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Still trying to pull the trigger on some towers. 10,000 budget. Please help me decide.

sneabs

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Aug 10, 2024
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I still just can’t seem to make up my mind. These are going to be big heavy speakers and I want to make sure I get it right. Don’t want the hassle of swapping them out. I guess up to a 10,000 budget. 16x30 room to be used for HT and music. Used along large sub. Want to stay passive.

Contenders

Super Linton (I guess a bookshelf but it’s big) cheapest and have got great reviews

Revel f228

Ascend ELX tower-highest score with sub here

Mofi source point 888

Arendal 1528-these might just be too big, but if they are truly exceptional, will they be end game
 
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You really can't go wrong with the Revel F228be, IMO. If you weren't sticking strictly to passives, I'd also recommend the KEF LS60 as above.
 
Have you heard any of them?

Do you have room EQ (or a plan for it)?
 
ATC SCM40
 
You can leap frog over the 228's if you're willing to buy a used pair of 328s. There's a pair for sale on a thread here:


or Ebay:
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Since you mention home theater use, I’d consider center channel options as well. Even if you only want two channel for now, having a speaker with a great center option might be handy down the road.

From your list, that would narrow it down to Revel, Ascend, and Arendal.

I’d probably go with Revel. They have a lot of sales right now, I think ending tomorrow. They are a known quantity and have a wide range of options if you want to make a multichannel system.
 
I vote for the Ascend ELX Towers, either RAAL or Titan mainly depending on your musical tastes. Add the Horizon ELX center and you'd still have a couple of grand in your pocket.
 
As noted, if HT use, you will want towers and matching center. Not that much there that meets that criteria as center is the bottleneck for most.

Revel has wonderful and large C426 center and that would go with 228s or 328s. Revel's are often on sale and you should not buy full price.

Perlisten has great towers, but their center in R series is undersized compared to towers. Their S series center is very expensive and sealed which in my book does not really match to the R or S towers. It does sound really good, but you should audition if want to go into that direction as very expensive combo and has this sealed/ported mismatch that one needs to get comfortable with.

New Arendal's 1528 are giants, and they have the matching giant center. It seems based on the current measurements that these could go lower than Revels or Perlistns in room, but not clear at what SPL or distortion. Their 50hz distortion measurement is higher than smaller 328 tower but a bit lower than older but iconic Salon 2 design. I don't thing there are any measurements on the center though.

Among these centers, I choose Revel C426 as it sounds amazing and offers very convenient option of tilting by design. Perlisten and Arendal will let you deal with tilting of these rather large and heavy speakers. It's not really that easy to do as long term solution unless deploying some drastic measures.

There are many other towers in this price range that you could explore. They might not be a perfect match to the center, but could be worth it. My Heco La Diva towers do have a bit different sonic signature to my C426, but overall they do fit well together and only occasionally can hear that they are not exactly a match made in haven.
 
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ATC SCM40
Not good enough in a room that size I suspect and they'll EAT shedloads of power in a room that size!!! Not sure Super Lintons are room-filling enough?

I'd arguably suggest one of the JBL Synthesis models, the 4367 possibly too expensive, but what about the next model down? Neither are 'towers' but won't risk an organ-pipe bass issue that tower types can have ('cos of the shape and I'm told the resulting 'honk' by having basically a tube with a hole at one end is very difficult to deal with at the design stage) and for a room the size as suggested, the EASE of a larger bass-mid driver not working hard is so hard to live without once experienced.



Place on low stands, tilt them back a little and they should fill your room with consummate ease, with pretty low colouration and bass perfect for music as well as home theatre. I heard the 4357 a while ago now and fell in love with their big-hearted sound, doing large scale with ease, but managing more intimate music as well. Some two-three grand Revel towers played after, sounded thin and squeaky to me, a very 'HiFi - deeeeetail' kind of toppy presentation :)

Just a thought. Sadly in the UK, these otherwise excellent models simply don't fit in to the lifestyle that higher end HiFi has in these UK parts (we're increasingly poor here as well and the few with money would only buy the designer-brands our high-end dealers push at them, such as Dynaudio or Kudos)
 
I had the C426Be and F226Bes and replaced them with Ascend ELX ribbons. Even when using subs I found the Ascends to be more dynamic through the upper bass and I greatly preferred their high-end reproduction. If you listen while standing up / walking around often then the Revels offer the advantage of a much larger vertical window. Either choice would be excellent overall in most rooms.
 
Not good enough in a room that size I suspect and they'll EAT shedloads of power in a room that size!!! Not sure Super Lintons are room-filling enough?

I'd arguably suggest one of the JBL Synthesis models, the 4367 possibly too expensive, but what about the next model down? Neither are 'towers' but won't risk an organ-pipe bass issue that tower types can have ('cos of the shape and I'm told the resulting 'honk' by having basically a tube with a hole at one end is very difficult to deal with at the design stage) and for a room the size as suggested, the EASE of a larger bass-mid driver not working hard is so hard to live without once experienced.



Place on low stands, tilt them back a little and they should fill your room with consummate ease, with pretty low colouration and bass perfect for music as well as home theatre. I heard the 4357 a while ago now and fell in love with their big-hearted sound, doing large scale with ease, but managing more intimate music as well. Some two-three grand Revel towers played after, sounded thin and squeaky to me, a very 'HiFi - deeeeetail' kind of toppy presentation :)

Just a thought. Sadly in the UK, these otherwise excellent models simply don't fit in to the lifestyle that higher end HiFi has in these UK parts (we're increasingly poor here as well and the few with money would only buy the designer-brands our high-end dealers push at them, such as Dynaudio or Kudos)
JBL 4367 indeed a good shout - I'd have thought $10K would easy get them on the secondary market. By comparison most other speakers sound like toys.

16 x 30 room is ideal to deploy a speaker like that.
 
JBL 4367 indeed a good shout - I'd have thought $10K would easy get them on the secondary market. By comparison most other speakers sound like toys.

16 x 30 room is ideal to deploy a speaker like that.
There was just a pair on tmr audio recently for about 8k. I thought about them but I wanted black. They do look impressive.
 
JBL 4367 indeed a good shout - I'd have thought $10K would easy get them on the secondary market. By comparison most other speakers sound like toys.

16 x 30 room is ideal to deploy a speaker like that.
Lol, that's a bold statement right there.
 
IIRC the well-known M2 vs. Revel Salon2 shootout showed that the latter is better ;)..
p. s.: typo corrected
 
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Kinda stoopid to spend $10,000 without listening to any of the awesome speakers mentioned above. It all comes down to listener preference. What are you going to tell your friends ? That some randos on an internet forum told you how to spend your money ?

This is falling into the audiophile trap that $10,000 speakers must sound twice as good as $5,000 speakers and 5X better tha $2,000 speakers. ASR if anything is proof that spending more does not always result in better sound. Speakers, being transducers, will all sound different.
 
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