Having trouble hearing the difference between a $125 and $500 speaker!

[JimSC]

First time post on the forum. Used it for research many times. I'm currently setting up a system for my away from home office. Using a Wiim amp ultra, streaming over a wifi cable using Amazon Premium Music.

Ordered a pair of Micca MB42x G2 and thought they sounded very good for $125. Then I saw a pair of Dali Oberon 1 on sale for $500 and decided to get those as those would be a huge improvement in sound. There's NOT!

I've A/B the speakers with a switch and really don't hear much difference? Had someone else listen and he actually liked the Micca better! I've moved further away and listened at higher volume and still not a huge difference. Yes, the Dali are a little clearer but not as much better than I expected.

I know the Micca's got good rating hear, but didn't expect them to compete with a $500 Dali?

 

[antcollinet]

Welcome to the world of excellent audio for not much money.

On the other hand - a lot of the sound of a speaker comes from it's interaction with the room. If your room is not good (too small, worng shape, or open plan, too many reflective surfaces with little to no soft furnishings etc) then it will be difficult for any speaker to show itself at its best.

 

[delta76]

There are good cheap speakers and bad (more) expensive speakers. The difference in price does not guarantee a difference in sound, let alone better.
The only way to tell for sure is to rely on measurements. There are plenty of speakers under $500 that will very likely sound good to you. I can think of DBR62

 

[DVDdoug]

I'm surprised!!! I always say "Different speakers always sound different (better or worse)".

But they do seem to be "similar" in design (and size). A bigger speaker with a bigger woofer (or multiple woofers) will usually sound a lot better than a tiny woofer. You can't get "realistic" bass that you can feel in your body from a tiny woofer. Bass isn't everything, size isn't everything, and cost doesn't directly correspond to sound quality but it does cost more to make a good speaker. (With headphones there is almost no correlation between cost and sound quality but headphones are a "different experience" than speakers in a room.)

It can be very educational if you can go to an audio/video store and listen to a variety of speakers.

 

[kemmler3D]

The Micca is a real bargain and has among the best performance I have seen at that price point. Dali speakers are not considered bad AFAIK but are not known for being a great value for money. So it's totally plausible in my mind that the Micca would perform as well as the Dali speaker, maybe even better.

edit: Having looked at the specs of both speakers, because the Dali has a bigger woofer, I think you should expect the Dali speaker to win on low frequencies (<80hz or so) but at lower volume and depending on the music, it might not be super obvious.

One way to hear the differences between speakers more easily:

1. Use only one speaker at a time (mono, not stereo)
2. Listen to pink noise (for example)
3. Switch back and forth quickly

You will probably hear the changes in tonality pretty easily this way. Unfortunately, it's very hard to say if one version of pink noise is "better" than another, but at least you can hear for yourself the true extent of the difference between these speakers.

 

[Palladium]

What you experienced is not surprising IMO.

There is only so much that can be done with a 2-way passive, and speaker-room interactions are always a gamble no matter the speaker pricetag is.