Active speakers for home mid field

[dcas719]

I'm looking to upgrade from Mackie HR624-2 plus sub to some active speakers which can energise the room a little better but without a sub. Source is Eversolo dmp-a8.

Moving to a new place, the room is/will be around 6.5m*.4m / 21x13ft, speakers firing along the length and with a mostly open balcony along one side. I don't mind losing the sub bass but would want decent music bass performance i.e. down to 40hz in room would be good. Ideally the speakers should work placed within 15cm of the front wall as they will flank a TV too so I may want them wall mounted if possible.

Budget could stretch to a pair of Genelec G five, which others should I consider? Neumann KH150, Ascilab are on the radar, any others move enough air to energise a room this size?

 

[kemmler3D]

I think you've probably identified some of the best speakers for your particular use case. Nothing is jumping to mind as an easy upgrade for that money.

I think you can probably find some used LS60s in that price range, but they aren't actually great at going super loud. However, the bass performance for the size is great as long as you don't need it much higher than 85dB, they will almost hit 20hz credibly in the right room.

I will throw a little curveball if you're even theoretically willing to consider passive: the Cadentia 3 kit will just about eat your budget without leaving room for an amp, but it should go louder and arguably perform even better than the two you mentioned. For a passive speaker the graphs look ridiculously good. Unfortunately to hit your budget you need to assemble it yourself, the finished version is way more.

 

[kharan]

The Cadentia are efficient enough and don't need a powerful amp. Something from 3E Audio would do the trick as well as some Wiim Amps.

I'll throw in the Sourcepoint 8 and 10 as well. The Wharfedale Linton and Super Linton, the Kef R3/R3 Meta, or the R5 versions if you find them second hand.

Having said that the Cadentia Kit is unbeatable as far as value is concerned and I don't know if they will continue to offer it a long time.

Sierra Tower with a dome tweeter is within budget and very nice too. And with three-way speakers, intermodulation is less of an issue. But the value is only truly there in the US. Elsewhere you'll have to figure out the shipping and tax situation.

 

[Flaesh]

i.e. down to 40hz in room would be good

Just for fun or meditation. A simple method (not the only one) to reproduce very bad bass around 40 Hz using even ideal speakers:

 

[serhii_o]

JBL 4329p

 

[dcas719]

Just for fun or meditation. A simple method (not the only one) to reproduce very bad bass around 40 Hz using even ideal speakers:
View attachment 554687

Thanks for this, it looks like the room may be slightly problematic so a bit more info.
The left speaker will be around 1.5m from the left wall and the whole right side is glass balcony doors which will mostly be kept open aside from 1m at each end of the room.

So speakers will be around 2.5m apart and listening sofa is roughly in the middle of the room but shifted right to align directly facing the speakers.

What software did you use for this? I may need to have a play and think about keeping a sub in the system.

 

[NTK]

What software did you use for this? I may need to have a play and think about keeping a sub in the system.

That's the room sim part of REW (Room EQ Wizard).

REW room acoustics and audio device measurement and analysis software

REW is free software for room acoustic measurement, loudspeaker measurement and audio device measurement

www.roomeqwizard.com