AnalogSteph
Major Contributor
Looking at JA's measurements of the Sonjas, I can't say I like the impedance dipping down to about 2.5 ohms in the 150-400 Hz range very much. Mind you, anyone who has that much money to spend should have little difficulty affording an amplifier with plenty of grunt, but they'll certainly need that. Plain ol' passive speakers certainly are not state of the art at this price point in any case.
Using separate subs as suggested by @q3cpma is certainly a good idea. This gives you substantially more flexibility when it comes to evening out the bass frequency response across the room, pre room correction.
As a general rule of thumb, the effort needed for a given level of sound reproduction scales quite considerably with:
Production volume of the components used is another major factor. There is no better way of bringing the price of something down than efficient mass production, which in turn tends to increase demand, making things even cheaper (Ford Model T pricing over the years would make a good example). It also incentivises further R&D.
In sum, this is why $2000 a pair gets you near world class performance in nearfield monitors (even less in the headphone world), while prices skyrocket once you get into the midfield and then main monitor realm, with a few more rough edges remaining than you might expect. Go from manufacturers that still shift a decent amount of product to more boutique outfits, and the sky is the limit.
So it literally pays to be acutely aware of what you really, really need and want. (Will some near/midfield jobs at 1.5-2 m plus misc. subs do or do you need to rock the whole house at live concert levels? Are extravagalent looks a requirement or will form-follows-function do just fine?) If you don't, yet have a 4/5-figure budget, by all means go and hire a professional consultant who plans this sort of thing (e.g. for studios) on a regular basis.
Using separate subs as suggested by @q3cpma is certainly a good idea. This gives you substantially more flexibility when it comes to evening out the bass frequency response across the room, pre room correction.
As a general rule of thumb, the effort needed for a given level of sound reproduction scales quite considerably with:
- listening distance (room size),
- required playback levels and
- room acoustics.
Production volume of the components used is another major factor. There is no better way of bringing the price of something down than efficient mass production, which in turn tends to increase demand, making things even cheaper (Ford Model T pricing over the years would make a good example). It also incentivises further R&D.
In sum, this is why $2000 a pair gets you near world class performance in nearfield monitors (even less in the headphone world), while prices skyrocket once you get into the midfield and then main monitor realm, with a few more rough edges remaining than you might expect. Go from manufacturers that still shift a decent amount of product to more boutique outfits, and the sky is the limit.
So it literally pays to be acutely aware of what you really, really need and want. (Will some near/midfield jobs at 1.5-2 m plus misc. subs do or do you need to rock the whole house at live concert levels? Are extravagalent looks a requirement or will form-follows-function do just fine?) If you don't, yet have a 4/5-figure budget, by all means go and hire a professional consultant who plans this sort of thing (e.g. for studios) on a regular basis.
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