In the end, it's questionable how much relevance is to be gleaned from other's preferences and someone else's interpretations of adjectives like "warmth" and listenability. Personal preferences, partnering equipment, and the room all make one listener's nirvana another's purgatory. In the rooms and setups I've listened to, I found Harbeth and Spendor lacking a certain sense of liveliness. As they have so many fans, its likely setup and partnering equipment was lacking in synergy. In my second system and room, I find KEF R500's to have an ideal balance between musicality, warmth, imaging, and treble information. I've heard them in other rooms with expensive solid state amplification and they weren't nearly as communicative and involving. I had to experiment with three amplifiers before the KEF's "clicked" into focus and displayed all the virtues I'd read about in professional reviews. It would be wonderful if the path to the perfect system were straightforward, but unfortunately it usually involves detours and a learning curve. Good luck with your quest!
Speaker advice for first hi-fi setup - Monitor Audio Gold vs. KEF R series!
Hey guys,
I'm going through the exciting process of building my first hi-fi setup, exclusively for music listening.
I currently listen to music in my study (roughly 12ft x12ft) through a pair of KEF LS50W, hardwired into a MacBook Pro. No external application / DAC is used for this setup.
I now want to have a music setup in my living room, which is roughly 16ft by 20ft, with one side opening up to an entryway into the rest of the apartment. The floor is tiled, with a fair amount of furniture. I listen to old and new-age rock, soft rock, indie, with a bit of acoustic / vocals thrown in.
I've auditioned a bunch of speakers over the past couple of months, starting off at a lower budget and then moving to the mid-price range to get a better sound. These include: Q-Acoustic 3050i; Dali Oberon 5 & &; Dali Opticon 6, B&W 683, 703 & 704; DynAudio Evoke 30; Spendor A4 and A7; Revel F36 and F206; Focal Aria 936 & 948; KEF R7; Monitor Audio Gold 200 (both 4G and 5G).
The two speakers that really caught my ear were the Monitor Audio Gold 200 (5G) and the KEF R7. I enjoyed the warmth of the MA speakers and the soundstage / imaging of the KEF (it was as if the music was floating around me).
I'm confused now and keen to hear some impressions on these two speakers. It's important for me that the speaker sound has a bit of weight (a drum solo should have 'impact' when I hear it), should be warm yet refined and overall 'fun and easy' to listen to.
Thanks!
I'm going through the exciting process of building my first hi-fi setup, exclusively for music listening.
I currently listen to music in my study (roughly 12ft x12ft) through a pair of KEF LS50W, hardwired into a MacBook Pro. No external application / DAC is used for this setup.
I now want to have a music setup in my living room, which is roughly 16ft by 20ft, with one side opening up to an entryway into the rest of the apartment. The floor is tiled, with a fair amount of furniture. I listen to old and new-age rock, soft rock, indie, with a bit of acoustic / vocals thrown in.
I've auditioned a bunch of speakers over the past couple of months, starting off at a lower budget and then moving to the mid-price range to get a better sound. These include: Q-Acoustic 3050i; Dali Oberon 5 & &; Dali Opticon 6, B&W 683, 703 & 704; DynAudio Evoke 30; Spendor A4 and A7; Revel F36 and F206; Focal Aria 936 & 948; KEF R7; Monitor Audio Gold 200 (both 4G and 5G).
The two speakers that really caught my ear were the Monitor Audio Gold 200 (5G) and the KEF R7. I enjoyed the warmth of the MA speakers and the soundstage / imaging of the KEF (it was as if the music was floating around me).
I'm confused now and keen to hear some impressions on these two speakers. It's important for me that the speaker sound has a bit of weight (a drum solo should have 'impact' when I hear it), should be warm yet refined and overall 'fun and easy' to listen to.
Thanks!
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- 19 posts total
- 19 posts total