Home Theater Forum and Systems banner

What speakers would you like to see in the $2,500 speakers evaluation event?

$2,500 Speaker Evaluation Event - Nominated Speakers Voting Poll

81K views 274 replies 110 participants last post by  AudiocRaver 
#1 ·
The speaker nominations for the $2,500 two-channel speaker evaluation event has been closed and the voting now begins. Thanks to all who nominated speakers... we certainly have a lot to choose from. Remember, that even if your favorite speakers do not get selected this round, they could be selected for a later round. We will likely take some of the higher voted speakers for the next round-up, so please vote regardless of whether you believe they will be included in this round or not.

We have NOT contacted all of these speaker manufacturers to see if they will participate, although we have contacted a few. If a speaker is voted in the top 4 and the manufacturer does not want to participate, we will go to the next highest vote getter. In case of a tie, Scoobie will be the tie breaking vote.

Votes are public and viewable.

This IS NOT the poll to select which speakers you think will be chosen by the panelists as their favorites. This poll is for deciding which speakers will be included in the evaluation event.

As previously stated, we are giving our sponsors first priority, so the SVS Ultras and the EP CS2P's are already selected for the evaluation event and both have already agreed to participate.

1. SVS Ultra Tower $2,000
2. Emerald Physics CS2P $3,000
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?

What other four speakers will make the cut?

No code has to be inserted here.*MSRP rounded to the nearest $100.

The average MSRP is approximately $2,500.

Maximum MSRP allowed is $3,000.

If you are not familiar with what the evaluation will consist of, please see The Official $1,000 Speaker Evaluation / Home Audition Event Results

Let the voting begin!

Voting will end on midnight of 9/30/13
 
See less See more
#96 ·
Would like to see Seaton Catalyst, BF David, JTR Noesis, Geddes Abbey (or pref. Summa), whatever Revels you can get in that price range, Parts Express/Audio Artistry CBT36K.

Also would like to see fully blinded testing with single speakers (mono).

I'd also still like to know why we build castles in the sky.
 
#108 ·
Oh well, if Superman turns out to be the "*******" in this case...I suppose it could be done.:bigsmile:
A country ******* hillbilly yes (although I can clean up pretty good when I take a bath)... but superman I am not. That mean cement blocks would be too heavy for me. :huh:


Of course, in an ideal world, you would be able to evaluate ALL of these speakers in a weekend and give us a scintillating report the next week.......:innocent:
Yep... definitely got me confused with superman.


Are you guys gonna use the same rogue amp? I heard it with my 160s and didn't think they were great together. Like my naim XS much more.
I hope we can get a solid state amp in the picture for use. We have cut back the number of speakers... and perhaps we can cut back the number of demo songs to 6-8 and then have a listen with both the Rogue and the solid state... we may can squeeze it in. I personally prefer the Rogue, but will not exclude a solid state. I do have a Behringer EP2500 we could use... plenty of power.
 
#101 ·
It was not easy to pick three, but I went for brands which I have heard before:
- Dynaudio
- Tannoy
- Von Schweikert

Some brands I don't know. Maybe only available in the US?

Look forward to the article and curious which 3 speakers are pre-selected ;)
 
#104 ·
I voted for the Ascends, the Pendragons, and the Phil Slims............

Sonny, I think you need to include one of the RAAL speakers from this list, regardless of the vote count. I also would like to see 1, but not 2, of the planars ( even though I did not vote for any of them).

Of course, in an ideal world, you would be able to evaluate ALL of these speakers in a weekend and give us a scintillating report the next week.......:innocent:
 
#106 ·
The following members voted more than 3 times:

Bob_99 - voted (4)
brichter - voted (4)
climber07 - voted (4)
damain56 - voted (4)
jkeiser - voted (7)
nikosf16 - voted (4)
n_olympios - voted (7)
stearnsn - voted (5)
tnargs - voted (4)
Todd Anderson - voted (6)
Ustas - voted (4)


Your votes have been rescinded and you may vote again if like.

We have hopefully set it to where you can now only make three choices.
 
#107 ·
I own Dynaudio speakers(Focus 160s) so I'd like to see them compared to these other highly regarded speakers. However I'm not the biggest fan of the DM3/7s. But I voted for those and the Phil slims and ascend speakers.

Are you guys gonna use the same rogue amp? I heard it with my 160s and didn't think they were great together. Like my naim XS much more.
 
#110 ·
I can tell you that Danley will NOT send us anything. So if we get them, we will have to obtain them some other way. I had a long conversation with them a few months back (last Winter) and they simply do not want to get involved with online forums. They have had some bad experiences that they cannot get past. We begged them for subs to review... ain't gonna happen unless they change ownership or have a serious change of heart. I explained to them that we were not the typical discussion forum, but they weren't picking up what I was throwing down.
 
#112 ·
And we have no idea yet how it will perform with speakers that extend into the lower octaves... and the speakers in our $1,000 event are all it has been connected to... and all of those rolled off at 40-50Hz. Of course it performed very well with bass on those speakers... some better than others, but it was definitely there with some respectable slam, just not that kick in the chest slam that you might get with bigger drivers.

I think it will be wise for us to have a higher powered solid state on hand and in the mix.
 
#116 ·
What would it tell us... as I am not familiar with mono music.


Now that's a bit of a shame right there. Strange, too, as I've pretty much seen only positive talk about their stuff and they have official reps doing great support in some of the forums. Unless they are maybe still smarting from the TH-SPUD layout leak and duplication. :huh:
I don't think they are here, so maybe that was the "real" issue... we did not have enough discussion about them here and they did not see us as being significant enough for them. You would think if they have "genuine" reps in forums, they would realize how important forum members are. However, it may simply be they just do not believe their products need reviewing or testing.
 
#125 ·
Man the dynaudio to me.have come out of nowhere. Hardly mentioned in many threads , and not much vocal support for it in this thread. I think many people sonnie will have a hard time waiting till spring to see the other speakers make a shootout . We need one every couple of months !
 
#127 ·
dgage said:
I'll be purchasing the JTR Noesis 212HTs tomorrow so they have my vote and it would be great to see how the Noesis would match up with these more popular speakers
Yeah, I don't know if folks here are keeping up with the latest and greatest (a search for JTR Noesis brought up nothing in the Home Audio Speakers forum), because they seem to be on a tear. I've read nothing but high praise in every review.

And not to sound grouchy or jaded or snobby or anything like that, but if the Paradigm Studio 60s make it to the final 3, they will just be a waste of time. When the Salk, Philharmonic, and Ascends are getting so few votes, and Paradigm Studio 60s are leading the pack, I'm thinking there are a lot of casual readers voting in this poll. Ah well, majority rules.
 
#129 ·
And not to sound grouchy or jaded or snobby or anything like that, but if the Paradigm Studio 60s make it to the final 3, they will just be a waste of time. When the Salk, Philharmonic, and Ascends are getting so few votes, and Paradigm Studio 60s are leading the pack, I'm thinking there are a lot of casual readers voting in this poll. Ah well, majority rules.
Have you actually heard these in a good room setup against other speakers in the same room?

I think they are getting high votes because Paradigm is likely the most advertised speaker on the list and has high ownership. A lot of people want to know how well they will fair against these others. They have also received a LOT of high praise in reviews.

I remember you were one of the ones who was not all that impressed with the MartinLogan speakers you auditioned in a store, yet their lower end line was neck and neck with the Arx A5's as the best sounding speakers in our last event. I also owned the Boston Acoustics that you praised, yet was not that impressed with them. This simply proves how different people can like different speakers and how rooms may be effecting what we hear.
 
#128 ·
I think it is important to have a very popular mainstream brand represented to see just how they measure up. I voted for the Paradigm for that reason. We do have a lot of casual readers, and not everyone keeps up with what is reported to be the latest and greatest.

Actually, majority does not rule. Sonnie and John do, ultimately. But we want to create an event that many people will find interesting and useful. If all we have are more esoteric brands that most people are not familiar with, we do many readers a disservice. Having a well known speaker in the mix gives the review of the rest better context.
 
#130 ·
I think a it is very important that when you listen to a speaker in a store they be properly setup (unless you go to a high end salon they will not be setup properly, even then there is a chance they will not be setup properly). I remember going to several stores and listening to MLs and I hated the way they sounded... One day I walked in to a store that had them setup properly and I loved them.
 
#132 ·
I am personally putting my trust in Sonnie taking the input from this poll and using his instincts to come up with a pretty good list of speakers to audition, "good" meaning a cross section including market representation and little-known-but-great-sounding, and even the odd-but-worth-giving-a-chance. Remember the trouble he went to getting Arx in the $1K lineup (as a little-known-but-promising entry).

I am not eligible to vote, but have my fingers crossed for Dynaudio - we hear little about them in the US, but they are highly praised in European pro audio circles.
 
#150 ·
I am not eligible to vote, but have my fingers crossed for Dynaudio - we hear little about them in the US, but they are highly praised in European pro audio circles.
So many good choices! If I could vote for four, the Dyn would definitely be in the list. The best monitor I've heard is the Confidence C1 Signature.
 
#135 ·
Sonnie said:
Have you actually heard these in a good room setup against other speakers in the same room?

I think they are getting high votes because Paradigm is likely the most advertised speaker on the list and has high ownership. A lot of people want to know how well they will fair against these others. They have also received a LOT of high praise in reviews.

I remember you were one of the ones who was not all that impressed with the MartinLogan speakers you auditioned in a store, yet their lower end line was neck and neck with the Arx A5's as the best sounding speakers in our last event. I also owned the Boston Acoustics that you praised, yet was not that impressed with them. This simply proves how different people can like different speakers and how rooms may be effecting what we hear.
Yes, I've heard the Studio 60s and 100s vs other speakers in the same room. Paradigm Studios have a chesty or boxy sound - makes the upper bass seem too pronounced and the highs not clear enough.

My impressions of the Martin Logan Summits are here. They were great speakers, but the one area they lacked in - top end clarity - is the one that I am most picky about, and thus I didn't pursue them.

My salary has more than tripled since I purchased the Bostons, but every time I check back into the home theater hobby to see if there are some speakers that might make a nice upgrade, I get turned off for some reason - for the past several years it seems like companies are more worried about having a pair of floorstanding speakers play down to 20-30hz than they are about perfecting 80hz on up. They'll dedicate a good amount of displacement to the woofers in a 3 way, but set the crossover at <200hz - net effect is a small midrange handling the bulk of the audible frequency range - nothing inherently bad about it, but it's not going to be overengineered or extremely dynamic in that range. The Philharmonic 2 intrigued me with it's exotic tweeter and mid, but then only having a single woofer to cover the upper bass and down to 80hz kinda spoiled it for me again.

This is why the Noesis speakers have caught my eye - a big, quality compression driver allowed to play down to 700hz by use of a massive horn, then a pair of high sensitivity drivers to handle the rest, but meant to be used with subwoofers. The majority of us here are going to be using monster subs nowadays, so why get redndant in the mains? I dunno, could be just me I guess. I really want to hear those.


Sonnie - when is this get together? Any possibility you could use another set of ears?
 
#136 ·
With all the positive reviews on the Paradigms... that boxy sound is what I would think would be caused my positioning... but we will see.

Unfortunately we are booked on the panel... myself, Wayne, Leonard and Joe (all staff). Four is tough as it is. I would love to have several folks there, but for an evaluation like this... it is just not feasible. If it were a small GTG, it would be different.
 
#137 ·
Sort of surprised that GENELEC wasn't in the running for some of their smaller stuff, as they would crush many of these in dynamics, sound staging and for sure accuracy. I just auditioned the new, all be it more expensive BRYSTON towers, the Model T, which at $6500 are obviously not in this range, and I now have to RUN to try and sell my B&W 802 as these were leaps & bounds so far advanced over the B&W it was almost tingling...without sounding too... you know! I hear (not literally), but have read that the BRYSTON Mini T has the exact same sonic signature, just one octave at the lower end removed. If that is the case
having heard the magi, PSB, Golden Ear, Dynaudio, and others on the list...those vendors should be quite concerned. I was EXTREEMLY impressed with the Model T BRYSTON
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top