Advice on buying used speakers

[zieglj01]

No offense to the owners but other than a few individuals' "reviews" I'm still searching for a few more detailed and unbiased reviews of the Philharmonic Affordable Accuracy towers/center. Can anyone point to a few links?

Look here

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/89-speakers/1501355-murphyblaster-pioneer-bs22-dna-speaker.html

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/89-sp...-sp-fs52-vs-sp-efs73-review.html#post31733265

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=128301.0

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=113182.msg1207023#msg1207023

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=124245.0

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=128301.msg1357891#msg1357891

 

[Swerd]

No offense to the owners but other than a few individuals' "reviews" I'm still searching for a few more detailed and unbiased reviews of the Philharmonic Affordable Accuracy towers/center. Can anyone point to a few links?

In addition to ziegl01's extensive list, you can add my own brief observation. I haven't been shopping for speakers in some time, so I hadn't paid much attention to the Affordable Accuracy speakers.

Last week I paid a visit to Dennis Murphy just to say hi and see what's new. He is always designing something new and I hadn't seen him in over a year. That same day a local customer was there. He had already purchased a pair of Pioneer BS-22s and brought them to Dennis for his modifications. Dennis already had a pair that had been modified, so as a result, I could hear both the before and after versions.

The existing Pioneer small woofer and it's low end tuning in the cabinet are already good. The original design succeeds at getting reasonable bass from it without getting greedy. There is no exaggerated boom or muddy sounding overhang from a ringing woofer. It goes no lower than about 70 Hz, but that is perfectly reasonable for such a low price. Dennis does nothing to alter this. He does replace the tweeter and alters the crossover accordingly to create a smoother overall sound with a better dispersion of mid range and higher frequencies. It's an unusual bargain.

The SP-FS52 tower version, apparently gets a similar treatment, but I didn't get to hear one. Dennis says it isn't nearly as good a bargain as the smaller and lighter BE-22, because it costs him so much more to ship it.

If you want to keep costs as low as possible, the Affordable Accuracy BS-22 speakers avoid making audible sound quality compromises often seen in the low-priced range.

 

[Seth=L]

I have often wondered how many people that are recommending the Philharmonics have even heard the Pioneers they're modified from in a controlled environment, let alone the Philharmonics themselves and are making these fervent recommendations for a product they have never heard themselves. I don't doubt they're good, but it seems like they get recommended by a lot of people and it's not like Pholharmonic has dealers everywhere for this product for people to hear.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I have often wondered how many people that are recommending the Philharmonics have even heard the Pioneers they're modified from in a controlled environment, let alone the Philharmonics themselves and are making these fervent recommendations for a product they have never heard themselves. I don't doubt they're good, but it seems like they get recommended by a lot of people and it's not like Pholharmonic has dealers everywhere for this product for people to hear.

And How's that different from any other ID brand? This is the whole point of ID - great product, minus B&M associated costs. This is why all of them offer 30-60 days trials - some even with free return shipping.
The measurements are solid, the price is cheap. I see big reward vs low risk proposition. I never heard Philharmonic speakers, but I have heard salks which Dennis also contributed to, and they were great

 

[zieglj01]

I have often wondered how many people that are recommending the Philharmonics have even heard the Pioneers they're modified from in a controlled environment, let alone the Philharmonics themselves and are making these fervent recommendations for a product they have never heard themselves.

A lot of people know his work - and he has been well known in the
DIY community for years - and has modded many speakers, and way
more than what you will find on his posted site.
http://murphyblaster.com/content.php?f=main.html

 

[Swerd]

I have often wondered…

That's why I made that comment.

Admittedly, I've long been a Dennis Murphy fanboy. I first encountered his DIY designs around 2004. I subsequently have built several of them. Most of these, variations of 2-way bookshelf speakers (MB20 and MB27), I built for friends and family members and I don't have them now. One, the CAOW1, I still have and listen to often.

I also brought my older JBL L-100s to Dennis so he could design new crossovers for them. http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/the-vintage-jbl-west-coast-sound-becomes-the….25014/

When Salk began selling the SongTower, a Dennis Murphy design I could afford, I became an early adapter of that speaker. http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/impressions-of-salk-songtowers.36600/

And finally, when Dennis designed a very good DIY floor standing speaker, the ER18 MTM, I helped promote that by writing it up here on AH. http://forums.audioholics.com/forum...ed-by-dennis-murphy-and-paul-kittinger.68531/

Every one of Dennis's designs share the common sound of a clear and uncolored mid range. This is readily heard even in the inexpensive Affordable Accuracy speakers.

 

[LightningMike]

I have often wondered how many people that are recommending the Philharmonics have even heard the Pioneers they're modified from in a controlled environment, let alone the Philharmonics themselves and are making these fervent recommendations for a product they have never heard themselves. I don't doubt they're good, but it seems like they get recommended by a lot of people and it's not like Pholharmonic has dealers everywhere for this product for people to hear.

Yup... Again, I'm no expert, but the basic Pioneer SP-FS52-LR Towers have pretty amazing endorsements by hundreds of people. Out of 704 owners, 542 gave them 5 stars, another 129 4 stars... 6 people gave them 1 star. Likewise, the Fluance XL7F had 72 reviews or which 64 were 5 stars, 6 were 4 stars, and 2 were 3 stars. Nobody rated them a 2 or 1 star speaker. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I guess it also applies to speakers/ears LOL. Unfortunately the Pioneers are not the prettiest in the world compared to the Fluance or some other popular speakers in this range.

Incidentally, our bookshelves are chock full of books and family pictures and they are arranged so as to be perpendicular to one another and if we used bookshelf speakers (wife says no anyways) one would be aimed at a window-wall, the other at a likely seating area. Since my TV is semi-diagonal between the bookshelves, I can get away with "aiming" 8" - 9" wide towers at the prime listening/watching area and thats why we're thinking towers.

The search goes on.

 

[zieglj01]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I guess it also applies to speakers/ears LOL. Unfortunately the Pioneers are not the prettiest in the world compared to the Fluance or some other popular speakers in this range.

Looks do not guarantee overall sound quality - even an ugly duck can swim!

Hope you find what you are looking for.

 

[afterlife2]

No offense to the owners but other than a few individuals' "reviews" I'm still searching for a few more detailed and unbiased reviews of the Philharmonic Affordable Accuracy towers/center. Can anyone point to a few links?

Here is a review Z posted. He is very modest and did not post it. I don't have his speaker knowledge, but I know when I hear a pair of good speakers and gave a little overview on them: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/murphyblaster-pioneer-bs22-dna-speaker.87887/