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The Official $2,500 Speaker Evaluation / Home Audition Event

260K views 1K replies 328 participants last post by  needspeed52 
#1 ·
This is...

The Official $2,500 Speaker Evaluation / Home Audition Event



Introduction

On November 1st and 2nd we will come together for another speaker evaluation in my home in Luverne, AL. Attending the event and participating in the evaluation and auditions, in addition to myself (Sonnie), is Wayne Myers (AudiocRaver), Joe Alexander (ALMFamily) and Leonard Caillouet (lcaillo), all members of the HTS staff. All of the speakers are here and being broke-in as recommended.

This is not a shootout, but instead it is an evaluation and home audition of six speakers. You might even consider this a combined review of six different speakers, although not by one individual, instead by three or four individuals in a very controlled and organized evaluation. This evaluation is not conducted to determine the best speaker, as there are too many variables from home to home for us to tell you which speakers are the best for you. Therefore, ranking them may encourage you to buy speakers that may not accurately suggest which speakers will be right for you. Your room size, acoustics, speaker location, amplifier type, amplifier power, other electronics, and your very own ears, will all play a significant part in how a speaker will sound to you. What we will do is carefully measure and listen to these speakers, then provide you with the objective and subjective results. This will be influenced by the equipment on hand and the dedicated home theater/listening room... which is fairly well treated acoustically, and is setup to allow flexible placement of the speakers. In this evaluation, we hope to be able to tell you what speaker locations sound best for this room, including close to the front wall and out into the room. Unfortunately, we cannot completely mimic your room, so there is no way we can guarantee you that the speakers will sound the same in your room. As always, we encourage you to evaluate speakers in your own home to be absolutely certain you get what is best suited for you. Hopefully this can be a guide that in some way will aid you in the differences we hear, but ultimately your ears are what is most important in determining what speakers are right for you.

This event will include speakers from two of our sponsors, SVSound and Underwood HiFi (Emerald Physics). There are four other speakers that were voted on in our $2,500 Speaker Evaluation Event - Nominated Speakers Voting Poll. Pricing for these speakers is for the pair. We do realize that these speakers may not necessarily cost exactly $2,500/pair. We get that number from the fact that the average of all 20 speakers that were nominated is right at $2,500. However, all of the speakers in this evaluation can be purchased for $2,500/pair or less (add $350 to the Emerald Physic speakers if you get the DSP). That may not always be the case in future rounds. Actually most of these are closer to the $2,000 range than $2,500. We are basically covering speakers that range from $2,000 to $3,000... capping the max MSRP at $3,000. I suspect in the next round we will be closer to the $3,000 range on most of those.


The Speakers


Associated Equipment
  • OPPO BDP-105 Universal Player - We will again be using the 105 as the source for the evaluation. There have been some questions about recorded CDR's being used because they are a copy of a copy (extracting from original disc to computer and then burning to a disc). Personally I cannot tell a difference one way or another from the original and a burned copy. As a matter of fact, I know of a double blind listening test where a gentleman was unable to tell the difference from an original CD and a burnt copy of a computer copy, although he insisted he could tell a difference beforehand. However, to eliminate any questions, we will use either dBpoweramp or Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to extract the tracks from the original CDs to a USB thumb drive and use it in the 105 for our evaluation music. We will use the XLR balanced outputs on the 105. Be sure to check out our review of the OPPO BDP-105 by Luther Ward. We appreciate OPPO being a sponsor here at HTS.


  • Anthem Integrated 225 Amp (i225) - At 225 WPC (8Ω) and 310 WPC (4Ω), this integrated amp from Anthem should provide plenty of power to drive any of the speakers we are evaluating. It boast a 105dB signal to noise ratio and is built with high quality, close-tolerance parts. The main power supply includes an advanced generation toroidal transformer, which contributes to its low-noise floor. The conservatively rated massive transformer is designed with high rail voltage, fed by two oversized low-ESL, low-ESR Nichicon filter capacitors that employ a total capacitance of 30,000 microfarads. The preamp audio circuits are fed by two precision voltage regulators, thanks to the ±15 V rails in the main power supply. The input and voltage amplifier stages are a differential design, although the output power stage has a fully symmetrical complementary Class AB design with three pairs of high-quality bipolar output devices per channel. The amps design significantly reduces distortion and ensure extreme linearity. This is one solid built amp that is no doubt one of the best in its class and price range. We will be using the XLR balanced inputs on the 225. We sincerely appreciate Anthem lending us this unit for use in the evaluation.



    Specifications

  • Onkyo PR-SC5509 - We will use the heavy duty 5509 as our preamp processor during our home theater speaker system review and our $20,000 speaker system review (see last part of this post for more info on those). It may also serve some duties as a preamp in the two-channel speaker evaluation. Of course the Onkyo does not really need any introduction. It is well known and owned by several members in our forum. It is a beast of a processor and very well regarded as one of the top preamp processors available. You can learn more about it by clicking on the link above or visiting our Onkyo PR-SC5508 - PR-SC5509 SSP / Integra DHC-80.2 - DHC-80.3 SSP thread. Be on the lookout for upcoming reviews on the Onkyo TX-NR929 9.2-Channel Network A/V Receiver and the TX-NR626 7.2-Channel Network A/V Receiver, as well as a couple of their soundbars. We appreciate Onkyo being a sponsor here at HTS.


  • RAM Electronics Custom Speaker Cables - "Ram-Flex Custom Series" 11 AWG Canare 4S11 speaker cable sleeved with ViaBlue braid and terminated with gold plated locking banana plugs. These are also good looking high quality speaker cables that will not break the bank. We all fell in love with these speaker cables... they performed flawlessly and in no way hindered or colored the sound. These locking banana plugs are awesome! I have already ordered several of these since our last event. We appreciate RAM being a sponsor here at HTS.


  • RAM Electronics Custom XLR Cables - RAM "Custom Series" XLR Balanced Cables includes the Mogami 2534 with Neglex Quad Cable and Neutrik Connectors wrapped with the ViaBlue braided sleeve... as well as CBI Ultimate ML with Belden Wire and Neutrik "X" Connectors. RAM will custom build just about any cable you can think of... just tell them what you want and they will fix you up. Their service is awesome, as is the quality of their cables. These are good looking, good quality cables that are very reasonably priced. RAM does not play around... you order up what you want and in a few days it is on your doorstep. Compare RAM to places like Blue Jeans Cable and you will see the savings, using the same quality wire and connectors.



The Listening Room

As with the previous event, we will use Cedar Creek Cinema, our dedicated home theater/listening room that is a converted two car garage. The interior dimensions are 19.5' wide x 23.5' deep x 8.5' high. There is a 6" high x 4' deep stage across the front of the room, and a 12" riser in the back that is used partially as a ported enclosure for the rear subs. The room is excellent for our purposes with ample acoustical treatment on side walls and ceiling, large corner bass traps in front from floor to ceiling, a centered Primary Listening Position (PLP), lots of space to work with, and well-controlled early reflections and ambiance.



As shown below, the RT60 reverb time for the room is very well-controlled, 0.2 seconds overall, and below 0.3 seconds clear down almost to 100 Hz. This is a nice level of control with enough ambient liveliness to aid soundstage and image development. There has also been some additional acoustic treatment from GIK Acoustics that has been added to the side walls and back wall since the last event.




After Hours Fun... with a Few Surprises!

As a bonus to our members and readers, we will also be reviewing a $20,000 two-channel system. This review will be published later in our Reviews forum, but we will introduce you to the company and the products during the event. This system is truly to die for... just plain awesome and worth every penny of its price.

But that's not all... we plan to enjoy a little late night fun at Cedar Creek Cinema, and this event is sure to spark some excitement with a special guest, who will also be providing a truly unique 5.0 home theater speaker system (costing well over $10,000) for us to review. This will be the first review of this product. Our plans will be to watch a movie each night of the evaluation, hopefully Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Then on Sunday evening and Monday, we plan to do more testing and evaluation for a complete review of this speaker system, which will also be posted later in our Reviews forum. I don't think you will want to miss this review. We will announce the manufacturer, the owner and the product a little closer to the event.

We believe you will truly appreciate these extra reviews we have in store for you. Personally, I think they are pretty significant... huge in fact!

I don't know about everyone else, but I am EXCITED!!!

BTW... :shhh: Remember... it's a secret! :whistling:


Results

As you can see below, we have reserved several posts for the results, which will be posted as soon as possible after the event. We will post some of the known information about the speakers between now and the event. You will want to subscribe to the thread. After the results are posted, we will post in the thread that the results are complete and the reserved posts have been updated.

The REW measurement .mdat files will be uploaded to each speaker thread and available for download.

...
 
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#115 ·
Wow, looks like an awesome line-up. Wish I could be there to check it all out myself. You guys have great jobs – testing out the coolest, latest and greatest equipment, and then relaying the info to all of us at home drooling over it all! Look forward to seeing the results! :clap:
 
#116 ·
What a nice test! I love the price range, but I believe that special treat of this test is that it's without the burden of proving anything!
It is simply meant to show what trusted people think of selected "sweet spot" group of speakers! At least IMHO this is the price wise sweet spot... :)
Well, enjoy, and do share as much of your impression as possible!
 
#117 ·
Here is a good white paper by Nyal Mellor "Acoustical Measurement Standards for Stereo Listening Rooms"
http://www.acousticfrontiers.com/static/513e1e34e4b00efcff5b05fd/51523db2e4b05218a1268532/51523db3e4b05218a126876f/1340681100537/acoustic_measurement_standards.pdf

Some of the many questions that can be found scattered across the internet and overheard in conversations amongst audiophiles today relate to room acoustic measurements:

What are the key measurements?
How do I interpret them?
What does good look like?
How do they relate to each other?

These questions arise from the recent availability of cheap and accurate 'consumer' acoustical measurement products like XTZ Room Analyzer, Room EQ Wizard and Dayton Audio Omnimic. Whist these packages allow you to measure your room they do not provide any guidance on how to interpret the results relative to the audiophile situation of two speakers in a room.

In April of 2011 Nyal Mellor of Acoustic Frontiers and Jeff Hedback of HdAcoustics recognized this and started work on creating a set of measurement standards specific to the requirements of the two channel audiophile. Many hours of hard work have culminated in the release of the white paper Acoustic Measurement Standards for Stereo Listening Rooms which you can download as a pdf by clicking on the link.

This paper is recommended reading if you are interested in understanding how room acoustics can influence sound quality. It also provides clear targets for the acoustic measurements that characterize your room's performance.
 
#120 ·
I was sad to see that the Philharmonics didn't make the cut. I was really interested in what you guy's thought about them. My next choice would be the SVS ultras. I am not in the market for speakers at this time but this will help in choosing or giving advice to someone in the future. Thanks guy's.....:T
 
#121 ·
Reading several of the replies so far I can already tell this event will be a big success. Sonnie, you truly seem dedicated to the community here. Love that Cedar Creek Cinema space, you've created - great name too :) !

Like everyone else, I'm looking forward to the reviews, but mostly I hope everyone involved enjoys themselves and becomes that much better off for having participated.
 
#124 ·
Wow, I'm green to the gills. I have heard a few of these speakers but have not heard the Oppo 105 yet. I guess I have to live vicariously through all that attend this event. I was hoping there might be a Goldendear tower in the mix this evaluation. Oh well, I know all will have a good time! Looking forward to hearing the results.
 
#125 · (Edited)
I want to extend my thanks and appreciation to HTS for this outstanding event and to the members involved, Sonnie, Wayne, Leonard and Joe. I had the pleasure of getting to know Joe (ALM Family) since he first came to HTS, I was selling an amp (which I regret), no just kidding, he was so courteous and such a friendly guy and I know how much he appreciated the condition of the amp and made that known to me on several occassions, great guy as well as all the staff here at HTS. This place was my first home and always felt welcomed and people seemed to actually care what I had to say, that doesn't happen at a lot of other forums. I am also extremely pleaseed with the $1000 shootout as my speakers were chosen. More forums should follow the lead of HTS and offer a wonderful and informative place to spend some time. Well done guys with the $2500 comparison, is it true that the ARX5 will also be there? This what I heard. Thanks again to all whom have made my feel at home here at the Shack. I look forward to the results of this event, take care my friends.
Best Regards, Jeffrey
 
#142 ·
Well done guys with the $2500 comparison, is it true that the ARX5 will also be there? This what I heard.
Yep... you heard correctly. :T



i think one of the most interesting things about this multi-speaker review is that all these speakers offer something different and will appeal to a wide audience. I also think that when you get to this price range, there certainly aren't any losers, there are just varying degrees of winners.
Agree... and as far as anticipation, this is what I anticipate... all very good speakers that will all will have enthusiast that will like them over the other.



Magnepan - a full range ribbon speaker... if im understanding that right? very interesting.
Yes... full range.



Martin logan - electrostat speakers, with 8" woofer. that appears not to use a crossover
500Hz.



Maybe covered elsewhere but in a multi channel setup of HT interested also in differences in seating position and how that affects performance. If you optomize around the center seat that can be a lonely place :)
For home theater I have tested optimizing for the primary listening position vs optimizing for 3 vs optimizing for 7. For me there was not enough improvement in the other positions to make it worth NOT optimizing for the PLP. You improve one seat, make another worse... it is never ending with multiple seats being optimized. However, that could be different for others... just my experience in my room. I keep it optimized for the PLP since I am the only one in there 99% of the time. You could save a couple of setups though... if your processor or receiver allows for it. One for PLP and one for multiple when you have company.



What I also like is the idea of converting a 2 car garage into a home theater. :T
Will work on the wife... :gulp:
Buy her a new car... works EVERY time!!!



Three questions / comments:

  1. What music / movies are you going to listen to as reference material? Are you going to be watching any movies at all, are video displays part of the test as well, or is it just audio?
  2. Most speakers / room setups require a careful positioning of the speakers to get optimal flat frequency response (that is somewhat dependent on the size and construction of the room, but it's the norm for professional studios). Are you going to be moving the speakers in different places to get the sweet spot for each of them? I assume they are pretty heavy, it's not going to be easy hauling that stuff around.
  3. For reference material I'd recommend to at least include the Sony Classical recording of Bartok's Concierto for Orchestra, a very fine recording on Super Audio CD. For movies, Wall-E has a spectacularly good sound design.
We have not selected all of the music yet, still nailing it down. Basically a short compilation of clips from various songs... then 3 songs selected by each of us on the evaluation panel.

For movies each night... we have ideas, but still not fully selected yet. We will probably decide each night... maybe draw straws for each one we like. The two-channel speakers will have our full attention during the day on Friday and Saturday. The 5.0 home theater system will get our time later at night.

Thanks for the suggestions, we can consider those.

Nothing real heavy... and yes... we get pretty serious about optimal placement (see our previous $1,000 evaluation - link in my sig).



I would love to see something similar in the $1,000 and $500 and under categories for us budget minded folks.
Check out the link to our $1,000 evaluation in my signature. :T



When I had Magnepan speakers, I preferred the tighter sound I could get out of them by placing some acoustic absorption panels behind them. I believe this allowed the immediate rear wave to still do its magic of interference with the forward wave to focus the sound, while reducing the effect of a reflected wave off the surfaces behind the speaker.

Would you consider doing the same during your review, to see what people think of this? I imagine it would also apply to the Martin Logan, although I suspect it might have a different effect given its planar surface is curved.

Flat planars are also very sensitive to toe-in, since moving your head off-axis immediately impacts the sound. Some will prefer different degrees of toe-in, so I think that's also something worth including in your review sessions.
We did try placing acoustic panels behind the Magnepans we had in the previous evaluation, but it made them worse, as it did with other speakers we tried. The room is setup pretty well acoustically, so that should not be an issue... and we go to extremes to get the right placement for each speaker.
 
#126 ·
i think one of the most interesting things about this multi-speaker review is that all these speakers offer something different and will appeal to a wide audience. I also think that when you get to this price range, there certianly arent any losers, there are just varying degrees of winners.

A quick look at the speakers reveals so much about each thats different

Emerald Physics - open baffle 2.5 way design with 15" woofers and a compression tweeter with 12" waveguide, completely unique to me.

Dynaudio - classic minimalist design outside, 3" voice coils on the woofers in a 2-way design(the only 2-way design using a simple 1st order crossover) and a soft dome

Magnepan - a full range ribbon speaker... if im understanding that right? very interesting.

Martin logan - electrostat speakers, with 8" woofer. that appears not to use a crossover

Paradigm - another minimalist design in a 2.5 way speaker but uses metalized drivers with popularity that probably unmatched

SVS - a 3-way speaker with a unique cabinet design involving an 8" woofer and dual 6.5" mids, soft dome tweeter... a company whose fame comes from their awesome subwoofers.

in some ways a few of these speakers are similar, but they are all still very different. I cannot wait to see what the reviewers think of each speaker. As a Dynaudio owner, i hope to see them do well, but the competition is VERY tough.

good luck guys and have fun.
 
#127 ·
I wish to second the idea of DIY HT speaker systems with maybe the cost constraint being the factor.

Maybe covered elsewhere but in a multi channel setup of HT interested also in differences in seating position and how that affects performance. If you optomize around the center seat that can be a lonely place :)

Basic suggestion is if you have the listeners move positions side to side and up and back a bit to see how sensitive each speaker system is. Part of the voting could be ease of setup and how easy it is to get good sound at every seating position. Power response and phase control are key to this from my experience.
 
#128 ·
Wow, what a great looking room! I'm glad to see an "evaluation" done in a properly treated and measured room! (with the graphs to prove it! LOL). I'm looking forward to seeing people's thoughts on the speakers. I myself am looking for a decent upgrade to my Home Theater Speakers, and while I might have the finely tuned and measured room, I'm close! So it's good to see that your evaluation can be in near ideal setup to I know if I were to purchase speakers, they are a known good commodity and it's other areas in my setup that need addressing.

I also wish I could hear that two channel setup...I'm a fan of separate 2 channel setups, and have a hand built SET powering a separate pair of speakers in my theater, with the same Oppo BDP-105 as a source! So I'm looking forward to seeing how you set that up and what your impressions are in a room treated and setup for theater (As mine is as well).

Great thread!
 
#130 ·
Since starting in 1977, the Danes at Dynaudio have learned a thing or two about building great speakers. There are some fairly positive reviews about the Dynaudio DM3/7. Some of its strengths include build quality, finish, low end response and efficiency. I'm looking forward to the results.
 
#131 ·
Very interesting - I'll look forward to your posts about the test and the results. I would have liked to be there but I don't have the time and live several time zones away. It's funny that one of the speakers is probably more expensive than my entire (not so great) Panasonic home theater system.

Three questions / comments:

  1. What music / movies are you going to listen to as reference material? Are you going to be watching any movies at all, are video displays part of the test as well, or is it just audio?
  2. Most speakers / room setups require a careful positioning of the speakers to get optimal flat frequency response (that is somewhat dependent on the size and construction of the room, but it's the norm for professional studios). Are you going to be moving the speakers in different places to get the sweet spot for each of them? I assume they are pretty heavy, it's not going to be easy hauling that stuff around.
  3. For reference material I'd recommend to at least include the Sony Classical recording of Bartok's Concierto for Orchestra, a very fine recording on Super Audio CD. For movies, Wall-E has a spectacularly good sound design.
 
#133 ·
i heard a set of mqgnepan mmg's a few years back.they were playing some violin music on them.unfortunately i only had a very brief listening experience.from what i remember that was very realistic sounding violin playing.ive not had a chance to listen to any martin logan speakers.ive heard a bunch of different paradigm models.i do have a paradigm dealer about 30 mile drive.

so im definetly curiois to hear the results of the magnepan's,and the paradigm's
 
#134 ·
This is going to be a very interesting shootout. These shootouts are a lot of work, I wish you all the best of luck and eagerly await the results. Very curious how the Magnepans sound vs the conventional speakers.

I would love to see something similar in the $1,000 and $500 and under categories for us budget minded folks.

Later,

Tony
 
#135 ·
This is a great event and i will be paying close attention to the results since i have no way to demo anything like this where i am. Most info i can get on stuff like this are from actual owners and most of the time they have limited exposure to other products in the same range so they are swayed. Here i can get 6 great speakers compared very thoroughly. Will the top speakers from the last review be compared to these as well? Im really interested in the CS2P, ML ESL and Magnepan 1.7 since they are different from regular box enclosure speakers.
 
#138 ·
I really like these kinda events when magazines do reviews you hardly ever get straight comparisions.This works out good for me I was really leaning hard to buy the svs ultra towers after hearing them in the capitol audiofest( to me it was at least the best demo in the show and maybe best sound.I only have ever had bookshelf speakers and though they sound great(def tech sm 55's) I know they lack depth in comparision to good towers. this is about the top off my ability to buy at the moment I may stretch to golden ear triton 3's but wuld love to be able to buy in this range.Looking forward to the review thanks so much for the effort.
CD
 
#140 ·
This is my dream job!!
I love listening to high quality audio systems, and especially love to hear a different mfg interpretation of how audio should sound.
I believe all speakers impart their own signature, but this can be a good thing when done properly.
I look forward to the results....
I have read soooo many speaker reviews/comparisons/tests over the last 25+ years.
I know my own opinion is what truly matters for my personal enjoyment, but there are several reviewers that share very similar views that I highly respect.
 
#141 ·
I love these type of threads and competition. I believe this greatly helps people decide what to buy as it is an equal comparison which is hard to do especially at the higher priced levels. I appreciate the level of detail and effort that goes into this type of work and am looking forward to the results.
 
#143 ·
Thius is a great idea with a simple twist! I was struck by how many people missed the opening line of Sonny's post saying that this wasn't a shoot out. With that in mind, the whole "which speaker is better/best" and"blind test methodology" tiresome arguments are eliminated and time can be better spent simply understanding the pluses and minuses of the performance of each speaker on it's own merits without ranking them. How cool is THAT????

Being able is hear what is essentially a group of independent reviews from some folks who have some pretty good knowledge of audio that can pass on their evaluations should allow for some excellent decision-making relative to high level speakers that may not otherwise have input available.

What a fantastically clever idea! Kudos to Sonnie for this approach. Can't wait to read the output.
 
#144 ·
For a music suggestion please invest the 4:56 to check out "Shock" by John Tesh. My #1 instrumental go-to test track.

Tons of respect for your review panel. We are all looking forward to your careful analysis. I for one would like to read a brief pre-review stating what each reviewer is expecting. Posted before the event of course. Which speakers have you previously experienced, what favourites do you have? Some will parrot on about "expectation bias", but that pop psychology can't stand up in the face of men with integrity willing to say "Hey, I was wrong. Brand X surprised me, and Brand Y didn't live up to my overblown expectations"
 
#169 ·
That John Tesh track is pretty good... I really like it. Just listened to it with my headphones.

I think it will be hard to list all the speakers we have listened to... as several of us have been to a few audio shows and heard fifty-eleven speakers. Of course I have owned quite a few, which I believe are listed in our Personal Speaker Evolution Thread... mine is the first listed.

I can't say what to expect... learned better from the first one, when I got it totally wrong. I was even biased a bit (I think), but that did not seem to matter.


Just for fun can you guys test some 96/24 or higher bit rate vinyl rips? You choose the records.
I am not sure how to do this, but if you can PM Wayne (AudiocRaver) he may know how to accomplish it. I have a turntable and several albums.


Any plans to try additional speakers at different price points?
Yes... we will likely do one more $2.500... then possibly move to the $3500-4000 range.


Sonnie,
Are you removing the unused speakers when you are doing your evaluations?
Yes... they are all in the hall, even my ML Prodigy's will not be in the room, however, there will be some smaller speakers in there that we can easily move out of the way for testing other placements of the evaluation speakers.


By the way... we have our RMAF forum up and running. We don't have all of the rooms posted yet, but the guys are working on it. Expect a LOT more threads for other rooms. We have all the sponsors posted as Sticky Threads... other rooms are starting to show up below those. Again... expect a LOT more. Please check us out and let us know what you think. Comments in those threads are very appreciated. :T

Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) 2013 Show Coverage
 
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