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Other sources for reasonable speaker reviews?

Alexium

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What other people do proper reviews of loudspeakers? I only know Amir, Erin (Erin's Audio Corner) and Audioholics. At first I wanted to write "objective reviews" in the title, but "objective" implies rigorous measurements, and I would be interested in a reviewer who doesn't measure or performs limited measurements, as long as his conclusions correlate well with how good the speakers really are.

I have spent some time watching audio enthusiasts on Youtube who seemed at first like decent guys trying to do the best job they can reviewing speakers. But eventually I realized their reviews are bullshit and waste of my time. E. g. Andrew Robinson.
 

HarmonicTHD

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What other people do proper reviews of loudspeakers? I only know Amir, Erin (Erin's Audio Corner) and Audioholics. At first I wanted to write "objective reviews" in the title, but "objective" implies rigorous measurements, and I would be interested in a reviewer who doesn't measure or performs limited measurements, as long as his conclusions correlate well with how good the speakers really are.

I have spent some time watching audio enthusiasts on Youtube who seemed at first like decent guys trying to do the best job they can reviewing speakers. But eventually I realized their reviews are bullshit and waste of my time. E. g. Andrew Robinson.
This site collects measurements from all kinds of sources. You can follow the links for the original sources and see the reviewers.

Yes Erin and Amir are the most comprehensive as they have the equipment for it.

 

HarmonicTHD

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I'm not 100% sure about that. Erin listens first and only then measures, and he has no problem calling bad speakers bad. Unlike many popular subjective reviewers.
He listens to correlate his subjective impression (which he is always very careful to point out) to his later measurements. So does Amir. That is a huge difference to the usual subjective babel of most internet reviewer who do not have an objective reference (measurements) or even reject them outright. Pure subjective reviews of others are absolutely useless for you to make a purchase decision.
 

Midnight Audiophile

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Pure subjective reviews of others are absolutely useless for you to make a purchase decision.

I disagree. I would consider this a subjective review from Audioholics with no measurements that I found very useful and took the leap and bought a pair Yamaha NS-333s for $230 to try out for my coffee-table system.


Yamaha NS-333 - "Neutral; Rich; Spacious; Crisp; Full". The NS-333 recorded the top score in 4 categories, more than any other. It lost out to the Behringer in Off-Axis and mid-range performance. Almost too close to call.

I like the Yamaha NS-333s better than the Dali Spektor 2s, ELAC UB5s, Neumi BS5s, Sony SS-CS5s, Fluance Elite HDs, and Micca RB42s that I've also tried out (and I measure as well as listen). Endgame speakers for my system, exceptional clarity, soundstage, and detail.
 

HarmonicTHD

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I disagree. I would consider this a subjective review from Audioholics with no measurements that I found very useful and took the leap and bought a pair Yamaha NS-333s for $230 to try out for my coffee-table system.


I like the Yamaha NS-333s better than the Dali Spektor 2s, ELAC UB5s, Neumi BS5s, Sony SS-CS5s, Fluance Elite HDs, and Micca RB42s that I've also tried out (and I measure as well as listen). Endgame speakers for my system, exceptional clarity, soundstage, and detail.
Pure coincidence. You have no way of knowing what the reviewer likes and not and what the various adjectives eg clarity etc mean to the reviewer. And lastly their listening room are different than yours. So it stands. Useless.

Or do you have some actual evidence of your claims, which could convince me otherwise?
 

Midnight Audiophile

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Pure coincidence. You have no way of knowing what the reviewer likes and not and what the various adjectives eg clarity etc mean to the reviewer. And lastly their listening room are different than yours. So it stands. Useless.

Or do you have some actual evidence of your claims, which could convince me otherwise?
Lol, I have no interest in convincing you of anything.
 

Doodski

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took the leap and bought a pair Yamaha NS-333s for $230 to try out for my coffee-table system.
That's a very limited roster of test speakers to choose from. :D I would have feared missing out on some good speakers that where not included in the test regime.
 

Midnight Audiophile

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That's a very limited roster of test speakers to choose from. :D I would have feared missing out on some good speakers that where not included in the test regime.
I agree. I was looking for some reviewer info on the NS-333s and it's the only decent one I found so that's why I say "I took the leap" knowing I could return them to Amazon. The NS-333s have been around for more than 15 years so they predate the current trend of bookshelf speaker releases that has been on the upswing over the past few years, and it may be for that reason that they have been flying under everyone's radar. Regardless, I like them in my particular system which is a 42" triangle between the speakers and listening position, and high passed with 2 small subs crossed around 120Hz and running in stereo.
 

Doodski

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with 2 small subs crossed around 120Hz
@ 42" equilateral triangle that X-over setting of 120Hz is good? I've never heard the Yamaha NS-333S and have not seen the specs but that's pretty high for a audio system crossover. The Yamahas must have some tight desktop(?) bass to add all that subwoofer to it.
 

LTig

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What other people do proper reviews of loudspeakers? I only know Amir, Erin (Erin's Audio Corner) and Audioholics. At first I wanted to write "objective reviews" in the title, but "objective" implies rigorous measurements, and I would be interested in a reviewer who doesn't measure or performs limited measurements, as long as his conclusions correlate well with how good the speakers really are.
Stereophile - just skip the listening prosa. Read the specifications and the meadurements by @John Atkinson.

Sound & Recording, measurements done by Anselm Goertz
 

Midnight Audiophile

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@ 42" equilateral triangle that X-over setting of 120Hz is good? I've never heard the Yamaha NS-333S and have not seen the specs but that's pretty high for a audio system crossover. The Yamahas must have some tight desktop(?) bass to add all that subwoofer to it.
Here's a post with a little more info about the setup. I'm hitting 100% on the D50 clarity with Yamaha's (the Spektor 2s were 99.8%).


 
D

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I'm not 100% sure about that. Erin listens first and only then measures, and he has no problem calling bad speakers bad. Unlike many popular subjective reviewers.

He has no problems calling bad speakers bad ..... within his own set of qualifiers. But there is no certainty that you would listen to the same speakers in the same room and come to the same conclusions. That's what is bad about subjective assessments; they aren't reliably transferable from one person to another.

Jim
 

Doodski

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Here's a post with a little more info about the setup. I'm hitting 100% on the D50 clarity with Yamaha's (the Spektor 2s were 99.8%).


Can you elaborate more on your sitting position in the room and the layout of the drivers including the subs?
 

Midnight Audiophile

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Can you elaborate more on your sitting position in the room and the layout of the drivers including the subs?
Sure thing, here are a few sloppy photos to help visualize. Tweeters are 42” apart at a height of 40” from the floor. It’s 42” from the tweeters to the listening position (each ear) at 40” from the floor also. The brick wall behind the couch is fairly loaded up with bookcases for diffusion and bit of HF treatment.

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The 6.5” sub is centered beneath the coffee table(s) which are solid wood. It’s on a 3/4” plywood footer and coupled to the tables with about 1” of thick yoga mat foam. The back wall of the sub aligns the front of the bookies, meaning the driver sits a little behind them and I have the slotted port also facing to the rear.

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The 8” slimline sub is under the leather couch (Natuzzi with a decent frame) with the driver directly under the listening position. It’s not coupled to the couch. It does add a nice tactile feel and I can get a good bit of bass at the LP without disturbing the other end of the house (too much :). The distance between the center of each sub’s driver is 46”.
 
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Doodski

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Tubular dooD! I have a pipe too but it's a well used ~8" (20.3cm) water pipe for hash. I can see how you use the higher setting for the crossover frequency. Running two systems for the PC and the audio setup too?
 

Midnight Audiophile

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Tubular dooD! I have a pipe too but it's a well used ~8" (20.3cm) water pipe for hash. I can see how you use the higher setting for the crossover frequency. Running two systems for the PC and the audio setup too?
Right on : ). I sprinkle my weed on a bed of tobacco in that pipe. My desktop system is a bit creative. I sit 18" to 24" from it usually. I have it connected via a Rolls SS32 switch to the MacPro directly to use as a computer-only speaker, and then it's also connected to the 3.5" aux on the A07 in the coffee table system. When it's in that mode I can control the entire system by the volume pot on the DAC and the Rolls SX45 in the coffee table system also acts as a high pass on the main.

The desktop A07 runs the tweeters and outputs to the main. Each component can be individually switched off, for instance if I just want to run the 8" sub and the desktop system when working on the computer, but most of the time I just run them both when sitting at the desk and I want to listen to music : ).

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