Speakers + amp recommendation for extreme music

[Diocletian]

SB-1000 Pro is available costing a little more and being a bit better. A-S 501 is fine I have A-S700 and old R-N402D. WiiM ultra isn't really more versatile other than HDMI ARC input, it still doesn't work as USB DAC. Don't skimp too much on sub as you will have controls just for one.
In Spinorama there is a score without/with sub and same with EQ so that isn't hard. In generally you should watch Amir's videos about measurements and how to interpret and understand them on YouTube and don't worry it will all come in it's place, just give it time.

Audio Science Review

Technical Reviews, Discussions and Measurements of Audio Products. This video channel is an adjunct to Audio Science Review website which contains the same.

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Placement is crucial and you are welcomed getting measuring microphone and starting to do your own measurements and EQ-ing.
Feel free to ask anything that you think you don't understand and welcome to ASR.

I can get the sb-1000 pro for around 900$ here. As I said I can stretch the budget but I've always been more inclined to buying more music than better gear. Maybe i can pair the wiim ultra with the fosi za3. I read good reviews about it.

Music like that will produce a lot of distortion but will also mask a lot of distortion. Still, since you don't need high levels and low bass may be detrimental in you living situation, consider some smaller but tonally very accurate speakers with low distortion. Since with the Wiim you need a separate amp, consider some active speakers. Some very good ones are studio monitors. The Genelec 8030C from 478.15€ per unit here, Neumann KH120II from 612.61€ per unit here or Genelec 8040B from 755.46€ per unit here fit into your remaining budget.

Ok will look into these. From what I can understand looks like i should aim for more neutral speakers. Any passive speakers that fit the description?

No offence but it's rather badly recorded underground and the main problem here are records, not speakers.
From classics such as Darkthrone to some Eastern-EU stuff like Mgla
There's a lof of good records.
Even Wes Borland's crazy stuff like that:
If you don't have ~$1.5-2k to spend I'd suggest get a pair of good headphones.

Yea I know, but nothing I can do about it. My whole collection is filled with those kinds of albums and wouldn't change a thing. If anything I would get more when I had the chance before the prices skyrocketed. After all a good record is subjective. For example the Mgla you posted doesn't sound very interesting to me but I used to like them 20 years ago. Yea my budget is around 1.5-2k

 

[uwotm8]

Yea my budget is around 1.5-2k

Well, then consider getting something like Adam A7V/Genelec 8040; I'd prefer 6.5-7" instead of 5" despite how good KH 120 II are. Low midrange is critical to me especially if I listen to something dark and heavy and they way bigger woofers reproduce it is more pleasant to my ears.

But be ready that some of your tracks will sound "technically" bad, especially in comparison to good records. I mean, all your records will sound a lot better but the difference between them (good and bad ones) will become dramatic sometimes.

 

[ZolaIII]

@Diocletian and with Fosi you would be back on the start only spending 200€ more than with WiiM Amp Pro tho you get 1 dB more power. What's available there from subwoofer's with at least normal if not good price? I have pair of Wharfedale WH-D10 sub's and paid them little less than 300€ each.
There are and pretty good mastered materials but that's a main stream including LP's like Maiden. Unfortunately lots of lost and bad materials made on live gig's and circulated on audio cassettes in time. I stopped listening metal long time ago but still didn't forget. I can suggest you above average cheap Kali LP 6 V2 actives which both for the size and category stand out. You can and should digitalise your collection, mainstream stuff is good enough and on streaming services. How you stand with experimental music?

 

[Diocletian]

@Diocletian and with Fosi you would be back on the start only spending 200€ more than with WiiM Amp Pro tho you get 1 dB more power. What's available there from subwoofer's with at least normal if not good price? I have pair of Wharfedale WH-D10 sub's and paid them little less than 300€ each.
There are and pretty good mastered materials but that's a main stream including LP's like Maiden. Unfortunately lots of lost and bad materials made on live gig's and circulated on audio cassettes in time. I stopped listening metal long time ago but still didn't forget. I can suggest you above average cheap Kali LP 6 V2 actives which both for the size and category stand out. You can and should digitalise your collection, mainstream stuff is good enough and on streaming services. How you stand with experimental music?

Its just that for now the ultra gives me the option to connect everything (turntable/tv/cd player) and have a spare input and gives me the flexibility between active and amp+passive speakers. While with the amp pro I am stuck with that amp and there is no room to "improve" in the future. After all the fosi za3+wiim ultra is cheaper than the wiim amp pro where I live. Is the amp in the wiim alot better than the fozi za3?

I have about 2k records and CD's and no time to digitalize them. After all I enjoy looking at the lay out, reading the lyrics, special thanks etc of the physical format when me and my friends gather and listen to music. I know some people who digitalised their collection years ago and sold everything and now they buy reissues and begging to get those 1st presses again at a normal price.

 

[Roland68]

The 700s go for 1000-1100euros and the 1000s for 1560euros. Someone else recommended these aswell. Should I opt for bookshelf speakers + sub instead of towers though since it is not a big room?
https://www.skroutz.eu/c/3060/hi-fi-speakers.html This is the comparison site I use.

If the room is max 20 square meters, the Heco Aurora 700 would be perfect and the 1000 would be too big.
I also have the Elac DBR 6.2 mentioned and used it with 2 25-inch subwoofers, but I definitely didn't like it as much as the Aurora 700.
A Sabaj A30a has the perfect performance for it and can also add a subwoofer to the system if required.
I also have a Yamaha A-S1000 running in parallel (for comparison, I also had an A-S1200 and 2100 here), but the A30a is just a bit better for me. An A-S501 doesn't stand a chance.
TVs and a cheap CD player can be connected directly via the digital inputs.

 

[ZolaIII]

Its just that for now the ultra gives me the option to connect everything (turntable/tv/cd player) and have a spare input and gives me the flexibility between active and amp+passive speakers. While with the amp pro I am stuck with that amp and there is no room to "improve" in the future. After all the fosi za3+wiim ultra is cheaper than the wiim amp pro where I live. Is the amp in the wiim alot better than the fozi za3?

No ZA3 has a little more power and they perform about the same. To tell you truth for me one Toslink I/O is enough and I don't need much inputs but I do outputs at least 4 as I do 2.2 with ISO 226 2003 and crisp and clean vocal range. Any deacent two way 6.5" or bigger speakers with deacent subwoofer will do. Seams to me you like WiiM Ultra aesthetics and if it's cheap to get there go with it. Main part are the speakers. You should also look at cheaper Kali's three way actives range and still with a sub.

 

[JeremyFife]

The worst thing is to give someone advice on what they should or shouldn't buy.
Everyone has different spaces in which they listen to music and everyone has their own convictions about what is best for them - because how many people have so many different tastes.
The best thing would be to visit as many hi-fi equipment stores as possible and see for yourself what suits you best.It would be even better if you could hear what you like in your own space.

I kind of agree.
Trouble is that without a starting suggestion or three it can be difficult to make sense of the options.
Hopefully the OP took all posts with a pinch of something and did their own research.

It's also true that fantasy shopping with other people's money is fun. A guilty pleasure.

 

[JIW]

Ok will look into these. From what I can understand looks like i should aim for more neutral speakers. Any passive speakers that fit the description?

At that price, the active speakers offer better performance since the amplifiers are matched to the drivers and the cross-overs are before the amplifiers. Also, there is some protection circuitry so you don't damage the speakers.

Neutrality helps with making things intelligible. You can always add some EQ to suit your taste.

To the question whether you should get a subwoofer, your current speakers are rated down to 38 Hz. Looking at some measurements, this seems to be the -6 dB point. If you want lower bass - if there even is any to speak of, you need some big speakers or a bigger subwoofer. Having had a brief listen to the links, using my Sennheiser HD600, there really does not seem to be that much going on in the sub-bass.

Also, spending most of your budget on a subwoofer seems less than ideal.

 

[EERecordist]

You did not ask, but I will interject. I would speculate that some musical genres in their listener base listen loud and that is a mark of identity. I find that in EDM friends. Can you listen at 80-85 dB?

Do you know about the free NIOSH sound level meter app?

Selecting a speaker is going to depend on the listening level you want, the geometry, and sound conditioning in your room.

 

[Diocletian]

You did not ask, but I will interject. I would speculate that some musical genres in their listener base listen loud and that is a mark of identity. I find that in EDM friends. Can you listen at 80-85 dB?

Do you know about the free NIOSH sound level meter app?

Selecting a speaker is going to depend on the listening level you want, the geometry, and sound conditioning in your room.

Every suggestion from someone who is more experienced than I am is welcome.

Yea you are right some music genres are meant to be played loud
Don't exactly know what are the dB i usually listen to. It is not extremely loud due to being an apartment. Might have to measure that.

From what I understand pretty much every reputable hi-fi speak in my budget will sound good given the low quality of the recording and the room conditions

 

[Waxx]

For hardrock and metal, oldskool CD in horn and big woofer often is the best. The music is not that good recorded so utter revealing speakers are often not the best.

Many use older EV, JBL and Cerwin Vega cabinets with a CD in horn and midwoofer that goes down to the 40's, so a modern JBL (4367 or M2 or similar) is probally very good at this, just like the Meyer Bluehorns. Both are very expensive altough.

Another famous speaker, altough a diy project (from a reputed designer) is the Tarkus, a 3 way standmount with a dome tweeter, a small mid and a relative big woofer. This speaker would have been special tuned for harder rock and metal, and is very popular with friends who listen to metal (blackmetal mainly). It goes loud and has the right sound for that kind of music they think.

 

[RHO]

My experience is that with black and death metal* you actually want a quite neutral and revealing speaker. Otherwise everything tends te become a mess.
Actual room treatment can help here quite a lot. Make the room less reflective. Specifically for black metal there's a lot of high frequency content compared to the midrange. In a very reflective room this can cause listening fatigue.
With your budget a good set of active monitors (the already suggested Adam Audio T7V comes to mind) and a subwoofer (I use a KRK S10.4, in a very smal room => It's plenty powerful for my application) could work very nicely.

*I tend to listen to albums that have the less typical black metal sound. So a less "cold" overal sound and better production. I really don't like the very LoFi productions where you only hear bass, higher midrange en treble with a big suck-out in the lower midrange.

 

[Diocletian]

My experience is that with black and death metal* you actually want a quite neutral and revealing speaker. Otherwise everything tends te become a mess.

Do the JBL 305p MK II fit that description? A friend of mine wants to buy some cheap speakers

 

[ZolaIII]

Do the JBL 305p MK II fit that description? A friend of mine wants to buy some cheap speakers

No they don't. Told you nice response and score with 6.5" woffer's at least so that they do up to crossover on their own without the port. What are the room dimensions, especially length? I am disappointed regarding experimental.

Edit: did you look locality for closed enclosure subwoofer with good/normal pricing (and CD on discount along)?

 

[RHO]

Do the JBL 305p MK II fit that description? A friend of mine wants to buy some cheap speakers

I have never listened to them.
Looking at the spinorama data they aren't too bad. It depends on what your friend's system consists of (ARC/PEQ?) and what the room looks like (huge, small, well damped,...).

But I would certainly add a subwoofer. Until I added one myself I didn't realize what impact it has on music enjoyment.
In my room a sub like the KRK I use is plenty powerful. So a room double the size would also be no problem. Most of these studio subwoofers have integrated cross-overs. So you go from the source to the sub and from there to the main speakers/amp. (This may not be a necessary when using the WiiM)

 

[ZolaIII]

Do the JBL 305p MK II fit that description? A friend of mine wants to buy some cheap speakers

Kali LP 6 V2's are hard to beat for 400€. Without sub's at least 8" one's and with nice extension. No special recommendation there what ever you can find cheaper locally JBL/Kali . Still midrange is a little better investment regarding longevity like Yamaha HS8. It's not fair that I recommend old JBL LSR2328P's as you will have hard time finding old stock of those.
You have two peeks in most materials low bass and main bass. With equal loudness compensation psy you can have full range (bass) even on moderate listening SPL. If you by chance bump on deacent USB measurements microphone buy it. It doesn't have to be UMIK-1 tho that's desirable to double as calibrated SPL meter.

 

[RHO]

The Kali LP6 V2's are indeed a very good recommendation.
If you go for an 8"sub, I would go for 2. But that would add to the cost and in most cases 1 10" will go lower and can generate enough SPL to work well in a small-ish room.

 

[ZolaIII]

The Kali LP6 V2's are indeed a very good recommendation.
If you go for an 8"sub, I would go for 2. But that would add to the cost and in most cases 1 10" will go lower and can generate enough SPL to work well in a small-ish room.

I am on two 10" but that's complicated if he could find old SVS-SB1000 for 500~550€ new that would be a good catch.

 

[RHO]

I am on two 10" but that's complicated if he could find old SVS-SB1000 for 500~550€ new that would be a good catch.

Those are good subwoofers, but is there a reason to think those are markedly better then cheaper studio subwoofers (KRK, Adam, JBL), for music listening? Low end extension is maybe better on the SVS, but that would mostly be advantageous when using them in a home-cinema setup.

 

[ehabheikal]

Do the JBL 305p MK II fit that description? A friend of mine wants to buy some cheap speakers

The jbls have less than ideal distortion