I have a Genelec 8260... But it would be a beast to ship. Are you looking to purchase whichever of these measures best?
That Technics SB C700 is the most interesting to me.
I know you just got the 8260 fairly recently as well, after a long search (read your posts). I would feel terrible with troubling you to live without them so soon after getting them.
Yes, the Technics looks to measure really well - better than the LS50 passive in the crossover region but I would love to see spins. It just got discontinued (shame for a cool speaker like that to fizzle out mostly because of the crap What HiFi review). I would be very interested in getting them on closeout - probably the only speaker that could persuade me to stay with a passive setup. I'm more inclined toward an active right now - in the 2-way 7-inch size class, sub-£1200 per pair.
The 8040 looks like it hasn't been updated acoustically since 2004 since the 2004 graphs are still taken as current - a disappointment compared to the smaller speakers in the line, which seem to have received revisions acoustically and updated graphs to show it. It's a bit lumpy in the crossover region and shows it's age there - but the low-diffraction enclosure is definitely still the most sophisticated in the price range. Maybe it's deliberately held back because they now have the 8300 SAM series which all have exemplary measurements.
The Focal Shape 65 has high tweeter distortion with low max SPL because it's a really flimsy cheaped-out version of their inverted dome, but the midbass measures and sound distant, though I did hear quite a bit of hollowness that may be associated to a broad low-Q resonance in the midrange.
The HEDD Type 07 sounded really nice in the midbass, but a bit recessed in the upper midrange and low treble. Driver integration also sounded a bit suspect, tweeter dispersion restricted and the enclosure is nowhere as sophisticated as Genelec. The Type 05 measured with pretty bad off-axis elsewhere so I want to see how the Type 07 fares. I'm hoping it does well because my demo in a treated room yielded a toss-up between it and the 8040
I can't find the KS Digital C5-Reference for demo near me, and it has a +4dB bass peak deliberately designed so it stands out in demo. The manufacturers told me it can be EQ'd anyway, so no reason to make it flat. Shame because they pushed the SEAS coax to the limit from 250Hz up.
The LS50W has too many "lifestyle" features I won't use. I prefer to keep the source (including wireless receiver) outboard to the speakers and use XLR-in. KEF does the best coax drivers with excursion capability (Genelec's driver is great but needs a high-pass). But I hate the idea of having to stay with a passive setup for the KEFs I would be interested in, like the R3.
The LSR705 is way too small, there's the ugly port resonance I don't want to take any chances with, and pricing is not great. The 708 would be nice but way out of budget.
KH120 is too small.
Frankly, if the Type 07 does not measure well, I will probably go Genelec and EQ the very slightly rising response (which maybe what I heard) and the couple of resonances that still exist in the power response.
