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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
 
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#140 ·
I have never read a review of the Paradigm studio 60 or 100 that used the word 'boxy' to describe the sound.
I have heard both speakers and while greatly preferring the 100's the Studio 60's were certainly no slouch either.
Everyone has their own opinion about the sound they prefer so I won't be critical of Boston Acoustics, but nothing in that lineup appeals tome.
 
#141 · (Edited)
OK, so I get to vote. It took awhile to decide which to vote for. Part of what is so fun about this price range is getting into some innovative designs, at both the transducer and the integrated speaker level. Of particular interest:

  • Ascend's RAAL tweeter, the impulse response, off-axis response
  • Gallo's hemispherical tweeter, their "lotsa small wide-range drivers" design (really want to hear the Ref 5's some time)
  • Definitive Tech's bipolar design , their sub design with driver and two radiators
  • Dynaudio - boring design - OK, that's not fair; let us say more straightforward design - but interested in what the company can do, and boring [straightforward] designs can sound spectacular
  • GTA's flat panel, because it's a flat panel
  • Magnepan, because it's a flat panel, and because it's a Maggie
  • MartinLogan, because it's a flat panel, and because it's a ML
  • Tannoy's dual-concentric driver design - they abandoned it in their pro line, don't know why
  • Tekton Seas Pendragon - interested in Tekton and Eric Alexander's design philosophy
  • Vandersteen - still feel a little guilty about the 2Ce results in the $1K weekend
  • the DO NOT VOTE FOR MORE THAN THREE design also sounds intriguing - gotta vote for that one:rolleyesno:

Tough choice, but in the end voted for Ascend, Definitive Tech, and Dynaudio.
 
#142 ·
Is this a good idea or a bad idea?

As an evaluator, I like to look ahead of time at specs, features, descriptions of the speakers to be evaluated, and general comments by forum members of their experiences with the different brands and models, but I stay away from reading published reviews. It seems better to approach a speaker's subjectively-described qualities from a neutral position. On the other hand, other reviewers might point out insights that one could miss in a fairly short evaluation time like we have to work with

Thoughts?
 
#143 ·
Here is an evaluation idea that I have been playing with.

Each evaluator gets to choose 2 or 3 evaluation tracks which we then burn onto our evaluation CD. Then the evaluators are all using the same tracks played through the same player and signal path and are comparing apples to apples all the way through.

I have a few standard test tracks that I always turn to, but there are so many great tracks to choose from, so many kinds of material, each of which can emphasize a different speaker characteristic in a different musical context.

So here is an idea: For one of my tracks, compile a medley of 10- to 20-second snippets from a dozen or so tracks, just the part of the track that is most pertinent to listening for a particular something in each speaker's delivery.

Upside:
  • We get to cover a lot of musical territory in 3 minutes.
Downside:
  • Sometimes the ear needs a little time to settle into a groove with a new evaluation track, to get into hearing the subtleties a track can reveal. Rushing through so much so quickly might be overwhelming and of little value.
  • It might drive the other evaluators nuts.
On the other hand:
  • If I practice ahead of time doing critical listening with that medley track, I should be able to get pretty good at "switching gears" with the sequence and quickly hearing what each snippet is intended to reveal. Downside: The other evaluators will not have the opportunity to do that. On the other hand: At the $1K weekend we quickly learned to make good use of each others tracks, so maybe we are adaptable enough that practice is not an issue.
  • Each evaluator already does a lot of skipping around, FF- and RW-ing, jumping back to a previous track, has free reign over his listening sequence within the evaluation CD, so it is like a pre-programmed version of that.
  • We do each have the chance to include our favorites, and if this is my favorite, well...:whistling:
Good idea? Bad idea?

If I proceed, anyone have a 15-second piece of a track that they think is amazingly effective and HAS to be included? If a couple are mentioned that are particularly intriguing, I might grab the CDs (gotta pay for it) and include them.
 
#145 ·
I like reading about the speakers ahead of time and the results of any shoot out falls into that category, but for me it is simply entertainment.
There is nothing wrong with going into an evaluation with preconceived expectations as long as you will still draw a 'data driven' conclusion.
More than once I had convinced myself on paper what I was going to buy, but when I auditioned it I just didn't hear the same thing all the 'reviewers' were hearing.
I do understand setup and rooms affect the sound, but if any speaker is overly difficult to setup it is not anything I want to deal with anyway. I do not have flexibility of placement.
The comments about the RF-62 being easy to setup and sounding good across multiple listening positions really struck home with me and that characteristic probably played a big part in my decision to go with Klipsch and may have also contributed to how well I thought they auditioned in a room full of speakers.
You just have to listen and let the music tell you if the things you read are true or not.
 
#146 ·
Picking music for speaker evaluation is tough because tastes and genres are so very different.
I think fewer tracks played over and over are better and as the field narrows to three speakers introducing more passages worked for me.
The opening passage of Hotel California emerged as my favorite narrow down the field selection.
It starts very simple, and adds layers, and then just as the vocal begins there is a tiny sound of bar chimes that many speakers fail to produce or resolve with enough clarity to pick out.
I avoid some of the standard bearers like Pink Floyd because there is no real world reference as to what it is supposed to sound like and I avoid Steely Dan because I didn't like it back in the day and the passage of time. Has not made the heart grow fonder.
Female voices have to be part of it, I like Natalie Merchant in the 10,000 Maniacs Unplugged.
It's tough to recommend for someone else, you have to like it and as you mentioned critically listen to it over and over....which can lead to never wanting to hear it again or the loss of just being able to enjoy it.
 
#148 ·
Thanks for the feedback. My intuition says you are right about sticking with fewer - and familiar - tracks and giving them some time to see what they reveal. The medley test track is just a nutty idea I thought worth seeing if it floats. And thanks for the test track suggestions. Luckily, my favorite test tracks have only become fonder to me through all the hearings - so far.
 
#147 ·
chashint said:
I have never read a review of the Paradigm studio 60 or 100 that used the word 'boxy' to describe the sound.
That's because speaker reviews are typically done by only listening to one pair of speakers - not comparing sets of speakers against each other by switching back and forth in real time. That's also what makes a speaker shootot like this more relevant (in my opinion) than just a standard speaker review.

I wasn't trying to take a shot at Paradigm. Now that it was expained the group will test more than just the top 3 voted for, I have no issue - hopefully some of the more exotic speakers get in the mix.
 
#151 ·
Nothing wrong with Polk and Bose being in the mix... I am fine with it and would indeed like to evaluate those at some point in time.

Wayne... I have read dozens of reviews and comments on Magnepan, MartinLogan, Vandersteen and Klipsch, but I don't think any of that ever even entered my mind when I started evaluating. I felt like we were in our own environment that could be quite different than what other reviewers may be reviewing in and the sound could be quite different for us than it was for them. I do think our setup allows us to get the most out of the speakers we evaluate.

I also thought about the clips of various songs... taking only the portion we are going to listen to and copying that to the CD or USB flash drive... fading out of one song - pause for 2-3 seconds - start the next song or fade into just before that portion of the next song we want to hear. I think that best. I had no issues last time when skipping around to the parts of the tracks I really wanted to hear. Since you have the mixing abilities, I think you can easily make this happen for us.
 
#160 · (Edited)
Wayne... I have read dozens of reviews and comments on Magnepan, MartinLogan, Vandersteen and Klipsch, but I don't think any of that ever even entered my mind when I started evaluating. I felt like we were in our own environment that could be quite different than what other reviewers may be reviewing in and the sound could be quite different for us than it was for them. I do think our setup allows us to get the most out of the speakers we evaluate.
No problem. Some reviews feel like ads, some seem hard to believe (can he really hear that?) or do not make sense, and there are certainly those of value, so I guess you have to know your reviewer or source. I often seek them out when considering a purchase, but usually have not felt driven to before evaluating myself. The exception is where new or unique technologies are involved and it can be useful to experience it through a trusted someone's ears, or if there is something I just don't "get" about a speaker's sound. Mostly, it seems funner to approach them fresh.

I also thought about the clips of various songs... taking only the portion we are going to listen to and copying that to the CD or USB flash drive... fading out of one song - pause for 2-3 seconds - start the next song or fade into just before that portion of the next song we want to hear. I think that best. I had no issues last time when skipping around to the parts of the tracks I really wanted to hear. Since you have the mixing abilities, I think you can easily make this happen for us.
I will put together a sample and send it down to you. I favor having mostly long tracks which the listener can control, that worked well, but then I can think of a number of tracks where a certain 20 sec would be useful. I will do a sample with those, using short fades so it is not too jarring but is still fairly quick, and post the tracks and time ranges used.
 
#152 ·
It would have been interesting for the Klipsch RF-7s to be an option. If part of eval is rock music they do pretty good.
 
#153 ·
I voted for the Ascend Towers with RAAL, Tekton SEAS Pendragons, and the Phil slims. One thing thats expected from the RAAL tweeter is speed and neutrality. Should be a very good competition. And hopefully Sonnie Tekton sends you a pair of the SEAS Pendragons early so you can give it atleast a 100 hour burn-in this time.
 
#162 ·
Personally, I would like to see ATC speakers included. I got a pair of SCM-19's, which incorporate the Super Linear (SL) driver. One of the very few non-horn speakers that can play both loud and clan without breakup or distortion. Match them up with a SVS SB-13 Ultra, and it's nirvana. Truly outstanding. :T
 
#163 ·
I am also very interested in how the RAAL tweeter fares in a comparison. I voted for the Salk but if it ends up being the Ascend that is fine with me also. I would like to have that compared to the seas so the Tekton Pendragon is my next vote and my final vote went to the Triton Two. Looking forward to the seeing who the final contenders are and the results of the comparison.
 
#166 ·
That is correct... you want find them on the list if they were not included in this voting round.

You can nominate them next time the nominations open up. MSRP cannot exceed $3,000 ... typically no less than $2,000 to maintain an average of $2,500.
 
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