REVIEW: Swan T200B Desktop Monitors
May 16, 2011 at 6:02 AM Post #16 of 74
I'm hoping the Focal CMS 50s I'm going to get are going to have enough low end to let me hear everything in dubstep, as I do listen to a fair bit of it. Not so fussed about subwoofer test tracks, although they're fun, as they're in another realm altogether. Nothing more annoying that a bass line cutting out during certain notes, it takes me out of the song completely.
 
May 16, 2011 at 11:44 AM Post #17 of 74
Those are okay songs to test the t200b speakers with. I own them. I completely disagree with your bass could be overpowering statement.
 
The bass remains tight, clear, and accurate. I'm a jukebox player, so I listen to all music from Acoustic (the speakers really shine with this), to electronic music (all sub-genres within), classical, jazz, game and so on and so forth.
 
These speakers stay true to accurate sound, feel free to EQ because of that. There has been no distortion when bringing up bass, mids, or highs (unlike my Senns which is best to leave the EQ alone). It certainly sounds great with my electronic music. Dubstep or electro house certainly doesn't lack any punch or power, trance remains clear, and electronica will have every flaw revealed (it's really easy to hear badly mastered songs). Their strength really shines when it comes to piano, acoustic, and orchestral. Their clarity is unmatched in my experience of active computer speakers. They remained fun listening to my music like my epic orchestral collection without sounding analytical.
 
Something I wish it did was made it easier to match the separate volume control on each speaker. You can keep turning right as much as you can, it won't stop. So you can easily lose your place and it clears what volume setting you're using when you turn it off. So I just keep on all the time on max and use my pre-amp as volume control.
 
My equipment is my Mac Pro -> Digital Out -> Keces DA-151 -> Cayin HA-1A ->t200b/HD-650
 

 
May 16, 2011 at 4:35 PM Post #20 of 74


Do you have any experience with lower Swan models?
Quote:
Those are okay songs to test the t200b speakers with. I own them. I completely disagree with your bass could be overpowering statement.
 
The bass remains tight, clear, and accurate. I'm a jukebox player, so I listen to all music from Acoustic (the speakers really shine with this), to electronic music (all sub-genres within), classical, jazz, game and so on and so forth.
 
These speakers stay true to accurate sound, feel free to EQ because of that. There has been no distortion when bringing up bass, mids, or highs (unlike my Senns which is best to leave the EQ alone). It certainly sounds great with my electronic music. Dubstep or electro house certainly doesn't lack any punch or power, trance remains clear, and electronica will have every flaw revealed (it's really easy to hear badly mastered songs). Their strength really shines when it comes to piano, acoustic, and orchestral. Their clarity is unmatched in my experience of active computer speakers. They remained fun listening to my music like my epic orchestral collection without sounding analytical.
 
Something I wish it did was made it easier to match the separate volume control on each speaker. You can keep turning right as much as you can, it won't stop. So you can easily lose your place and it clears what volume setting you're using when you turn it off. So I just keep on all the time on max and use my pre-amp as volume control.
 
My equipment is my Mac Pro -> Digital Out -> Keces DA-151 -> Cayin HA-1A ->t200b/HD-650
 



 
 
May 17, 2011 at 12:31 AM Post #23 of 74
I think I'm going to buy some cement mix and encase my credit cards with them. I bought the M200KIII's not too long ago and have been enjoying them immensely. Hearing that the T200B is a step up in the mids and treble is giving me serious considerations especially since I'm a huge fan of orchestral. Hivi's US HQ is located about 5 miles away from me, I'm very tempted to give them a call.
 
I swear, headfi burns money faster than a bad cocaine habit.
 
May 17, 2011 at 12:57 AM Post #25 of 74
X2  hahahha I agree

 
Quote:
I think I'm going to buy some cement mix and encase my credit cards with them. I bought the M200KIII's not too long ago and have been enjoying them immensely. Hearing that the T200B is a step up in the mids and treble is giving me serious considerations especially since I'm a huge fan of orchestral. Hivi's US HQ is located about 5 miles away from me, I'm very tempted to give them a call.
 
I swear, headfi burns money faster than a bad cocaine habit.



 
 
May 18, 2011 at 2:51 AM Post #27 of 74


Quote:
ahh ok. and would you say they're (M10) far worse than T200B?


 
Yes. If it wasn't, you'd be nuts to buy the T200B.
The truth is, the M10 is argued to be the overall best entry-level hifi speakers to go with for the value, but the T200B is not even close to entry-level.  It's the opposite.  The T200B has been Swan's flagship monitors for a while, and the M10 was one of the lowest priced Swan speakers, so just from a price standpoint within Swan's lineup, it should be the biggest difference possible. 
Unfortunately, there is such thing as law of diminishing returns so if value is your main concern but you prefer 2.0 speakers setup, D1010MKII 08 and D1080MKII 08 are excellent monitors with very high performance/price ratios. 
 
Juman231: My advice for you is if your budget allows, go with the M200 series like you originally planned.  They are the classic Swan speakers for a reason.  The sound is more refined (compared to D1080MKII 08), as they have been engineered and updated for a decade now.  I have heard the entire Swan multimedia lineup, and the M200MKII is what is on my desk at home.  I would have chose the M200MKIII but the M200MKII is louder than I will ever need it to be for my home office. The M200MKIII packs almost double the power and a couple of new features.  For detailed differences between M200MKII and M200MKIII, refer to Post #5 in this thread.
 
Paul
Lockware Systems
 
May 19, 2011 at 12:02 AM Post #28 of 74
Quote:
Those are okay songs to test the t200b speakers with. I own them. I completely disagree with your bass could be overpowering statement.
 
The bass remains tight, clear, and accurate. I'm a jukebox player, so I listen to all music from Acoustic (the speakers really shine with this), to electronic music (all sub-genres within), classical, jazz, game and so on and so forth.
 
These speakers stay true to accurate sound, feel free to EQ because of that. There has been no distortion when bringing up bass, mids, or highs (unlike my Senns which is best to leave the EQ alone). It certainly sounds great with my electronic music. Dubstep or electro house certainly doesn't lack any punch or power, trance remains clear, and electronica will have every flaw revealed (it's really easy to hear badly mastered songs). Their strength really shines when it comes to piano, acoustic, and orchestral. Their clarity is unmatched in my experience of active computer speakers. They remained fun listening to my music like my epic orchestral collection without sounding analytical.
 
Something I wish it did was made it easier to match the separate volume control on each speaker. You can keep turning right as much as you can, it won't stop. So you can easily lose your place and it clears what volume setting you're using when you turn it off. So I just keep on all the time on max and use my pre-amp as volume control.
 
My equipment is my Mac Pro -> Digital Out -> Keces DA-151 -> Cayin HA-1A ->t200b/HD-650
 



I agree with you 100%, I'm editing it as I go along, these speakers tend to get better everyday LOL, the distortion in metal is actually sounding really nice, I'll be changing my review shortly.
 
However, if you listen to say some parkway drive, or some dethklok, the double bass tends to resonate in alot of cases. It sounds nice when you get used to it, however its meant for a sub.
 
Listen to L no Kabe (google it on mediafire or youtube, mediafire would be a better choice as its better quality mp3), the bass on that is extremely tight and accurate.
 
I changed my review on the bass a bit, its more specific however I stand by that statement. I have messed around with the EQ and metal does considerably get better when you eq the bass down, but at the cost of losing the double bass punch.
 
Its hard to find much info, although I'm naive on this field, I assuming your dac is better then my AVR's dac. So you may be getting it a lot clearer (although I could be wrong, I've never said to myself I need a better dac with this thing xD) then me. I can't find any real info on keces (as in product page, prices).
 
Quote:
I'm hoping the Focal CMS 50s I'm going to get are going to have enough low end to let me hear everything in dubstep, as I do listen to a fair bit of it. Not so fussed about subwoofer test tracks, although they're fun, as they're in another realm altogether. Nothing more annoying that a bass line cutting out during certain notes, it takes me out of the song completely.


 
When I had my MK's, they performed quite well for dubstep. I didn't have the feeling of cutting certain notes, it actually produced the low frequencies clear, however, the lowest song for dubsynth was shambala system check (that I've listened to on those speakers).
 
I checked out the Focal CMS 50s, they seem to go down to 55z which is where my speakers are rated.
 
The swan MKIII's (although listed down to 53hz) tend to go down even a bit lower and are still loud enough. These if anything should outperform the Focal CMS 50's in almost all aspects (although not hearing the focal's, but looking at them, I feel the MK's have all around better drivers and electronics, including the xover). As I stated before. Swan is tending to move towards better low end drivers to satisfy a more general public, the low end out out performs my T200b's.
 
The thing is though, dubstep usually is just designed for a sub, I mean... think about it.
 
May 19, 2011 at 7:13 AM Post #29 of 74
The Swans aren't available in my country. The Focals should be 'good enough', they have won several awards and are often stated to be some of the best monitors you can buy for under £1000. They're also front-ported too, which is a requirement given the limitations of my current desk set up (it's built into a big wooden cupboard). Finally, they have several filter controls on the back for the purpose of room correction, so I  should be able to achieve fairly natural performance despite the room not being full of sound treatment (although I may invest in a little bit).
 
You get the most out of dubstep with a sub... well, in a club where it's rattling your teeth, but I still enjoy listening to it and only being able to hear the bass rather than feel it - not everything in dubstep is the 'brostep', skank around to Transformer noises stuff, some of it's quite relaxing or laid back - so as long as I can hear everything that's going on, that's the main thing.
 
May 19, 2011 at 7:39 AM Post #30 of 74


Quote:
The Swans aren't available in my country. The Focals should be 'good enough', they have won several awards and are often stated to be some of the best monitors you can buy for under £1000. They're also front-ported too, which is a requirement given the limitations of my current desk set up (it's built into a big wooden cupboard). Finally, they have several filter controls on the back for the purpose of room correction, so I  should be able to achieve fairly natural performance despite the room not being full of sound treatment (although I may invest in a little bit).
 
You get the most out of dubstep with a sub... well, in a club where it's rattling your teeth, but I still enjoy listening to it and only being able to hear the bass rather than feel it - not everything in dubstep is the 'brostep', skank around to Transformer noises stuff, some of it's quite relaxing or laid back - so as long as I can hear everything that's going on, that's the main thing.


 

lol you :p don't lie even in Belgium and the netherland there is 1 shop  sale it :)
 

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