A few weeks ago, I went to go listen to some $100 headphones for a possible purchase, at a local pro shop. They had some very nice looking and sounding JBL's. Listening to it using a Dvd-audio disc that I brought in, it took my breath away. Of course if could of just been all the acustical panels setup, the perfect calibration, and the $300k+ mixing boards, etc. Or just a placibo effect.
Realize that home speakers have different requirements as compared to monitor speakers intended for use in a studio control room where almost no ambient reflections exist.
A monitor speaker is typically designed as such that it is flat in amplitude response on axis. However, the amplitude response usually varies considerably at even moderate off axis angles. Having a flat and smooth off axis response is critical in a home environment, where you have a large portion of untreated surfaces, and the reflected sound is going to arrive your ears at a later delayed time, and be compared by your brain with the direct arrival sound. In addition, resonances of the speaker cabinet system will be less audible in a room with no substantial ambient/reflections, such as a studio control room. In a normal room, such resonances will be be amplified in audibility, and the monitor design may not have been accounting for the audibility in a normal room, since implementing an effectively non-resonant cabinet can be expensive. But again, most consumer speakers seem to have serious problems with cabinet resonance as well, until you get into some upper end lines that are probably beyond your intended budget.
What I would do in your situation is to get the speaker with the flattest response on and off axis, and with as few resonances as possible. I would then put a high quality digital equalizer such as a Behringer DCX2496 (
it's labeled as a crossover, but is has sophisticated e.q. and the ability to also integrate a subwoofer with any speakers perfectly) on the speaker amplifier so that you can customize the sound to your preference(s).
I don't know what speakers meet all of these requirements in the below $9k range. However, it is entirely possible to take a speaker with very good drivers and crossover, but has resonant cabinets, and then modify the cabinet internally to have substantially less resonant properties, bringing it up to par with the cabinets of the more expensive speaker systems. Because the cabinet is the biggest cost of a speaker system, you can find speaker systems with superb drivers/crossover, but that have compromised cabinets. Some of the RBH speakers for relative low cost have such properties that would make cabinet modification worthwhile, based on my review of 3rd party measurements.
BTW, the most effective cabinet modifications would result in substantial reduced internal volume. As a result the system's ported tuning would be affected and you would need to make the system effectively a sealed one. This would result in requirement of using a subwoofer with the system. There for, a 2 way ported bookshelf unit would be ideal for this modification. I recommend stereo subwoofers( one placed near each 2 way ), as this will have better integration than a single subwoofer in practical placement circumstances. There is a less agressive modification (with less positive effect) that will not reduce the volume significantly, and can usually be performed easily and at low cost. However, the modification will still result in some loss of port output SPL.
-Chris
