Best measuring speaker?

[flipflop]

Aside from Kii and D&D, what are the other 8+?

(Not being sarcastic; I’m close to pulling the trigger on the LX for my desktop)

You can find the rankings here: https://www.spinorama.org/scores.html?quality=High
Ascend Acoustics Sierra-LX is ranked #11.
The top 10 speakers are all more expensive.

 

[Tom C]

Spinoroma is very misleading in what's the better measuring speaker. It gives high scores to speakers that only have constant direcitivty in the higher frequencies and that arent broadband constant, and it disregards how a speaker interacts with the room in regard to boundaries. And then there are areas like IMD distortion, coherency/time domain behaviour, thermal compression, etc. which it also ignores.

The result is that you can have a speaker that scores lower in a spinorama vs another but ends up measuring much more even when it's placed in an actual room. And also be better in other audible and important areas compared to the one that scored higher.

I thought the off-axis measurements (the “spin” in spinorama) were related to perceived sound at the listening position after the speaker’s output reflects off the room boundaries. Is that not the case?

 

[JAJDACT]

You can find the rankings here: https://www.spinorama.org/scores.html?quality=High
Ascend Acoustics Sierra-LX is ranked #11.
The top 10 speakers are all more expensive.

Also the LX ranks second for passive speakers.

 

[PatentLawyer]

You can find the rankings here: https://www.spinorama.org/scores.html?quality=High
Ascend Acoustics Sierra-LX is ranked #11.
The top 10 speakers are all more expensive.

Also the LX ranks second for passive speakers.

I think that’s how I was thinking about it, but appreciate that flipflop pointed me to the place for the data.

 

[JAJDACT]

I think that’s how I was thinking about it, but appreciate that flipflop pointed me to the place for the data.

It's ranked first for passive with eq and a sub. I have three of them for my LCR. I don't have a ton of experience with high-end speakers but I directly demoed them against BMR's and the first gen KEF R3's,as well as a pair of CSS Criton 1TDX's I built last year and they won out for me based on a few personal preferences. I have nothing negative to say about them,except for maybe the plain jane aesthetics. Build quality is excellent though.

 

[jonfitch]

You can find the rankings here: https://www.spinorama.org/scores.html?quality=High
Ascend Acoustics Sierra-LX is ranked #11.
The top 10 speakers are all more expensive.

The Sierra LX is ranked #1 with a sub. It's a small bookshelf speaker with limited bass extension compared to the others which are all bigger. Depending on use case, such as in a small room, bass can simply be EQed since it's below the room transition frequency. In a larger room you're gonna need subs even if you are pairing with those more expensive $8-12k monitors.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Could certainly make an argument for the Kii Audio Three. Having cardoid bass control down to 100Hz is invaluable in rooms without serious acoustic treatment.

If we are talking passive speakers, probably KEF Reference 5 Meta. We already know the Reference 1 Meta has arguably the best coaxial mid/tweeter, adding more woofers just serves to bring the distortion lower at the cost of some lobing in the vertical off-axis.

It isn't worth judging the performance of speakers below 50Hz IMO. Bass is hugely influenced by the room, and managing room modes with subwoofers is much easier than with tower speakers alone.

better than the coaxial on the Genelec Ones ?

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

You can find the rankings here: https://www.spinorama.org/scores.html?quality=High
Ascend Acoustics Sierra-LX is ranked #11.
The top 10 speakers are all more expensive.

Please keep in mind, there is a lot of speakers not there. For example there is not the kef muon or kef blade metas, etc.

 

[sweetchaos]

Please keep in mind, there is a lot of speakers not there. For example there is not the kef muon or kef blade metas, etc.

Kef Blade Metas are there, but you have to change the URL to show all data sources (not just those from Klippel NFS).

Use this link instead:

Ranking table of speaker's measurements

www.spinorama.org

 

[flipflop]

The Sierra LX is ranked #1 with a sub.

Sure, tied with 5 other speakers.
Although OP seems to be asking about the best speaker without a sub since he mentioned "going deep in bass".

bass can simply be EQed since it's below the room transition frequency.

You can also EQ above the transition frequency by using anechoic data.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

Kef Blade Metas are there, but you have to change the URL to show all data sources (not just those from Klippel NFS).

Use this link instead:

Ranking table of speaker's measurements

www.spinorama.org

haha lmao the best measuring speaker is the ls60 xD

 

[Ron Texas]

Preference scores tell you nothing about dynamic range.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

is not a sourprise at all after seeying this graph from a user

KEF LS60 Wireless Just Announced

Just unpacked my LS60’s and the first listen was good! They are very entertaining speakers. Upper midrange is very good, make a big stage. But… it is in many other places not an upgrade for my dali epicon 6 with Marantz sacd30n and model 30. Although i think that the Epicon 6 would perform...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[JAJDACT]

Preference scores tell you nothing about dynamic range.

Serious question,whats the best way to measure or determine dynamic range from reading measurements? Other than Erin's compression tests or distortion measurements.

 

[Sancus]

Serious question,whats the best way to measure or determine dynamic range from reading measurements?

Distortion and compression measurements(when done, Erin does them mainly, not many others).

But the reality is it's mostly just cabinet size and woofer area. There's not a huge difference in output among similarly sized speakers. You might get like 3-6dB more from a speaker that costs thousands vs one that costs hundreds, but that's about it.

 

[Ron Texas]

Serious question,whats the best way to measure or determine dynamic range from reading measurements? Other than Erin's compression tests or distortion measurements.

I can't give you a technical answer. What I do know is Toole and Olive did everything at matched volume. That means one can't compare a pair of small bookshelves to big floor standers. Those small bookshelves have to be compared to other small bookshelves. Also, never underestimate how difficult it is to add a sub to small bookshelves, especially when their mid/woofer is 5" or smaller. I've been down that road. Let's say it was educational.

 

[JAJDACT]

I can't give you a technical answer. What I do know is Toole and Olive did everything at matched volume. That means one can't compare a pair of small bookshelves to big floor standers. Those small bookshelves have to be compared to other small bookshelves. Also, never underestimate how difficult it is to add a sub to small bookshelves, especially when their mid/woofer is 5" or smaller. I've been down that road. Let's say it was educational.

I can attest to the sub integration. I have dual 15" subs and finding the best sub placement,seating placement and speaker placement was challenging to get proper integration as well as the smoothest response. Audyssey Multi EQ-X and REW made it a little easier but it was still a lot of trial and error.

 

[Ron Texas]

I can attest to the sub integration. I have dual 15" subs and finding the best sub placement,seating placement and speaker placement was challenging to get proper integration as well as the smoothest response. Audyssey Multi EQ-X and REW made it a little easier but it was still a lot of trial and error.

Without a measurement microphone and something like REW, it's impossible.

 

[Bjorn]

I thought the off-axis measurements (the “spin” in spinorama) were related to perceived sound at the listening position after the speaker’s output reflects off the room boundaries. Is that not the case?

Polar/directivity measurements will tell you about how the speaker interacts with the room in regards to reflections. But speaker boundary interference effect is something else and can't be derived from such measurements.

Let me show you an example of two speakers. The "red" speaker would measure better in the Spinorama vs the "green" speaker. But when we place them in an actual room, it's the "green" speaker that measures flatter. The overlay graph below is an average of 5 different positions tested, and we can clearly see the worse speaker in the spinorama ends up being more even in the actual room. That's not a coincendence. The green speaker is better in areas that a spinorama would not reveal.

 

[Soniclife]

Polar/directivity measurements will tell you about how the speaker interacts with the room in regards to reflections. But speaker boundary interference effect is something else and can't be derived from such measurements.

Let me show you an example of two speakers. The "red" speaker would measure better in the Spinorama vs the "green" speaker. But when we place them in an actual room, it's the "green" speaker that measures flatter. The overlay graph below is an average of 5 different positions tested, and we can clearly see the worse speaker in the spinorama ends up being more even in the actual room. That's not a coincendence. The green speaker is better in areas that a spinorama would not reveal.
View attachment 297914

Do you have the spins of both speakers, I would have thought there would be clues in the spin, even if not reflected in the score.