[TeamH3]

I post my question, go to bed, go to work for 9hrs, come home and am greated with all these great responses!

As I said in my question, I know you can't even come close to creating an environment that can compare to a pair of headphones on your head. My real intent of this thread was to pick the brains of you o-so-critical headphone listners and find out what you folks are listening to when you're not listening to your headphones. I believe that being "critical" about the sound of music (like all of you are) is a good thing. So I know that the advice I get from this board will come from the heart. 8 months ago when I first came to this board, I didn't know squat about hifi headphones. 1 month later, I made a purchase and now I can't thank this board enough (this includes all of the folks that campainged for other headphone brands and models that I didn't select).

Now I have a snap shot of some of the speakers that you folks reguard highly. They are as followed:

1. B&W DM17s (7" 2 way with top mounted tweeter) sitting atop a pair of ADS subwoofers (sealed dual 10" per side).
2. PSB Century 500is
3. PSB Stratus Goldis at $2500
4. Magnepans
5. Yamaha NS-1000M
6. B&W 800s with Bryston 14B SST power
7. M60 and M80

If anyone has anything to add to the list, please do so. My next step is to find a way to hear some of these speakers at a store. I live in Detroit, Michigan and I don't know if there is a place where I can find hifi speakers like this. I may have to plan a trip if there is a place that I can travel to and listen to a wide variety of hifi speakers. If anyone know of such a place, please let me know. This will hopefully be a once-in-a-lifetime purchase, so I want to do as much homework as I can. I probably will post this question in a "speaker" forum and see if I get any suggestions.

Thanks again!

PS- keep posting, I'm still reading!

TeamH3

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Make sure you check out the reviews at a place like www.audioreview.com to see what others think of these reco's we've made. You may find something there that you like more, and can listen to in your area. I'm sure there has to be some high-end stores in your area. If not, look for places that offer a 30 day or so trial. Then, if you don't like what you hear, send it back and only pay for shipping. Axiom Audio has a 30 money back guarantee, and the price includes shipping already, so if you don't like those you can definitely send them back.

 

[Wodgy]

Quote:

Originally posted by markl Wodgy, Sounds like you had a bad room reaction, maybe some reflections off walls or something. I know a big part of the PSB design strategy is to create speakers with a very wide sweet spot, so you can listen more off-axis and still get good sound. Ironically, in my set-up, in my room, the treble is very very mellow, and if the speakers err, it's on the side of darkness, not brightness.

You're probably right on the money. My living room has hardwood floors and one of the walls is made of a highly reflective modern substance, and there are several large windows, so lots of reflections. I also only have two sets of places where the speakers can be placed optimally (at the correct distance from walls, with a fairly symmetric window-wall layout on either side, etc.), so I was fairly limited as to where I could put them. I think if I had carpeted floors to control reflections I could have really fallen in love with the Stratus Minis. They're great speakers, but at certain places in my particular room they were hard to listen to. I absolutely agree with you that room shape and composition plays a huge part in whether a set of speakers will sound good or not. This is one reason why headphones are nice.

 

[Ctn]

Look at my sig. It exceeds my cans

 

[AdamP88]

Quote:

Originally posted by ServinginEcuador Go check out www.axiomaudio.com/index.html specifically, take a look at their two upper floorstanding models, M60 and M80. For the price these things are very hard to beat. Their Outlet Store sells the M60s at a 10-20% discount right now, and the M80s every so often. If I lived in the states a pair of M80s would be on their way, or already in my house. Incredible sound, great imaging and soundstage, bass, highs, you name it, they do it. Also, check into some amps by Outlaw Audio for some great deals on some awesome sounding amps.

I second the Axioms. My brother (who I live with) recently bought a pair of M22Ti bookshelfs (along with a VP100 and we're waiting on an SV sub...), and they are just ridiculously good for the price. If you don't have the room for floorstanders, I'd highly recommend the M22s mated with a good sub. They're not even fully broken in yet and I've had some extremely satisfying listening sessions with them. Imaging on good recordings can be downright holographic (to the point that I can close my eyes and "see" the orchestra or band setup), transparency and resolution is excellent with simply outstanding treble for any speaker of any size, and it has probably the smoothest bass to treble balance of any speaker I've heard. Although they definitely need a subwoofer to fill in the lows, for their size they handle bass well, without any exagerrated bloat or sudden cutoff point.

Also, customer service is top notch - my brother ordered the speakers on a Wednesday and they were at our door on Friday of the same week.

 

[Sovkiller]

I have a pair of Alesis monitor one MKII Studio monitors and for about the price fo those Axions they offer a pretty good performance, very sturdy indeed and very neutral completelly flat, (well studio monitors at the end) thye are suited for nearfield, but I have them in my livingroom about 6 or 7 feet away from them and the sound is still amazing, pair them with a sub and you will have a decent low budget setup, and they can go very low for the size, down to about 45Hz or so, so the subwoofer sometimes depending on the kind of music, is don't even needed, (even when I preffer sometimes the sound of my CD3000) I think IMO that this is all about in the headphones world, that with a lot less money, you will get a performance similar to speakers costing as ten times more, of course a very expensive and ultra high end setup of speakers will outperform them in soundstage and bass extension etc...

 

[Mike Scarpitti]

Quote:

Originally posted by TeamH3 I post my question, go to bed, go to work for 9hrs, come home and am greated with all these great responses! As I said in my question, I know you can't even come close to creating an environment that can compare to a pair of headphones on your head. My real intent of this thread was to pick the brains of you o-so-critical headphone listners and find out what you folks are listening to when you're not listening to your headphones. I believe that being "critical" about the sound of music (like all of you are) is a good thing. So I know that the advice I get from this board will come from the heart. 8 months ago when I first came to this board, I didn't know squat about hifi headphones. 1 month later, I made a purchase and now I can't thank this board enough (this includes all of the folks that campainged for other headphone brands and models that I didn't select). Now I have a snap shot of some of the speakers that you folks reguard highly. They are as followed: 1. B&W DM17s (7" 2 way with top mounted tweeter) sitting atop a pair of ADS subwoofers (sealed dual 10" per side). 2. PSB Century 500is 3. PSB Stratus Goldis at $2500 4. Magnepans 5. Yamaha NS-1000M 6. B&W 800s with Bryston 14B SST power 7. M60 and M80 If anyone has anything to add to the list, please do so. My next step is to find a way to hear some of these speakers at a store. I live in Detroit, Michigan and I don't know if there is a place where I can find hifi speakers like this. I may have to plan a trip if there is a place that I can travel to and listen to a wide variety of hifi speakers. If anyone know of such a place, please let me know. This will hopefully be a once-in-a-lifetime purchase, so I want to do as much homework as I can. I probably will post this question in a "speaker" forum and see if I get any suggestions. Thanks again! PS- keep posting, I'm still reading! TeamH3

KEF 105.2
Spendor SP1/2
Rogers Studio 1
IMF TLS 80

 

[SuperGiraffe]

I completely agree with Markl and DarkAngel. I love listenting to the 'phones, but I love listening to my main system more.

I may hear slightly more of every little bit of detail with the 'phones on, but my two-channel rig takes the cake for realism in sound. I'm not just talking about bass impact; rather, its a naturalness thing. When I put on a well-recorded piece of music on the main speakers, the performer(s) is right there in my living room. For example, listening the "Ophelia" disc on speakers, Natalie Merchant is sitting in my living room, and the details, rather than calling attention to themselves like they can do on the headphones, simply serve to make the music sound more real.

I'm a big fan of the Dynaudio sound -- if you want great monitors under $1000, I highly recommend the Audience 52. Only caveat, they need power to sound their best, and they're 4 ohms. Essentially neutral in tone and very articulate with great bass for such a small speaker, especially if you feed them enough current. I have Audience 60 floorstanders paired with a REL Strata III, both items being chosen after extensive research and listening. I bought the Dyns a couple of years ago, and the REL fairly recently to fill in the bottom octave.

BTW, if you have the money, Dynaudio is releasing new speakers in the Contour line, and you may be able to cut a deal with a dealer on the older models -- the 1.3SE is quite special, IMHO. Of course, there are a lot of other nice speakers out there too. I heard recently a demo with the Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage and, though not as impactful as the Dynaudio line is, generally, the mids were to die for.

 

[markl]

Heh heh, of course there's also the forthcoming PSB Stratus Platinums. I saw a pic from a tradeshow in a mag. DROOOOOOOOOLLLLLL!!!!! OH MY GOD! !!!! Dual 10" woofers, a ribbon supertweeter for DVD-A/SACD, ultra esoteric drivers/cones of unknown material, and a really sexy cabinet. I had to get some air and a cold drink of water.

Sure, they could be all mine for a mere projected street price of $8000 dollars.

Mark

 

[Wodgy]

My own personal preference is to get decent floorstanding speakers rather than small bookshelves and a subwoofer. I sold my sub when I moved to the Century 500is, which are basically very small floorstanders. It usually works out to be cheaper in the end, since the amps inside many cheaper subs (excluding the HSU VTF series) are mediocre, and you should definitely be getting a good amp for your main speakers. Also, you don't spend your life fiddling with the crossover point and volume if you don't have a subwoofer.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally posted by Wodgy ... Also, you don't spend your life fiddling with the crossover point and volume if you don't have a subwoofer.

Yeah, you just lose the bottom end.

My floor standing Jamos, even with their 8" woofers, don't have any guts at all. I am so glad they came with a dedicated sub. Took about 10 minutes to find the right spot and adjust the volume and phase. It has sat since, and I've been totally happy with it.

 

[grohan]

A small monitor is hard to beat when is about imaging. Also, the smallest the box, the less boxy will sound...Unless big bucks are spend on a floorstander the results will usually not be outstanding. Of course, many monitors will lack in the bottom end...One that has plenty of bass while being as neutral as it gets is the Dynaudio Contour 1.3MKII/SE. In a small/medium room there is no need for a sub- the SEs can go down to 35hz...but they need a beefy amplifier.

 

[Wodgy]

Mmmm, I should check out those Dynaudio Contour 1.3MKII/SEs sometime.

 

[drewski]

While an inexpensive sub may not be the answer, a decent sub like a REL or Vandersteen sub makes all the differences in the world. Mids require relatively little cone movement, where bass requires lots of air to be moved. Having one driver try to produce both the mids and highs is less than ideal. When you add a sub, you lessen the work of the woofer, creating better mids. Also, with the bass being in a separate enclosure, there's much less resonance in the cabinet, which in turn results less distortion in the highs and in the mids. You also lessen the distortion from your amp if your system is properly crossed over before it gets to the amplifier.

So there's more to subs than just bass!

 

[SuperGiraffe]

When I set up the REL, I used an Infinity RABOS, basically a SPL meter specifically tuned for low frequencies with a test disc with one-third octave test-tones and a bunch of blank graphs to help you set it up. It took me a while to get the right settings for the flattest response, but its been locked in ever since. One of the biggest advantages I realized by adding the REL to the system was that it apparently broke up a standing wave in the room which was giving about a 5+ decibel peak at around 80 hz. The peak is completely gone with the REL in the mix, even though it is crossed over at around 30 hz, and the bass response is much smoother in that area. That and bass now measures strong below 30 hz (down about 8 db at 20 hz in my room). So now I have flatter and deeper bass. I decided on the REL because of the flexibility in hooking it up and the ease with which it blends to speakers. The fact that the Dyns aren't running through a high pass filter doesn't seem to affect them -- they never showed any signs of strain when played loud, they just lacked a bit in that bottom octave and a half of bass. Whatever (normal) speakers you choose, I recommend a REL if you want just that little bit of extra guts without ruining the rest of the sound. Of course if you're splurging on something like the Dynaudio Evidence Masters, a REL would seem pretty silly.

I was very interested in auditioning the Vandersteen subs too (similar price range to the REL I got), but no dealers in NYC! Weird, huh?