Bookshelf speakers for low volume & near-field listening?

[Sakelccc]

Hello ASR community, greetings from Japan!

I've been viewing this great site for some time now. Amir's reviews have put me into buying a Topping D70s and THX 789 for my Arya.
Now i've developed a interest in speakers, and thought I might as well take the liberty to post something and ask for your kind advices!

The room I have for listening is quite small, somewhat 3.5m*3m. I only listen in relatively low volumes to avoid annoying my neighbours.
For now I own a 80W class D amp, a 10W tube amp, and a pair of Yamaha NS-B330 ($300, which i wish to replace with something nicer).

Budget wise anything less than $2000 will do.

From my very little research I found the Focal Chora 806, Elac Carina 243.4 and KEF LS59 Meta to fit my budget and also look pretty good.
Which one do your think would sound the best or could you suggest altervatives?

Thanks!

 

[Ron Texas]

Lots of speakers have been reviewed here. Look at the Neumann KH80 for a start.

 

[abdo123]

KEF R3 fits your budget nicely, with a sub woofer i think it would make a great system.

 

[Sakelccc]

Lots of speakers have been reviewed here. Look at the Neumann KH80 for a start.

Thanks. Forgot to mention I'm looking for passive speakers.

 

[Sakelccc]

KEF R3 fits your budget nicely, with a sub woofer i think it would make a great system.

Thank you. R3s retail for $2600 here but do seem to meet my needs.

 

[redshift]

Hello ASR community, greetings from Japan!

I've been viewing this great site for some time now. Amir's reviews have put me into buying a Topping D70s and THX 789 for my Arya.
Now i've developed a interest in speakers, and thought I might as well take the liberty to post something and ask for your kind advices!

The room I have for listening is quite small, somewhat 3.5m*3m. I only listen in relatively low volumes to avoid annoying my neighbours.
For now I own a 80W class D amp, a 10W tube amp, and a pair of Yamaha NS-B330 ($300, which i wish to replace with something nicer).

Budget wise anything less than $2000 will do.

From my very little research I found the Focal Chora 806, Elac Carina 243.4 and KEF LS59 Meta to fit my budget and also look pretty good.
Which one do your think would sound the best or could you suggest altervatives?

Thanks!

Hi I’m sporting PSI A-17M and Monitor Audio Silver 50’s for my workstations. Both sound great subjectively. The PSI’s measure better (at a price) However, I’m sure there are better ‘bang for the buck’ alternatives out there.

Make sure the near field monitor drivers are reasonably time/phase-aligned. I used to have a pair of ELAC bookshelves with a “jarring” sound for the lack of a better word. They sound all right as far-fielders driven by a Yamaha WXC-50. The Yamaha is a bit annoying since it is a second delay when changing song and starting streaming playback.

My suspicion is that the drivers were too much out of phase for comfortable near field listening. The sensation went away with the new speakers.

 

[abdo123]

Thank you. R3s retail for $2600 here but do seem to meet my needs.

it's an end-game speaker for bookshelves. coaxial driver, decent sensitivity and with an Olive score of 8.2 / 10 (with subwoofer).

I also very much like how it looks lol.

it retails much cheaper on the other end of the world though, it retails for 1900$ where i live though so that's a big difference.

 

[tomtoo]

How about
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/elac-ubr62-speaker-review.24585/ ?

 

[Sakelccc]

Hi I’m sporting PSI A-17M and Monitor Audio Silver 50’s for my workstations. Both sound great subjectively. The PSI’s measure better (at a price) However, I’m sure there are better ‘bang for the buck’ alternatives out there.

Make sure the near field monitor drivers are reasonably time/phase-aligned. I used to have a pair of ELAC bookshelves with a “jarring” sound for the lack of a better word. They sound all right as far-fielders driven by a Yamaha WXC-50. The Yamaha is a bit annoying since it is a second delay when changing song and starting streaming playback.

My suspicion is that the drivers were too much out of phase for comfortable near field listening. The sensation went away with the new speakers.

Thanks! That's very helpful.

I couldn't find the PSI retail in Japan, but Monitor Audio Silver looks very good indeed!

 

[Sakelccc]

it's an end-game speaker for bookshelves. coaxial driver, decent sensitivity and with an Olive score of 8.2 / 10 (with subwoofer).

I also very much like how it looks lol.

it retails much cheaper on the other end of the world though, it retails for 1900$ where i live though so that's a big difference.

It is a big difference! lol
and yeah they look great...may want to keep an eye on used ones.

 

[Sakelccc]

How about
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/elac-ubr62-speaker-review.24585/ ?

Yeah this and the Revel M16 were on my list then I thought why not go for something a bit more expensive lol.
Thanks anyway!

 

[redshift]

Thanks! That's very helpful.

I couldn't find the PSI retail in Japan, but Monitor Audio Silver looks very good indeed!

It would have been nice if those were tested/benchmarked by Amir before you take the plunge. It’s comforting to know that they both sound and measure well.

 

[VintageFlanker]

From my very little research I found the Focal Chora 806, Elac Carina 243.4 and KEF LS59 Meta to fit my budget and also look pretty good.

Active/DSP speakers appart, I would widely prefer coax designs over others for nearfield listening: Mostly for better vertical directivity and generally more precise center image (and somewhat narrower dispersion)

Neither the Chora 806 (nor Aria) or Elac DBR62 are particularly good in that field, from my own experience. Most KEFs would do the trick: LS50 Meta, Q350. R3 seems a touch oversized for your 10m2 room.

 

[q3cpma]

KEF R3 or LS50 Meta with a bit of EQ. If you reconsider your "passive only" policy, Genelec 8030C, Neumann KH120A or Kali IN-5.

 

[redshift]

Yeah this and the Revel M16 were on my list then I thought why not go for something a bit more expensive lol.
Thanks anyway!

Yeah, the Japanese import “tax” is rather obnoxious.

Remember to “audition” the speakers in a near-field setup. If something is “off” or jarring with them, go for another pair or you’ll make the same mistake as I did with the ELAC’s (not the DBR 62, though).

 

[Sakelccc]

Active speakers appart, I would widely prefer coax designs over others for nearfield listening: Mostly for better vertical directivity and generally more precise center image (and somewhat narrower dispersion)

Neither the Chora 806 (nor Aria) or Elac DBR62 are particularly good in that field, from my own experience. Most KEFs would do the trick: LS50 Meta, Q350. R3 seems a touch oversized for your 10m2 room.

Thank you that's really helpful insight!

 

[Sakelccc]

Yeah, the Japanese import “tax” is rather obnoxious.

Remember to “audition” the speakers in a near-field setup. If something is “off” or jarring with them, go for another pair or you’ll make the same mistake as I did with the ELAC’s (not the DBR 62, though).

Sure I will! thanks.

 

[Sakelccc]

KEF R3 or LS50 Meta with a bit of EQ. If you reconsider your "passive only" policy, Genelec 8030C, Neumann KH120A or Kali IN-5.

I've nothing against active speakers. It's only because I newly ordered the tube amp for no particular reason...yeah.

 

[tomtoo]

I've nothing against active speakers. It's only because I newly ordered the tube amp for no particular reason...yeah.

No problem, playing with tube amps can be fun. Hopefully it was not to expensive?

 

[redshift]

I've nothing against active speakers. It's only because I newly ordered the tube amp for no particular reason...yeah.

Oh, come on. I want a tube amp because they can be made to look steampunk.

Not sure about the speakers though.