restorer-john
Grand Contributor
The enclosure is 1” MDF and the overall construction is so much better than any $199 (delivered price with no tax) deserves to be.
Whatever way you look at it, USD$199 for a product like that is a bargain.
The enclosure is 1” MDF and the overall construction is so much better than any $199 (delivered price with no tax) deserves to be.
I was interested in the q acoustics 3030 at one point. Not anymore.
Triangle borea br03 on the review docket?
I sent these in. Very disappointed, but that's what the testing is for, so back to Amazon they go. I can see these working in a small room where they are against a wall, toed in, and run at moderate volume. But for me, placed near the ceiling in a large room and played loud they would emphasize that vertical suck-out and load up on distortion. So.... moving on.
The revel M105 is just not going to play loudly in a large room, it will require a sub and active high pass. I have owned it. It does sound great, it is a small speaker though and it does not punch like a bigger speaker.I am thinking Elac Debut Reference DBR62 (then I will have to get a sub) or Revel M105, but with the extra cost I'll have to forego the sub.
Net cost would be close to the same but I'm concerned the sub is 11 ms closer to my listening position so integration could be a problem.
I can vouch as well for that sub being very well constructed. It is a bargain as a music sub-woofer and at this price you could buy 4 for under $800.I just picked up a 550p on sale. Have not tested it yet but I did unpack it and inspect the driver and internals (my usual routine whenever I get new speakers). The driver is WAY nicer than I thought it would be. Aluminum cast frame and huge magnet. The enclosure is 1” MDF and the overall construction is so much better than any $199 (delivered price with no tax) deserves to be. It weighs 50lbs and has a powerful amp as well. I’ll post more when I have a chance to fire it up and measure it. I’m waiting for a splitter for my preamp because I only have two preamp outs and I’m using the second set for my existing two subs (Peerless XLS with Peerless PR’s).
My current subs are well integrated with an active digital xover. I may run the third sub through the xover eventually or through minidsp. Need to sort out a couple things and I’ll probably purchase the Minidsp HD and use Dirac. I’m just not sure if I can run three subs with the minidsp. It was an impulse buy and if it sounds half as good as it looks, the 550p (Sale price) might be one of the best bargains in Audio land.
I saw that before. We have very good correlation but boy, are their measurements messy. They have a ton of low frequency room modes in addition to three lines all black on top of each other. And in a compressed graph no less. I wonder if they do this to make it hard for anyone to decipher.
They report as using an Anechoic Chamber. .https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=140I saw that before. We have very good correlation but boy, are their measurements messy. They have a ton of low frequency room modes in addition to three lines all black on top of each other. And in a compressed graph no less. I wonder if they do this to make it hard for anyone to decipher.
Not so sure about that. Here's my little back-of-the-envelope analysis. Stay with me, I want your feedback.The revel M105 is just not going to play loudly in a large room, it will require a sub and active high pass. I have owned it. It does sound great, it is a small speaker though and it does not punch like a bigger speaker.
Mounting your speakers high up negates much of the scoring system here. These scores and ratings and subjective impressions are all on axis or at least the listening window.
I HIGHLY suggest looking at a coaxil design for mounting any speaker high up.
IMHO The sub being 11ms closer to your listening position is the really way, way down on the list here. Deal with getting good on axis frequency response and dispersion first. This is hard to do for speakers mounted near the ceiling unless you only care about the one person sweet spot, in which case it will be easier.
What topology did you have in mind? I think you would want to start with a very high value series capacitor, and then add a resister and inductor as the ground leg after the cap to get a sharper cut-off in the deep bass. I've never been able to pull that off, but if you have a better approach I would of course want to know what it is. I wish preamps still had rumble filters, because this sort of thing is much easier to implement actively than passively.Very large and expensive inductor that most people will not need. (cost more than the drivers)
Just use an electronic crossover or maybe for some who listen at the lower volume levels this extra bass extension is actually nice.
I know. It is too small so at low frequencies doesn't absorb much.They report as using an Anechoic Chamber. .https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=140
They've been doing it like that for 14 years. I doubt there's anything nefarious about it--probably just inertia. The engineer at NRC claims the anechoic chamber is good down to 80 Hz, although that's not true for most rear-ported speakers. But there the issue isn't room modes--it's some woofer-port phase issue that's exacerbated in the anechoic chamber. I never really understood his explanation, but I'll take his word on it not being caused by room modes in the chamber.I saw that before. We have very good correlation but boy, are their measurements messy. They have a ton of low frequency room modes in addition to three lines all black on top of each other. And in a compressed graph no less. I wonder if they do this to make it hard for anyone to decipher.
It scores just 0.15 lower than the similarly priced JBL 305P MkII if both were used with a subwoofer, which the majority would do if they care about sound quality, and I don't think anyone would say the latter was 'destroyed' by its measurements. The 3020i's slope also has a perfect 0 dB deviation from ideal; I think the Genelec 8341A is the only other speaker to achieve this so far. Overall it's an average speaker at an average price (in Europe, overpriced in the US).Another highly-rated speaker destroyed by science..
Same here, it's going for around $100 less, and I haven't seen any proper measurements of it anywhere. All I can find is this comparison, replete with flowery audiophile-speak. My bullshit translator seems to indicate from what he says that the 3020 might not suffer from that 2-4 kHz scoop - "the original 3020 is quite dry in the upper mids, compared to the 3020i, which puts some emphasis on the 3020’s detail. That is, there is a slight claustrophobic quality to the original 3020 which enables the ear to pick up finer detail", and "the [Nat King] Cole voice is pushed way back [on the 3020i], giving the soundstage a greater 3D effect". And then there's this shite - "the 3020i adds a sense of air and space where there was relatively little with the original 3020 speakers" that might suggest a reduced treble response on the 3020, which seems to be the main complaint here with the 3020i. But who fucking knows. I can see the marketing guys now though - "Right, they loved the 3020 so let's slap some extra treble on there for some in-your-face 'air', turn up the 'soundstage' to 11 by scooping out the upper mids, whack up the price and stick an 'i' on the end, the reviewers and iPhonies will love it! Don't worry, they won't realize it's messed up the tonality..."I wonder how the older 3020 performs.
I'm hoping that was after you listened to the speaker? Cheers for the measurements!I watched every review I could find.
In a passive speaker as others said, too expensive. Components to do so too large.Would it be difficult for the companies to build a high pass like that into the crossover? I haven't seen any hardware high-pass filters below 80 Hz so I'm not sure if the components get too big or costly if they move it lower; otherwise it would make sense with a speaker that lists its bottom spec at 67 Hz to not even try reproducing anything as low as 40.
I don't think so. Just taking the proper place in the pecking order.Another highly-rated speaker destroyed by science..
I was interested in the q acoustics 3030 at one point. Not anymore.
Another highly-rated speaker destroyed by science..
What topology did you have in mind? I think you would want to start with a very high value series capacitor, and then add a resister and inductor as the ground leg after the cap to get a sharper cut-off in the deep bass. I've never been able to pull that off, but if you have a better approach I would of course want to know what it is. I wish preamps still had rumble filters, because this sort of thing is much easier to implement actively than passively.
Great! So I can wait for your review before I jump in to spend on that to replace the kef x300a I have been usingI do have a few including an Adam.
It doesn't have to be higher order - simple 1st order highpass is ok. Topology such as this is sometimes used in commercial loudspeakers - some older smaller KEFs, ALR Jordans or even YG Acoustics models use it. Here is my diy project that also use highpass filter for bass (link to google translated page as original is in Croatian).