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My March Sointuva Speakers

concorde1

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I received my pair of March Sointuva's in Sheoak wood, after a long wait of nearly three months.

With a certain thread here posted during the wait I was a bit worried.

These worries have been neutralised.

The build quality from what I can tell is tremendous. I did notice a couple of minor imperfections here and there in the final finish, but I am not disappointed. They look even better than I had imagined. The sound is wonderful, even in my non-ideal setup of being behind a desk with the speakers stand mounted a few metres behind it.

I really wanted JBL LSR6332's due to the notion of bigger is better and they look cool to me. I still would like to hear them but the Sointuva's are lacking nothing in output capability.

These Sointuva's are far beyond my JBL Studio 530's.

The bass on these is more intense and goes far deeper. I still will be getting a couple of subs later on.

Vocals cut right through to the front. Guitar solos scream at me. I hear every icy detail of the cymbals, every texture to the voice, and anger from the bass. Everything sounds like it is in its own discrete angle out from the speakers.

Nothing is offensive except perhaps the bass, BUT this is due to my room - perhaps due to the wooden flooring everywhere. I am moving into a room with carpet at some point.

Now I need to learn room EQ with REW, invest in a measurement microphone and likely some bass traps to clean the sound up.

Some pictures of my Sointuva's:
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sweetchaos

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Thanks for the photos.
Glad to see you’re enjoying them.
Wow, 3 month wait? Crazy!

Are you worried about those cracks?
What amp did you pair them with?

You’ve seen my ‘sub comparison spreadsheet? What subs were you thinking of?
 
OP
concorde1

concorde1

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Are you worried about those cracks?
What amp did you pair them with?

You’ve seen my ‘sub comparison spreadsheet? What subs were you thinking of?
What cracks!? Do you mean the vertical-ish black line in the first picture? That's actually not a crack, it's literally a black line, like a darker part of the wood.

As in my signature, my amp is the Neurochrome Modulus-686 DIY build I made: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/my-neurochrome-modulus-686-build.34407/

I have seen it, but it's a big list. Very tentatively I'm considering 2x Perlisten D12S. The reason being, they're not marked up crazily here, though they are super expensive.

Most subs, like SVS, JL, Paradigm, are all marked up like double price here in NZ, but Perlisten is not, although Perlisten is insanely expensive.

So I'm not sure about subs. Any help is appreciated for sub ideas.
 
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concorde1

concorde1

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I meant these:

Take a look at Monoprice.eu subs.
What's your room size in volume? (assuming all doors/closets/windows closed)
Ah yeah, they are not cracks fortunately, just black parts of the wood.

I don't really want to import, I would have to pay 15% tax plus immense shipping no doubt.

Room size is roughly 2200 cubic feet I believe.
 

Sokel

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Ah yeah, they are not cracks fortunately, just black parts of the wood.

I don't really want to import, I would have to pay 15% tax plus immense shipping no doubt.

Room size is roughly 2200 cubic feet I believe.
They sure look like cracks and I think it could be avoided as they spoil the overall good looks.
I hope you enjoy your music for a long time!
 

holbob

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They look like a child has had fun with a sharpie/permanent marker. I'd be sending them back - the wife would go ballistic.
 

nerdoldnerdith

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They look like nice speakers and the measurements speak for themselves. Like a lot of things they got dogpiled here, and I think that is unwarranted.

How loud do they get? I'm curious about them because the measurements show that they passed the 102dB compression test with flying colors. That's very impressive for a bookshelf speaker this small.
 
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Thomas savage

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No that's definitely grain consistent cracks and iv personally never seem the likes in a pair of finished speakers . It looks terrible.

If that's some by product of the wood type then I'd want to know why he's using it , otherwise it's just poor looking and I'd send them back .

Maybe it's intentional and disperses some resonance or other.., lol

Alan is fairly anal so he's either unaware or he considers it somehow part of the cost of using that wood .

I'd trust him and if your happy , enjoy .
 

hvbias

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I'd be wary if for no other reason that I'd feel like I'd need to have independent measurements done to make sure I was getting a product that was 100% based off what was shown in the other thread.
 

carbidetooth

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Ah yeah, they are not cracks fortunately, just black parts of the wood.

I don't really want to import, I would have to pay 15% tax plus immense shipping no doubt.

Room size is roughly 2200 cubic feet I believe.
Actually, they are indeed cracks. That one on front vertical edge most likely occurred after the tree was harvested and drying. I would venture that the visible defects are filled with black tinted epoxy. Wood is just that way. Years ago, something like that would have been a non-starter from a cabinet making standpoint. Now various defects are considered visually interesting or imbuing character. That's oak of some variety or another and none of the oaks have streaks of black nor do any woods I've worked with.
 

Matias

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We like natural to be perfect but truth is that it is not. Even other speakers that have uniform wood have been carefully chosen not to have veins. Like a human touch of selection in order to achieve perfection to nature's creation.
 

holbob

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I wouldn't be worried about the measurements, I'm certain they measure superbly and sound great. But I would be worried about the QC issues. Especially after his gaslighting of the reviewer from the other thread - that suggests someone who does not learn from mistakes.
 

sweetchaos

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2200 ft^3 is a 'medium' sized room, so there's plenty of subs capable of hitting reference level of movie playback. My default recommendation is dual subs.

Regarding what appears to me like cracks:
Personally I wouldn't accept the 'crack' on the front of the speaker for CDN$5000/pair.

Imagine your friends (or your SO) looking at the speakers and you're telling them how good this speaker is and how expensive it is and all they can see is the crack. It makes this expensive speaker look cheap. Oops.

The only way I could accept this is IF March Audio sent me photos ahead of shipping the speakers to me and ask whether this 'crack' is acceptable to me.
If i just received this speaker like this, that's an instant return for a different unit, at the manufacturer's expense.
 

AudioJester

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I think a lot of people are used to vaneers and vinyl wraps. Those are perfect, but not in the least bit "life like".
This is what real wood looks like. Resin fill of cracks is actually a feature. Imperfections, swirls etc are a highlight, the wood/cabinet will still be structurally rigid/aitight - lets not mention binding posts.
Obviously at the end of the day aesthetics are a personal preference and you carefully chose what you like, real wood is not going to be for everyone. But come on, this is not a production defect! And iam definitely not a March fan boy.
 

astr0b0y

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The ‘cracks’ are a common sight in Australian bespoke carpentry and cabinet making and are called features by the builders I know. Locally they are desired as showing the individuality of the product vs mass factory manufacturin of particle board covered with veneer. While working for these builders I have been part of many conversations with customers as they view and chose timber pieces - much focus is placed on picking lumber that has interesting features like this that do not affect the structure but can be stained or treated to show up and show off whatever is being made. Maybe it’s cultural, but Id prefer unique features like this over clean veneer (assuming that it’s epoxy filled when used in a speaker cabinet.
 

restorer-john

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The ‘cracks’ are a common sight in Australian bespoke carpentry and cabinet making and are called features by the builders I know. Locally they are desired as showing the individuality of the product vs mass factory manufacturin of particle board covered with veneer. While working for these builders I have been part of many conversations with customers as they view and chose timber pieces - much focus is placed on picking lumber that has interesting features like this that do not affect the structure but can be stained or treated to show up and show off whatever is being made. Maybe it’s cultural, but Id prefer unique features like this over clean veneer (assuming that it’s epoxy filled when used in a speaker cabinet.

"Features" is a classic furniture term for flaws.

Maybe tolerated for timbers that are reclaimed, scavenged from old wharves, historic warehouse floors/beams or otherwise repurposed- then I have no problem with epoxy filling cracks.

But coming from years in the furniture manufacturing/retailing business, those filled cracks and rear corner flaw make me cringe. It looks like the speaker was dragged along the road and wore through the carton corner. I know it wasn't, but it looks dreadful.

But then I hated the deliberate 'distressing' of timber furniture with 'nail' holes, stains, chain indents and other damage to make it look 'authentic'. Our boys out the back had a term for it: "warehousing", which meant they would carry the furniture off the floor and deliberately bash it into the cement walls to give it 'character' especially if the customers were being painful. We'd request 'special warehousing' and they'd really add some 'character' marks...

I'm glad the OP likes them however. They are unique. At least if they got stolen, they'd be easily identifiable.
 
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