Could use some feedback on next speaker upgrade

[Danzilla31]

that's what I'm I'm planning on doing, too... and thats what I meant... have you experimented just manually tweaking that range you mentioned in the Butterworth review?

No and that's not a bad idea either I'll have to get on that and let you know. Also as someone mentioned the different crossover and possibly tweeter in the ultra's might be all the change I need I'll have to call SVS and find out there exact differences. I do listen to some music in there and would like to do that 2 channel as much as possible so the better the tower for that the better getting it to double on home theater is just icing on the cake since I do mostly home theater and some music.

 

[snakeeyes]

Personally I'm getting ready to upgrade and I'm probably just wigging out. Nitpicking at every single flaw I think things have because I'm scared there's something else out there that could get me there better. I'm super OCD like that whenever I start to get close to pulling the tweeter. Even if I'm overreacting I'm still learning a lot from this so keep the info coming guys thanks for your help!

Probably too much Angel Dust, you are hearing things. LOL

 

[ryanosaur]

Probably too much Angel Dust, you are hearing things. LOL

#drop the banana plugs and walk away

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

How about source? My jbl’s will throw fits with bad sources. Poorly done highs on my speakers will cause fatigue in short order. You did mention some rap and afaik, rap isn’t always engineered super awesome. My kid listens to that mumble rap sound cloud $hit. It’s so bad...
Anyway just curios if you set a baseline with some really wry well known sources.

Also. Just get the 590’s, and put some 530’s on stands around the back. Done.

 

[Danzilla31]

How about source? My jbl’s will throw fits with bad sources. Poorly done highs on my speakers will cause fatigue in short order. You did mention some rap and afaik, rap isn’t always engineered super awesome. My kid listens to that mumble rap sound cloud $hit. It’s so bad...
Anyway just curios if you set a baseline with some really wry well known sources.

Also. Just get the 590’s, and put some 530’s on stands around the back. Done.

I'm beginning to suspectvsourcing is can issue for example I put a blue ray on like Venom or Equalizer 2 Blade Runner 2049 and they sound perfect out of this world. Put something else mixed a little less well. And I'm scrambling to get that same perfect sound. I do need to improve my source input but my focus right now is speakers subs I'll focus on electronics after I get the best I can.

I like your idea of the 590 530 combo the 3 towers would work up front but I believe the 530 is discontinued I can't find them anywhere. I'm also debating a 590 3 tower front with 580 surrounds I could fit those

Just need to wait till next year's sale if I go that route.

One thing that frustrates me is I keep getting input for other speakers people want to push. That frustrates me what I was hoping for are actual owners of the emotiva T2's the SVS ultra's and the since I did talk about my interest the studio 590's and there lineup

I get that people are just trying to help and I don't mind the input but when it's the only input I'm getting it gets frustrating ya know? I have time before this decision well just have to wait and see.

I appreciate all the help people have given me so far

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I'm beginning to suspectvsourcing is can issue for example I put a blue ray on like Venom or Equalizer 2 Blade Runner 2049 and they sound perfect out of this world. Put something else mixed a little less well. And I'm scrambling to get that same perfect sound. I do need to improve my source input but my focus right now is speakers subs I'll focus on electronics after I get the best I can.

I like your idea of the 590 530 combo the 3 towers would work up front but I believe the 530 is discontinued I can't find them anywhere. I'm also debating a 590 3 tower front with 580 surrounds I could fit those

Just need to wait till next year's sale if I go that route.

One thing that frustrates me is I keep getting input for other speakers people want to push. That frustrates me what I was hoping for are actual owners of the emotiva T2's the SVS ultra's and the since I did talk about my interest the studio 590's and there lineup

I get that people are just trying to help and I don't mind the input but when it's the only input I'm getting it gets frustrating ya know? I have time before this decision well just have to wait and see.

I appreciate all the help people have given me so far

It’s all good man. You have good money. Take your time you’ll be fine.
Btw, one of our highly engaging users(although he’s been pretty busy/quiet for awhile, sup poges) @Pogre shared his journey from ultra BS to towers. Maybe he’d be able to share. Also @lovinthehd and @KEW have direct experience with the S5xx series. HD has 590’s, 580’s and I think 530’s. Iirc Kurt has the 580’s. I would love to try some next to my older studio II’s.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Oh yeah, I like @ryanasuar ‘s idea about manual eq. Since you defeated audyssey anyways, why not try it.

 

[shadyJ]

It’s all good man. You have good money. Take your time you’ll be fine.
Btw, one of our highly engaging users(although he’s been pretty busy/quiet for awhile, sup poges) @Pogre shared his journey from ultra BS to towers. Maybe he’d be able to share. Also @lovinthehd and @KEW have direct experience with the S5xx series. HD has 590’s, 580’s and I think 530’s. Iirc Kurt has the 580’s. I would love to try some next to my older studio II’s.

It's a mistake to look for the speaker that is 'forgiving' of bad recordings. To put it another way, the speaker that makes bad recordings sound good is going to screw up the sound of good recordings. You just have to accept that some recordings were poorly made, even if the musical performance in them is good. Enjoy them for what they are. If the low fidelity of the recordings is really a bother, the thing to do is use manual EQ or tone controls (not auto EQ!) If I were you, I wouldn't sweat the decision too much. If you hate that the decision process has become too laborious, just get the most neutral speakers you can afford. Speakers are only supposed to reproduce the source content as accurately as possible anyway- just get speakers that do that. Flat direct response, uniform off-axis response, adequate dynamic range.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

It's a mistake to look for the speaker that is 'forgiving' of bad recordings. To put it another way, the speaker that makes bad recordings sound good is going to screw up the sound of good recordings. You just have to accept that some recordings were poorly made, even if the musical performance in them is good. Enjoy them for what they are. If the low fidelity of the recordings is really a bother, the thing to do is use manual EQ or tone controls (not auto EQ!) If I were you, I wouldn't sweat the decision too much. If you hate that the decision process has become too laborious, just get the most neutral speakers you can afford. Speakers are only supposed to reproduce the source content as accurately as possible anyway- just get speakers that do that. Flat direct response, uniform off-axis response, adequate dynamic range.

@shadyJ, did you quote the right quote? In wasn’t telling danzilla to buy speakers that hide bad recordings at all. In fact what I was pointing out was he might not need new speakers at all but since he’s hell bent on it, maybe the guys that have some he was interested in could chime in and he could take his time and decide slowly.

FWIW I agree with you. I would much rather tolerate bad sources to glossed over good ones. I was just pointing out how easily my speakers tend to highlight bad ones.

 

[ryanosaur]

I keep getting input for other speakers people want to push.

So I've become a Dennis Murphy Disciple!

But I dig it. I invited it, myself, when I was starting to question Tekton as a good option (still curious!). At the end of the day, I think your original plan is best. Straight up. Don't know much about JBL, so can't comment there. But I was very enamored with the Airmotivs... but everything Shady dropped is straight, what I heard too. It doesn't seem like a lot of people here or some of the other forums are listening to Airmotivs. *shrugs That says a lot to me, too. Dig?

 

[shadyJ]

@shadyJ, did you quote the right quote? In wasn’t telling danzilla to buy speakers that hide bad recordings at all. In fact what I was pointing out was he might not need new speakers at all but since he’s hell bent on it, maybe the guys that have some he was interested in could chime in and he could take his time and decide slowly.

FWIW I agree with you. I would much rather tolerate bad sources to glossed over good ones. I was just pointing out how easily my speakers tend to highlight bad ones.

Not responding to anyone in particular here, just responding to the idea that a speaker is too 'clinical' and makes flaws in recordings obvious so it should therefore be avoided. I am just saying that a system that makes bad recordings sound good isn't going to be reproducing good recordings correctly. On the flipside, sometimes a bad loudspeaker can make a flawed recording sound worse than it is, especially if the speaker has elevated upper midrange or elevated treble. That can accentuate hiss or accentuate sibilance.

 

[Danzilla31]

The only reason I'm really digging for input or people's opinions on ceartin brands is due to the complexity of internet shopping. While it has been a blessing for savings for the consumer it leads to a nightmare in trying to listen to them

Luckily I love my SVS 4000's and double luckily I bought them from Bjorn's. Because the idea of boxing 150 lb beasts hauling them out to be shipped just f@$!ing sucks

Therein lies the problem for me. Auditioning hell ryanosaur had to travel the US to find the speakers he likes. The home is the best place but still you can still get a great feeling towards a speakers overall voicing and a pretty good idea of if you want to try to take it home and fall in love with it with a demo outside of the home

The time and inconvenience of buying shipping picking up un boxing calibrating measuring then reboxing shipping back really doesn't make the free home trial as attractive as one would think if you are going through dozens of different brands in the process

The only way to somewhat narrow that down is prior user experience of said products reviews help some but user experience helps speed up the process.

I'm not unhappy with the primes. The issues I have are a reflection I believe of inevitable concessions that have to be made to hit there price point.

But before I drop 3k on there bigger brothers I'm hoping for some input on if some of those compromises are resolved improved at the higher price point and if not can another model be worth investigating. Hopefully without tediously auditioning dozens of different brands.

Can't blame me on that.

Anyways therein lies my frustration

On a positive note thanks to ryanosaur suggestion of manual eq
I was able to improve the issue. And make another change that improved the issue. These speakers that still have some necessary compromises sound much improved and more alive in every good way possible now. Without being overly bright. Thanks buddy I owe you big time for that help

 

[Kvn_Walker]

It's a mistake to look for the speaker that is 'forgiving' of bad recordings. To put it another way, the speaker that makes bad recordings sound good is going to screw up the sound of good recordings. You just have to accept that some recordings were poorly made, even if the musical performance in them is good. Enjoy them for what they are. If the low fidelity of the recordings is really a bother, the thing to do is use manual EQ or tone controls (not auto EQ!) If I were you, I wouldn't sweat the decision too much. If you hate that the decision process has become too laborious, just get the most neutral speakers you can afford. Speakers are only supposed to reproduce the source content as accurately as possible anyway- just get speakers that do that. Flat direct response, uniform off-axis response, adequate dynamic range.

This is something I ran into during my quest last year. I suddenly can't listen to a lot of the 80s music that defined my childhood. Now it just sounds wrong. Especially so at volume. For me it's almost always a raspiness in the upper midrange that was never prominent before. This isn't limited to my current speakers... every "good" speaker I bought last year, notably the Revel and Canton's, brought this out.

But on the flip-side, a well-mastered recording is so incredibly rewarding now! "Hearing stuff you never heard before" is the clichéd double edged sword. But I wouldn't go back.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

The only reason I'm really digging for input or people's opinions on ceartin brands is due to the complexity of internet shopping. While it has been a blessing for savings for the consumer it leads to a nightmare in trying to listen to them

Luckily I love my SVS 4000's and double luckily I bought them from Bjorn's. Because the idea of boxing 150 lb beasts hauling them out to be shipped just f@$!ing sucks

Therein lies the problem for me. Auditioning hell ryanosaur had to travel the US to find the speakers he likes. The home is the best place but still you can still get a great feeling towards a speakers overall voicing and a pretty good idea of if you want to try to take it home and fall in love with it with a demo outside of the home

The time and inconvenience of buying shipping picking up un boxing calibrating measuring then reboxing shipping back really doesn't make the free home trial as attractive as one would think if you are going through dozens of different brands in the process

The only way to somewhat narrow that down is prior user experience of said products reviews help some but user experience helps speed up the process.

I'm not unhappy with the primes. The issues I have are a reflection I believe of inevitable concessions that have to be made to hit there price point.

But before I drop 3k on there bigger brothers I'm hoping for some input on if some of those compromises are resolved improved at the higher price point and if not can another model be worth investigating. Hopefully without tediously auditioning dozens of different brands.

Can't blame me on that.

Anyways therein lies my frustration

On a positive note thanks to ryanosaur suggestion of manual eq
I was able to improve the issue. And make another change that improved the issue. These speakers that still have some necessary compromises sound much improved and more alive in every good way possible now. Without being overly bright. Thanks buddy I owe you big time for that help

Have you joined the Emotiva forum? I read a lot of posts there when I was weighing in on the T2's. It's a good crowd over there. It's always good to converse with actual owners... you can even ask them to demo some songs you have difficulty with.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Good thing you already have a system you can enjoy now.

Definitely don’t rush to buy until you are a lot more sure.

Will SVS be your “dream” system?

If not, keep on saving up and do more research and auditions.

 

[shadyJ]

The only reason I'm really digging for input or people's opinions on ceartin brands is due to the complexity of internet shopping. While it has been a blessing for savings for the consumer it leads to a nightmare in trying to listen to them

Luckily I love my SVS 4000's and double luckily I bought them from Bjorn's. Because the idea of boxing 150 lb beasts hauling them out to be shipped just f@$!ing sucks

Therein lies the problem for me. Auditioning hell ryanosaur had to travel the US to find the speakers he likes. The home is the best place but still you can still get a great feeling towards a speakers overall voicing and a pretty good idea of if you want to try to take it home and fall in love with it with a demo outside of the home

The time and inconvenience of buying shipping picking up un boxing calibrating measuring then reboxing shipping back really doesn't make the free home trial as attractive as one would think if you are going through dozens of different brands in the process

The only way to somewhat narrow that down is prior user experience of said products reviews help some but user experience helps speed up the process.

I'm not unhappy with the primes. The issues I have are a reflection I believe of inevitable concessions that have to be made to hit there price point.

But before I drop 3k on there bigger brothers I'm hoping for some input on if some of those compromises are resolved improved at the higher price point and if not can another model be worth investigating. Hopefully without tediously auditioning dozens of different brands.

Can't blame me on that.

Anyways therein lies my frustration

On a positive note thanks to ryanosaur suggestion of manual eq
I was able to improve the issue. And make another change that improved the issue. These speakers that still have some necessary compromises sound much improved and more alive in every good way possible now. Without being overly bright. Thanks buddy I owe you big time for that help

I see this all the time and it doesn't need to be a problem. The thing to do is simply buy a neutral speaker and then EQ it to taste. Much of what people are hearing when the audition speakers is the spectral balance of the response. The good news is that can be manipulated with equalization, so long as the speaker has a uniform response on and off axis. So a good speaker can be made to sound like any speaker you want, really. A bad speaker can only ever sound like a bad speaker. You are overthinking it. Your SVS speakers are probably just fine, all you might need to do is tame some upper frequency resonance. That can be done with equalization.

 

[shadyJ]

This is something I ran into during my quest last year. I suddenly can't listen to a lot of the 80s music that defined my childhood. Now it just sounds wrong. Especially so at volume. For me it's almost always a raspiness in the upper midrange that was never prominent before. This isn't limited to my current speakers... every "good" speaker I bought last year, notably the Revel and Canton's, brought this out.

But on the flip-side, a well-mastered recording is so incredibly rewarding now! "Hearing stuff you never heard before" is the clichéd double edged sword. But I wouldn't go back.

That raspiness is probably an elevated response at around 3 kHz or so, maybe a bit higher. If you use a parametric equalizer to take down the level at that frequency, I bet that music would sound a lot better.

 

[snakeeyes]

It might be easier to audition the Ultra Bookshelf, or any bookshelf, because they are smaller than towers and easy to return.

 

[Danzilla31]

That raspiness is probably an elevated response at around 3 kHz or so, maybe a bit higher. If you use a parametric equalizer to take down the level at that frequency, I bet that music would sound a lot better.

Which is what Brent Butterworth showed in his review its elevated from around 2k to 8k in the response range. So that's what I did last night and it fixed the problem. Which was only an issue anyways every know and again. I am Over thinking this always OCD every time it gets closer to making an upgrade. So every know and again you guys will probably have to put up with me doing this lol. Everyone will be like Dan's tripping on his speakers again. Oh that's alright he's getting ready to upgrade

 

[kini]

Hey everyone could use some help here. I'm looking to upgrade soon.

I have 3 SVS prime towers upfront for left center right. Surrounds are the Elan Theaterpoint THP650ls. 4 of em. Heights are 4 RSL C43e's in ceiling Subs are 2 SVS PB 4000's

Denon X4400H reciever 2 crown XLS 1002 amps with an Emotiva UPA-7 amp. Plan to go all crowns when I upgrade speakers. The 1502 actually.

Room is 8500 cubed feet of air big room very open layout

I'm going to upgrade the 3 fronts to SVS ultra's and then move the primes to surrounds for my base layer

Here's where I need some help. I do have some issue with the high end with the prime towers. Once in awhile I catch vigilance or just a touch of shrill with demanding highs.

Now I loved the golden ears highs I debuted but felt the primes beat them in overall dynamics bass and had just as good imaging. But the highs no question golden ear all day. Id like that type of tweeter in a better dynamic speaker then the golden ear 5 or 7's.

And in comes emotiva with there T2's for $500 each. Which seem to review very very nice. 3 ultra towers would run me 3k 3 T2's would run me 1500 half the price he'll less expensive then the prime towers in gloss that is. With dual 8 woofers 51/4 midrange and that folded tweeter that seems like a helluva lot of speaker for the money

I plan to go all matching towers for the base 7 and with Emotivas 10% discount I can basically get them all for the same price as the ultra's and flip the prime towers as well. For an even better savings.

For any ultra SVS towers or emotiva T2' owners please help me with some feedback here. Thanks!

P.S I wanted to try the JBL studio 590's but they are a little too big for ceartin spots I'd need to put them in. So I had to rule them out.

I know there's better out there but I want max bang for less buck so just feedback on these selections please. Primarily used for home theater some music have a separate room for music. Thanks again!View attachment 27829View attachment 27830View attachment 27831

The T2s (and T1) are the ugliest set of speakers I can ever remember laying my eyes on. Being that they would be out in the open for everyone to burn their eyes on they would and should be a hard pass no matter how well they may perform for the money.

Have you checked out the Aperion Grande Versus towers? About the same price as the Ultras, shipping included (lower 48), 60 day trial period and they are beautiful. Plus they seem to be a great sounding speaker based on what's out there on them.