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Epos LS3 or Wharfedale Diamond 9.1?

Both these monitors come well-regarded by the rags and represent good value for the money. I will be using in my HT, very little music use and that when on the treadmill, so pace and punch are more important, I suppose, than subtlety. But brightness is still a no-no, although I don't think either of these would be that. Using a JVC F10 receiver.
Not a big deal as purchases go, but wondering if anyone can point out weaknesses or relative strengths.

On an aside, anyone tried the Diamond 8 DFS surround?
kck
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
the diamond
windzilla
16 posts
 
in regards to Bignerd's comments, I own the diamond 9.6's and can say from experiance that the difference between 10 and 100+ hours of solid break in is night and day.
kck OP
184 posts
 
Well I am intrigued now by this SB2/SB3 thing... is there a noticeable difference in performance if one does not care about bass extension of the monitor? (using sub).
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,766 posts
 
Kck:

The SB3 does go lower in the bass than the SB2; is in a slightly bigger cabinet; and the position of the woofer is on the bottom for the SB2 and on the top for the SB3. Otherwise, they have the same tweeter and my guess the same woofer (at least they are the same size). If you are planning to use a sub-woofer, I would think that the differences would be negligible.

The SB2 is really something else and rises to the occasion when placed with better components. I had paired them with a Prima Luna Prologue 2 integrated tube amp and the sound was musical, engaging, nuanced, refined, etc. They were great with my Marantz receiver, but exceptional with the Prima Luna.

Regards, Rich
bignerd100
515 posts
 
The SB3 does use the same size woofer but it is a Peerless with a larger magnet. the difference between the two is not just in bass extension. the SB3 is better accross the board. the drivers complement each other better in the SB3. More attention is paid to the crossover in the SB3 as well. I personaly use teh Von Schweikert VR-1's that claim to go to 40Hz. The NHT SB3's go to 39. There should be little difference in bass extension. NOT true. The SB3's really do go to 39 while the VR-1's start to roll off after about 70Hz. Now what the VR-1's do in the midrange and highs is a different matter all together. But if you want a reasonably priced speaker that outperforms it's retail price by a wide margin... the SB3 is hard to beat.

Good luck!
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