Need Rec's - Flattest, accurate, NO dsp, speaker for mixing/mastering.

[edhamgtr]

I've owned a ton of great speakers over the years (yeah, I'm pretty old).
ATC's (25's , 150's,)
Currently on Kii 3.
LOVE all of them for what each did well.
but .....

Currently looking outside of "studio world" for the flattest, non-DSP, speakers.
Small set and/or large set - with the expected low end extension of each.
Focusing on smaller set first.

When I want DSP it will be a Trinnov. Do not want multiple digital EQ's in the path. (Trinnov, plus speaker dsp correcting the freq response.)

Must be closed, or front ported. Do not want side firing or rear firing subs. Rear ports or radiators don't work in the rooms I frequent.

Simply want an accurate 2-way or 3-way passive (active crossover is fine - just no dsp)

With that in mind -
What's out there that is super accurate, flat - without dsp correction? (and at a justifiable price)(not paying $8k for OEM drivers in a magic box).

Appreciate this forum and Armin's work.
Thanks in advance for your responses and advice.

 

[staticV3]

Revel has some front-ported floorstanders like the F206/F208 and F226Be/F228Be.

Besides that, it's looking somewhat grim for front-ported or sealed.

You may have to buy something rear-ported, then stuff that port yourself.

 

[Sacha]

Not going to do much better than what you already have IMO, also not sure why you want to arbitrarily exclude studio speakers, but if you change your mind PSI audio or Geithain meets your criteria and all drivers are made in house etc. Your list of criteria is definitely going to narrow down your options considerably.

 

[edhamgtr]

Not excluding studio speakers - just open to speakers that don't cross our radar in the studio world.

Both PSI and Geithain are on the list to try!
But hoping to find a great tested speaker that is more affordable as ATMOS is unhappily in my wallets future .......

 

[voodooless]

Trinnov can do digital out also, just get over your irrational active speaker DSP feature and expand your options.

 

[JustJones]

Neumann KH-310a

Neumann KH 310A Review (Powered Monitor)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Neumann KH 310A active monitor (speaker). It was kindly sent to me by the company for testing. I see it discounted to US $2,200 (each) as of this writing. This is one dense and heavy 3-way speaker: I was relieved to find "rack mount" ears...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[edhamgtr]

Trinnov can do digital out also, just get over your irrational active speaker DSP feature and expand your options.

Hysterical. (given I'm sitting in front of Kii3's)
Digital input of this new Generation of monitors does not bypass their internal eq algo.
So we end up eq'ing (trinnov) - something that already has a lot of dsp eq on it.
Much rather have a zero processed speaker - and let the trinnov do its work.

as to the 310's. tried them several times. Almost keepers each time.
Hard to say why they didn't stick with me.
Neumann is certainly making great speakers at reasonable prices.

Strauss NF-3's are interesting - just not the price. For OEM speakers too.

The BMR Monitor (Price per Pair)

philharmonicaudio.com

These look interesting.
Given I love my Kii3's and they are Bruno's design - and Bruno is behind Purifi drivers - and Philharmonicaudio is using them in their towers - and reasonably priced ....

 

[staticV3]

The BMR Monitor (Price per Pair)

philharmonicaudio.com

These look interesting.

Here are measurements: https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/philharmonic_bmr_v2/

Also, these are rear ported.

 

[voodooless]

Hysterical. (given I'm sitting in front of Kii3's)
Digital input of this new Generation of monitors does not bypass their internal eq algo.

Of course not, these things can’t work without the processing inside of them. They rely the processing for their directivity. Best you can do is set them to flat and have the Trinnov do the rest. I really fail to see the problem here. It solved more problems than it creates.

.. now I see, iOS once again murdered the words: it meant to read “irrational DSP fear”, thanks Apple

 

[Golfx]

From Alan March in Australia

March Audio Sointuva AWG Bookshelf Speaker Review

March Audio Sointuva AWG

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

From Perlisten their bookshelf

Perlisten S4b Bookshelf Speaker Review

Perlisten S4b Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

 

[8bits]

The upcoming AsciLab C6B speakers should be in your shortlist, obviously it's a new company and new speakers so take that into consideration as well.

AsciLab speakers are about to launch

Our room acoustics brand is called Acousticfuser, and although we currently only manufacture and sell in Korea, you can view various installation examples on our Instagram page. https://www.instagram.com/acousticfuser.kr/ Very cool, I see a lot of curved 2D BAD panels, as far as I know this is...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[JustJones]

The upcoming AsciLab C6B speakers should be in your shortlist, obviously it's a new company and new speakers so take that into consideration as well.

AsciLab speakers are about to launch

Our room acoustics brand is called Acousticfuser, and although we currently only manufacture and sell in Korea, you can view various installation examples on our Instagram page. https://www.instagram.com/acousticfuser.kr/ Very cool, I see a lot of curved 2D BAD panels, as far as I know this is...

audiosciencereview.com

They have radiators on the back which he said he didn't want.

 

[tw 2022]

Ascend sierra lx might work for you...

 

[edhamgtr]

Ascend sierra lx might work for you...

ooooh .. Very interesting! And that wee bit of extra energy big actually be useful for mixing.

 

[staticV3]

Sierra LX is rear ported.

@edhamgtr Are you now looking for ported speakers as well?

 

[edhamgtr]

Sierra LX is rear ported.

@edhamgtr Are you now looking for ported speakers as well?

I missed the rear port .........
Liked the freq plot!

 

[NTK]

You may consider repurposing KEF Reference or R Series center speakers for L&R channels. The Reference 2 Meta (but not Reference 4 Meta), R2 Meta and R6 Meta are closed box designs.

 

[AwesomeSauce2015]

You want the speaker to focus on correcting the directivity and frequency response of itself. That way your system processor can focus on just correcting for the room and tone-shaping EQ. This is why active speakers have become so popular: They allow the factory to calibrate each speaker's performance, and allow the designer a lot of control over the speaker's performance. These benefits far outweigh any drawbacks they may have, hence why pretty much all of the professional speaker manufacturers use active designs. (Meyer Sound, JBL, Genelec, L'Acoustics, etc). Even if the amps aren't in the speakers, they still have locked-down processing that is required for the speaker to work properly. You can then implement processing before the active DSP which can be used to correct for the room, deployment, tone, etc. With modern digital interconnect standards like Dante, AVB, etc, the impact of having two DSP units is minimal, so I would not be concerned about the Trinnov somehow having issues because of Genelec or JBL's processing in their speakers.

Based off your criteria, I would recommend getting one of the better reviewed home audio bookshelf or standmount speakers, like the KEF R-series, Revel, or JBL. Some of them are rear ported, some are front ported and others have passive radiators. In your case, your best bet would probably be repurposing one of KEF's R-series center channel speakers as they do not have ports, or DSP processing, and are still very good speakers.

However, I would encourage you to look into getting some modern active monitors. Neumann monitors have front ports, and (optional) digital inputs. This means that you can set the Neumanns to their "flat" setting, and let the DSP built into the speakers handle protection and optimizing the speaker performance (in this case allowing ridiculously tight frequency / phase response matching between units), all while letting your Trinnov handle room correction and tone-shaping EQ. If you are able to set up a digital output from your Trinnov into the Neumanns, you would eliminate the Digital -> Analog -> Digital conversion, and also eliminate the potential impacts of the Trinnov's Analog output, possible amp non-linearity on the input side and output to whatever speaker you end up with, thermal issues with stability and performance, and all the while you wouldn't have nearly as good of speaker protection as a true active monitor can offer.
This is why active monitors are so popular. They are so much simpler to work with. No longer do you have to worry about your speaker, DAC, and amplifier's frequency response, or performance capabilities, you just assume that the signal chain up to and including the speaker is near-perfect, and then any issues you have are probably a result of the room and speaker positioning, which you can correct for using your preferred method (Trinnov in your case).

 

[Chazz6]

Spendor A1 sealed. This good enough?:

 

[Ellebob]

Not sure how some of these measure without DSP but you can always use Trinnov
JBL 705i or 708i
Kali SM-5-C
Focal Aria Evo X no 1
Triad in room monitor