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

[MKR]

Thanks! Fantastic, you are such a clevergirl (pun, and only a pun!).

You have saved me a large amount of effort, and saved the OP about 2 minutes that he doesn’t have time for.

Based on those links it looks like the OP has narrowed his list from:-

Genelec 8351B + W371A
Genelec 8361A + W371A
D&D 8C (plus subs?)
Neumann KH420 (plus subs?)
Kii Three + BXT
KEF Blade Two Meta
Magico A5
Revel Ultima Salon 2
Revel Performa F228Be
Perlisten S7t
Vivid Audio Kaya 45

To:-

KEF Blade One/Two Meta
Revel Salon 2

And added:-

KEF Reference 5 Meta
JBL 4367, S3900, S4700, M2
Legacy Aeris
Zellaton Plural Evo
Acora SRC-2

Of the seven finalists, five are passive and only M2 is true active. Aeris is powered-bass passive, effectively like buying a mid-size passive speaker and putting each unit on its own subwoofer instead of a stand.

Some of the finalists might have no published Spinorama? Not sure which ones.

Also I am curious about how the Magico A5 dropped off the list given the OP’s superlative-ridden audition report?

cheers

A5s were very good, but not full range. i heard their larger siblings (S5? can’t recall) that are full range, but didn’t care for them, plus out of my budget anyway. And then heard others (Salon, Aeris, etc) that left the A5 in the dust. So old news effectively.

 

[MKR]

FWIW I think @MKR is making a big mistake with the strong weighting he is putting on the soundstage of each speaker he auditions. This is chasing a ghost that is going to evaporate when he gets them home, except by pure chance. On a related point, the dipole mid in the Aeris is going to be a room-dependent nightmare, especially.

cheers

Completely disagree with above statements. Wide dispersion capability is not a ghost. On the Aeris, the dipole has EQ via the Wavelet (or Trinnov ), so certainly not a nightmare (but without the EQ, you are correct it would indeed be problematic)

 

[MKR]

I think the conversations about cardioids and actives helped the OP expand his criteria, and this COULD be the biggest contribution this long conversation has made. Some astute observations of the comments in this and other threads can probably narrow down the potential candidates to a very small number.

Well said

 

[MKR]

The most reasonable inference was a poor set up of the Pearls. He heard them later at a show set up by Jeff Joseph and found they sounded much better (though not what he's looking for).

Correct @MattHooper … first audition (dealer) was terrible. Then heard them at AXPONA and they were indeed quite nice

 

[Deleted member 57150]

I would have to go through all of the threads myself to answer your questions. A LOT of water under that bridge, I cannot answer quickly, at least if I want to provide a thoughtful response to you. I will respond, but a little patience please. Thanks

Sorry in advance. Calling this out. He simply asked for a list of speakers you had tried and eliminated. Not sure why that would be hard to recall. Or take a quick minute at most to reply to.

You had time to dm me and call Neman and myself “abrasive.” For what I’m not so sure. You’re not a mod, anyone can say an idea is illadvised or won’t work because it’s their opinion.

Asked you how we were “abrasive” and you tell me I am encouraging his toddler behavior all the while continuing to tout your thread on here like you are doing gods work and being the most gracious ever. Please.

I did mention actives from the get go and you basically said you didn’t want them initially and have said in no way do you want genelec. I guess you’re “abrasive” towards certain companies.

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

Sorry in advance. Calling this out. He simply asked for a list of speakers you had tried and eliminated. Not sure why that would be hard to recall. Or take a quick minute at most to reply to.

You had time to dm me and call Neman and myself “abrasive.” For what I’m not so sure. You’re not a mod, anyone can say an idea is illadvised or won’t work because it’s their opinion.

Asked you how we were “abrasive” and you tell me I am encouraging his toddler behavior all the while continuing to tout your thread on here like you are doing gods work and being the most gracious ever. Please.

I did mention actives from the get go and you basically said you didn’t want them initially and have said in no way do you want genelec. I guess you’re “abrasive” towards certain companies.

@MKR owes you and Neman absolutely nothing. Both of you have had borderline hostile tones for no reason.

 

[MKR]

Sorry in advance. Calling this out. He simply asked for a list of speakers you had tried and eliminated. Not sure why that would be hard to recall. Or take a quick minute at most to reply to.

You had time to dm me and call Neman and myself “abrasive.” For what I’m not so sure. You’re not a mod, anyone can say an idea is illadvised or won’t work because it’s their opinion.

Asked you how we were “abrasive” and you tell me I am encouraging his toddler behavior all the while continuing to tout your thread on here like you are doing gods work and being the most gracious ever. Please.

I did mention actives from the get go and you basically said you didn’t want them initially and have said in no way do you want genelec. I guess you’re “abrasive” towards certain companies.

I will not dignify this with a response except to stick to the purpose of the thread. I auditioned Genelec and while they were very good, I preferred other speakers (passive and active), not being abrasive towards a specific brand. My subjective opinion based upon experience, simple as that.

 

[Deleted member 57150]

@MKR owes you and Neman absolutely nothing. Both of you have had borderline hostile tones for no reason.

How exactly have I been hostile? Lol. I simply agreed with Newman.

 

[Newman]

I would have to go through all of the threads myself to answer your questions. A LOT of water under that bridge, I cannot answer quickly, at least if I want to provide a thoughtful response to you. I will respond, but a little patience please. Thanks

All I asked was for your current shortlist, and which of the original 11 have you auditioned.

I kind of thought you would know that off the top your head without looking back. I didn't mean to put you to any effort.

I think I have my answers via @clevergirl post, link, and summarised what I think is your current shortlist here, link, and if you have comments on that, I would be interested to read them.

cheers

 

[MKR]

Folks, can we all just move on please? Again, I intended to respond to Newman, I just didn’t have time when the request came across the wire. As I stated to clevergirl in a PRIVATE DM (that seemed the polite way to handle it), I am very busy with my day job and even I would need to review all the threads to make sure I provided a fully accurate response. Hence reason I requested to look through the threads and find the info. Anyway, again, let’s stick to the topic. I will provide updated short list soon, as well as my impressions of the “mystery“ speaker I have had as a demo

 

[MKR]

All I asked was for your current shortlist, and which of the original 11 have you auditioned.

I kind of thought you would know that off the top your head without looking back. I didn't mean to put you to any effort.

I think I have my answers via @clevergirl post, link, and summarised what I think is your current shortlist here, link, and if you have comments on that, I would be interested to read them.

cheers

Thank you @Newman , I appreciate that. My response to you was also a bit more direct than I intended after re-reading, please accept my apologies (was a very busy day when I responded to your query )

 

[Deleted member 57150]

Folks, can we all just move on please? Again, I intended to respond to Newman, I just didn’t have time when the request came across the wire. As I stated to clevergirl in a PRIVATE DM (that seemed the polite way to handle it), I am very busy with my day job and even I would need to review all the threads to make sure I provided a fully accurate response. Hence reason I requested to look through the threads and find the info. Anyway, again, let’s stick to the topic. I will provide updated short list soon, as well as my impressions of the “mystery“ speaker I have had as a demo

I’m moving on after this response. Newman asked for the info. I decided to look for myself and respond. I agreed it should be simple. So I provided it. And I mentioned you poo pooing actives because you had. That’s fact. Not being hostile just restating some of the shifts.

Mkr I messaged you to discuss the journey and tell you about my experience with actives because I have lot of it. Then instead of responding to the thread you messaged just me saying we were being abrasive and later about Newman acting like a toddler. How is that promoting peace and love exactly? Last I checked you are the op but you aren’t the arbiter of my ability to speak.

I don’t care if you call us all a bunch of cucks but just be consistent about it. Lol.

I just am still wondering what the mystery brand is.

 

[MKR]

To start … Some pics of my 590s and the “mystery” active … And please don’t judge the actives by the looks. These were some “Franken“ speakers as they have affectionatley become known by myself and the designer as he cobbled them together not as a final effort, but as a way that I could audition his design concepts without sending me a finished (and much more expensive) product. Sorry for the poor pic quality, my phone camera stinks.

 

[Deleted member 57150]

Wow I actually kind of love the look. I mean they could use some polishing but they seem promising. Impressive build.

Can you say who the designer is? Asking because I’m always in the market for a good active design.

How do they sound?

 

[MKR]

And a few more pics …

 

[MKR]

Wow I actually kind of love the look. I mean they could use some polishing but they seem promising. Impressive build.

Can you say who the designer is? Asking because I’m always in the market for a good active design.

How do they sound?

Getting there, getting there … someone asked for pics earlier, so covering that first

 

[MKR]

 

[MKR]

And the back …

 

[MKR]

And side (other side has same cardioid vent) …

 

[MKR]

First, a bit about the speaker … Top ribbon is a super tweeter, then large horn loaded ribbon is mid range. Going down further is the cardioid/dipole woofer, and then a sealed sub on the bottom. Rear driver is for ambiance that can be activated with Hypex remote. There are three modes in fact … Direct, wide , and wide plus rear driver. Direct narrows the directivity which provides for razor imaging, but small dispersion of course. Wide exactly as it states, wide dispersion. Then there is the wide + rear ambiance driver which sounds very much like an omni. This variable directivity is very slick and can really add to the experience depending upon the type of music you are listening to. When designer first told me about it I thought it seems gimmicky, but it really is very effective. You basically get three speakers in one.

The sound? Simply superb. You all know I have heard a lot of speakers past many months, and these are without doubt overall the best I have heard to date. Really a joyful experience is the best way I can put it. The cardioid just sounds RIGHT. Doesn’t load the room like the bass reflex 590s, which upon initial impression seems like less output, but of course this is exactly the point. After sometime adjusting to the cardioid, I went back to the 590s and wanted to get back to the cardioid ASAP! The speed and again realness of the cardioid response is really quite remarkable. Of course I have experienced this with the Kii and D&D, but these demos are another level. Really, really well done.

As to the rest of the audio spectrum, outstanding. Imaging, resolution, detail, soundstage, dynamics, pick your audiophile subjective term … it’s all there. Yes, I have experienced other speakers that did many things very well, but these seem to do everything very well, I really have no nitpicks whatsoever except one … the rear driver can be a bit harsh. After discussing with designer, turns out he EQed for his room which has heavy drapes behind, mine is mostly hard sheetrock. That is likely the cause, but more investigation is needed. More to come, but i know y’all have been patiently waiting, so figured I better get this out before you showed up at my door with torches and pitchforks.

All the above to say, I believe I have found my end game. Now just need to work with designer to develop a system exactly fitting my needs, going to take more listening and likely a visit to his establishment to listen to additional designs.

So who is this mystery designer? … https://soundfieldaudio.net/