The purpose!
To find and then purchase a cost effective amplifier which compliments the speakers/room/listening position described (and partially measured) below.
The most important thing to consider in this discussion is that I live in Canada and recommendations need to be for things I'm able to purchase without extra work. Very likely, (infinitely close to 100% likely, in all likelihood...), I won't be going to a brick-and-mortar store to pick up the product (a sad state, and a topic for another thread). Obviously this leaves only online retailers - more specifically: Canadian retailers and American retailers that ship to Canada.
Right then. Moving along!!!:
First::
The speakers are on either side of a 34" ultrawide monitor with an 1800R curve. On my desk. The room is ~2.5x3.5m (8x12ft),
I chose the best listening position (I mean, why not?!) : the equilateral triangle. The centre of the drivers are about 6 inches away from the edge of the monitor
Now to the more interesting stuff
The speakers themselves... are amazing. You might not've heard of them before. They're "Realistic", model "Minimus 7" and they're good. Very good. What's good? In my opinion, these speakers. Every household should have at least one pair. Why? "Cause they're good, that's why!
They're small, black, metal and heavy. The enclosure is solid aluminum and thick. An entire 2mm at its thinnest, approaching 4mm at its thickest, which is the [rounded] corners. It doesn't flex (like all aluminum lol), and I once dropped one from 5 feet onto a thin carpet with no underpadding on cement (in a basement obviously), and there's no dent or even evidence of the event at all.
Driver specs:
Tweeter
25mm soft dome tweeter, possibly silk
25mm voice coil
Woofer
100mm paper cone mid-bass driver with soft dust cap
Cone without surround is 73mm in diameter
Cone with surround is 93mm
Voice coil is either 25mm or 32mm in diameter
The diameter of the cone without the surround is 73mm
The diameter of the cone with (+) the surround is 93mm
The effective cone diameter is 80mm
Crossover
There's one coil and one capacitor. The cap goes from the negative terminal to the positive side of the tweeter, so I think the tweeter has a natural ~6dB rolloff at the same frequency (reverse polarity for 12dB (effective) crossovers. The woofer must behave something similar but opposite the tweeter (because both drivers need to have the same slope at crossover).
Power Handling
Not much is listed for this aspect
40W maximum. We can assume RMS is half of that: 20W
The extremely cautious might go with 10WRMS
Because the situation is that the speakers are each about 1m away from my ears, power handling isn't really a concern. For me it's actually not a priority at all!
Even though:
Efficiency
I couldn't find anything on the overall efficiency of these gems, but I do have some speakers that are 91dB/W, some that are 85dB/W,
I'd estimate these to be in the 82-86dB/W range. I haven't had them set up in the same room which is why I'm not sure to within 1-2dB.
Sound
These speakers sound amazing and the width and depth of the soundstage they're able to generate is astounding. No doubt the 80mm midbass which I believe crosses to the 25mm tweeter which is no more than 120mm centre to centre spacing helps with driver integration and dispersion at the low crossover point [for the size of the midbass driver] of just 3kHz has a large role in this ability, and the woofer's ability to cover the full range of the human voice before it starts gently rolling off at 12dB per octave (-3dB at around 100Hz).
If you've never experienced listening to a speaker designed in the style of sealed cabinet, you really don't know just how much of a different animal it is to a similarly sized vented brethren...
I have some ATC SCM20 PSL Pro Mk IIs, and I believe their -6dB point is 55Hz. If you compared their bass to a similarly sized (10-20% larger volume than average bookshelf speaker) vented speaker with 5" woofer, what you'd hear wouldn't be comparable. The bass range of the sealed box would extend much lower, but through the entire range, the amount of bass is less. The bass there is more controlled as well. Like your eyes adjust to light in a theater, your ears adjust to bass in a room. When you have a perfectly smooth, perfectly sloped rolloff, your brain compensates - you get to hear detail down past -12dB. No missing notes through the range, no booming notes through the range - it's bliss. Sealed speakers should be all speakers, except where max or loud SPL in small size is a major consideration (usually low end). Anyway, these smaller speakers -6dB point is probably somewhere around 80Hz. Sometimes I put a shelf that lifts with a 12dB slope from where the Minimus 7s roll off starts, going down to where -12dB would be, then do a 12dB rolloff from there, which effectively extends the rolloff point of the speaker by an entire octave, and creates a -24dB/oct slope at the end of that octave. This limits maximum sound output by 12dB, but then, in an enclosure too small to hold a litre of milk, you've got a full range speaker that goes down to 45-50Hz completely flat. It does this loud enough to enjoy music, too. The woofers do have a decent xmax (max excursion without distortion, probably 7-8mm peak to peak), and their suspensions are quiet, too. Also, as the box is sealed, most of the almost nonexistent noise the suspension makes, is contained! With the bass properly equalized, these speakers are definitely something! Every house should have at least one pair...
No, two!!!
So the interface I have and use is an RME Babyface Pro (non-fs. They're basically the same, 1-2dB THD+n worse and that's about it).
Right now its headphone amp is amplifying the speakers directly. I don't have enough power available to do my 12dB bass shelf trick, or to really enjoy a song. But enough that speech can get as loud as someone talking loudly, and music at up to a bit louder than background level is possible if it's not bass heavy.
TL;DR (keeping in mind that I'm looking for utmost clarity at lower to medium listening levels with these speakers - - - 80mm woofers aren't able to move a lot of air, and I have a couple other systems much better suited for loudness):
I want to keep as much clarity that I enjoy running these speakers direct (frequency sweep remains clear up to 0.4V and the speakers are 8 ohms - imagine 85dB/w and a listening distance of 1 meter and that's how (surprisingly) loud I can listen next to completely distortion free. It's really close to bliss, especially the almost holographic 3D imaging that happens with good recordings.
I've seen that there are some really good measuring cheaper low powered amplifiers being offered in the past few years.
Which one should I get? (I don't want to spend more than $100 and won't spend more than $150)
Pictures of the speakers are below
Directly below, on the left is how they appear, on the right is exposure ++++ so you can see. Unfortunately the forum shrank down the ~2000x3000 pixels to 1/4 the size. The pictures were very high resolution too, compared to the image I made of them. For example, the third picture (closeup of the tweeter dome) was 3000 pixels tall!
To find and then purchase a cost effective amplifier which compliments the speakers/room/listening position described (and partially measured) below.
The most important thing to consider in this discussion is that I live in Canada and recommendations need to be for things I'm able to purchase without extra work. Very likely, (infinitely close to 100% likely, in all likelihood...), I won't be going to a brick-and-mortar store to pick up the product (a sad state, and a topic for another thread). Obviously this leaves only online retailers - more specifically: Canadian retailers and American retailers that ship to Canada.
Right then. Moving along!!!:
First::
The speakers are on either side of a 34" ultrawide monitor with an 1800R curve. On my desk. The room is ~2.5x3.5m (8x12ft),
I chose the best listening position (I mean, why not?!) : the equilateral triangle. The centre of the drivers are about 6 inches away from the edge of the monitor
Now to the more interesting stuff
The speakers themselves... are amazing. You might not've heard of them before. They're "Realistic", model "Minimus 7" and they're good. Very good. What's good? In my opinion, these speakers. Every household should have at least one pair. Why? "Cause they're good, that's why!
They're small, black, metal and heavy. The enclosure is solid aluminum and thick. An entire 2mm at its thinnest, approaching 4mm at its thickest, which is the [rounded] corners. It doesn't flex (like all aluminum lol), and I once dropped one from 5 feet onto a thin carpet with no underpadding on cement (in a basement obviously), and there's no dent or even evidence of the event at all.
Driver specs:
Tweeter
25mm soft dome tweeter, possibly silk
25mm voice coil
Woofer
100mm paper cone mid-bass driver with soft dust cap
Cone without surround is 73mm in diameter
Cone with surround is 93mm
Voice coil is either 25mm or 32mm in diameter
The diameter of the cone without the surround is 73mm
The diameter of the cone with (+) the surround is 93mm
The effective cone diameter is 80mm
Crossover
There's one coil and one capacitor. The cap goes from the negative terminal to the positive side of the tweeter, so I think the tweeter has a natural ~6dB rolloff at the same frequency (reverse polarity for 12dB (effective) crossovers. The woofer must behave something similar but opposite the tweeter (because both drivers need to have the same slope at crossover).
Power Handling
Not much is listed for this aspect
40W maximum. We can assume RMS is half of that: 20W
The extremely cautious might go with 10WRMS
Because the situation is that the speakers are each about 1m away from my ears, power handling isn't really a concern. For me it's actually not a priority at all!
Even though:
Efficiency
I couldn't find anything on the overall efficiency of these gems, but I do have some speakers that are 91dB/W, some that are 85dB/W,
I'd estimate these to be in the 82-86dB/W range. I haven't had them set up in the same room which is why I'm not sure to within 1-2dB.
Sound
These speakers sound amazing and the width and depth of the soundstage they're able to generate is astounding. No doubt the 80mm midbass which I believe crosses to the 25mm tweeter which is no more than 120mm centre to centre spacing helps with driver integration and dispersion at the low crossover point [for the size of the midbass driver] of just 3kHz has a large role in this ability, and the woofer's ability to cover the full range of the human voice before it starts gently rolling off at 12dB per octave (-3dB at around 100Hz).
If you've never experienced listening to a speaker designed in the style of sealed cabinet, you really don't know just how much of a different animal it is to a similarly sized vented brethren...
I have some ATC SCM20 PSL Pro Mk IIs, and I believe their -6dB point is 55Hz. If you compared their bass to a similarly sized (10-20% larger volume than average bookshelf speaker) vented speaker with 5" woofer, what you'd hear wouldn't be comparable. The bass range of the sealed box would extend much lower, but through the entire range, the amount of bass is less. The bass there is more controlled as well. Like your eyes adjust to light in a theater, your ears adjust to bass in a room. When you have a perfectly smooth, perfectly sloped rolloff, your brain compensates - you get to hear detail down past -12dB. No missing notes through the range, no booming notes through the range - it's bliss. Sealed speakers should be all speakers, except where max or loud SPL in small size is a major consideration (usually low end). Anyway, these smaller speakers -6dB point is probably somewhere around 80Hz. Sometimes I put a shelf that lifts with a 12dB slope from where the Minimus 7s roll off starts, going down to where -12dB would be, then do a 12dB rolloff from there, which effectively extends the rolloff point of the speaker by an entire octave, and creates a -24dB/oct slope at the end of that octave. This limits maximum sound output by 12dB, but then, in an enclosure too small to hold a litre of milk, you've got a full range speaker that goes down to 45-50Hz completely flat. It does this loud enough to enjoy music, too. The woofers do have a decent xmax (max excursion without distortion, probably 7-8mm peak to peak), and their suspensions are quiet, too. Also, as the box is sealed, most of the almost nonexistent noise the suspension makes, is contained! With the bass properly equalized, these speakers are definitely something! Every house should have at least one pair...
No, two!!!
So the interface I have and use is an RME Babyface Pro (non-fs. They're basically the same, 1-2dB THD+n worse and that's about it).
Right now its headphone amp is amplifying the speakers directly. I don't have enough power available to do my 12dB bass shelf trick, or to really enjoy a song. But enough that speech can get as loud as someone talking loudly, and music at up to a bit louder than background level is possible if it's not bass heavy.
TL;DR (keeping in mind that I'm looking for utmost clarity at lower to medium listening levels with these speakers - - - 80mm woofers aren't able to move a lot of air, and I have a couple other systems much better suited for loudness):
I want to keep as much clarity that I enjoy running these speakers direct (frequency sweep remains clear up to 0.4V and the speakers are 8 ohms - imagine 85dB/w and a listening distance of 1 meter and that's how (surprisingly) loud I can listen next to completely distortion free. It's really close to bliss, especially the almost holographic 3D imaging that happens with good recordings.
I've seen that there are some really good measuring cheaper low powered amplifiers being offered in the past few years.
Which one should I get? (I don't want to spend more than $100 and won't spend more than $150)
Pictures of the speakers are below
Directly below, on the left is how they appear, on the right is exposure ++++ so you can see. Unfortunately the forum shrank down the ~2000x3000 pixels to 1/4 the size. The pictures were very high resolution too, compared to the image I made of them. For example, the third picture (closeup of the tweeter dome) was 3000 pixels tall!
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