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What budget speakers you like to see reviewed?

edechamps said:
Some people around me (including one PC magazine) recommend Logitech speakers for adding speakers to, say, a gaming PC. For example Logitech Z906.

It would be interesting to see how they perform, as I don't think I've ever seen anyone try to measure a "PC gaming" type of speaker. They are definitely very "budget" by Hi-Fi standards.

And by the way, I applaud the initiative to get budget speakers to measure. That may not be what matters most to the members of this forum, but it would definitely have more impact on the general public.

Maybe we'll get to spot the $9 Apple dongle of the speaker world. That seems really unlikely, but who knows!
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Like the Creative Gigaworks series.

It's a good idea. It would bring a lot more attention to the forum from non-audiophiles.
 
StevenEleven said:
That's Andrew Jones if I recall correctly, and that's THREE [now four] votes for the Pioneers! Not that I'm counting! :)
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Yes, and he designed the aforementioned ELACs, too (and worked for Pioneer's TAD before that, designing real loudspeakers.) ;)

Actually, some of the bigger ELACs (and the new-ish, small-ish but not cheap-ish stand mounts) designed by Andrew Jones are supposed to be pretty special, too.

By all accounts, he's a pretty good guy.
 
I've got a soft spot for Jamo, but less so since they sold out. Those 803s look a bit too hipster for my liking, but they have a history of some excellent small two ways.

What about Paradigm? They had some lovely little bangers in their line up. Or Dali? I've got a little pair of Zensor 1s here- they aren't bad.
 
pozz said:
Like the Creative Gigaworks series.

It's a good idea. It would bring a lot more attention to the forum from non-audiophiles.
Click to expand...

They already have Consumer Reports.

If a pair of $200.00 speaker are duds no loss of consequence however if a pair of $10,000.00 speakers are duds you have a problem.
It makes no sense from a cost reward ratio to spend $100,000.00 to test $200.00 speakers as a goal.

Let’s get the testing for sake of experience with the low cost speakers out of the way and then get a good cross section at all price points.
 
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I got my pair of JBL 306P at US$172/pair- on sale, they will meet the budget criteria if such an offer crops up again.

Was suggesting the Pioneer DM40 to a query on one of the threads as they were front ported and cheap. US$149/pair.
 
Actually (and FWIW), I think that the chances of getting a dud increase substantially in the high-five to low-six-figure range for loudspeakers -- because those sorts of loudspeakers tend to be idiosyncratic exercises. They may well have a distinctive sound -- but whether one will or won't care for it is a matter of taste. And, as always, de gustibus non est disputandum. :)

The more competitive price points will, I think, tend to yield more homogenous, OK-sounding loudspeakers.

Just opinions, though -- I don't have too much ears-on experience on too many modern loudspeakers.
 
The forums purely for gamers have a lot of talk about sound, soundcards, motherboard codecs and PC-specific speakers. They should get access to this kind of info even if they aren't card-carrying audiophiles. Plenty of similar talk and upgraditis over there.

Like @edechamps said, you never know.
Vintage57 said:
They already have Consumer Reports.

If a pair of $200.00 speaker are duds no loss of consequence however if a pair of $10,000.00 speakers are duds you have a problem.
It makes no sense from a cost reward ratio to spend $100,000.00 to test $200.00 speakers as a goal.

Let’s get the testing for sake of experience with the equi-mentor out of the way and then get a good cross section at all price points.
Click to expand...
In his book Toole crosstested Consumer Reports recommendations against his DBT data and found that their recommendations had a negative correlation with sound quality. ASR's making data available that no one's given out freely before. Might even make the lowest end manufacturers more transparent.

Plus, $200 can be $10k for some, either students or the retired, or those looking in from outside of the top income-bracket countries.
 
I would like to see the measurements of JBL Bar Studio ($150) and its newer iteration ($200). They sound good to me, are inexpensive and compact.
 
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pozz said:
The forums purely for gamers have a lot of talk about sound, soundcards, motherboard codecs and PC-specific speakers. They should get access to this kind of info even if they aren't card-carrying audiophiles. Plenty of similar talk and upgraditis over there.

Like @edechamps said, you never know.

In his book Toole crosstested Consumer Reports recommendations against his DBT data and found that their recommendations had a negative correlation with sound quality. ASR's making data available that no one's given out freely before. Might even make the lowest end manufacturers more transparent.

Plus, $200 can be $10k for some, either students or the retired, or those looking in from outside of the top income-bracket countries.
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Agreed.

To many people, $200~500 is all that they can afford to spend on audio speakers as a hobby. And by that count, that few hundred dollars mean more to these people than a few grand mean to those who can afford to spend on $10+k valued speakers.

There is good reason why active speakers such as the JBL 305P have been mega bestsellers for the past few years. Mainly because they get users pretty good, though not perfect quality sound at a really approachable price point. Its something that ASR has been striving to unearth on the DAC and amplifier side of things since it started and we've come a long way since indeed.

And if someone does send in a megabucks speakers to measure, that's a bonus. Just like the DAC's and amps, the Mola Mola being a very good example.
 
Sony SSCS5, Micca RB42!
 
NHT SuperZero 2.1—these have a cult following and I am sure many people would be interested. You can find new pairs for under $150.

If you stretch your budget to $350, Chane 1.5. The 1.5 is a new speaker but previous bookshelf speakers in the Chane and ARX (Chane’s predecessor company) lines also have fervent cult followings.
 
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