Floor standing loudspeakers for 500 sq ft room

[EdW]

Looking for buy $12000-25000 floorstanders for 500. Sq ft room in UK (prices for UK speakers often lower than in US). Shortlist at the moment includes
1. KEF blade 2
2. B&W 802 or 803 D3
3. Revel Salon 2. Is this the same as Amir’s setup? I’d love to see a review of these
4. KEF Reference 5
Hopefully I’ll be able to get an ex demo pair at a worthwhile discount.
I’ve heard a few others like Avantgarde (didn’t work for me - timing issues on transients, distortion perhaps) and some Wilson Audio (too unforgiving for many recordings).
Any others I should consider?
Unfortunately large floorstanders are not frequently reviewed in ASR due to difficulties in shipping
Since loudspeakers dominate the total cost I’ll buy the amplifier when I‘ve settled on the loudspeaker
Your experiences and thoughts very much appreciated.

 

[SECA_alan]

Hi Ed

I'm on the south coast, and have heard quite a few B&W. I've not heard much at all in more recent ranges to really like. Revel are hard to access over here, but I took a punt on some F-208 from Elite Audio and am very pleased indeed. Given your budget, I'd be looking at something from the BE range, either the 228 or, 328. Sound sensational with an EWA amplifier.

The newer Kef should be awesome, but I only heard the blade 2 one time, and didn't really enjoy that setup. I was delivering some vintage loudspeakers to the owner who was searching for alternatives. That said, Kef are a generally solid engineering led company and you'll get good support from them.

 

[ttimer]

Have you considered active floorstanders? E.g. Gradient Revolution, Dynaudio Focus 60 XD, ME-Geithain or Canton Smart Reference.

 

[MZKM]

The Blade Two’s won’t do so well if the room is narrow (meaning if they are close to the side walls), the side firing woofers causes a large drop between 45° & 90° around 500Hz. If they will be far from the side walls then they will be good.

The 802 D3 has a directivity mismatch at 2kHz and a large boost around 10kHz.

The Salon2 seems pretty dang great, only negative I can think of is it needs a powerful amp (steady 4ohm below 500ohm, with near 45° phase at 500ohm, and <85dB sensitive).

The Reference 5 is really good, but it does have a narrow directivity, which may sound small if the room was very wide.

 

[tuga]

The Blade Two’s won’t do so well if the room is narrow (meaning if they are close to the side walls), the side firing woofers causes a large drop between 45° & 90° around 500Hz. If they will be far from the side walls then they will be good.

The 802 D3 has a directivity mismatch at 2kHz and a large boost around 10kHz.

The Salon2 seems pretty dang great, only negative I can think of is it needs a powerful amp (steady 4ohm below 500ohm, with near 45° phase at 500ohm, and <85dB sensitive).

The Reference 5 is really good, but it does have a narrow directivity, which may sound small if the room was very wide.

If the room is very wide then the 802 D3's directivity mismatch won't make much of a difference, the 802 D3 is nearly flat to 10kHz at 30°, and it will produce less distortion above 100Hz than the Salon2 (according to Audio DE measurements).

The narrow directivity of the Kefs may be a bonus if the listening distance is significant plus they won't have the vertical directivity mismatch of either the Revels or the B&Ws.

 

[EdW]

Hi Ed

I'm on the south coast, and have heard quite a few B&W. I've not heard much at all in more recent ranges to really like. Revel are hard to access over here, but I took a punt on some F-208 from Elite Audio and am very pleased indeed. Given your budget, I'd be looking at something from the BE range, either the 228 or, 328. Sound sensational with an EWA amplifier.

The newer Kef should be awesome, but I only heard the blade 2 one time, and didn't really enjoy that setup. I was delivering some vintage loudspeakers to the owner who was searching for alternatives. That said, Kef are a generally solid engineering led company and you'll get good support from them.

Hi Alan

thanks for your reply. I currently own the old style B&W 803 nautilus - about the same size as the current 804D3. So I was looking for an upgrade and a casual listen to some 802D3 told me that maybe the improvements weren’t that great and I think you may have confirmed that. I’ll look up Elite Audio. At another dealer I’ve arranged to hear a demo of 802 vs blades vs reference 5 to which I shall take my own USB drive of music.

 

[EdW]

The Blade Two’s won’t do so well if the room is narrow (meaning if they are close to the side walls), the side firing woofers causes a large drop between 45° & 90° around 500Hz. If they will be far from the side walls then they will be good.

The 802 D3 has a directivity mismatch at 2kHz and a large boost around 10kHz.

The Salon2 seems pretty dang great, only negative I can think of is it needs a powerful amp (steady 4ohm below 500ohm, with near 45° phase at 500ohm, and <85dB sensitive).

The Reference 5 is really good, but it does have a narrow directivity, which may sound small if the room was very wide.

Thanks for your reply. I’ll certainly watch out for the sidewall issue with the blades. I know that their rear port favours positioning rather further from the rear wall than other loudspeakers. Same on the reference 5.
Sadly all the speakers we’ve been talking about are really 4 ohm nominal, dropping to 3 ohm worst case but your warning about the Salon 2 sensitivity is a worthwhile reminder that I’d need to budget for larger power amps to wring the last few dB of O/P power from them. I’d need to check with Benchmark for instance whether the AHB2 would be happy bridge mode into these speakers with real music (Pretty certain the power supply would cut off with unrealistic continuous sine wave but how close is that to pipe organ music?)

 

[EdW]

If the room is very wide then the 802 D3's directivity mismatch won't make much of a difference, the 802 D3 is nearly flat to 10kHz at 30°, and it will produce less distortion above 100Hz than the Salon2 (according to Audio DE measurements).

The narrow directivity of the Kefs may be a bonus if the listening distance is significant plus they won't have the vertical directivity mismatch of either the Revels or the B&Ws.

Thanks for your opinions here. This is all good stuff for me to try to spot when I get a demo.

 

[EdW]

Have you considered active floorstanders? E.g. Gradient Revolution, Dynaudio Focus 60 XD, ME-Geithain or Canton Smart Reference.

Dealers for these excellent speakers are a little thin on the ground here. But you’re right I should consider modern active speakers like for example the kii 3

 

[Archsam]

You might find a few bargains from Nintronics - they have most of the speakers on your list, and they have a demo room to try a few things out. Not sure if every speaker on your list will be available but it's worth giving them a call?

https://nintronics.co.uk/bargains/s...roduct_list_order=price&product_list_dir=desc

 

[ttimer]

If you are tending towards passive speakers, it might be worth checking out the Dali Epicon series. The (simple) measurements circulating of these speakers show very well behaved response and directivity, especially for the Epicon 8. As with all Dalis, these have wide dispersion which might be beneficial in a large room.

https://stereotest.nitschkeverlag.de/images/measurement/000443-1.jpg

 

[EdW]

You might find a few bargains from Nintronics - they have most of the speakers on your list, and they have a demo room to try a few things out. Not sure if every speaker on your list will be available but it's worth giving them a call?

https://nintronics.co.uk/bargains/s...roduct_list_order=price&product_list_dir=desc

Great minds think alike! I’m talking to Nintronics

 

[Midwest Blade]

For the amount you are intending to spend, would any dealers in your area be willing to actually bring in and set up a few options in your listening room?

 

[EdW]

For the amount you are intending to spend, would any dealers in your area be willing to actually bring in and set up a few options in your listening room?

Great idea. Initially I thought I would shortlist a few speakers at the dealers with my own music. Then I might ask them to bring a pair to me for final approval. Hefting too many 60kg speakers up a flight of stairs isn’t great fun!

 

[steve59]

Since you’re coming from B&W I wou think the 802d3 would sound the most natural to you. In a room that large with your budget and list of passive speakers, personally I would get a pair of blades in there.

 

[paddycrow]

You're looking at roughly the same range as I am. Unfortunately, the pandemic has curtailed my live auditioning. Curious, have you considered any of the Sonus Faber range? The new Olympica Novas are on my audition list.

Some speakers I just can't get past the looks. I know it shouldn't matter, but it does to me. The Wilsons you mentioned just don't appeal to me, no matter how they sound.

I've looked at the used market, but it seems to me that there aren't many bargains out there. Prevailing opinion seems to be that 5 year old speakers are worth 80% of MSRP.

 

[steve59]

The 80% of msrp i would negotiate with bnib and offer 55-60% used with 50% after 10 year old design regardless of actual age.

 

[CDMC]

B&Ws have a very distinct sound that people either seem to love or hate (put me in the hate camp). I strongly recommend that if you demo any speakers at home, try to get at least a few days, as it will likely take that long for your reference to change, as any new speakers will not sound correct. After a few days they will and if you put the B&Ws back, they will sound strange.

Of your choices, both the KEF and Revels are great speakers. You may want to also consider Dynaudio.

 

[SimpleTheater]

Looking for buy $12000-25000 floorstanders for 500. Sq ft room in UK (prices for UK speakers often lower than in US).

I'm simply fascinated by Fyne Audio, a Scottish company, and their flagship speakers are in/around your budget, I'm curious if you've heard them or even heard of them? There is no where near me in the USA selling these, so I haven't heard them, and while I give WhatHiFi very little credibility, they quickly put most of the Fyne speakers on their top picks list, which has peaked my interest. Hoping ASR reviews them some day soon.

https://www.fyneaudio.com/

 

[EdW]

B&Ws have a very distinct sound that people either seem to love or hate (put me in the hate camp). I strongly recommend that if you demo any speakers at home, try to get at least a few days, as it will likely take that long for your reference to change, as any new speakers will not sound correct. After a few days they will and if you put the B&Ws back, they will sound strange.

Of your choices, both the KEF and Revels are great speakers. You may want to also consider Dynaudio.

I was coming round to your point of view re. latest B&Ws - almost seem like a step backwards. Still I’m getting a head to head demo of B&W vs blades vs reference 5 in a few days. There are some Dynaudio dealers within easy driving distance of me and I might just look them up too.