Philharmonic Audio BMR Philharmonitor Bookshelf Speaker Review

ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Yeah, a lot of folks procrastinating on buying the AA+ - I'd had in the back of my mind to buy 4 once I got a little further from the Holiday expenditures. Too late now. Fortunately, since I have BMRs for my LR, he's planning on doing the BMRs so I'm going to get another BMR to use as a center.
The BMR Center is nice.

It sounds like, from what I saw snooping around, that he might put the plans up for some of his discontinued stuff. I would love to build my own Dayton AA pair to complete my Atmos plans. :)

But more importantly, I just wish him a speedy and fruitful recovery from what was clearly a busy and stressful season for him. I think the streamlining of his offerings is a huge first step!

And Dennis... If you want to teach somebody to build XOs for you, I'm ready to learn! :cool:
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Given the impetus to simplify, I think it was a smart move for Dennis to back out of the AA market. I have compared his AA's (the original Dayton Audio one) to many speakers and could not find anything that could keep up with it for the price!
However, if you did not need the amazing bass of the AA's, there are other options that, when on sale, give it a run for the money:
Sony Core do not sound quite as open on the high end, but they come pretty close. They have been discounted as low as $99/pr. and more commonly around $140/pr. So, it gets to a question of whether the added performance of the AA's is worth how much!
Infinity Reference R162 is a speaker that were sold at deep discount and looked to be on closeout over a year ago, however they keep popping back up at the discounted prices ($190 or $200/pr) from time to time. I have heard, but not directly compared these two speakers, but I think the R162 may actually beat the AA's (to my ear, of course). Harman/Infinity knows how to design quality speakers and at $450/pr (the normal price and what they are going for right now),and with the high volume to get custom drivers at quantity discounts the quality of the drivers Infinity uses is likely better. The bass from the Infinity did not seem as good as the AA, but otherwise the Infinity impresses me as better.
@zieglj01 has heard the Boston Acoustic A25/A26 series. I don't know if he has heard the AA's (I think he is at least familiar with the previous Pioneer AA's) Perhaps he can comment on how these compare to the Pioneer AA's? I would guess they are pretty similar to the AA's. Currently, the A25 are $150/pr and the A26 are $200/pr from Accessories4less. Note that these prices are 50% off of the MSRP! Since Amazon says they are no longer available, they may be discontinued?!

The way I look at it is the cost advantage of making thousands of speakers fully assembled abroad (like Sony, Infinity, and Boston) is generally off-set by all of the other costs these large companies have (Development/tooling for large scale production, marketing, standard profit margins, distribution, etc.). I believe for the three speakers above, the manufacturers have sold enough units to reclaim their development/tooling costs and when they have these deep discounts they are bypassing the distributors (Infinity sells direct) or (less ideal) selling through limited venues (such as A4L selling the Bostons) to reduce that cost. However, I am certain they are not losing money when they are "clearencing" these speakers I would guess they are near cost which is where Dennis' speakers were to start with!

The overall notion I am presenting is that in the price range of the AA, there is often a speaker being heavily discounted that ends up competitive with it. At the price of the BMR and Phil3, speakers (from the likes of Boston, Sony, and Infinity) are not so casually mass-produced (in very large quantities) and the deep discounts are few and far between, leaving the BMR and Phil3 as unique (and essentially unchallenged) high quality values!

To be clear, if these companies negatively impacted Dennis' AA sales, I don't think he noticed, he has been very busy for a good while now! However, for those of us who are willing to wait for the right deal and keep our eyes on the "Deals, Deals, Deals" forum, we do have other options! But you'd have to pay to find the SQ of the BMR and Phil3 elsewhere!

PS - Understand this is simply a "discussion post". I have no specific "in" to know what actually is happening in these companies' operations. I did spend most of my career in manufacturing and I think I've stayed at Holiday Inn Express a time or two!:)
 
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M

Mr._Clark

Audioholic Samurai
My bad The graph on my site is of the earlier version with the offset tweeter and mid. We switched to in-line drivers when we ordered the prefab cabinets because we didn't want to risk having the factory mess up some pairs with the same offset--not mirror imaged. The even spacing of the tweet and mid make for a very small diffraction peak around 30-40 degrees of faxis. I engineered in a little dip on axis because it sounded a tiny bit better due to a more even power response. The little bump in the highs is just a feature of the RAAL that isn't worth throwing components at. I think it sounds better that way. Although the common wisdom is that ribbon tweeters can sound harsh, quite the opposite is true, at least for the RAALs. Also, the bump is also centered around 10 kHz, not 7 kHz, which is even less of an issue. A little bit of a bump doesn't have any negative effect that I can hear, and frankly I prefer it. Virtually all of the recent BMR's I've measured have had it. If you look at the listening window response in the review, it fits within a 2 dB (+/ 1 db) window over virtually all of the frequency range. That's good enough for me.
Dennis, are you still taking orders for the BMRs? I sent a couple emails but I didn't get a response. Perhaps my emails didn't get through.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Dennis, are you still taking orders for the BMRs? I sent a couple emails but I didn't get a response. Perhaps my emails didn't get through.
There is a message on the Philharmonic home page that they are not able to process new orders right now. Stay tuned and be patient! They are well worth the wait!
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Anybody ever compare these to the Selah Tempesta?
There was discussion about them in that other forum... generally compares favorably except for the cost, was my take away.
 
J

Jack N

Audioholic
What is the "AA" that's being talked about in previous posts?
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
What is the "AA" that's being talked about in previous posts?
There is a schematic for his original AA monitor XO on Dennis’ other website, murphyblaster.com... the cabinets and drivers are available through PE, as is a full kit, but a few questions remain in terms of which drivers are the correct drivers to use as he mentions shielded drivers, but the BR1 kit comes unshielded.
The AA+ Is supposed to be a pretty significant upgrade, subbing a Morel Tweeter for the Dayton Tweeter of the original design... though there is no schematic available for DIYing that rendition.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Anybody ever compare these to the Selah Tempesta?
Can’t speak to the quality of Selah, but for the cost, I would be more inclined to order from Salk. Between his reputation and my interactions with him, I have zero doubt to the quality of work he is capable of delivering. Just my 2¢.
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Can’t speak to the quality of Selah, but for the cost, I would be more inclined to order from Salk. Between his reputation and my interactions with him, I have zero doubt to the quality of work he is capable of delivering. Just my 2¢.
I've only had one dealing with Rick, but it was an excellent transaction. However, it wasn't for one of his completely finished speakers. I wanted a center channel kit that would compare favorably with my Phil 3's that utilized the RAAL tweeter. I had considered buying one from Salk since I've had some Salk products before, but finally decided I'd rather build the cabinet myself. Anywho, Rick sent everything along in a timely manner and the kit was perfect. I've been enjoying my 80% finished center every since :D

School started and I lost the time and motivation to take it apart so that I could put the finishing touches on it.
 
H

Hokies83

Audioholic
Love my AAs,
Has anyone heard from Dennis lately? I seen he has not been active here in over a month?
Is he having some personal issues? Or is he just so backed up with orders he has no time for forums?

Hoping for the latter!
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Love my AAs,
Has anyone heard from Dennis lately? I seen he has not been active here in over a month?
Is he having some personal issues? Or is he just so backed up with orders he has no time for forums?

Hoping for the latter!
Dennis had some sort of health issue. He talked about having a panic attack in a post on that other forum, but hasn’t been heard from since. A post from Jim a bit later said he’s doing ok and will be back... but it’s been a little while now.
Still hoping for his recovery and return!
 
D

Dennis Murphy

Audioholic General
Hi I've had apretty rough time of it and have had to give up the speaker biz. I'm still hospitalized, but hope to return home fairly shortly (although I shortly may have to spend some time in a recovery facility, ). The timing could't have been worse, since I had just seen all of my efforts with the BMR monitor come to fruition. That may be the best reviewed speaker no one can buy. (Well, you can buy one from Jim Salk, but leaving it I'm it up to him how much he wants to charge.) I have 12 - 15 pairs of blackcabinets with crossovers left, but I can't manage assebembly. I still hope to work something out there. Jim Salk is finshing up all the orders I had I had arranged through him, and I managed to finish all of my own orders except one
Phil 3. I'll do everything I can to tinish when i get back.
 
H

Hokies83

Audioholic
Hi I've had apretty rough time of it and have had to give up the speaker biz. I'm still hospitalized, but hope to return home fairly shortly (although I shortly may have to spend some time in a recovery facility, ). The timing could't have been worse, since I had just seen all of my efforts with the BMR monitor come to fruition. That may be the best reviewed speaker no one can buy. (Well, you can buy one from Jim Salk, but leaving it I'm it up to him how much he wants to charge.) I have 12 - 15 pairs of blackcabinets with crossovers left, but I can't manage assebembly. I still hope to work something out there. Jim Salk is finshing up all the orders I had I had arranged through him, and I managed to finish all of my own orders except one
Phil 3. I'll do everything I can to tinish when i get back.
Get better Dennis!
 
Kvn_Walker

Kvn_Walker

Audioholic Field Marshall
Get well Dennis! If the community can help in any way, let us know!
 
Good4it

Good4it

Audioholic Chief
Just get well. Your health in number 1 all else is just stuff that will take of itself.

Let us know if you need anything.
 
speakerman39

speakerman39

Audioholic Overlord
Dennis, get well soon. I have been, and will continue to, keep you in my prayers. GOD Speed healing to you. I agree that your health is far more important than anything else right now. Rest well AND rest often. Let us know if any of us can do anything for you. Many here, myself included, will be more than happy to oblige. GOD Bless!


Cheers,

Phil
 
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