[thasneakershop]

Dont get Scansonic S5 Active. Recently bought 1 pair. The 3.5mm port is swapped left/right (The speaker is designed to have the powered one on the left so if you swap the position of the speakers to fix the 3.5mm port problem, the "balance" button would be swapped).

Had contacted the manufacturer and he wouldnt give a damn.

don't they have warranty

 

[cheungtsw]

It is a design issue. All the new one @ the stores have the same issues.

I had emailed the manufacturer and they wont care less so good luck if you buy their products.

 

[Whazzzup]

Kef 300A

 

[Dragonix jin]

Get KEF X300 !!! totally worth it!!

i tried my friend swan and the kef is totally on a different league

better soundstage and more accurate sounds

i am saving to get the LS50 Wireless that just launched

 

[canali]

Get KEF X300 !!! totally worth it!!

i tried my friend swan and the kef is totally on a different league

better soundstage and more accurate sounds

i am saving to get the LS50 Wireless that just launched

i heard those kef ws ls50...must say i wasn't that impressed.
maybe the room facing the room was too open...also untreated.

i am looking at some dynaudio xeo 2 or xeo 4...or other.

 

[JSands82]

I am currently using the Polk RTi A1, and they sound amazing. I have a small sony receiver powered to them hooked up via HDMI or Optical connection to my rig.

 

[HiCZoK]

Anyone have mackie cr3?
I love these speakers and have them for few months now. They look perfect on desk, sound fantastic and are just super convenient just to use with e10k. I don't even feel a need for subwoofer, cause there is plent of bass as it is!

Anyway - besides me recommending them I wanted to ask, if people are also turning them off with switch on the back instead of only using switch in volume knob?
They electrically buzz when volume switch is turned off but back switch is on. Once the back switch is "switched off" the buzzing stops. It's not audible in audio during use at all but I am just wondering if the amp inside can fry or somehow damage?

 

[Digitalis]

i heard those kef ws ls50...must say i wasn't that impressed.

I wasn't impressed by Kef's sub 2K 2 way speakers either - having a tweeter in a coaxial arrangement like that looks like a bad idea, you would have major issues with diffraction especially with the woofer fapping about. If you have a subwoofer they would be passable at high volumes with a higher crossover around 90~80hz. They would be great for near-field I suspect...look elsewhere if you want speakers for HT applications.

Anyone have mackie cr3?

I looked at these but quickly dismissed them due to (1) the first order crossover (2) below par build quality (3) they have an aggressive mid-bass hump around 150~200Hz. They are advertised as studio monitors: due to their lack of regard for linearity, woe be to the musician who uses mackie CR3's for that purpose.

JBL LS305's are still the best choice for out of the box perfection when it comes to powered speakers on a budget.

 

[justhavingfun]

It seems like there are many fine speakers that can be used for computer desktop speaker duty. I mainly use my headphone rigs when I am at the computer desk, mainly due to quality computer desktop speakers are difficult find when you consider cost, size and sound quality. Yes you can spend very large sum of money to obtain those mega bucks studio monitors and such but when I wanted to listen to music little more critically I use my main two channel stereo setup, not in my computer desk. I think I find the perfect balance to fit my needs for computer desktop speaker duty. I recently had a chance to bought a pair of used powered speaker Airmotive 4 (older pair not the new one) for very decent price. My audio chains are: computer Windows 10 desktop or Teac CD player PD-H300mkIII > Emotiva Stealth DC-1>Airmotive 4 (using balanced cables). What a wonderful sounding set of speakers for the near-field listening. I listen this setup in very low volume and it gives me everything what I need for desktop duty. Currently I am listening to BB King blue CD "Blues On The Bayou" encoded in FLAC file to the hard drive. Nice balanced sound from surprisingly deep bass note to sparkling high notes with wonderful mellow voice of BB King and his guitar solos. I just received the Airmotive 4 today and quickly set it up and been listening to the music ever since. Finally my headphones and my head will get some rest while I enjoy this speakers. It is little too early to predict but as far as I know, my search for suitable computer desktop speakers are over. Of course there are much better desktop speakers out there but for my current need, this will fit nicely.

 

[Pharmaboy]

It seems like there are many fine speakers that can be used for computer desktop speaker duty. I mainly use my headphone rigs when I am at the computer desk, mainly due to quality computer desktop speakers are difficult find when you consider cost, size and sound quality. Yes you can spend very large sum of money to obtain those mega bucks studio monitors and such but when I wanted to listen to music little more critically I use my main two channel stereo setup, not in my computer desk. I think I find the perfect balance to fit my needs for computer desktop speaker duty. I recently had a chance to bought a pair of used powered speaker Airmotive 4 (older pair not the new one) for very decent price. My audio chains are: computer Windows 10 desktop or Teac CD player PD-H300mkIII > Emotiva Stealth DC-1>Airmotive 4 (using balanced cables). What a wonderful sounding set of speakers for the near-field listening. I listen this setup in very low volume and it gives me everything what I need for desktop duty. Currently I am listening to BB King blue CD "Blues On The Bayou" encoded in FLAC file to the hard drive. Nice balanced sound from surprisingly deep bass note to sparkling high notes with wonderful mellow voice of BB King and his guitar solos. I just received the Airmotive 4 today and quickly set it up and been listening to the music ever since. Finally my headphones and my head will get some rest while I enjoy this speakers. It is little too early to predict but as far as I know, my search for suitable computer desktop speakers are over. Of course there are much better desktop speakers out there but for my current need, this will fit nicely.

I did many months of research on powered monitors that also happen to sound good. That's surprisingly hard to suss out...many users of powered monitors--being studio pros--are less concerned with how they sound, than how they function in making of audio "mixes," so the great majority of user comments for powered monitors talk about literally anything/everything EXCEPT how they sound (!?!).

I compiled detailed info on a number of powered monitors. My physical criteria included at least a 6" woofer and a depth no more than 11.5". Many models that interested me greatly were just too large for the desktop.

I ended up with ZenPro modded Yamaha HS7s. Not perfect...there are upper midrange tonality issues, though not fatal/impossible to live with. These monitors do a great many things very well indeed.

If anyone is interested in this topic, I can list some of the powered monitors that interested me most.

BTW, I was very interested in the AirMotiv 6's, but they were too large/deep for my desktop. Quite a few powered monitors have heil tweeters, but few are said to sound musical; this was one of the few.

 

[theveterans]

I ended up with ZenPro modded Yamaha HS7s. Not perfect...there are upper midrange tonality issues, though not fatal/impossible to live with. These monitors do a great many things very well indeed.

If anyone is interested in this topic, I can list some of the powered monitors that interested me most.

BTW, I was very interested in the AirMotiv 6's, but they were too large/deep for my desktop. Quite a few powered monitors have heil tweeters, but few are said to sound musical; this was one of the few.

What kind of upper mid-range tonality issues are you having with the HS7? My stock HS7s never sounded "unnatural", "thin", "harsh", "metallic" in any of the upper midrange frequency range. I find it sounding just right to my ears. Maybe it's my tube preamp providing less edginess in the upper mids.

 

[justhavingfun]

One of the main reason that I didn't consider bigger sized Airmotive 5,6 were due to their physical size which will dominate my desktop space. I didn't want my desktop space totally dominated by sheer size of these speakers. Yamaha HS7 seems very popular for computer speaker duty and I was seriously considered Audioengine A5+ but I saw the "for sale" Airmotive 4 and I took the chance and it turned out to be very good fit for my need. It gets plenty loud enough with clean sound for nearfield listening for sure and it has balanced input which I like.

 

[Pharmaboy]

I've heard this quality of the midrange, particularly upper midrange, described as "shouty," and that's as good a description of it as anything.

The good news is that far more audio information is reproduced by the midrange of the HS7 than I've heard before in powered speakers. We've all heard cheap powered speakers, also cheap bookshelf speakers (2-way designs). None of that prepared me for what the HS7's do in the midrange. It's mostly a good thing...more information = more clarity and more instrumental timbre/tonality being reproduced (I've heard a comparable effect from high-quality headphones, where the midrange becomes a large, lively, resonant space). Another benefit of this midrange "presence" is that low-volume listening (90% of what I do in home office) is far clearer and more "present" than speakers I've used before on the desktop. I'm not used to be ably to hear music so clearly, even at very low volume (and now in the warm months, with a somewhat muted air conditioner adding its white noise overlay).

The downside is that when I crank the volume, the midrange quickly becomes hard to take...drawing attention to itself. It's not quite as simple as sounding "thin," or "glary" (I've had components that were outright bright from lower midrange all the way--but that's not really the issue here). It's as if a plateau of midrange frequencies is somewhat elevated (3-6 dB? just guessing). It's broad & shallow enough to not sound like a "treble spike" (I've heard that before, and it's not that).

I have a very complicated desktop system, which means I've been able to test the sound of the HS7s with a variety of sources (different DACs; different HP amp/preamps) and wiring configurations. This "shouty" sound is present at loud volumes in all connection schemes & with all components (to varying degrees). I heard it the least when I directly connected the balanced outputs of my Violectric V281 to the inputs of the HS7's. The sound out of the HS7s was slightly more relaxed and refined sounding that way at all volumes, but still could get edgy at loud volumes.

I used the HF setting on the back of each HS7 to drop the level from 2 kHz on up by 2 dB. That helped somewhat--but the plateau of elevated sound in the midrange remains, just being 2 dB lower now in comparison to the lows.

Net/net, the good outweighs the bad. It doesn't hurt that these speakers are very good looking IMO and fit my desktop so well. But still, when I'm in the mood to really crank it, I have to be careful.

PS: a tube preamp may well ameliorate this effect, either by altering tonality, or by distracting from it via heightendd soundstaging in the midrange (or both).

As for your HS7s sounding just right to you, we can never underestimate the magnitude of personal differences. Other might hear my system and be in heaven, even at the higher volumes. Different people show differing sensitivity to tonal anomalies. I'm very averse to elevated treble, for example; and many people welcome it.

 

[theveterans]

Thanks for your detailed description sir. I have my HF dropped by 2db on treble as well and maybe depending on our hearing, the same tone might sound different from one person and the other. My ears are a bit off center with the tweeters and that's probably why I don't perceive that shouty upper mids. My tube preamp definitely increased the soundstage as if it sounds mellower on some songs and shoutier on some songs as well, but overall I prefer the spatial effect of the tubes compared to the more direct sound of the solid state preamp / passive preamp.

 

[Pharmaboy]

Thanks for your detailed description sir. I have my HF dropped by 2db on treble as well and maybe depending on our hearing, the same tone might sound different from one person and the other. My ears are a bit off center with the tweeters and that's probably why I don't perceive that shouty upper mids. My tube preamp definitely increased the soundstage as if it sounds mellower on some songs and shoutier on some songs as well, but overall I prefer the spatial effect of the tubes compared to the more direct sound of the solid state preamp / passive preamp.

Yes, tubes are quite awesome for subtly shaping the tonal response and soundstaging of any audio system. Years ago I had all-tube preamp + amps for my big living room system; the only SS was the 200 wpc amp that drove the subs. The combination of all those tubes (good, well-designed gear) + very good-sounding speakers was pretty magical. All the notes from the upper bass on up had a 3D/"reach out and touch them" quality.

But on the desktop (in a space-constrained home office), I've been reluctant to get tubed devices--not least for the preamp/line out duties, where tubes would do the most good. That's because I have the system on 12+ hrs/day, making tubes iffy in terms of lifespan...not to mention heat (already a lot of gear here, so more load for the AC).

2 points I forgot to make last night re sound of the HS7s:

1. My HS7s are not stock. They're ZenPro modded new HS7s. I certainly wouldn't expect these mods to harm their sound--quite the opposite. Plus, the things they did (recap or bypass capacitors w/better ones; replaced opamps w/better ones; disconnect the electronic limiter circult for midrange) are the kind of straight-ahead sound improvement tactics that routinely improve sound. The few comments I read from owners of these modded HS7s or HS8s (and the 1-2 comments about before & after sound) were all positive.
2. And that "shouty" quality in the midrange that I spoke of is only partially a tonal phenomenon. There's also a quality of enhanced/excessive soundstaging in that same raised plateau of upper midrange frequencies, almost to the point of being echoey or "boomy." This recording-dependent: cuts that have a lot of spatial cues in the midrange tend to exhibit this boomy sound more than those that don't.

It's kind of mystifying, really.

Listening to the HS7s at low volume now (streaming classical from Europe)--and it really sounds great. So it's definitely a mixed bag w/these monitors.