Need help choosing column speakers

[romain]

Hi,

I’m looking for a pair of column speakers to pair up with a Denon AVC X4800H. I will use them for both music and movies. At some point I will add a central speaker, satellites and possibly a subwoofer if needed.

My room is approximately 25m3. The speakers will be positioned 3 meters from each other, with a screen in between them. There’s only 50cm on either side of the screen, so the walls on the sides will be pretty close (I can move the speakers forward to increase the distance with the wall behind but not by much since the main listening position will be a couch 3 meters from the screen).

With that in mind I was thinking maybe speakers with front vents, or closed cabinets would be preferable. Would you agree with that?

I would like to spend less than €4,000, preferably less than €3,000. I’m located in France. Here are a few models that I see readily available (prices are for a pair, from least expensive to most expensive). I have literally no idea what considerations should guide my choice, other than the one just mentioned, I'm basically completely lost, so ANY help is welcome.

• FYNE AUDIO F501 - €1,300
• GOLDENEAR Triton Seven - €1,400
• SVS Prime Tower - €1,400
• TRIANGLE Borea BR10 - €1,500
• GOLDENEAR Triton Three+ - €1,500
• FOCAL Theva N°3-D - €1,580
• AUDIOVECTOR QR3 - €1,580
• HECO Aurora 1000 - €1,600
• KLIPSCH RP-8000F II 2022 edition - €1,600
• MAGNAT Monitor Reference 5A - €1,600
• MONITOR AUDIO Silver 200 7G - €1,750
• FOCAL Vestia N°4 - €1,790 (heavily discounted apparently, not sure why)
• MAGNEPAN LRS+ - €1,795
• GOLDENEAR Triton Five - €1,800
• HECO Aurora 900 AM - €1,800
• POLK AUDIO R600 - €1,800
• TRIANGLE Antal Series EZ - €1,800
• BLUMENHOFER Fun 13 MKII - €1,800
• MARTINLOGAN Foundation F1 - €1,990
• JMR Lunna - €1,990
• REGA Aya - €1,990
• DALI Ipticon 6 MK2 - €2,000
• SVS Prime Pinnacle Tower - €2,100
• KELINAC 314G - €2,150
• GOLDENEAR Triton Two+ - €2,200
• SONUS FABER Lumina III - €2,200
• MONITOR AUDIO Silver 300 7G - €2,300
• B&W 603 S3 - €2,300
• ELIPSON Heritage XLS 15 - €2,380
• KLIPSCH RP-8060FA II - €2,580
• PMC Prodigy5 - €2,690
• POLK AUDIO R700 - €2,700 (small discount possible)
• MARTINLOGAN Foundation F2 - €2,760
• AUDIOVECTOR QR5 - €2,780
• MONITOR AUDIO Silver 500 7G - €2,790
• BLUMENHOFER Fun 17 MKII - €2,900
• SONUS Faber Lumina V - €2,900
• DYNAUDIO Evoke 30 - €2,950
• TRIANGLE Australe EZ - €3,000 (small discount possible)
• AMPHION 520 - €3,000
• GOLDENEAR Triton One-R - €3,180
• DAVIS Courbet N°5 - €3,200
• JMR Euterpe Jubile - €3,250
• FOCAL Aria Evo N°2 - €3,400 (small discount possible)
• MARTINLOGAN Motion F10 - €3,460
• B&W 704 S3 - €3,490
• HECO Celan Revolution 7 - €3,500
• SVS Ultra Evolution Tower - €3,600
• FOCAL Aria Evo X N°3 - €4,000 (small discount possible)
• MAGNAT Signature 999 - €4,000
• AMPHION Argon 3LS - €4,000
• KELINA 714 MG - €4,150
• HECO Celan Revolution 7 - €4,200
• BLUMENHOFER Tempesta 17 - €4,250

What would you recommend? Obviously, I didn’t check every single hi-fi retailer in my country, so other suggestions are more than welcome

 

[axle_69]

If you want towers, you can try the Arendal 1723 S, they have a 60 day trial period at home, measure relatively well, have low distortion and cabinets are rigid/heavy. It may work better to go with bookshelfs and subwoofers but subwoofers take a lot of space.
50 cm left to each side is not much, that means the speaker will be almost against the side wall. If the distance between the centre of the driver and a reflection surface is less than 86 cm (5 ms) we perceive the reflection as part of the sound. A closed cabinet requires more internal volume and low frequencies will spread in all directions closed or not.
You may consider other options like an in-wall speaker slightly angled in the corner and absorption in the side walls, or to make a angled wall in the 50 cm left and install speakers designed to be against the wall like the Lyndorf FR-2.
There is a comparison between the Arendal 1723 S towers and the Focal Sopra 2 where they could not tell the difference. I think that's because as long as you have a speaker that does nothing wrong what you will hear is mostly the room and not the speaker, only after having a properly treated room you start to hear differences between speakers.

 

[romain]

Thanks! What distance would you say your average closed cabinet/front vent speaker needs to be from the side walls? 50 cm on each side actually gives me a bit more than 50cm to play with because the speakers are not placed directly in front of the back wall and when sitting in a central position, they do not obstruct the view even with a bit of an overlap.

 

[axle_69]

A reflection at less than 4-5 ms and sounds get muddier because the brain cannot identify the reflection as a reflection. The vent itself does not need a distance that is more than the diameter of the vent, but the distance to the front wall will reinforce some frequencies and attenuate others, you can take a look at Genelec's recommendations to see the effect on frequency. Ideally speakers wouldn't be less than 1 m to the side walls but that isn't always possible, with some absorption/scattering in the wall and increasing the angle of the speaker you may get away with less. One option is to cross the speakers in front of you and not behind as usual, to increase the angle.The distance to the front wall will have to be a balance between reinforcing the bass too much or too little, getting a null in the seating position and the time (and intensity) at which the first reflection arrives. It may also depend on the construction of the house (e.g. nordic houses usually are bass traps).