Outlaw BLSv2 speakers

J

jalbert300

Audioholic Intern
Hi,

I'm interested in the Outlaw BLSv2 speakers. My interest stems from the positive Audioholics review and the idea that they are soft dome tweeter plus slightly rolled off on top end. This appeals to me because I'm not a fan of in your face treble, I prefer a warmish sound... These would be for mixed use, TV/Movies and Music. Music source is Spotify streaming via Raspberry Pi device.

Pairing these with Outlaw RR2160 and a couple of Ultra X-12 subs has caught my fancy.

My room is a great room in house, total room is about 26'x26' with 9'4" ceiling and tile flooring (this includes the kitchen). The room will be fairly live but I do plan to try and soften it up a bit in various ways.

Anyhow, just wanting to see if anyone has opinion on these speakers.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Hi,

I'm interested in the Outlaw BLSv2 speakers. My interest stems from the positive Audioholics review and the idea that they are soft dome tweeter plus slightly rolled off on top end. This appeals to me because I'm not a fan of in your face treble, I prefer a warmish sound... These would be for mixed use, TV/Movies and Music. Music source is Spotify streaming via Raspberry Pi device.

Pairing these with Outlaw RR2160 and a couple of Ultra X-12 subs has caught my fancy.

My room is a great room in house, total room is about 26'x26' with 9'4" ceiling and tile flooring (this includes the kitchen). The room will be fairly live but I do plan to try and soften it up a bit in various ways.

Anyhow, just wanting to see if anyone has opinion on these speakers.
Great little speakers, really under-rated. Given the performance they offer, their lack of popularity is proof that audio enthusiasts don't really care about sound but rather they care brand loyalty or the projection of having good taste or something like that.

Home audio is 1/10ths sound, 9/10ths marketing and postering.
 
J

jalbert300

Audioholic Intern
Great little speakers, really under-rated. Given the performance they offer, their lack of popularity is proof that audio enthusiasts don't really care about sound but rather they care brand loyalty or the projection of having good taste or something like that.

Home audio is 1/10ths sound, 9/10ths marketing and postering.
Good to hear, what amp do you have powering them? At 85db sensitivity it seems they would hard to drive properly.

Do you use a subwoofer?
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Good to hear, what amp do you have powering them? At 85db sensitivity it seems they would hard to drive properly.

Do you use a subwoofer?
I don't own the speakers but I have used them. I wrote the review for Audioholics. They are not difficult to drive, any decent AVR would handle them just fine. You don't absolutely need a sub with them, but a sub would certainly increase the dynamic range of the system as well as the extension. As I recall they are pretty good down to 50 Hz or so, which is good enough to catch most bass in acoustic recordings.
 
J

jalbert300

Audioholic Intern
I don't own the speakers but I have used them. I wrote the review for Audioholics. They are not difficult to drive, any decent AVR would handle them just fine. You don't absolutely need a sub with them, but a sub would certainly increase the dynamic range of the system as well as the extension. As I recall they are pretty good down to 50 Hz or so, which is good enough to catch most bass in acoustic recordings.
Ah okay, thanks for your input. If I do get these I’ll try and post an update on my experience with them
 
J

jalbert300

Audioholic Intern
I don't own the speakers but I have used them. I wrote the review for Audioholics. They are not difficult to drive, any decent AVR would handle them just fine. You don't absolutely need a sub with them, but a sub would certainly increase the dynamic range of the system as well as the extension. As I recall they are pretty good down to 50 Hz or so, which is good enough to catch most bass in acoustic recordings.
Couple other questions if u don’t mind shadyJ. You say these are easy to drive, I assume that’s because the impedance doesn’t appear to drop much below 8ohm at any point.

That said, I have a Vista Audio Spark that I like, but only puts out 20wpc at 8 and 4ohm. Do you think this amp would be comfortable driving the outlaws at reasonable volumes?

If not, I read good things about the Dayens Menutteo that does 50wpc into 8ohm, and 70wpc into 4ohm. I’m guessing this would be plenty to drive them.

Neither of those I mention have “Bass management”. Do you think it’s critical to have actual “bass management” to get good subwoofer integration? Or is having a variable pre-out for subwoofer typically sufficient? (sending full signal to the bookshelf speakers)
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
20 watts may be shortchanging nearly any bookshelf speaker except very high sensitivity ones, and those would be large. That amp may be OK for desktop system, but not something that could fill the room. I would encourage you to get a real amplifier. 50 to 70 watts should be better. You said you were looking at the RR2160, why not just get that?

As for bass management, it is pretty beneficial. It saves the speaker from playing in the most difficult frequency range, and it can prevent a lot of distortion. I would really try to find a way to get a system that has bass management, especially when you are looking at such good subwoofers and speakers.

If you are looking at the RR22160, the Ultra-X12, and the BLSv2, I would call Outlaw up and see if they can give you a discount for a package order like that. They may be willing to shave a few bucks off that kind of order.
 
J

jalbert300

Audioholic Intern
Okay great, thanks for the detailed response, very helpfull. Sounds like the RR2160 might be my best bet as it has the bass management.

I’ll definitely see if I can get a bundled deal if purchasing.

Thanks again!
 
J

jalbert300

Audioholic Intern
20 watts may be shortchanging nearly any bookshelf speaker except very high sensitivity ones, and those would be large. That amp may be OK for desktop system, but not something that could fill the room. I would encourage you to get a real amplifier. 50 to 70 watts should be better. You said you were looking at the RR2160, why not just get that?

As for bass management, it is pretty beneficial. It saves the speaker from playing in the most difficult frequency range, and it can prevent a lot of distortion. I would really try to find a way to get a system that has bass management, especially when you are looking at such good subwoofers and speakers.

If you are looking at the RR22160, the Ultra-X12, and the BLSv2, I would call Outlaw up and see if they can give you a discount for a package order like that. They may be willing to shave a few bucks off that kind of order.
So I got this response back from Outlaw support regarding my room sixe and intrest in BLSv2 speakers.

"You would definitely want a subwoofer due to the frequency response of the bookshelves.

Note, you would not be able to fill out the whole room, but at the listening position you should be able to hit peaks of around 100dB at the listening position.

If you plan to have music playing, and know that you will be moving about the room and could be much further away, I would recommend more efficient speakers as the room size is quite large."

I do plan to be moving around the house while music is playing most of the time. I wonder maybe these speakers are not best fit for my room. Again my room is a great room in house with dimensions of 26'x26' w/9'4" ceiling.

Wonder if anyone disagrees with their comment, or might suggest a better speaker for this room size.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
So I got this response back from Outlaw support regarding my room sixe and intrest in BLSv2 speakers.

"You would definitely want a subwoofer due to the frequency response of the bookshelves.

Note, you would not be able to fill out the whole room, but at the listening position you should be able to hit peaks of around 100dB at the listening position.

If you plan to have music playing, and know that you will be moving about the room and could be much further away, I would recommend more efficient speakers as the room size is quite large."

I do plan to be moving around the house while music is playing most of the time. I wonder maybe these speakers are not best fit for my room. Again my room is a great room in house with dimensions of 26'x26' w/9'4" ceiling.

Wonder if anyone disagrees with their comment, or might suggest a better speaker for this room size.
Whether the BLSv2 would have enough SPL for a room like that really depends on how loud you listen. If you like your music loud throughout the room, yeah, you are going to want more powerful speakers. If you aren't going to be rocking out, the BLSv2 probably has adequate dynamic range for you.

Keep in mind that more efficient speakers are inevitably going to be larger speakers.
 
J

jalbert300

Audioholic Intern
Received my BLSv2 speakers and RR2160 receiver this weekend. Also got the M8 subwoofer as it was only $100 more when I bundled it all.

So far I love the BLSv2 speakers. Mostly what I enjoy is they sound very smooth which suites my taste. When I A/B them against my KEF Q100's, I find the BLSv2's much more pleasant.

The cabinets seem VERY solid and well built and I love the simple utilitarian look of them.

The RR2160 is awesome to BTW, plenty of power and clear sound. So many features on this thing and quite intuitive. I'm loving the Internet Radio which I didn't think I would care about. I read some people find that part hard to navigate but to me they did a great job on the menu system. I didn't read the manual and found it self explanatory to use. There must be thousands of stations to choose from. I like that I can easily listen to stations from my home town.

I briefly tested out the M8 sub and it seems good. I'm not a "Bass Head" and dont know much about quality subs, but it seems to fill in the low end just fine. Using the bass management on RR2160 made it a breeze to blend.

On a side note, there was shipping damage to one of the speakers but i'm working that out with Outlaw. Going to see if I can get a discounted 2nd pair instead of shipping these ones back :)


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J

jalbert300

Audioholic Intern
Another bonus of the RR2160 I just realized. The FM radio antenna is standard cable jack. I’ve got a long range tv antenna in my attic hooked up feeding wall jack. Plug the RR2160 right into cable jack in wall and get tons of FM radio stations crystal clear, including HD stations. Figured I’d throw that tid bit out there for anyone considering RR2160. Price went up recently prob cuz Covid-19, but when bundled with speakers it’s still good deal I feel.
 
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