What's the best passive (and preferably floorstanding) speaker one can find for $2,500 or less?

[Roen]

What was "easily better"? Do you have the definitive ranking of passive two-way stand mounted speakers? In my book, they're all hopeless except at very low levels or for duties such as TV sound.

I think I should have gotten JBL 306s for a few hundred bucks and chucked my amps.

Sierra-2

http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/SRM2/srm2meas.html

BMR Philarharmonitor

http://www.philharmonicaudio.com/BMR Philharmonitor.html

The star is the RAAL True Ribbon Tweeter, easily one of the most accurate tweeters out there, due to it's significant lack of inertia (0.0075 g weight, http://www.raalribbon.com/products_flatfoil_70-10.htm)

The SEAS woofer on the Sierra is very capable of producing an accurate mid to low end, I can't speak much about the BMR / ScanSpeak combination found on the Philharmonitor, but they test very closely to each other.

Either of these are going to be more accurate and less fatiguing than the LS50, based on my own audition and ears, and how similar the Philharmonitor is to the Sierra-2.

The Sierra-2 goes on sale annually, either direct from Ascend, or through Massdrop. At it's discounted buy, it's easily the best in its price range.

As part of a HT system with subs, you may want to go with a Sierra Luna front ported speaker for easier mounting options. In 2.1 form, the Sierra-2 and Sierra Luna sound similar with the assistance of a sub.

Best part, if you don't believe me and are located in the US, you can audition the Sierra-2 for free.

http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/support/30dayguar.html

 

[D700]

At that distance the efficiency of Klipsch is very attractive to get the sound pressure levels you want for good home theater. I’ve had NHT, KEF LS50 and all sorts of Klipsch speakers over the years, would not hesitate to go back to Klipsch. For that size room, listening distance...and topped out at 125watts (typical high level Marantz AVR) I’d consider the new RF7 III. It has a tweeter crossover point that’s been lowered, so may avoid what you heard prior that led to fatigue. I’ve never had fatigue from any of my Klipsch. One benefit to higher sensitivity speakers is lower operating temp for your AVR. Having blown out a Marantz 8002, it was something I appreciated.

 

[Sancus]

The Ascend website appears not to have been updated in a while, and the e-commerce pages are inactive.

The last announcement was holiday sale 2018, seems recent, and I was able to create an account, add speakers to the cart, and get to checkout, so seems like the company is still operating just fine?

 

[Sancus]

I was looking here:

http://www.ascendacoustics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=AD

Yeah their store seems to be missing links to their main products. The whole thing is a mess and could use some work.... but a lot of speaker manufacturers don't seem to care much about web design from this decade.

You can reach the 'buy' links for most of their products from the product pages themselves, for example Sierra 2 ordering is listed under "please use the following links" halfway down the page.

E: Looks like you have to click through from Loudspeakers to "Stereo Pairs" to see the actual products in the store. Very confusing.

 

[Roen]

What was "easily better"? Do you have the definitive ranking of passive two-way stand mounted speakers? In my book, they're all hopeless except at very low levels or for duties such as TV sound.

I think I should have gotten JBL 306s for a few hundred bucks and chucked my amps.

The Ascend website appears not to have been updated in a while, and the e-commerce pages are inactive.

They’re still in business.

I see the item still up for sale and am able to place an order. If you only clicked one link and thought the e commerce site is down, that’s understandable. The store is not intuitive or well designed.

Ascend is basically a husband and wife shop. All the speakers are personally made by Dave.

If you’re thinking this is a scam, I’d say email them or give them a call. They’ve always been very friendly and I’ve bought 5 of my 7 HT / music speakers from them.

 

[helloworld]

https://soundstage.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=140

hi @amirm I’m asking some stupid questions: how to read these charts? What determines a better speaker? A flat frequency response and lower Thd+n as a DAC?
Another question, there’s a chart putting frequency response and thd+n together, but those “db” are not negtive, how to get the real number of thd+n.
Sorry if my question is too stupid....

 

[confucius_zero]

I recall enjoying the Sonus Faber Principia 3 quite much and even considered buying them... Then I got the Paradigm Atom v7.....

 

[Blumlein 88]

hi @amirm I’m asking some stupid questions: how to read these charts? What determines a better speaker? A flat frequency response and lower Thd+n as a DAC?
Another question, there’s a chart putting frequency response and thd+n together, but those “db” are not negtive, how to get the real number of thd+n.
Sorry if my question is too stupid....

Not Amir, but maybe I can help.
In the graphs of distortion the top line is the speaker response and the bottom is the harmonic distortion levels. So subtract top line from bottom for distortion. For instance if during a 90 db test signal the distortion line is at 50 db the difference is -40 db which would be about 1%. Many of the better speakers run off the bottom of the graph and would be under .5% distortion.

Here is an NHT classic 3 at 95 db input signal. You see mostly distortion at around 50 db so 50 db subtract 95 db is -45 db distortion Or half percent. Lower frequencies may be real distortion or just mostly noise as these have to be THD+N actually.

On the other charts you like to see a relatively flat response on axis. On those showing off axis response you'd like to see the same basic response with a slight tilt downward compared to on axis with more off axis having more tilt, but the same basic shape as the direct on axis response. Look at the Revel Ultima speakers for some good examples or the Magico. Look at the Zu Druid for a bad example.

For an in between example look at the Thiel CS 1.6 tests. Nice flat on axis response. But the off axis response has some severe dips and looks different than the on axis. This is due to Thiel using 1st order crossovers and off axis you have these kinds of swings. These are bad for sound overall and make these speakers very picky about toe in and room reflections making them sound less than good. Also notice around the crossover you get rather high distortion levels again I think from using shallow crossover slopes. Preserves on axis step response at the cost of hurting response everywhere else and probably an overall negative for good sounding speakers.

 

[helloworld]

Not Amir, but maybe I can help.
In the graphs of distortion the top line is the speaker response and the bottom is the harmonic distortion levels. So subtract top line from bottom for distortion. For instance if during a 90 db test signal the distortion line is at 50 db the difference is -40 db which would be about 1%. Many of the better speakers run off the bottom of the graph and would be under .5% distortion.

Here is an NHT classic 3 at 95 db input signal. You see mostly distortion at around 50 db so 50 db subtract 95 db is -45 db distortion Or half percent. Lower frequencies may be real distortion or just mostly noise as these have to be THD+N actually.
View attachment 20309

On the other charts you like to see a relatively flat response on axis. On those showing off axis response you'd like to see the same basic response with a slight tilt downward compared to on axis with more off axis having more tilt, but the same basic shape as the direct on axis response. Look at the Revel Ultima speakers for some good examples or the Magico. Look at the Zu Druid for a bad example.

Thank you very much!

 

[MZKM]

hi @amirm I’m asking some stupid questions: how to read these charts? What determines a better speaker? A flat frequency response and lower Thd+n as a DAC?
Another question, there’s a chart putting frequency response and thd+n together, but those “db” are not negtive, how to get the real number of thd+n.
Sorry if my question is too stupid....

Not Amir, but I’ll give it a shot:

1) The site is question has a page titled How We Test Loudspeakers which should help. For instance, the THD graph is showing the THD in relation to the main frequency, a 40dB difference is 1% THD, a decibel to THD calculator/converter website is easily found.

2) Everyone’s ideal is not 100% identical in terms of frequency response. Sean Olive has done some preferred frequency response studies, and found that while trained listeners prefer how a speaker that measured flat in an anechoic chamber performs in a ideal listening room, he found that untrained listeners (everyday people) like a bit more treble and a lot more bass (and don’t forget that the elderly and those that have been to many concerts have poor hearing of higher frequencies, so they may like a lot of boosted treble). However, we all prefer non-jagged frequency responses, so if a speaker is mostly perfectly transparent except for some bass emphasis, I’d still call that an excellent speaker. We can make some claims though in terms of preference if one speaker is just plain bad, like I don’t think anyone in a double-blind study would pick this speaker over this speaker, the latter is just amazing (it should be for the price), while the former is just horrible (and it’s $3300 price tag is insane).

 

[helloworld]

Not Amir, but I’ll give it a shot:

1) The site is question has a page titled How We Test Loudspeakers which should help. For instance, the THD graph is showing the THD in relation to the main frequency, a 40dB difference is 1% THD, a decibel to THD calculator/converter website is easily found.

2) Everyone’s ideal is not 100% identical in terms of frequency response. Sean Olive has done some preferred frequency response studies, and found that while trained listeners prefer how a speaker that measured flat in an anechoic chamber performs in a ideal listening room, he found that untrained listeners (everyday people) like a bit more treble and a lot more bass (and don’t forget that the elderly and those that have been to many concerns have poor hearing of higher frequencies, so they may like a lot of boosted treble). However, we all prefer non-jagged frequency responses, so if a speaker is mostly perfectly transparent except for some bass emphasis, I’d still call that an excellent speaker. We can make some claims though in terms of preference if one speaker is just plain bad, like I don’t think anyone in a double-blind study would pick this speaker over this speaker, the latter is just amazing (it should be for the price), while the latter is just horrible (and it’s $3300 price tag is insane).

Thank you very much! Now I know why people like Revel Ultima Salon2!

 

[amirm]

hi @amirm I’m asking some stupid questions: how to read these charts? What determines a better speaker? A flat frequency response and lower Thd+n as a DAC?

Hi there. It takes a lot to explain that. For now, you can look at the listening window measurements:

You want that to have smooth shape with least amount of variation.

 

[LightninBoy]

I think we will try to go with the Revels.

Good choice.

 

[Darwin]

https://www.whathifi.com/monitor-audio/silver-300/overview

These got great reviews from several well known publications. (That's not a guarantee of anything.)

I'm seriously considering these.

 

[MZKM]

I'm seriously considering these.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/monitor-audio-silver-300-loudspeaker-measurements

Definitely a solid pair.

 

[Roen]

I've listened to some Bronzes and asked my friend "and you paid how much for these?"

For that price, you could have an Ascend Sierra Tower without the RAAL tweeter or some Salk SongTowers.

This being said, I don't believe Monitor Audio offers a good value proposition relative to other available options, but YMMV.

 

[Dialectic]

Not interested in RAAL tweeters. I have owned more exotic ribbon designs than that before...

 

[Panelhead]

I went through many speakers. Used electrostatics and planers, Lowthers, and many others. Settled on Thiel CS-3.5. Think it was the drivers, Dynadio, Scanspeak, and Morel. The later Thiel all used in house drivers.
The B&W 801 S2 before the Thiel were excellent, just required huge power for dynamics. I normally keep speakers for a while.
Their are a great many options at 2500.00. Best advise is go listen to a few. People’s opinions, reviews, and specs are only a guide. Find some they like.

 

[envydd]

I love my KEF LS50s and I have compared with my friends R900 and witha sub they sound similar. Maybe a little edgy mid and highs. Another option is the R300 for 1299 per pair on clearance. Or the R500. Or maybe the active LS50.

Hard to beat the sound especially at the sale prices

 

[Erik]

I love my KEF LS50s

Hard to beat the sound especially at the sale prices

Sounds like a post-purchase rationalization.

As you can see, there are significantly better options for the price. LS50 is a nice loudspeaker and KEF made a great job marketing it, but let's stick to reality here.