RMAF 2016................Boenicke W5

gawd,

You are comparing very small speakers that must have limited bass extension to much larger more expensive more full range models.

Getting full range speakers set up to sound good is always a bigger challenge. Bass resonances mask other frequencies and detail, sounds fat or muddy etc.

I could imagine the small speakers sounding "better" with some music than much larger and expensive ones and systems if room and setup is less than optimal. There is less bass to get in teh way or go wrong usually with small speakers.

Is that possible?

In any case, all I’m saying is they are small and price not paltry for their size. Comparing to much larger full range speakers sounds like apples and oranges and a pure judgement call that would be hard to substantiate it would appear. At the very least all should be set up optimally in order to make a fair comparison. Little guys like that would have a lot to prove against much larger similar quality competition.

In the end what one likes is all that matters. They are very nice looking tiny speakers and I’d expect sound very good within their limits.  Of course I have not heard them so do not know.

Just saying. Paltry is all relative I suppose.

Hi John,

I believe they are made with a solid piece of wood. The Innards look like someone was having fun with a router. I won't be buying a pair as I have enough (ahem, hope she does not read this....) speakers in the house. Another, and the most important reason is cats and dogs, they would not last 5 minutes on their stands.

I thought the Zu room sounded decidedly average.

Mapman- you should really hear a pair, you

Mapman - please disregard my unfinished sentence.

I would like to hear them. I am always looking for good things in smaller packages.  They would fit nicely on my Isoacoustics stands, just a few inches off the floor and with slight tilt up.    I use corner placement  (similar to what is done with Audio Note speakers at shows) in the room that they would fit into and that helps a lot to get more bass out of smaller boxes when needed.

Zu has yet to reel me in from demos I have heard but the door is still open. I really like the looks and they are strong centenders for anyone building around a tube amp.

There could be a pair of Zu Soul or Tekton Lore speakers in my future just to try out for the fun of it and see where things might go.

The W5's are the smallest speakers in the range.
The Peachtree room on the Mezzanine floor had the loudest demo that I heard, to loud for me, although the sound was quite good.
I liked the Mackintosh room to especially the fish spinning on the turntable.
A few rooms had reel to reels in also. Are they coming back into vogue?
Will we see a cassette deck resurgence one day? I might have to take out the old Nakamichi, dust it down and connect it up! lol......
The Sanders Sound System room Electrostatics were very nice and I liked the demo by them.
I liked the Burwell and sons Horn speaker, the cd I gave them to play sounded very nice, with a price tag of $80000 so they should be.
I was very disappointed with the Classic Audio room, as I have them sound a whole lot better, they were playing a track by Yello, sounded more like Jello to me.
I listened to a pair of $2000 Sony headphones, whilst nice does any one spend that much on headphones? I never use headphones personally. I did like the EMM equipment connected to them though.