looking for information and opinions about how these two speaker sets compare. I currently have F5's in a small family room and had some unusual distortion in one of the two speakers so I'm getting that replaced. Having said that I personally have not been quite as wowed as many others I have seen on the forums - but then again my home theater system that I also use has much higher end speakers that I prefer even in just stereo listening. (Happen to be deftech Bp 7000 SC's with anthem avm 30 and ATI 2007 amp).
Anyway I am running the F5's with a Denon 4200w and a set of b5's and and matching center channel in 5.1 setup. I spend about 50/50 time split between 2 channel listening and watching movies with family. After a bit of break in I find the f5's, outside of the distortion I mentioned, to be quite good in fact even great for the $$$, just not quite happy with a few things.
First I find that the highs tend to compress and muddle things together, i.e.: as number of instruments grow in the higher ranges it's hard to distinctly separate them in listening space. Unlike my other system I can't close my eyes and picture (audibly if that makes sense) someone playing a violin next to a cymbal for example. Tracks like sufjan Stevens "come on feel the Illinois" or "Chicago" where there is a lot of horns, some punchy short bursts, some lingering long really lack energy and sound a bit tin-ny and thin to my ear. On the other hand the mids really shine to me and they even handle reasonablely low bass quite well, in fact that's their strongest suit.... Long story short I think they lack the clarity, realism and separation I was hoping for in the upper ranges..
So, the debate I am having really is if I am just simply expecting too much for the money and it's the best out there without shelling out quite a bit more cash...
The closest well reviewed towers I can come across are the Rbh R55ti's and I'm looking to likely do and a/b test with the f5's but wondered what people though who may have listened to either sets and what their personal thoughts are on characteristics. Also, would others on this forum think that's a fair comparison? (Fwiw, on Amazon it's $558 + tx (may get free tax elsewhere), Rbh is $695 free tax although discounted to as low as $520 on special promos)
Thanks,
Brian
