The Results are up... although there might be a few typo's here and there... bear with us, as we find them, we will fix them. It's just too much to get absolutely perfect! But it is UP... Posted... DONE!
Just finished reading through this thread. One of the reviewers said the final two have similarities and its pretty obvious to me its the Magnepan and the Tekton Lore as the final two. With the Lore being the winner because of better bass.
It feels good to be in the 5% had me worried when I started to read about it being damaged!!! Anyways congrats on YOUR choice of speakers for your 2 channel setup, all the speakers would be great choices for any buyers looking. For all involve in the write up/listening phase GREAT JOB!!!
Btw all the speakers that had to sit outside the room and wait for the new ones to be played were jealous
It feels good to be in the 5% had me worried when I started to read about it being damaged!!! Anyways congrats on YOUR choice of speakers for your 2 channel setup, all the speakers would be great choices for any buyers looking. For all involve in the write up/listening phase GREAT JOB!!!
Btw all the speakers that had to sit outside the room and wait for the new ones to be played were jealous
I watched the development of the A5 on the TAI forum and waited close to two years to see it released and glad I jumped on them pretty much the same day they posted on the site to buy.
I've had my A5s for a year or so and still enjoy pure 2ch with them. But HT is even better :bigsmile:
I did not purchase them, they were sent on the house for the evaluation. I was planning on buying them had they been the speakers of choice. I think Eric would sell them if you want to contact him. It would probably make him feel better about the results if someone did buy them. They are packed up and at my office ready to be shipped back to him. No labels yet.
I didn't get around to voting, but I probably would have picked between the Focal, Arx and HTD. I friend if mine has some Lores, but I have not gotten over to hear them yet. One day soon....
I hope not. Controversy would be an easy way to stir up posting, but that is not what we are after. We really tried to give each speaker a fair listen and tried to point out what we found to like about each. And there was much to like in the group of speakers we chose.
I don't think your review will be controversial at all, I do think there may be passionate responses to the results of the shoot out.
I don't recall which speaker it was that "needs" a special base or stand to accommodate a 6" vertical axis, but that generated quite a stir during the speaker candidate phase...LOL
It's odd to me that people are so defensive of their hobby 'stuff' but they are.
With the A5s placement at 7' 6" apart and 6' 2" to the LP, this seems odd to me that the distance between the speakers is longer than to the LP.It was also mentioned that angled outward the HFR wasn't affected at all. Toe in at 18 o, correct me if I'm wrong but that is very little toe in, could some one give me an example what 18 o toe in would be like, is that almost firing straight forward or close to it, any thoughts on placing them just firing straight forward with no toe in? Thanks, and congrats gorb, I still wish it was me.:T
Cheers Jeff
You are correct, the A5's were firing almost straight forward. The wide spacing and aiming look a little weird from the listening position, but that is what worked.:bigsmile:
Although we did not try aiming the A5's straight forward that I recall, in my past experience working with toe-in angles to optimize soundstage & imaging, turning the speakers out beyond the optimum angle causes the soundstage to unravel in the center very quickly. Only a few more degrees (5 to 10) and it just starts to fall apart.
With the horizontal dispersion from those tweeters, we really did not hear - or measure - significant rolloff of the highs even at that odd angle.
I think we were all surprised at how well they did. Seriously... I had discounted them from the get go as thinking they would not be a contender. I learned a valuable lesson... don't discount any speaker until you hear it, although it is hard to do sometimes.
With the A5s placement at 7' 6" apart and 6' 2" to the LP, this seems odd to me that the distance between the speakers is longer than to the LP.It was also mentioned that angled outward the HFR wasn't affected at all. Toe in at 18 o, correct me if I'm wrong but that is very little toe in, could some one give me an example what 18 o toe in would be like, is that almost firing straight forward or close to it, any thoughts on placing them just firing straight forward with no toe in? Thanks, and congrats gorb, I still wish it was me.:T
Cheers Jeff
Jeff... have you been to any of the audio shows? That is when I first realized the equilateral triangle was not always the best ... and that having the speakers a lot wider than the distance from the speakers to the listener is not uncommon. In one room at CAF, I believe it was the Classic room, those speakers were 28' apart with the listener only 8-10's from the front plane of the speakers... probably 16' or so from each speaker. The imaging was incredible. There have been several rooms I have been in that the speakers were much wider than the distance from speaker to listener and they sounded marvelous.
You can get an idea from this picture how much the 18 degrees is... the lines in the carpet are perpendicular to the listener. Notice some required more toe-in than others.
With the A5s placement at 7' 6" apart and 6' 2" to the LP, this seems odd to me that the distance between the speakers is longer than to the LP.It was also mentioned that angled outward the HFR wasn't affected at all. Toe in at 18 o, correct me if I'm wrong but that is very little toe in, could some one give me an example what 18 o toe in would be like, is that almost firing straight forward or close to it, any thoughts on placing them just firing straight forward with no toe in? Thanks, and congrats gorb, I still wish it was me.:T
Cheers Jeff
With regard to toe in, my experience is that most speakers provide the largest soundstage when toed in somewhere between pointing directly at the listener to pointing straight toward the back wall. Usually more toe in than less, relative to pointing straight to the back wall, is better, but few speakers sound best aimed directly at the listener. This is strictly in terms of soundstage reproduction, not frequency response. Generally, I also find most speakers also sound better farther apart than the distance to the listener, i.e. not an equilateral triangle. There are so many variables with respect to the room, however, that these are not hard rules.
We tried lots of positions for each speaker, some of them with virtually no toe in, usually starting with an equilateral triangle directed straight at the listener. At each location we varied the toe in considerably. The goal remember, was soundstage.
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