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Any good passive speakers under $3k with a woofer size bigger than 6.5?

coonmanx

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Cerwin Vega makes plenty of speakers with large woofers. They make their stuff in China now but I bet that a few of those speakers sound decent. Would love to audition them some time.

Old Avid 102s are two ways with 10 inch woofers. They seem to pop up all of the time on the Bay. I have the guts for a pair but no cabinets. A project that never got off of the ground.

s-l1600.jpg
 

UDXL2C90

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Cerwin Vega makes plenty of speakers with large woofers. They make their stuff in China now but I bet that a few of those speakers sound decent. Would love to audition them some time.

Old Avid 102s are two ways with 10 inch woofers. They seem to pop up all of the time on the Bay. I have the guts for a pair but no cabinets. A project that never got off of the ground.

This post & photo makes me think perhaps the OP likes the sound of 1970s-90s bass-reflex and/or acoustic suspension speaker designs.

I still listen to an early-1990s pair of Boston Acoustic A70 Series II speakers. They have a "richness" and soundstage that I enjoy, that is quite different from my Elac standmount speakers. It has an 8" woofer, but I suspect it is also the 'larger box' design that does it for me.
 

FaFaFa

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I'm not knowledgable about speakers. Maybe woofer size is not even what I'm looking for. All I know is based on the speakers I've tested the bigger the woofer the better it sounded so I was curious if there any speakers for under $3k with a woofer over 6.5?
I've been trying out the Wharfedale lintons for a few months now and I can tell you that they are good speakers, with the characteristics you are looking for.
Engaging speakers that go well with any kind of music, with good dynamics and great bass. Full-bodied sound. Transparency and detail are not top notch but still satisfyingly average.
Good luck with your search!
Fa
 
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bladerunner6

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It says email them, can still place order.

This is from the last post on Master Deals, it from the Crutchfield site.

$299.95 each (-$200.00 Special purchase savings)
Expected: 11/10/2021
Pre-Order risk-free
Email me when in stock
They are also available at the JBL website for $500 each.
 
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rdenney

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If you keep an eye out, an older pair of Revel Concerta F12’s will eventually appear, usually for under a kilobuck. Two 8” woofers, a 5” mid, and a tweeter with an excellent waveguide. Soundstage measured ‘em in the Canadian NRC anechoic changer—Google them.

These are pretty hard to beat in your range.

Rick “bought his on eBay” Denney
 

Spocko

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Tell us more about these custom speakers...
They're 3-way monitors with the design objective being male vocals in the mid-driver because I only wanted one driver to handle this frequency range for my audio mixing but then also use it to hear the various music in my mixes without having to bring in a sub for my small studio environment. The drivers are 7" Revelator woofer, Accuton Cell midrange and tweeter
 

escape2

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I'm not knowledgable about speakers. Maybe woofer size is not even what I'm looking for. All I know is based on the speakers I've tested the bigger the woofer the better it sounded so I was curious if there any speakers for under $3k with a woofer over 6.5?
Can you tell us which speakers you've tested?
 

Dennis Murphy

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They're 3-way monitors with the design objective being male vocals in the mid-driver because I only wanted one driver to handle this frequency range for my audio mixing but then also use it to hear the various music in my mixes without having to bring in a sub for my small studio environment. The drivers are 7" Revelator woofer, Accuton Cell midrange and tweeter
I'm sending them off tomorrow. I think they turned out very well, but Spocko will be the ultimate judge of that. One thing I did get reminded of was just how good the Scan 7" Revelator is. By far the smoothest woofer I've ever tested, with truly superior bass reach. I think it would run circles around a lot of 8" drivers, and do it in a smaller cabinet. The Accuton Cell drivers are also amazingly smooth, but have a very quirky mounting system and are just too expensive for any commercial design I would want to undertake (the tweet and mid together retail for over $1,000 a side.) But I am motivated to use the Scan woofer in an upscale monitor, and one that will be less than the $3,000 limit of this thread.
 

voodooless

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Accuton Cell midrange and tweeter
The Accuton Cell drivers are also amazingly smooth, but have a very quirky mounting system and are just too expensive for any commercial design I would want to undertake (the tweet and mid together retail for over $1,000 a side.)
I've always found the looks very appealing, and performance-wise, they are pretty good nowadays. By contrast, in the early years, they were mediocre at best. But are they really worth their money?
 

brandall10

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Can you tell us which speakers you've tested?

FWIW, the OP hasn't posted since the day he opened this thread over a month ago. But I for one am happy about the convo on Dennis Murphy's work... always assumed if I went back to passives I'd go Revel, but those BMR towers look crazy good.
 

coonmanx

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I went back and I see that OP (BingaMoon) has not commented since page one. Oh well.

I agree that size does matter. LOL.

I have one pair of speakers with 6.5" woofers. Some very nice Scott S166 with Philips tweeters. They sound great but do lack on the low end. A sub would fit in nicely with them. All of my other three pairs use 8" woofers. Huge difference. All acoustic suspension sealed speakers. That is how I like them.

8" woofers can put out plenty of bass and if you give them a small bump on the low end that can even be too much at times. 10" woofers will put out some very nice bass. The 8" woofers can still sound good in a two way system and blend pretty seamlessly and give an overall flat response, except maybe on that very low end at around 30 Hz. or so. The 10" woofers may not work as well in a two way, but they will dig down deep. I actually have a pair of Avid 102's which are like that but unfortunately I only have the drivers and no cabinets so I have never listened to them at all. I bought all of that off of the Bay because it was cheap but never found or built any cabinets. So I just have parts...

Interesting thing about the Scott S166 speakers is that they sounded pretty good when placed on carpeted floor. When I raised them up on some crates, the bass kind of went away. Also I believe that the carpet was absorbing some treble. So know I run a small EQ curve on them to compensate and it works OK. But I am not expecting that boomy bass in any way, shape of form. They are what they are.
 

coonmanx

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Yes, assuming they're designed correctly.

I had some BIC RTR 1530 towers once with 15" woofers. The bass sounded really weak on them.
Correct. Bigger is not always better and I think there is a limit for home use. Fisher probably made some speakers with 15's once but they were just designed to be big and boomy. There is something called quality of bass. Tight bass, not flabby bass. And in the end the overall design is critical.

I pretty much ended up with three sets of speakers with 8" woofers because I like the small form factor. If I went with a single pair of speakers in the main system I might consider bumping up to something with say 10" drivers. I do wonder how those Avid 102's would sound... Instead I have two sets of stacked two ways with 8" woofers and the bass is plenty and firm. Sometimes maybe just a touch too much but sometimes just right...
 

strummr

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For HT purposes, some qualitative/subjective benefits of more dynamics may be a legitimate goal. I've had plenty of smaller main driver front speakers (6.5" or smaller), and even if highly accurate, some just don't have the 'dynamics' (tight, natural sounds - like sealed vs ported) for my personal tastes - all this with multiple subs in the room. I'd personally like to experiment further with front speakers with 8" drivers, but knowing that it isn't the silver bullet to the generally, subjective sound target - just possibly my personal one. Revel F208s or JBL A190s would fit the bill methinks.
 
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BingaMoon

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Can you tell us which speakers you've tested?
Revel M16
Focal Aria 906
Martinlogan ESL
NHT C3
Dynaudio Emit M20
Dali Oberon 5
Wharfedale Evo 4.2
Revel M105
Elac DBR62
Sonus Faber tower forgot the model
Neumann KH80
Axiom M3
APS Klasik and probably a few more I can't remember
 

AlexanderM

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Revel M16
Focal Aria 906
Martinlogan ESL
NHT C3
Dynaudio Emit M20
Dali Oberon 5
Wharfedale Evo 4.2
Revel M105
Elac DBR62
Sonus Faber tower forgot the model
Neumann KH80
Axiom M3
APS Klasik and probably a few more I can't remember
So have you made a decision or still looking?
 
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