on the 3020 but the cabinet isn’t perfect. I expect the cabinets on 3050i are not perfect either even though it’s a newer series. There are always comprises at the lower end priced gear.

I liked my 3020 ok in my bedroom until I bought a Canton Vento series 820.2 at Acessories for Less for my bedroom 2.1 which are much more expensive even on clearance. My GF likes the look of the 3020 and 3090 center in the grey so they went to the living room with a pair of HSU VTF2 MK5 12in ported subs. 3.2 setup (Room is awkward for rear speakers) with my old 55in plasma and a Yamaha RXV681. It’s pretty decent for movies in that room in 3.2. And it is next to our wood stove where we are a lot during the winter. I had given up at one point getting any speakers in her living room but she was fine with the look of QA. ( I also have a man cave / home theater room where I am setting up a 5.1.4 system so the living room is a 3rd system. )

 

[KrishnaAnish]

If you cant go to the speakers, you'll have to take a chance on bringing them to you. I don't like it myself, and I stopped looking at most of the speakers I cant possibly audition, especially if you're concerened with the carbon footprint of shipping speakers back and forth!
My speaker auditions begin in a week if all goes to plan. But the reviews... It's like Billy Joel says, "you can't get the sound from a story in a magazine."
I guarantee I read all the same reviews you did, and your best bet is gonna be to order from somewhere with a great return policy. And hope you get it right by the second try. We can chat reviews all day, but its your ears and budget you have to satisfy.
Elac 6.2s, fluance sig, monitor audio bronze 5, Emotiva airmotiv, should be a great game of speaker roulette.

Thanks for the feed back. You are absolutely right. Reading review on paper and buying speaker is very hard.
Need to adopt 3way or 2way speaker sysem? Does 3way add any extra value? In my above list ELAC is the only model with 3way. Need to go for Elac F6.2 instead of F 5.2 ???
Fluance Signature series not cosidering as placement issues there and I am already having separate sub.

 

[ryanosaur]

Thanks for the feed back. You are absolutely right. Reading review on paper and buying speaker is very hard.
Need to adopt 3way or 2way speaker sysem? Does 3way add any extra value? In my above list ELAC is the only model with 3way. Need to go for Elac F6.2 instead of F 5.2 ???
Fluance Signature series not cosidering as placement issues there and I am already having separate sub.

This is a long one. apologies in advance!

Fwiw, mind I'm not an expert, I prefer a 3way speaker to a 2- or2.5. A 2- can be done exceptionally well. And a 3- can suck. That said, with a good 3-way (c'mon guys!), I feel you get better sound because each driver gets to focus on what it does best. But the cabinet and the crossovers can make or break the experience either way... which again goes back to auditioning speakers and what you like for what you can afford.

I, personally, preferred what I read about the ELAC 6.2 over the 5.2. But I also set a higher budget. And though I will gladly audition some if available in my local shops, I am not expecting to choose them. To be fair, I am willing to be surprised, and will embrace that if it happens. Dig?

Re: your decision to write off the Fluance: could be a mistake. Just because you have a sub is a poor reason to not buy a better speaker... why I suggested considering ELAC 6.2 over 5.2 as well.

If you want to gamble, please do. Most of the cats that offered their advice here on your thread have helped me along my path already. You do not have to take anyone's advice, but you asked, and we are willing to share our experiences and knowledge.

By review alone, if you want to try it, you should look at the Q 3050s. "Top 10" reviews rated it their best overall!, after all. Another review I read dinged the 3050i's, harder. But if you like the QA sound, that might be your best bet as you already have that experience. (I don't.) Again, by review alone, the PSB X2Ts rate pretty well, and if I recall, better than the X1Ts (and would hope so as they're 2bills more ea!). Are you seeing where I'm going with this?

So, an inch or two more in cabinet size might give you better sound! A larger woofer might give you better lows than just counting on your sub to pick up the slack wherever you choose to crossover at. A 3-way might give you better mids. But not necessarily.

Look at your reviews. Re-evaluate your budget. (Don't have to change it, but look hard at what you value!) Then figure out what you want to try first. Hell, Shoot for the moon on the first one! If you like it, keep it. Share your experience with us. If you don't like it: send it back and try your #2.

Lastly: there seems to be a great deal of lower cost/high value speakers. I've looked at over 80, overall, ranging from 300-3000 per pair. I might not buy any of them. I've felt a couple times that I should just drop 2K on a 7.0 rig from emotiva and spend the rest of my budget on 2 subs from Outlaw or Rythmik. *shrugs

I'm still deciding what's right for me. And I'm enjoying my search while I do it!

Cheers, Krish, and Happy Hunting.

 

[3db]

Thanks for the feed back. You are absolutely right. Reading review on paper and buying speaker is very hard.
Need to adopt 3way or 2way speaker sysem? Does 3way add any extra value? In my above list ELAC is the only model with 3way. Need to go for Elac F6.2 instead of F 5.2 ???
Fluance Signature series not cosidering as placement issues there and I am already having separate sub.

If you have a sub, you can cross Fluance off your list and don't look back. They are good bang for the buck speaker but the others you listed are just better speakers in almost every measure parameter.

I'm a PSB fanboy because their speakers sound really good to me. I've built 3 systems around PSB and Yamaha and love the results.

I think by this point in the thread, you realize that you will need to audition each speaker to see what best "fits" your hearing.

What I would do is to take a pad of paper with you, write down the make and model of each speaker you audition and what you liked and disliked about the speakers you were auditioning. Was the bass tight and deep or was it boomy and loose sounding? Were the mids life like or were they hollow or were they just too pronounced and forward? Was the treble irritating and harsh or were they dark and not revealing or were they smooth that made you want to listen for more? How was the imaging?

Bring music with you that you are very familiar with and know quite well. To make it easier to audition HT speaker systems, listen to the main speakers in 2 channel mode with music. Music is much harder to reproduce accurately then a movie soundtrack so if the speakers do well with music, then they will do well with HT. Speakers that do HT well may not do well with music. When auditioning the center channel of the same brand and series as the main speakers, pick a difficult source like an announcer that mumbles a lot. If you can understand what the mumbling announcer is saying, then you have a good center channel.

I would go to speciality stores first and start auditioning speakers first instead of going to the internet first. Once your likes are determined, you can mention them here and fellow members can make internet brand recommendations based on your likes/dislikes. The speciality stores are better setup acoustically then the big box stores which will make auditioning a little easier. It will give you an idea of what you like in a speaker.

Keep track of what amp or receiver is powering the speakers you're auditioning. Try to get a receiver/amp that closest resembles what you have or want to get. It just reduces another variable when auditioning speakers.

One thing to keep note off; when auditioning speakers, make sure the volume levels are matched between the different speaker pairs because the louder speaker pair will always sound better. Listen to levels that you think you would listen to most of the time because that’s how you are going to be using them most of the time.

 

[shadyJ]

If you have a sub, you can cross Fluance off your list and don't look back. They are good bang for the buck speaker but the others you listed are just better speakers in almost every measure parameter.

The revision of the Fluance Signature towers are actually very good for the money, even when not considering their powerful bass. They have a nice smooth sloping response that will definitely appeal to a lot of people, and I certainly would not assume that the other speakers are better in every measured parameter. I think you would be surprised by them if you gave them a chance.

 

[3db]

The revision of the Fluance Signature towers are actually very good for the money, even when not considering their powerful bass. They have a nice smooth sloping response that will definitely appeal to a lot of people, and I certainly would not assume that the other speakers are better in every measured parameter. I think you would be surprised by them if you gave them a chance.

I did mention that they are a good bang for the buck speaker but the others measure better.

 

[shadyJ]

I did mention that they are a good bang for the buck speaker but the others measure better.

The Fluance speakers measure reasonably well, and I haven't even seen measurements for any of those other speakers. While Fluance has had some speakers that have had problematic measurements in the past, the Signature towers are pretty good. The only reason why I don't recommend them more is because I suspect the Fluance center is not on the level of the towers. But if people understood how good the towers sound, they would get a lot more love than they do.

 

[3db]

The Fluance speakers measure reasonably well, and I haven't even seen measurements for any of those other speakers. While Fluance has had some speakers that have had problematic measurements in the past, the Signature towers are pretty good. The only reason why I don't recommend them more is because I suspect the Fluance center is not on the level of the towers. But if people understood how good the towers sound, they would get a lot more love than they do.

This discussion is circular. We both acknowledge they are good bang for the buck speakers. The others are just better.

 

[shadyJ]

The others are just better.

I think this is an unfounded statement, but I don't think I will be able to change your mind, so I won't try to argue the point.

 

[3db]

I think this is an unfounded statement, but I don't think I will be able to change your mind, so I won't try to argue the point.

Look at the reviews out there and see for yourself.

 

[KrishnaAnish]

If you have a sub, you can cross Fluance off your list and don't look back. They are good bang for the buck speaker but the others you listed are just better speakers in almost every measure parameter.

I'm a PSB fanboy because their speakers sound really good to me. I've built 3 systems around PSB and Yamaha and love the results.

I think by this point in the thread, you realize that you will need to audition each speaker to see what best "fits" your hearing.

What I would do is to take a pad of paper with you, write down the make and model of each speaker you audition and what you liked and disliked about the speakers you were auditioning. Was the bass tight and deep or was it boomy and loose sounding? Were the mids life like or were they hollow or were they just too pronounced and forward? Was the treble irritating and harsh or were they dark and not revealing or were they smooth that made you want to listen for more? How was the imaging?

Bring music with you that you are very familiar with and know quite well. To make it easier to audition HT speaker systems, listen to the main speakers in 2 channel mode with music. Music is much harder to reproduce accurately then a movie soundtrack so if the speakers do well with music, then they will do well with HT. Speakers that do HT well may not do well with music. When auditioning the center channel of the same brand and series as the main speakers, pick a difficult source like an announcer that mumbles a lot. If you can understand what the mumbling announcer is saying, then you have a good center channel.

I would go to speciality stores first and start auditioning speakers first instead of going to the internet first. Once your likes are determined, you can mention them here and fellow members can make internet brand recommendations based on your likes/dislikes. The speciality stores are better setup acoustically then the big box stores which will make auditioning a little easier. It will give you an idea of what you like in a speaker.

Keep track of what amp or receiver is powering the speakers you're auditioning. Try to get a receiver/amp that closest resembles what you have or want to get. It just reduces another variable when auditioning speakers.

One thing to keep note off; when auditioning speakers, make sure the volume levels are matched between the different speaker pairs because the louder speaker pair will always sound better. Listen to levels that you think you would listen to most of the time because that’s how you are going to be using them most of the time.

Thanks for the details and recomendations.
Here (Oman) not much choices for audition . Only very limited models are available in stores (Paradigm Monitor 9 S.7, Martin Logan Motion 20/40, PSB Imagine X1T, etc.). So I couldn't search for all, choice is very limited. ELAC and Q Acoustics available in Online stores, but no provision for audition and return policy also bit tough. So I have to trust reviews blindly. As I mentioned my room size is only 4.5m x 3.2m; thats why Fluance excluded from the list. I liked Paradigm Monitor 9 clarity ( but couldn't see any reviews on net !!), Also I dont know whether ELAC F5.2 / 6.2 is better than Paradigm or not, but seems to be ELAC are very famous and highly acceptable.

 

[ryanosaur]

Hello Again. I understand your constraints. With what you are able to listen to in-store, are you not finding what you want to hear? If not... I would say, at least with Q Acoustics, you already know the sound of the speakers somewhat. Less risk there.

 

[3db]

Thanks for the details and recomendations.
Here (Oman) not much choices for audition . Only very limited models are available in stores (Paradigm Monitor 9 S.7, Martin Logan Motion 20/40, PSB Imagine X1T, etc.). So I couldn't search for all, choice is very limited. ELAC and Q Acoustics available in Online stores, but no provision for audition and return policy also bit tough. So I have to trust reviews blindly. As I mentioned my room size is only 4.5m x 3.2m; thats why Fluance excluded from the list. I liked Paradigm Monitor 9 clarity ( but couldn't see any reviews on net !!), Also I dont know whether ELAC F5.2 / 6.2 is better than Paradigm or not, but seems to be ELAC are very famous and highly acceptable.

Can you audition the ones on your list or are they strictly choices based on reviews you've read?