After further listening...
After further listening...
I finally got a day off and had the chance to really sit down and do some serious listening. Got them up on stands and placed them reasonably well.
I listened to a variety of music on DVD, CD, and vinyl. All over the map. And I'm just tickled that I got this much speaker for $100.
Its' really the low end that's got me all excited. I'm not a guy who needs his bass to shake the walls. Nor do I need my stereo to play louder than about 98 or 100 db. And thats when I'm really rocking out. These speakers won't shake the walls, nor will they stay clean up much past 102. But that's ok. I don't need them to do that. They constantly impress me with how deep they are. I threw everything at them I could that had nice, deep, well recorded lows (excluding classical) and they hung in there every time, reproducing kick drum, stand up bass and some synthesizer sounds like they were floor standers. When I closed the windows and "crunk it up" loud I smiled even more, there were times when I could actually feel my wooden floor move a little bit. I could actually feel the bass a little bit. To my semi-trained ear they got down below 80hz to before they start to slop off. After that they seem to get down to the mid 60's before they disappear. Unbelievable. Never would have I thought that $100 dollars speakers could have clean bass that deep. I didn't hear any area where I was disappointed in the bass response. There might be a hump in there around 100, or it might be my receiver, but it's definitely not pronounced. Bass is clear and deep. Its not lightening fast. There's enough snap to it to make me happy, but not as much as the nicer near fields I use for mixing and mastering work. Really impressive. I'll get a small sub down the road a bit to fill in the area below 70hz later on, but for now, I'm not wishing for a thing down there.
The high end is where there could be improvement. Its clear and open. With enough air to image pretty well and make me want to listen to music all day. They are bright however. On records that have been mixed/mastered exceptionally well it's not very obvious. The particular records I thought sounded best through these speakers were Mark Knopfler-Sailing to Philadelphia, Cold Play- A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Sarah McLaughlin- Surfacing, Roberta Flack- Quiet Fire, And most of the blues and jazz I threw at them. But when you put in a record that's been mastered or mixed bright (and their are LOTS of them) you immediately notice just how bright it is. The biggest offenders were Sting- Dream of the Blue Turtle, Coldplay- Parachutes and some older vinyl I listened to. I didn't even try anything that in my opinion is notoriously bright like Dave Matthews. These records got me plotting and scheming about how I'm gonna modify these little guys, weather it be sending the x-overs to Ed Frais or something more drastic like replacing the tweeters and modding the x-overs. Too bright. Probably not for your typical listener who would enjoy a set of JBL's or Klipch's but to me they need work. But Its in there. I can hear it. I know these things can produce a nice dreamy smooth top end. They just need a little persuasion. :
I paid close attention to the difference between using my Denon's digital inputs (optical), CD in's, and the Denon's Ext. IN (which bypasses the converters in the Denon.) and found that using the digital in's smoothed out the top a bit and helped the brightness an audible amount. This would be due to the DA converters in my universal player (a Samsung DVD -HD841) having less than great converters. But what do you want for $100 dollars. Sound great using the Denon's converters however. There was a problem using the digital in's that I'll post about in the receiver forum.
I've got about 10 hours on these guys at the moment, so I'm still waiting for them to convince me they need a break in period. I doubt that they'll shed their brightness enough however. They'll need to be modded some way to really make me lose myself in the sound the way my favorite speakers do.
These speakers are incredible for the money. The bass is as good or better than any other bookshelf I auditioned at any price. The top end is a little more than half way to nirvana. Hopefully they'll respond to to Ed's cross over mod or something even more drastic. Then they'll really be unbelievable. As they are now, they've got to be one of the most incredible deal's I've every gotten. I'm going to have to pick up one of the centers everybody is so happy with. Could they sound even better? Then maybe I'll need 3
A question for you guys who've had Ed modify yours..... Could you describe to me how they respond? What's the difference? Especially with the high end. And has anybody ever gone further with modding these beauties?
If anybody has the bookshelves and the center, whats the difference in sound/tonal quality?
They really are amazing for the money. They really do sound good.
