$30K Budget - On the quest for my "end game" speaker

[Ciobi69]

That commenter is a B&W fan boy and he is saying B&W are not bright and KEF is bright. Give him no space and no energy... LoL.

lmao

 

[Lsc]

That commenter is a B&W fan boy and he is saying B&W are not bright and KEF is bright. Give him no space and no energy... LoL.

KEFs are overly bright and active / cardioid speakers are a fad.

 

[hwest]

kef overly bright? mhh no.

Honestly I put KEF and Focal in the same category, listen for a few hours and you will get noise fatigue with KEF or Focals, it's not subjective at this point there is too much data/too many people that feel the same way about both brands and neither are inexpensive. It's not a pleasant experience but I will say some like that piercing sound for some reason which is why those brands try to use these high frequencies to separate themselves and package it as clarity when it's just deafening to the point that I couldn't even get my Parametric EQ to filter our the harshness enough to keep them around. Ask around, of course if folks pay a ton of cash for these things they are going to insist they love them regardless, if it's not good.

 

[Lsc]

Honestly I put KEF and Focal in the same category, listen for a few hours and you will get noise fatigue with KEF or Focals, it's not subjective at this point there is too much data/too many people that feel the same way about both brands and neither are inexpensive. It's not a pleasant experience but I will say some like that piercing sound for some reason which is why those brands try to use these high frequencies to separate themselves and package it as clarity when it's just deafening to the point that I couldn't even get my Parametric EQ to filter our the harshness enough to keep them around. Ask around, of course if folks pay a ton of cash for these things they are going to insist they love them regardless, if it's not good.

How do they manage to stay in business if their speakers are so unlistenable?

 

[petezapie]

Honestly I put KEF and Focal in the same category, listen for a few hours and you will get noise fatigue with KEF or Focals, it's not subjective at this point there is too much data/too many people that feel the same way about both brands and neither are inexpensive. It's not a pleasant experience but I will say some like that piercing sound for some reason which is why those brands try to use these high frequencies to separate themselves and package it as clarity when it's just deafening to the point that I couldn't even get my Parametric EQ to filter our the harshness enough to keep them around.

Did you run any room analysis software like REW? seems a little hard to believe you couldnt correct any harshness with an EQ

Ask around, of course if folks pay a ton of cash for these things they are going to insist they love them regardless, if it's not good.

I hear the same for B@W

 

[symphara]

Honestly I put KEF and Focal in the same category, listen for a few hours and you will get noise fatigue with KEF or Focals, it's not subjective at this point there is too much data/too many people that feel the same way about both brands and neither are inexpensive. It's not a pleasant experience but I will say some like that piercing sound for some reason which is why those brands try to use these high frequencies to separate themselves and package it as clarity when it's just deafening to the point that I couldn't even get my Parametric EQ to filter our the harshness enough to keep them around. Ask around, of course if folks pay a ton of cash for these things they are going to insist they love them regardless, if it's not good.

I like this thread and I’m interested in hearing what @MKR is going to end up buying.

Would you kindly make a different thread for discussing how ”bright“ KEF speakers are, if that’s what really irks you? It’s just completely off topic here.

 

[benanders]

Honestly I put KEF and Focal in the same category, listen for a few hours and you will get noise fatigue with KEF or Focals, it's not subjective at this point there is too much data/too many people that feel the same way about both brands ...

You’re conflating subjective with anecdotal. Your claims and similar claims, regardless of brand etc., are anecdotal. Subjectivity can be controlled for and even explained depending on the circumstances, but anecdotes almost always remain, well, anecdotal.

Point being, anecdotes can be interesting but are rarely useful as a general guideline.

The drinking thinking game word here is…
anecdote.

 

[MaxBuck]

Honestly I put KEF and Focal in the same category, listen for a few hours and you will get noise fatigue with KEF or Focals

Sure you will.

 

[Laserjock]

Name all the cardioid active speakers commercially available, go!

 

[Lsc]

Name all the cardioid active speakers commercially available, go!

Don’t know and don’t care are two names

 

[dfuller]

Sure you will.

Focal sure, they tend to trend very presence heavy in room since they use a tweeter with extraordinarily wide dispersion between roughly 2-9khz.

Kef? No, if anything they're a little laid back.

 

[Newman]

I don't know if @MKR is planning HT integration for his shiny new $30k speakers but, to me, this is where actives fall over themselves. Not even the LS60, which is a lifestyle product with the most features and inputs available in this segment, cannot be configured to use a set volume on the analog input, which would make it possible to hook them to an AV receiver's pre-outs.

Actives seem to be for professionals or people who want nothing else but music playback from as few sources as possible.

My humble JBL LSR308 and LSR305 active speakers are controlled by my humble Denon AVR-X3400H with no issues. I wonder about the delay that a speaker such as the 8C would introduce however. I know for a fact that the Devialet introduces a non-negligeable delay due to their procesing. They even have a version for HT that is somewhat different and do away with the processing ...

[regarding using active speakers with an AVR or AVP] I did research and found no nice answer. If a speaker has volume control and no fixed volume input, it can be used for HT but it’s a pain.

Basically you calibrate the AVR with a reasonable volume set on the speakers (using a dB meter). Then every time you want to watch a movie, you have to manually set the active speaker volume to that volume used for calibration, otherwise it will be out of whack.

I know someone who does this, but for me personally is too much hassle and my wife will for sure hit me over the head with the speaker if I suggest us having to embrace this procedure. In the case of the D&D actives, I fear it would be fatal.

Like Frantz, I am confused by your comment. It makes no sense.

Like Frantz, I am using an AVR with active speakers “with no fixed volume input” and there no problem “every time I want to watch a movie”. None whatsoever.

There is no problem. Nothing tricky to solve. No issue “where actives fall over themselves”. No problem “with no nice answer”.

cheers

 

[Newman]

To the OP:

this thread is approaching three thousand posts spread over eight months. You opened this thread on the day you joined ASR. You have contributed many hundreds of posts to this thread, so you have been very active and closely monitoring comments.

Your purpose in creating this thread was to narrow down your list of eleven speakers costing up to $30,000, so you don’t have to audition them all.

So here we are: thousands of posts of waffle, but in eight months you could have easily auditioned all eleven speakers, or at least all the ones it is possible for you to audition.

So here we are, and I have questions.

1. Which of the eleven speakers did we help you to knock off the list, and what is the new “narrowed down” list?
2. Which have you auditioned in the eight months?
3. Which did you buy?

cheers

 

[Laserjock]

“Bounty Speaker hunting is a complicated profession,”

 

[subframe]

Why are people so upset that the OP hasn't bought speakers yet? It has not bearing on anyone, as far as I can tell, and we get to talk about speakers a lot...

 

[Newman]

He hasn’t???

Not upset at all….but the poor guy had a clear objective, and have we helped him at all? Wouldn’t he have been better off auditioning each one?

 

[mglobe]

To the OP:

this thread is approaching three thousand posts spread over eight months. You opened this thread on the day you joined ASR. You have contributed many hundreds of posts to this thread, so you have been very active and closely monitoring comments.

Your purpose in creating this thread was to narrow down your list of eleven speakers costing up to $30,000, so you don’t have to audition them all.

So here we are: thousands of posts of waffle, but in eight months you could have easily auditioned all eleven speakers, or at least all the ones it is possible for you to audition.

So here we are, and I have questions.

1. Which of the eleven speakers did we help you to knock off the list, and what is the new “narrowed down” list?
2. Which have you auditioned in the eight months?
3. Which did you buy?

cheers

He’s listened to a lot of speakers, and traveled some pretty long distances to do so. Somewhere within the nearly 3000 posts is documentation of most if not all of what he’s listened to. The list is pretty extensive. It’s narrowed down to (most likely) active cardioid design speakers, which makes for a pretty short list.

 

[MKR]

He hasn’t???

Not upset at all….but the poor guy had a clear objective, and have we helped him at all? Wouldn’t he have been better off auditioning each one?

You seem to be of the understanding I was going to purchase speakers purely based upon everyone’s opinion here and not personally audition them? Not at all the case. My intent for soliciting feedback from the experts here was to determine a short list, then audition. Which I have, and then some (I have lost count of the speakers I have heard now to this point). Please read back through this thread for more details.

And yes, many folks here have been VERY helpful in my journey which I sincerely appreciate.

 

[MKR]

Any time estimate when you will be able to spill the beans?

Sorry for delay, finally received the demo speakers yesterday (shipping took a long time) and still getting things dialed in. Will report back once I have had more time to listen.

 

[boxerfan88]

Picture picture picture...please....