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Audiophile Active Speakers?

Bracing for a flame war on this one - but are there any really seriously good sounding active floor standers? The new Dynaudio XEO 6's intrigued me.

Here's why I'm interested. I recently acquired some great Verity Audio speakers that I realized my entire cabling, amps, preamps etc were too warm for. Problem is I'm getting past the point where I see this as a hobby and am just looking for good music reproduction without tons of system matching experimentation etc.

One interesting option would be selling all my electronics, cables, etc on A-gon and just purchasing a good DAC and good sounding Active floor standers. I could therefore afford decent speakers (up to $7K or so), pocket some cash, simply the system (and save lots of time and grief shopping for matching components).

Am I expecting something that would sound as good as the Verity's with appropriately good electronics? No - not even close.

But a quality audiophile sound I could live with and possible tweak with the right sounding DAC that could make me more or less satisfied is the goal. The don't have to be magical like the Verity's. Any thoughts?
larrybou
macrojack
1,303 posts
 
Thanks Bob.
As I mentioned above, I just received a pair of KRK Rokit8 active monitors, a 2 way with dome tweeter and 8 inch woofer. I'm quite surprised at how they are turning out but I can certainly see your point about going to a 3-way. Do you have any experience or knowledge about their 10 inch 3 way?

I have big horns hybrid to a 15 inch woofer in a 5 cu. ft. cabinet. They are unbelievably resolving and fast and dynamic and effortless. Hard to beat. In fact, I doubt I can surpass them, but I might be able to put together something with rival qualities, compact size and a change suitable for the old age that awaits me some day soon.

I have my doubts about the Rokit 10-3 performing even close to that level. I guess I could check out the local music stores but I doubt they deal in such exotic fare.
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macrojack
1,303 posts
 
I am frankly surprised there isn't much more interest in this topic. After all, it would appear that a high percentage of us ask questions reflecting an inability to overcome many of the difficulties one can encounter trying to match speakers, cables and amplifiers. All of that is bypassed by selecting a good quality self-powered studio monitor. Yes, they appear to be expensive at first blush but, in reality, you can buy a $5000 pair of compact studio monitors that will outperform any combination of amp, speakers and cables that you could find for that much money. Think about it!

Spending $3000 for and amp, $500 for speaker cables and $3500 for speakers does not move you into the stratosphere with conventional home audio. But with studio monitors you can move into the lower levels of the world class studio monitor range. The biggest problem is finding the models I'm mentioning properly demoed anywhere. Let me know if you find a good place for that..
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chrshanl37
835 posts
 
I have actives now after trying quite a few audiophile monitors. Actually mine are only part active but I can't imagine getting better sound out of a pair of monitors for 5x the price I paid.
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