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What budget speakers you like to see reviewed?

MZKM

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Anything Axiom would also be great, people seem to either love them or hate them.
From SoundStage/NRC measurements, looks like they aim for neutrality but have directivity mismatches in the crossover regions for many models. So, a safe purchase but not cream of the crop.

I forget, are the the company that offers like a dozen finishes, including grilles, and even custom finishes?
EDIT: Yep, they also are the only company I’ve ever seen where you get a discount if you allow them to taken their time in shipping them out.
 

AlexanderM

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From SoundStage/NRC measurements, looks like they aim for neutrality but have directivity mismatches in the crossover regions for many models. So, a safe purchase but not cream of the crop.

I forget, are the the company that offers like a dozen finishes, including grilles, and even custom finishes?
EDIT: Yep, they also are the only company I’ve ever seen where you get a discount if you allow them to taken their time in shipping them out.
Thanks!! Axiom are now also being sold under the Bryston name.
 

pokerbarlo

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Not exactly budget but it is budget compared to other high end game speakers like revel, genelec etc. End game at less than 5kusd The linkwitz 521.2 or .4
 

speakersuggestion

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Yamaha MSP7 Studio.

Yamaha places their MSP Studio line above their HS line and still sells it, but supposedly doesn't advertise it as much, and thus price-to-performance is supposedly very good. They are heavy and solidly built. Class AB amp? Supposedly their new NS-5000 is similar to these, they added one more driver, added a zero to the price tag, and called it a day. So many "supposedly", I know. I listened to the MSP5 Studio pair many times (by a friend) and they sound amazing. Maybe someone can send @amirm a unit to review, I will donate after a review. Note: There's an older, discontinued and worse performing MSP non-Studio line.

This is not a budget speaker as defined in the first post, but I couldn't find any other topics, so I'm posting it here (maybe pin certain topics, or pin only one topic and link there to other topics to keep the pinned topics number low).

PS: Thanks @amirm for being scientific about reviews.
 

richard12511

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From SoundStage/NRC measurements, looks like they aim for neutrality but have directivity mismatches in the crossover regions for many models. So, a safe purchase but not cream of the crop.

I forget, are the the company that offers like a dozen finishes, including grilles, and even custom finishes?
EDIT: Yep, they also are the only company I’ve ever seen where you get a discount if you allow them to taken their time in shipping them out.

That's actually awesome how many different finishes they offer. I had no idea.
 

fluxcapacitor

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Hello guys,
a question for the nerds out there...I want to experience ribbon tweeters and like Dali sound already. I can buy 2X Dali Opticon Vokal to use as main bookshelf speakers. Do you think i get nice sound ? or clealry better sound than 2x oberon1 bookshelf speakers at least?
thanks for advices.

image_2021-05-15_221946.png
 

LunarisDream

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The "BESTISAN" SR01 bookshelf speakers on Amazon that surfaced near the end of 2020 are visually very similar to the R1280T which is one of the best budget bookshelf speakers, according to various sources I've read (including the in-house review here). I was pretty much set on getting those to dip my toe in the water, since the closest I've been to "good" audio is through my Sennheiser HD558. The Bestisan bookshelves are clearly designed to compete with the R1280T from Edifier, and with both companies being Chinese, I'm very curious to see how the former measures up according to an audio professional. They appear to have no reputable reviews due to being a relatively new product, and while the Amazon reviews are stellar, the amount of salt required to trust them would leave me catatonic.

Bestisan SR01 vs Edifier R1280T pros and cons from my layman perspective:

Pros:
  • $17 cheaper at the time of writing ($83 vs $100)
  • Optical and USB input
  • Input switching via remote (internal audio switcher?)
  • Higher maximum output (50W vs 42W)
  • Impedance stated in product description (6 ohm vs ???)
Cons:
  • No official English website or online documentation (Amazon QnA stated user manual may be requested via support email)
  • "DSP technology enabled sound modes" sounds like ways to screw up audio balance
Specs-wise it seems to be more feature-rich than the R1280T and it's cheaper to boot, but it has not been tried-and-tested by the masses or professional reviewers. I'm the type of person to always want the absolute most out of the money I spend on tech, so having more features for less is very appealing, but I also understand that in the world of audio, speakers with the exact same sized tweeters and woofers can still manage to sound drastically different. I guess I'm just hoping someone will either affirm my existing notions or smack me upside the head and say "no you idiot, these speakers are obviously garbage and here's why". I'm sure I'll be happy with pretty much anything seeing as how I thought the Z313 was good enough to buy it twice, but it would be excellent to hear a professional's take on this.
 

Robbo99999

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The "BESTISAN" SR01 bookshelf speakers on Amazon that surfaced near the end of 2020 are visually very similar to the R1280T which is one of the best budget bookshelf speakers, according to various sources I've read (including the in-house review here). I was pretty much set on getting those to dip my toe in the water, since the closest I've been to "good" audio is through my Sennheiser HD558. The Bestisan bookshelves are clearly designed to compete with the R1280T from Edifier, and with both companies being Chinese, I'm very curious to see how the former measures up according to an audio professional. They appear to have no reputable reviews due to being a relatively new product, and while the Amazon reviews are stellar, the amount of salt required to trust them would leave me catatonic.

Bestisan SR01 vs Edifier R1280T pros and cons from my layman perspective:

Pros:
  • $17 cheaper at the time of writing ($83 vs $100)
  • Optical and USB input
  • Input switching via remote (internal audio switcher?)
  • Higher maximum output (50W vs 42W)
  • Impedance stated in product description (6 ohm vs ???)
Cons:
  • No official English website or online documentation (Amazon QnA stated user manual may be requested via support email)
  • "DSP technology enabled sound modes" sounds like ways to screw up audio balance
Specs-wise it seems to be more feature-rich than the R1280T and it's cheaper to boot, but it has not been tried-and-tested by the masses or professional reviewers. I'm the type of person to always want the absolute most out of the money I spend on tech, so having more features for less is very appealing, but I also understand that in the world of audio, speakers with the exact same sized tweeters and woofers can still manage to sound drastically different. I guess I'm just hoping someone will either affirm my existing notions or smack me upside the head and say "no you idiot, these speakers are obviously garbage and here's why". I'm sure I'll be happy with pretty much anything seeing as how I thought the Z313 was good enough to buy it twice, but it would be excellent to hear a professional's take on this.
I don't suppose you really know until they're tested, so I'd say if you're serious about getting your first set of proper speakers then get a pair that's been measured by Amir already, or wait for one of your choice to be measured. In terms of those speakers, I'm certainly not an expert on speaker design but my initial impression is they look a bit gimmicky and a little unconventional, so I could certainly imagine some fundamental problems with the acoustics re directivity and crossovers, but that's just a feeling, they'd have to be measured. Make your first foray into proper speakers be a good one, buy some that have been measured here.
 

khark

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Budget speakers like the Edifier R1700BT and Presonus 3.5 which have been topping the Amazon sales list the past years. Should be interesting to measure them, sooo many people across the globe are using them.
 

MZKM

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Last edited:

AlexanderM

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Cerwin-Vega XLS-6, $125/each:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002JH4L1G/
VfqhQzMelbzEivAmZRQWVNK3n2pQO2iCtHK3gp9_p2TIdCxgs5KrcCAo0KERicf3uLbUiKMyDmmMOAv0Tob-Jwz6NdWNE8QnusSyfkMwPS7hPoaOaoDwcFGdKrzDO6HfUWYMCLG1kFwi15MA7z5SQnMApdWs9YqoV78


SoundStage/NRC has measurements of the 3-way 15” XLS-215, listening window not that great, but further off-axis wasn’t bad:
frequency_456075.gif


_____
$350/each is the 3-way 12“ tower of their LS line:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JPDMXLC/

SL122.jpg



Also $350/each, their XLS-28:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002JGZ9RC/

3227361cv11a.jpg


They usually consolidate their listings so reviews are shared, but all have 4.5/5 stars or higher.
Was looking at these earlier today thinking, they can't be good, so would be good to know.
 
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