Impressions of Salk SongTowers

cajieboy

cajieboy

Audiophyte
Thanks Swerd. Great review! Can you, Dennis and/or any other owners comment on what would be a good match for surrounds & center for the Songtowers to perform double duty for 5.1 HT?
 
F

FguerraG

Junior Audioholic
Great review!

Your speakers are stunningly beautiful really love that veneer!
 
Warpdrv

Warpdrv

Audioholic Ninja
Thank you swerd for that enlightening, and extremely informative view of the Salk Songtowers.. This is the second time I have visited the Salk site today, and have read many things about Salk Speakers... they are truly a beautiful looking speaker .. It is fantastic to hear these owners views and take on the product.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Thanks Swerd. Great review! Can you, Dennis and/or any other owners comment on what would be a good match for surrounds & center for the Songtowers to perform double duty for 5.1 HT?
Salk is also selling the SongCenter, SongSurround, and SongSub to round out the Song series of speakers. The SongSurround, although it does not yet have a picture at Salk Sound, does exist. See this link for more details. Scroll down to read j salk's posts:

"The SongSurrounds will be 8" wide, 13" tall and 10" deep. They will use one Seas CA15RLY midwoofer (same as in the SongTowers) and the Hiquphon OW1 tweeter. They are rear ported and have an F3 of about 50Hz."

Here is a frequency response curve:

 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
An online magazine review of Salk SongTowers has been published.

The short version is, "Salk Signature Sound has hit an out of the park home run with the SongTower QWT". :D :D :D
 
Warpdrv

Warpdrv

Audioholic Ninja
Well Salk finally delivered the first set of Ribbon Song Towers if you were interested swerd.....

Check here... and before this thread for more info...
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14546532#post14546532

They are a special aluminum baffle and I believe they are $700.00 additional for the ribbon option, limited supply run to see how they go over...
These are my neighbors, I am so looking forward to getting over to his place to steal "cough" listen to them...


 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Well Salk finally delivered the first set of Ribbon Song Towers if you were interested swerd.....

Check here... and before this thread for more info...
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14546532#post14546532

They are a special aluminum baffle and I believe they are $700.00 additional for the ribbon option, limited supply run to see how they go over...
These are my neighbors, I am so looking forward to getting over to his place to steal "cough" listen to them...


Thanks for the links to the ribbon SongTowers. Yes, I've followed that long journey at AVS and post there under a different moniker (R Swerdlow). I didn't know you are Nuance's neighbor - and am glad you'll get to hear them. More than a few people who have only read about them have said, "with all the positive reviews, I wonder if those speakers are really that good, or is it the usual hype and exaggeration". It may be hard not to be influenced by Nuance's enthusiasm, but let us know what you think.

I heard an early prototype of the ribbon ST at Dennis's house last spring. Except for some subtle differences (to my ears) from the LCY ribbon tweeter (I'd say they are slightly cleaner sounding in the upper freqs), they are quite similar to the original STs. And, experts all agree :cool:, that is excellent.
 
N

Nuance AH

Audioholic General
Thanks for the links to the ribbon SongTowers. Yes, I've followed that long journey at AVS and post there under a different moniker (R Swerdlow). I didn't know you are Nuance's neighbor - and am glad you'll get to hear them. More than a few people who have only read about them have said, "with all the positive reviews, I wonder if those speakers are really that good, or is it the usual hype and exaggeration". It may be hard not to be influenced by Nuance's enthusiasm, but let us know what you think.

I heard an early prototype of the ribbon ST at Dennis's house last spring. Except for some subtle differences (to my ears) from the LCY ribbon tweeter (I'd say they are slightly cleaner sounding in the upper freqs), they are quite similar to the original STs. And, experts all agree :cool:, that is excellent.
Hey swerd! No worries about Warp being influenced by my enthusiasm. He's a straight shooter and will be open and honest with me. In return, I am the same way with him. I will also be open and honest when I write up my review of the SongTower RT's, of which I hope to complete by the evening of Labor Day.

In short, the LCY ribbon is superior, but it's not night and day or anything. The original Hiquphon QWII tweeter is incredible, but the LCY ribbon adds that extra bit of detail, smoothness, refinement and transparency. The one trade-off that I've noticed so far is that the soundstage is a little smaller, but that is to be expected IMO. It would help to have the "stock" SongTower in my home for comparison, but from what I remember about the original ST, I think the price increase warrants the extra performance (and looks) that you get. That is, of course, just my $0.02 :)
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
I just noticed another SongTower review, published this time by Sean Fowler of Sonic Flare.

http://www.sonicflare.com/archives/salk-signature-sound-song-tower-review.php

I think the review is very well written and intelligently thought out. While his overall view of the SongTowers is highly complementary (no big surprise to many of us here :rolleyes:), his point of view and detailed assessment is interesting. In the article, he compares the SongTower in some detail to the Totem Sttaf.
 
B

BoB/335

Junior Audioholic
This thread was good reading for me and was just another reason for me to search out an audition of Song Towers. Since I am in a 30 day trial period for Axiom M80's, the audition turned into a comparison. I could start a new thread but thought it best to just post it here. Hope you don't mind. This was NOT any kind of technical or scientific evaluation. Just some listening and a lot of fun. So here it is:


Well it certainly was a LONG day. More longer than expected. (Who would have thought that anyone would want to entertain a stranger for that long)

It was a great day! Evan was a gracious host and unexpectedly his neighbor, Joe, was a great co-host. (Can you call it a neighbor when you can go couch to couch in 10 steps?)

Evan already gave the low down and pretty much the end result. I would like to back up a bit. There were 3 others besides myself so it may be inaccurate for me to pin any particular statements to any individual, so I'll generalize.

I think most were surprised by the M-80's. I heard comments like surprisingly good bottom, truly a full range speaker, and not nearly as bright as expected. I had already concluded the first two. However the M80's didn't sound quite as bright as in my room. I had been actually wondering yesterday if they were calming down a bit from when they first arrived at my house. Evan seems to have some good room treatments and made for a much better listening enviroment.

We later hooked up my Denon 2309. Unfortunately we didn't attempt any A/B'ing. I would like to put one thing to rest right here and now. The 2309 performed really well. I didn't notice any kind of drastic difference when using the 2309 with either speaker. I'm sure Evan's equipment is superior and without an A/B there is no way to make any further comments on comparisons. BUT The 2309 is rated for 8ohms. There has been many many comments in reference to Denon receivers handling 4ohm loads with no problems. Both the ST's and M80's are 4ohm rated. The 2309 was used for quite a few hours. At times I cranked it up to 0dB and I thought it sounded fine. I think the guys thought it performed well also. We were expecting that my brightness problem may have been the 2309. But I think we all agreed that the Denon did not possess any brightness issues.

Another thing is the difference in sensitivity rating with the M80 rated at 95dB in-room and the ST rated at 88dB. Now I'm not up on the specifics of these ratings and whether all things are equal but I will say that I expected the ST's to need more volume to keep up with the same loudness. We didn't measure my receiver settings with a meter. Maybe we should have. At one point earlier we used a meter to make sure we were listening at the same level but neglected to check if those levels were at the same point at the volume knob. (I believe this was when we were using Evan's amplification) I did NOT notice any great perceivable difference in these 2 speakers considering the difference in their ratings.

My speaker impressions: The M80's did not sound as bright as I thought they sounded in my room. The Sound Towers were clearly the winner in performance as well as looks. The M80's performed fairly well for their pricepoint, however, if you were to add in the extra cost for a real wood veneer finsh on the M80's (shown here in Cherry for $1790 with free shipping http://www.axiomaudio.com/customstudio.html?prodCode=M80VS ) they are priced rather closely with the ST's and certainly NOT in the same league for the same price.

(Side-bar: I recently read in the Salk section of the AVS Forum where someone was complaining that the price increase on the ST's put them out of reach for him as well as being priced out of the competition. I'll just say NONSENSE!)

Oh yeah! My impressions: Even though the M80's were not as bright as in my room they were certainly much brighter than the ST's. And not sure if brighter is the right word. I hate to use the word "harsh" because I wouldn't say the M80 is harsh. But by comparison the ST's were way smoother all while revealing more detail and and airyness about the highs. It's seems an oxymoron to say the the ST's were crisper yet smoother. The word crisp would indicate to me bright BUT they were crisper and yet not nearly as bright sounding as the M80's.

Intial thoughts on the bottom end for the M80's wer surprising as stated. Yet as time went on and a sample of many random selections were used it became almost boomy compared to the tight, well defined bottom of the ST's. I'll agree that the M80's would probably do better as a HT speaker without a sub. It reached that low and punchy. Yet either speaker would do much better with a sub for HT use so the extra thump really it of no bonus. The ST just sounded better and tighter in the bottom.

The mids and probably where the ST's showed off. (Well I loved the smoothness of the highs so not sure I can say that) The vocals were much clearer and more pronounced. I'm a guitarist and lead electric guitar sounded more natural and less edgy.

I have a bad right ear from playing too loud in bands when I was a bit younger. My ear was just getting plain tired of listening to "most" selections on the M80's. The highs were getting to me a bit.

So overall the ST's are smoother in every area. I like the little extra bottom the M80's seem to have but the tightness of the bottom of the ST's made for a more pleasant experience.

If I ever make it back there I intend to have another shootout. You see, I brought a dozen bagels and when I got there Evan had also bought a dozen bagels and his were out on the table. I think Long Island bagels would beat out Staten Island bagels.
 
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R-Carpenter

R-Carpenter

Audioholic
Not to downgrade the work of the designer (Jim Salk has an excellent product!) but Salk Song Tower uses much better drivers. I mean, there are not many tweeters that come close to Hiquphone, especially at the price. Vifa D25 while a very good tweeter, doesn't come close to OW2. Here we go, more drivers doesn't necessarily amounts to a better speaker.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Bob - Thanks for posting that here. I've certainly heard many people ask what STs sound like compared other better known speakers, so your comparison to the Axiom M80s is welcome. I did follow the posts on audiocircles about this, and was surprised to see in the photo showing both speakers that the M80 is shorter than the ST. Could you post a link to those photos? Readers here might like to see them.
 
B

BoB/335

Junior Audioholic
Well like I said we had a lot of fun. It was great walking into a stranger's home and leaving like I knew these guys a long time.

Scroll down to post #64
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=65060.60

As you can see in the pics the ST's had a support on the bottom that did raise the speakers a bit. The finish on the ST's were very nice and the M80's paled in comparison with the standard finish.

Someone on another forum felt it was not a fair comparison considering the price difference. However, if you factor in what the M80's wold cost with the optional wood veneers then we are in the same price-point.
 
T

TrickMcKaha

Audiophyte
This is my first post on this forum, and I want to thank Swerd, but even more Jim Salk, Dennis Murphy, Martin King (MJK), Paul Kittenger, & Audioholics for the most informative and interesting thread I have read ever. Can't wait to have my own pair of Salk Song Towers.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
This is my first post on this forum, and I want to thank Swerd, but even more Jim Salk, Dennis Murphy, Martin King (MJK), Paul Kittenger, & Audioholics for the most informative and interesting thread I have read ever. Can't wait to have my own pair of Salk Song Towers.
Thanks for the kind words. If you enjoy reading about these speakers, here is a comprehensive list of SongTower reviews, both from owners and professional reviewers:

fsimms SongTower Impressions
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=44172.0

My SongTower Impressions
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36600
and some working photo links:
http://api.photoshop.com/home_7e53687d13c747d28ccec9a6980c7256/adobe-px-assets/a0c5734bee194fdb9a8c51a0bb77220e
http://api.photoshop.com/home_7e53687d13c747d28ccec9a6980c7256/adobe-px-assets/763dd32e03c64e46a5d3209c017a7481
http://api.photoshop.com/home_7e53687d13c747d28ccec9a6980c7256/adobe-px-assets/1fe476c13cc44c14a769654cf21c19bd
http://api.photoshop.com/home_7e53687d13c747d28ccec9a6980c7256/adobe-px-assets/2b778c95c2ce45f6aa432373d67150a3
http://api.photoshop.com/home_7e53687d13c747d28ccec9a6980c7256/adobe-px-assets/5e32892df5334d48abd18b49b2da3c2b
http://api.photoshop.com/home_7e53687d13c747d28ccec9a6980c7256/adobe-px-assets/ba771834cf1041849f263d0eb0a728c8

Boybee's SongTower Impressions - Read the whole thread to find all 3 installments
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=49037.0
and at AudioAsylum:
http://www.audioasylum.com/reviews/Speakers/Salk-Sound/SongTower-QWT/speakers/26/265096.html

funkmonkey's SongTower Impressions (scroll down about half way)
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=13285847&postcount=168

Enjoy The Music Review by Nels Ferre - Best of 2008 award
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0408/stalk_signature_songtower.htm

Audioholics Review by Tom Andry
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/floorstanding/salk-songtower-qwt

Also see the interesting forum discussion that followed this review
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47528

Audioholics 2008 Products of the Year announcement
http://www.audioholics.com/buying-guides/product-awards-and-gift-guides/audioholics-2008-product-awards

Nuance's Impressions of SongTowers with ribbon tweeters
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47314
and at AVS Forum
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14575239&postcount=3475

Sonic Flare Review by Sean Fowler
http://www.sonicflare.com/archives/salk-signature-sound-song-tower-review.php

Audioholics features SongTowers in Floorstanding Speaker Shootout
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/floorstanding/1500-2000-floor-shootout-2009
 
Matt34

Matt34

Moderator
Anyone get their ears on some of the Salk bookshelves? Are they as good as the towers?
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Anyone get their ears on some of the Salk bookshelves? Are they as good as the towers?
They sound very similar, not as much bass, but midrange and higher are very close to the ST.

I think the Salk Surround Is or IIs would make an excellent stereo pair at a lower cost than the SongTowers.
 

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