Which speaker would you choose?

[mtmpenn]

Okay... I've been on the fence for months about purchasing a new system. My current setup uses DIY speakers. I love them, but for a variety of reasons I am thinking of setting up this system with commercial speakers (two driving forces are that hobby time is extremely limited right now and I think it might be valuable to have a nice set of commercial speakers as a point of reference for future DIY builds).

I'm looking for a pair of bookshelf speakers. They will be used on an actual bookshelf (rear of speaker just a few inches from the front wall), in a moderately sized room. They will be driven with 60wpc, and a sub will be used. My hope is that this will fill in the lowest octaves and perhaps reduce some issues with rear port output/positioning. I do not want active speakers. They will be placed such that the tweeter is a few inches above ear height, no toe-in.

I've been back and forth on a few speakers, but three top contenders are presented below. I'm wondering what people would choose, based on graphs alone. All are available for about the same price. Alternatives are of course appreciated.

Measurements are all from Stereophile. (Edited to add vertical responses and measured sensitivity, edit #2 for speaker reveal)


Speaker A Measured sensitivity 86.5 - Revel M106

Lateral

Vertical

Speaker B - Measured sensitivity 82.5 - Elac Carina bs243.4

Lateral

Vertical

Speaker C - Measured sensitivity 87.5 - Technics sb-c700

Lateral

Vertical

 

[Kustomize]

What DIY speakers do you currently have?

Speaker B

 

[mtmpenn]

I have Zaph ZA5.2’s. I like them. I use them on my desk at work and they work well in that capacity.

 

[mtmpenn]

I have Zaph ZA5.2’s. I like them. I use them on my desk at work and they work well in that capacity.

I should mention that the new system would be used in my house so the Zach’s are not going anywhere.

 

[andreasmaaan]

If I had to choose based on just the basic measurements you've posted, I'd probably choose B because it looks the least likely to cause offence. But that's a pretty low bar - I'd want to see more data or at least listen first

 

[Vini darko]

Wichevers biggest

 

[Kustomize]

I have Zaph ZA5.2’s. I like them. I use them on my desk at work and they work well in that capacity.

That’s great! I’ve the Zaph 5.3!

edit : once we’ve enough votes. Tell us all what speakers they are for further comparison?

 

[thewas]

Could you also please add the vertical plots?

 

[mtmpenn]

Okay, added vertical plots and measured sensitivity.

I will definitely reveal the models, maybe tonight/tomorrow to give it a little more time for people to vote.

 

[RayDunzl]

Are there any otherwise similar speakers that aren't ported?

 

[mtmpenn]

I've struggled to find many sealed options.
The above speakers are all 2-way designs, less than 15" tall.

The NHT C3 would fit the space, so that is a consideration and it seems to measure well.

I would certainly appreciate sealed suggestions, less than $1500 per pair required (purchase price, not list).

 

[andreasmaaan]

I've struggled to find many sealed options.
The above speakers are all 2-way designs, less than 15" tall.

The NHT C3 would fit the space, so that is a consideration and it seems to measure well.

I would certainly appreciate sealed suggestions, less than $1500 per pair required (purchase price, not list).

Would it be possible to post more complete measurements of these speakers? It's impossible to make a judgement based on just the on-axis FR and the horizontal polar response.

Anyway, for a bookshelf in your price range, I would suggest KEF R3 (not sure what it costs where you are, so maybe a bit over budget).

 

[JustJones]

Maybe Revel M106? I've seen them under 1400 in the US.

 

[mtmpenn]

Thanks everyone for your input.

Speaker A is the Revel M106
Speaker B is the Elac Carina bs243.4
Speaker C is the Technics sb-c700


The Carina got the most votes, but of these three options, it shares 2 negatives with my existing Zaph ZA5.2s - low sensitivity and a small woofer - which sort of bias me against it. That may not be fair (I do not listen at very loud volumes and I suspect that it would fit my needs), but I am also interested in spicing things up and trying a different set of tradeoffs.

For what it is worth, I voted for the Technics for largely superficial reasons. I think it is the best looking of the three and the concentric driver arrangement interests me. I am still undecided though and I should probably spend more effort trying to find a way to demo in person!

The Kef R3 was mentioned above and that definitely caught my eye, but would represent a relatively high increase in spending based on the prices I am seeing. The focal aria 906 is another contender.

 

[Duke]

I've written to John Atkinson suggesting that he NOT normalize the off-axis curves, because that makes it hard to see the big picture clearly. It looks like the Revel's 5 kHz on-axis peak corresponds with some off-axis dippage, but does the one effectively offset the other? This could be reliably judged if the off-axis curves were NOT normalized.

 

[thewas]

Funnily I had voted for C as it has the nicest vertical dispersion, the Technics SB-C700 is possibly the most underrated loudspeaker of the last decade, "thanks" to What-Hifi and the old wrong audiophool predjudice that Japanese can't make great loudspeakers.
Am glad though that Stereophile was the only one that had it always in a very high ranking "A (Restricted Extreme LF)" together with the LS50 being the cheapest entries in that class:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/recommended-components-2019-edition-loudspeakers

 

[valerianf]

I voted for the classic choice: Revel M106.
Elac: ribbon tweeter that needs to prove that this technology is a plus.
Technics: coaxial tweeter that does not have the mechanical volume needed for an efficient design.

Anyway you better have to listen to them, but with Covid it is difficult.

 

[Shazb0t]

I would put this between speaker A and speaker B. Speaker A has smooth roll off off-axis, but it's directivity isn't as wide as speaker C. Speaker C has wider directivity but is a little more ragged with the 10kHz spike on-axis frequency response.

 

[Willem]

What is the room size, and how much amplifier power is available? Including two small active subs could be an alternative way to get a nice system.

 

[andreasmaaan]

@mtmpenn interesting to find out which speakers these were. Now seeing the verticals, I'd switch my choice to C, as its radiation is very linear in all planes, so any little peaks in the treble can easily be EQ'd out.

Not sure how capable it would be as a bass reproducer - that would be my only caveat.