Dream Speakers Under $6,000 Retail

[DenPureSound]

We were disappointed in the Golden Ears TT, as with all the GREAT reviews I was expecting some REAL true sound quality -- I wish he (Sandy) had taken the ST's and made more improvements on that technology (BiPolar).

Your exactly right on, that was the classic HERITAGE from PWK, of course as you own them and DT BiPolar ST's, only changes the SPL for the SW, does not do any EQ'g of them.

Maybe next couple of days heading back to Audio shop - more music w/ your Lovely StarShip [Laughing], and just for you I will bring some "LOVERBOY" from Canada along -- and again switch between the 7000 and the 7001's and again see if a different day makes any difference in sound, [Laughing]... we barely could tell any difference between the two 7K models thru the mids/highs, but I want to get the SW dialed in on both of them and then compare again, not that I would spend 65% more for the 7K vs. the 7001 model, no way and especially since we have dual subs already.

Do those Klipsch's still play loud with the lower ambient pressure at your Altitude [Laughing again]? Or do you have to increase the gain in volume vs. being at MSL. {Just kidding you}

One old 2004 writeup I found talked about Def. Tech. spending Multi-Millions on their Advanced Research Facility that they patterned after the NRC lab in Canada, but offering even more extensive anechoic testing capabilities! Surely, that must of helped their Engr's. design/develop the DT ST BP7xxxSC Series.

You have two great speakers there, and I am sure that is why you still have them as well.

 

[DenPureSound]

Klipsch RF7II FTW

Nope not a chance of moving up in the Klipsch lineup -- we want to get away from that Signature for now, and so far the DT's have the signature of sound that we like.

 

[adwilk]

Nope not a chance of moving up in the Klipsch lineup -- we want to get away from that Signature for now, and so far the DT's have the signature of sound that we like.

WEllll... I was expecting to fall out of my chair. That would have done it. Have you read about the DeanG xover mods for some of the klipsch stuff? My RF7's had it and really "livened" up the midrange. Anyway- Nice choice on the new stuff. I'll be following your impressions closely after you get them home.

 

[ski2xblack]

You have two great speakers there, and I am sure that is why you still have them as well.

...Nope not a chance of moving up in the Klipsch lineup

That's probably wise, they're habit forming. I've been a bit of a Klipsch addict for a long time, have owned several Heritage models, and have heard the infamous Jubilees in person (talk about feeling like you stepped onto the holodeck on the starship Enterprise, the Jubs cast about the most effortless, resolving, and compelling sonic image I have ever heard...everything from the most subtle to the loudest fff moments in uncompressed, lifelike glory). I'm currently down to one pair, much to the wife's relief, but I don't think I'll ever sell them. If I get divorced, the wife gets the DTs, and I'm keeping the old Klipsch!

 

[Nuance AH]

Congrats, DPS. I see our harsh motivation finally pushed you to actually go out and audition. Its about time. Enjoy those DT's; my brother has them and loves them.

 

[DenPureSound]

WEllll... I was expecting to fall out of my chair. That would have done it. Have you read about the DeanG xover mods for some of the klipsch stuff? My RF7's had it and really "livened" up the midrange. Anyway- Nice choice on the new stuff. I'll be following your impressions closely after you get them home.

Certainly not putting down a Klipsch ever as we have about $3K invested in them now, and still love them and will move them into another room for HT -- they are a fine sounding speaker, but just want to get a different sound signature into the room for Audio solely.

They - different dealer - wants to sell me the newer DT BP-8080ST, which retail for $3K/Pair vs. the 7001's which last went for $3.8K/Pair. The 8080 is a smaller box at around 3.22 cu. ft. vs. around 3.5 cu. ft. for the 7001, and the 8080 only has 3 - 5.25" mids, vs. 4 - 6.5" mids on the 7001.
Heck they went from 120#'s down to 66#'s when they changed the line! The SC SW amp went from 1500W down to a measly 455W and a bigger woofer at 12" vs. the 10" in the 7001, and at basically the same price -- no way I told him, and he does not even have them on the floor to hear!!

 

[DenPureSound]

Congrats, DPS. I see our harsh motivation finally pushed you to actually go out and audition. Its about time. Enjoy those DT's; my brother has them and loves them.

Right on... no hard feelings, but you Pushed me right out of my Chair and away from all these Gorgeous Measurement plots w/ Textual Annotations Galore and ALL those Excellent Reviews on top of that... Since your back is excellent, you get your back over here to move around 132# boxes... you'll enjoy that end of it, and I will buy the spirits... Geez, if I get them soon, I will have to plug in two more AC plugs -- glad we are on a 20Amp brkr. here.

Maybe if I plug them into a pure Sinusoidal 220Vac RMS at 60Hz. 3Ph. they will really Smoke! But might void the warranty. I will say Nuance told me to do it, [Just kidding you]...

 

[DenPureSound]

Congrats, DPS. I see our harsh motivation finally pushed you to actually go out and audition. Its about time. Enjoy those DT's; my brother has them and loves them.

What model does he have?

 

[GranteedEV]

Right on... no hard feelings, but you Pushed me right out of my Chair and away from all these Gorgeous Measurement plots w/ Textual Annotations Galore and ALL those Excellent Reviews on top of that...

Good to hear you found speakers you like. ADTG sure did like those Def Techs. Are you done with auditioning?

 

[PENG]

Good to hear you found speakers you like. ADTG sure did like those Def Techs. Are you done with auditioning?

ADTG seems to miss his DT a lot, consider the fact that he has already owned real dream class speakers Salon2 and Linkwitz Orion, those DT must be really good. DPS may be happier than ADTG when those big new DT arrives.

 

[GranteedEV]

ADTG seems to miss his DT a lot, consider the fact that he has already owned the Salon2 and Linkwitz Orion

Let's see if the Philharmonics fill that void!!

 

[PENG]

I hope some of you can do a better translation job than Google, what is this list about?

EXCELIA HIFI - top 1000

Google Translate

Even after translation by Google I am still not 100% sure how to interpret it. For example, if "S" means stereo, what does "A" mean? Who came up with it, by user reviews or something else? The list is quite comprehensive (Paradigm not there unfortunately) and if nothing else at last it has the retail prices listed as long as the the data are from reliable sources though.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

ADTG seems to miss his DT a lot, consider the fact that he has already owned real dream class speakers Salon2 and Linkwitz Orion, those DT must be really good. DPS may be happier than ADTG when those big new DT arrives.

I tell DenPureSound that if Amazon ever have those BP7000 @ 50% off (like they had those $8K Infinity @ %50 off), I would buy them and place them in my family room.

I've said it a million times, but listening to those 7001/7000SC always put a huge grin on my face. Even @90dBC, I would just closed my eyes and listened for hours.

I'll confess for the first time. The real reason I sold them was not because I thought the other speakers were significantly better. The real reason was because 1) I had the budget, 2) their FR was +/- 3.5dB instead of +/- 2dB, & 3) those DefTech bashing from time to time. There.

GlocksRock and other DefTech BP owners would agree with me on their sound quality.

When I hear some people say that these BP7000/7001 don't sound that great, I always wonder why.

Perhaps B&W and Paradigm owners also wonder why I never liked their speakers.

The point is, we should buy these "dream" speakers only after we have compared them to other speakers.

Within our own budget, after comparing with other speakers, the speakers we end up buying should sound crystal clear with accurate detailed midrange and smooth not fatiguing trebles and large life like 3 dimensional soundstage. Whether it's Ascend, Salk, Philharmonic, KEF, Revel, B&W, Focal, Paradigm, NHT, RBH, Aperion, DefTech or any other brand, if they meet all those requirement in our minds and ears, then we have made the right choices.

 

[esoteric junkie]

Speakers

Have you considered a pair of Innersound Eros or the current production models by Sanders Sound Systems? Roger Sanders makes some fantastic hybrid ESL speakers.

Esoteric Junkie

 

[PENG]

Just a quick summary for now.

S8
As others had said before, they can play really loud, easy to drive, no wonder specs recommended amp power 15 to 500W, max power input 250W. It might have some impedance dips but no doubt overall relatively easy to drive. Smooth highs, seemed to have more layers of sound perhaps due to the stronger mid bass/bass response. Soundstage was good but I expected more width, imaging was good but not as pin point as the 804. Perceived transparency was no better than the other two.
Like my Verita and Infinity P360 (much worse) woodwind seems a little too aggressive. Overall it seemed to sound similar to my speakers in terms of tonal balance and characteristics.

804 diamond
To my surprise the violin sounded great but not as sweet as the 802D I listened to several years ago. The improved diamond tweeter is supposed to be better. The 802D did have the Marlan head midrange so that might have helped. Sound stage was wide, with consistently pin pointing imaging. Switching from S8 to it I have to crank the volume up by 3 to 6 db but it has excellent dynamics range, seemed better than the S8. I prefer its overall tonal balance. Enclosure vibration felt the same or slightly less than that of the S8. Piano sounded better than the S8 as well but only in terms of imaging. Perceived transparency may be a touch better but woodwind instruments sounded easier to the ears, closer to what I remember hearing in live concerts. The speakers looked so much smaller than the S8 but bass did not seem to suffer as much as I had expected.

Focal 1028 Be
Violin sounded so sweet I was almost in tears listening to the SACD track of the Tchaikovsky’s concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major. Soundstage seems more confined that the other two. Less dynamic range/impact than the 804. Ability to separate out individual musical instrument better than the other two. Enclosure vibration about the same, and I have no concern of any of them. After that I started searching for reviews on this speaker and as always, some like them, some don’t even described them as being “lousy”.
I used the same CD's but except for the 1028, I had to play only the CD tracks when auditioning the S8, S6 and 804. That could also be the reason the violin sounded better on the 1028 but I doubt it.
All these are 100% subjective, and only the 804 and the S8 were in the same room driven and sourced by the same equipment so they are far from being controlled listening tests. In my opinion, while not impossible, it would be very difficult to do proper and meaningful comparison listening of such well made speakers and then try to conclude one is better than the others. Still, I am at least comfortable (just barely) to say I do not prefer the S8. I actually like the S6 more but did not spend enough time on them to draw any conclusion.

 

[GranteedEV]

I'll confess for the first time. The real reason I sold them was not because I thought the other speakers were significantly better. The real reason was because 1) I had the budget, 2) their FR was +/- 3.5dB instead of +/- 2dB, & 3) those DefTech bashing from time to time.

Wide dispersion bi polars are just like those omnis.. if the plan is to put them nearish to a wall then flat response will probably not sound as good as a taylored response... the power response dominates not the axial response because there's so much reverberant sound.

When I hear some people say that these BP7000/7001 don't sound that great, I always wonder why.

Here's a quote from someone's amazon review:

When I first heard the Definitive BP7000SC & BP7001SC at my local Def Tech dealer, I was not extremely impressed. After reading the rave reviews on the BP7001SC and especially the BP7000SC, I expected a lot more that what I heard.

Home Theater Magazine said the BP7000SC sounded like they cost 4 or 5 times their price, which equates to $22K - $27K!!!
Audio Video Revolution said that the BP7000SC sound like speakers costing as much as a Toyota Prius and that the BP7000SC was an engineering masterpiece! Pretty big statements there.

I was willing to give these speakers a chance in my own home. Knowing that every room is different, testing these speakers in my own room was the only way to truly evaluate them.

In my first attempt, I placed these speakers 6" from the front wall, 36" from the side walls, 7 ft apart, with the active subwoofers facing the side walls.

It sounded terrible! What went wrong?

You'll never guess who wrote that

 

[GranteedEV]

peng - now that you've given your impressions on the Electra 1028, it's time to go listen to the SM9 and compare the two for our enjoyment.

 

[DS-21]

One old 2004 writeup I found talked about Def. Tech. spending Multi-Millions on their Advanced Research Facility that they patterned after the NRC lab in Canada, but offering even more extensive anechoic testing capabilities!

Hehe. I guess that's kinda like them taking Mirage's basic concept (bipole tower) and blatantly copying Mirage's aesthetic (gloss black top/bottom caps, with a sock between them, but with a twist of a side-mounted "sub" using a cheap driver with practically no throw.

Honestly, I never really "got" bipoles. At least, not after about age 16 (I bought a pair of Mirage M590i dipole towers when I was 14 or 15...funny thing is, I went to the store that day intending to buy some tiny Monitor Audio things, got sidetracked by the Mirages, and all of a sudden a little pinpointy 4" minimonitor didn't look so good any more compared to _all_that_sound_!) They're really fussy about placement, and even when set up just right they just kinda throw the same image for every recording, no matter how it was actually recorded. Great design for a teenager's bedroom, but for an adult...?

 

[zieglj01]

Hehe. I guess that's kinda like them taking Mirage's basic concept (bipole tower) and blatantly copying Mirage's aesthetic (gloss black top/bottom caps, with a sock between them, but with a twist of a side-mounted "sub" using a cheap driver with practically no throw.

I remember the Mirage bi-pole - they were fussy about placement and
the bass was weak. Overall, they did not do a good job with music.

 

[Nuance AH]

What model does he have?

He has the 7001's with that huge center channel that has the subwoofer in it.