Dream Speakers Under $6,000 Retail

[DenPureSound]

Actually, I'm somewhere between riding Depuresounds coattails and taking lsiberian's and ADTG's advice and keeping what I have while saving for the ST or AGVT.



Other than BB and HH Gregg we have one shop that carries Monitor Audio. I haven't made it there yet to audition any speakers. I'm thinking I'll just keep what I have for now, while saving, and wait to hear Denpuresounds review after he gets the AGVT's.

I may look closer at the Philharmonic 2 or 3's. But, I'm not sure they would be as versatile as what I'm looking for in a speaker.

PSBFAN -- I appreciate you riding on my Coat Tails, nice compliment, as I know there is a lot more to audio than I know, in fact there is not one person in Acoustics that knows it all, that we all know.

I do agree with ADTG to save and save up to the point where the upgraditis has to occur at some $ point out of ones savings.

I think you mentioned you have around $600 in the Def. Techs. now, so jumping up to the Aperion Verus Grand Towers at $1800 for the Front Mains would be a nice big stepup.

Smaller step up in $ for me, since I have about $1K in the Front Klipsch Towers now.

BTW -- there are no Verus Grand Towers that I can find on the used mkt., and my thinking is how can one go wrong, if we can call the Mfg. and have a Fed-X truck show up, if we do not like them and Aperion pays the shipping back? Then what do we have to lose, but some unboxing/setup time, and the fun part listening time. To me that says something if there are NOT even one pair on the used market for sale of the VGT's.

This VGT is written up as the Market Leader in the Sub $2K Bracket.

And if AH gave it the 2010 POW Award -- that is another piece of the pie.

From what I can tell the next step up would be the KEF R900 Towers at $3600/pr. or so ($5K MSRP), which is a 3 way, 3 driver (UniQ has both the MF/HF combined into one Co-Axial driver) tower, which uses 2nd order LR Xovers. But it might sound excellent w/ the point source UniQ driver, but has the "Monkey Coffin" encl. design, but does look Big/Bold/with a Statement!

But at twice the price also...

 

[Nuance AH]

Maybe ask for forgiveness, rather than permission?

Dennis did say the midrange would sound different than your ST's. I would be careful of that.

You're right - I need to be weary about that. Based on what people have said and the measurements, these speakers will get me close to SS performance at a price I can actually afford. I really love the RAAL and the openness of the SS's, but the midrange on the ST's is what I fell in love with. Yeah, definitely need to be careful. I'll probably wait to hear them first, unless my tax return is larger than usual.

 

[Nuance AH]

PSBFAN -- I appreciate you riding on my Coat Tails, nice compliment, as I know there is a lot more to audio than I know, in fact there is not one person in Acoustics that knows it all, that we all know.

I do agree with ADTG to save and save up to the point where the upgraditis has to occur at some $ point out of ones savings.

I think you mentioned you have around $600 in the Def. Techs. now, so jumping up to the Aperion Verus Grand Towers at $1800 for the Front Mains would be a nice big stepup.

Smaller step up in $ for me, since I have about $1K in the Front Klipsch Towers now.

BTW -- there are no Verus Grand Towers that I can find on the used mkt., and my thinking is how can one go wrong, if we can call the Mfg. and have a Fed-X truck show up, if we do not like them and Aperion pays the shipping back? Then what do we have to lose, but some unboxing/setup time, and the fun part listening time. To me that says something if there are NOT even one pair on the used market for sale of the VGT's.

This VGT is written up as the Market Leader in the Sub $2K Bracket.

And if AH gave it the 2010 POW Award -- that is another piece of the pie.

From what I can tell the next step up would be the KEF R900 Towers at $3600/pr. or so ($5K MSRP), which is a 3 way, 3 driver (UniQ has both the MF/HF combined into one Co-Axial driver) tower, which uses 2nd order LR Xovers. But it might sound excellent w/ the point source UniQ driver, but has the "Monkey Coffin" encl. design, but does look Big/Bold/with a Statement!

But at twice the price also...

So do you own a pair? If not I imagine you've at least heard them, right?

 

[TLS Guy]

I would make a strong recommendation for the ATC SCM 40

This is ATCs entry level three way and has their renowned midrange driver.

ATC have now allowed Tavel Trax recording studios of Cape Cod to import ATC speakers.

They have the SCM 40s in stock and are ready to deal below the MRSP of $3,700 the pair.

You can read about my visit to ATC speakers here.

You won't go wrong with this speaker. It is very good value for money.

The PMC OB 1I will get you nearly 50% over budget at MRSP.

That is their cheapest three way TL.

However dealers are ready to deal right now, and British manufacturers are very ready to deal, as the chaos in the Euro zone is drying up the EU market fast. Europe is going back into recession fast because of that lunatic Euro zone. So you might get a good deal here.

Or here at the importers who will sell direct.


You will not go wrong. The best studios in the world use monitoring systems from either of these two companies.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I meant to "qualify", the speakers must have a great on-axis & off-axis frequency responses plus have to sound great.

According to Audioholics Review, the Aperion VGT fits the bill.

According to Soundstage Review, the Synchrony One fits the bill.

Soundstage & Audioholics both reviewed the Paradigm S6, but unfortunately neither one measured the S6. Audioholics rated the Midrange & Treble of the Aperion VGT higher than the S6v2, but it wasn't a side by side comparison.

 

[zieglj01]

Something interesting on the used market - PSB
PSB Synchrony Two For Sale | AudiogoN

 

[GranteedEV]

With exactly 6k to spend I myself would be looking at the Geddes Abbeys for medium/larger rooms. However these would require subs so that could blow the budget.

I would be looking at the Genelec 8260A for nearfield.

I'd be looking at the Pioneer S1-EX as well, but I would be inclined to stuff the vent and add subs which would blow the budget. Them KEF R900s look purty too.

The Philharmonics would somehow squeeze their way in there too. Can't forget Warpdrv's SS Monitor 7s though I don't know if they'd work in a medium/large room.

...So finally.. after considering all the sweet box speakers with high end drivers and nice aesthetics, I would pick AJ in FLA's wierd open baffle speakers.. and pocket the rest of the money to spend on something else. Like Marantz Reference amps and Kimber Cable. Now wouldn`t that make AJ feel good?

And if AH gave it the 2010 POW Award -- that is another piece of the pie.

As ADTG would say...

....R I I I I I I G H T

 

[TLS Guy]

With exactly 6k to spend I myself would be looking at the Geddes Abbeys for medium/larger rooms. However these would require subs so that could blow the budget.

I would be looking at the Genelec 8260A for nearfield.

I'd be looking at the Pioneer S1-EX as well, but I would be inclined to stuff the vent and add subs which would blow the budget. Them KEF R900s look purty too.

The Philharmonics would somehow squeeze their way in there too. Can't forget Warpdrv's SS Monitor 7s though I don't know if they'd work in a medium/large room.

...So finally.. after considering all the sweet box speakers with high end drivers and nice aesthetics, I would pick AJ in FLA's wierd open baffle speakers.. and pocket the rest of the money to spend on something else. Like Marantz Reference amps and Kimber Cable. Now wouldn`t that make AJ feel good?



As ADTG would say...

....R I I I I I I G H T

None of those will get in striking distance of the ATC SCM 40s. Good speakers from professional monitor companies put you in a totally different league.

There are no drivers from anywhere else built to the standard of ATC drivers.

 

[abboudc]

I always wanted M&K S150's

 

[Nuance AH]

None of those will get in striking distance of the ATC SCM 40s. Good speakers from professional monitor companies put you in a totally different league.

There are no drivers from anywhere else built to the standard of ATC drivers.

What is your source on that? Can you prove what you just said? No drivers from anywhere else in the world? Sorry, but I just don't believe that. It sounds like you're throwing around opinions as facts...

 

[mtrycrafts]

JBL LSR6332 Linear Spatial Reference 3-Way Passive LSR6332L B&H
+
JBL LSR6332 Linear Spatial Reference 3-Way Passive LSR6332R B&H

....

Both looks the same Perhaps they don't have a picture of the other side.

Also, there may be an error on their spec sheet? 93dB max spl????

 

[TLS Guy]

What is your source on that? Can you prove what you just said? No drivers from anywhere else in the world? Sorry, but I just don't believe that. It sounds like you're throwing around opinions as facts...

There is no midrange driver around that handles that much power, with so little thermal compression and low distortion.

When outfits like Disney, Stanford university, and the finest studios specify and order advanced systems costing millions from ATC, it for one reason only. The reason is that Billy Woodman is the finest transducer engineer of his generation.

 

[GranteedEV]

There is no midrange driver around that handles that much power, with so little thermal compression and low distortion.

Will handle just as much. It's got a 51mm voice coil with only 0.22mH inductance on a 4" carbon Fibre/kevlar driver with lots of heatsinking. It also allows for better center to center spacing if that matters.

It's a close relative to the 5" mid driver used in the LSR speakers that Lsiberian posted. Those LSRs also happen to have a matching directivity index at the crossover point between the mid and tweeter, unlike the flush mount tweeter crossed at 3.5khz to a pretty narrowing ATC mid (whose 60deg polar @ 3.5 khz crossover point shows it to be 4db down which most certainly is perceptable crossing to a flush mount / omni dome)

I also doubt the tweeter is anywhere near as deadly as a RAAL 70-10d used in the philharmonics.

But at the end of the day it's not my place to judge :anything: unheard.

 

[cschang]

When outfits like Disney, Stanford university, and the finest studios specify and order advanced systems costing millions from ATC, it for one reason only. The reason is that Billy Woodman is the finest transducer engineer of his generation.

I respect your opinion, but there are other "finest" studios, that use systems from companies other than ATC.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

None of those will get in striking distance of the ATC SCM 40s. Good speakers from professional monitor companies put you in a totally different league.

There are no drivers from anywhere else built to the standard of ATC drivers.

Here is the Stereophile measurements of the ATC SCM 11:
ATC SCM 11 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com

Some discontinuity in the impedance plot, some resonance in the cabinet, appears +/- 3dB on-axis, pretty decent horizontal off-axis, but vertical off-axis looks bad.

Would you guys say this speaker measures great?

 

[Nuance AH]

I respect your opinion, but there are other "finest" studios, that use systems from companies other than ATC.

Indeed there are.

Will handle just as much. It's got a 51mm voice coil with only 0.22mH inductance on a 4" carbon Fibre/kevlar driver with lots of heatsinking. It also allows for better center to center spacing if that matters.

It's a close relative to the 5" mid driver used in the LSR speakers that Lsiberian posted. Those LSRs also happen to have a matching directivity index at the crossover point between the mid and tweeter, unlike the flush mount tweeter crossed at 3.5khz to a pretty narrowing ATC mid (whose 60deg polar @ 3.5 khz crossover point shows it to be 4db down which most certainly is perceptable crossing to a flush mount / omni dome)

I also doubt the tweeter is anywhere near as deadly as a RAAL 70-10d used in the philharmonics.

But at the end of the day it's not my place to judge :anything: unheard.

Boom - headshot.

I believe that is what they call "game, set, match" gentleman.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Telling someone what to buy is ridiculous...such a personal choice, but telling them what to try and listen to is another story...

For $6K msrp, I would put the Pioneer S-1EX on the list of speakers to listen to with the others mentioned already. I have had a chance to hear it on a few occasions, and think it is excellent.

Pioneer S-1EX loudspeaker | Stereophile.com

I know you and GranteedEV love this Pioneer. It has smooth awesome horizontal polar response and vertical off-axis. The on-axis from the important 200Hz-10kHz is pretty nice around +/-2dB.

But anyone question the -8dB drop @ 14kHz or +4dB @ 11kHz or +5dB @100Hz? I mean we are talking "dream" speakers here.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I notice the use of Kevlar midrange drivers in B&W, JBL, Aperion VGT, etc.

I bet that's pretty good stuff?

But I've heard some engineers say they didn't like Kevlar. Are they way off base?

 

[Dennis Murphy]

I notice the use of Kevlar midrange drivers in B&W, JBL, Aperion VGT, etc.

I bet that's pretty good stuff?

But I've heard some engineers say they didn't like Kevlar. Are they way off base?

Kevlar looked like it was going to run away with the ball game 8 or 9 years back. But paper in various formulations has staged a comeback, and I'm not sure Kevlar has any inherent superiority to other well-engineered cone material. The problem with Kevlar is is that it usually displays a prominent and not all that neat breakup in the highs. A good crossover can deal with this, but some companies that use Kevlar don't go to the trouble, or cross too high, at least in their less expensive models. I won't name any names.

 

[Nuance AH]

Kevlar looked like it was going to run away with the ball game 8 or 9 years back. But paper in various formulations has staged a comeback, and I'm not sure Kevlar has any inherent superiority to other well-engineered cone material. The problem with Kevlar is is that it usually displays a prominent and not all that neat breakup in the highs. A good crossover can deal with this, but some companies that use Kevlar don't go to the trouble, or cross too high, at least in their less expensive models. I won't name any names.

I will: B&W. LOL!

Check it out: