Gun Fight at the RLA corral coming soon

[MacManNM]

Is this coming this year, or ever for that matter?

 

[buffethead1984]

I guess someone came to the gunfight with a bazooka! (Klipsch)

 

[Sheep]

I guess someone came to the gunfight with a bazooka! (Klipsch)

I higly doubt that. If anyone is going to trump, it will be Axiom.

SheepStar

 

[corey]

It would be nice to get a status update on this.

 

[gene]

<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><A href="http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/loudspeakers/SpeakerFaceOffVIp1.php"><IMG style="WIDTH: 125px; HEIGHT: 94px" alt=[lineup] hspace=10 src="http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/lineup_th.jpg" align=left border=0></A>Over the past few years there has been much talk about budget speakers on our forums. With this in mind, we decided to conduct a bookshelf speaker shoot out. We selected four different models of speakers all under $300/pr from Axiom Audio, BIC, Klipsch and Unisound.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </SPAN>Find out how these speakers faired in this gunfight at the RLA Corral.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = o /></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">[Speaker Face Off IV Review]</SPAN></P><A href="http://www.audioholics.com/news/uploads/lineup.JPG"></A>

 

[jaxvon]

Woohoo! Very nice review Ray. While I've only used the BICs, I can attest to everything you say about them. They're not the best, but aren't terrible (and definitely have room for improvement). The only other thing I can ask for would be a supplemental review of the BICs, one pair stock with your mods and one with the crossover mod plus your mods.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Gene, you definitely need to have Ray do more speaker reviews. Wow, very nice. Those were some excellent tips on tweaking the Venturi.

All I can say is the DV62 must be a different speaker than the pair I purchased back in 1992. Mine are stuffed to the gills with poly, and the build quality is a bit better than the newer version. In any event, I think the review was excellent. You can tell Ray knows his music, and how to evaluate a speaker.

I can't wait to get my copy of Patrica Barber's Café Blue.

 

[Sheep]

Good stuff Ray!

May come as a shocker, but going by your findings, I would buy the Unisound DACs. I hate bright speakers. I even perfer non neutral speakers just because harsh treble is a complete turn off for me.

My Energy's sound good, and I can't judge them until I tame my extremely bright room.

At any rate, this was a fantastic read. Keep up the good work!

SheepStar

 

[T2T]

Nice review, Ray.

I liked how the focus on the review was one in which the speakers were judged on how they performed out of the box, without any modifications.

 

[Buckle-meister]

Ray, for each speaker, you wrote:

The speaker has a claimed frequency response of...

Do you have any doubts that the speakers could achieve the lower bound frequency?

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Very nice reveiw Ray!

The Unisound DACs sound like they would match up with an Hsu STF-1 very well in the right room.

I wonder how the Athena and Paradigm bookshelf speakers would have done...Thus the love hate relationship with shootouts...love to compare heads-up...always left wanting more...

Sorry, I am going to the mulester7 school of dot dot dot, I think I'm failing... (love ya mule)

 

[MacManNM]

Wonderful job ray, I knew those klipsch were some really good bookshelves. Glad to see the DV62's did ok. I tried your mods there, and noticed quite an improvement. All I can say is that at a price of $120/pr shipped, and those few mods (which cost me about $10 and I have enough left over to do several more pairs) I think it's the best value out there. I am impressed that the Axioms did as well as the Klipsch.


edit: All of you BIC owners, try cutting out a piece of felt and putting it around the tweeter, I think the results are very good, and it looks pretty good too.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

All of you BIC owners, try cutting out a piece of felt and putting it around the tweeter, I think the results are very good, and it looks pretty good too.

You may want to elaborate a bit on that - and even post a photo. What does it do for sq?

 

[Sheep]

You may want to elaborate a bit on that - and even post a photo. What does it do for sq?

It helps tame the tweeters brightness.

They talk about it in the review.

SheepStar

 

[MacManNM]

You may want to elaborate a bit on that - and even post a photo. What does it do for sq?

I will take a pic this week. You just cut out a piece of felt (like a doughnut) and glue it to the outside of the tweeter, so the felt surrounds the dome. It really tames the brightness down a ton.


Edit: After thinking about it My cabinets were 3/4" I will measure them again to be sure.

 

[surveyor]

Thanks for the fine review Ray!
You've got your s*it togeather man.
I'm wondering if you can share more detail on the Yamaha RX-V4600 that you used to drive the speakers in the review?
Is it better than the RX-V2600?
The cost difference between the two recievers would indicate the RX-V4600 to be somewhat superior .

Cheers,

Surveyor

 

[RLA]

Hello All
I am glad you all enjoyed the shootout and thanks for all the kind words

You may want to elaborate a bit on that - and even post a photo. What does it do for sq?

Adding felt to the tweeter face will tame the sibilant sound produced by the tweeter, help with diffraction and re-radiation. We preferred to use open cell 1/4"tall x 3/4" wide foam installed on either side of the tweeter because it is easy to find and install, It is self sticking. You can find this at Home Depot in the weather stripping department.This is the same department to find the rope calk


I wrote claimed freq responce because most often than not we have found that advertised low freq extensions are not obtained in real world applications

Happy New Year All

 

[Matt34]

Excellent review, even though I'm not in the market for bookshelves it was nice to read about the ones most of us could afford.

Now we need an under $1000 floorstander shootout. chop chop!

 

[wilkenboy]

Excellent review. Now if only you had included the Ascend CBM-170s... any reason they were not included? I've been going back and forth on the Ascend 170s vs the Axioms for some time now...

When the bonus check comes in I'll get a pair of both and listen for myself, but I'd love to see someone put these two head to head. Its almost like people intentionally don't review both.

Thanks again for a good review.

~Josh

 

[craigsub]

Hello All
I am glad you all enjoyed the shootout and thanks for all the kind words



Adding felt to the tweeter face will tame the sibilant sound produced by the tweeter, help with diffraction and re-radiation. We preferred to use open cell 1/4"tall x 3/4" wide foam installed on either side of the tweeter because it is easy to find and install, It is self sticking. You can find this at Home Depot in the weather stripping department.This is the same department to find the rope calk


I wrote claimed freq responce because most often than not we have found that advertised low freq extensions are not obtained in real world applications

Happy New Year All

Excellent review. It was unbiased, you made sure to maximize the performance of each speaker, and the writing was outstanding.

Well done !