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Floor-Standards to Monitors?

I am always tempted to try a good pair of monitors/bookshelf speakers mated with my two subs and see if I can equal or surpass a good pair of floor standing speakers ($15k to $30k) in my 20 x 16 (vaulted ceiling) treated room. The thought of being able to move and set up things without help is very appealing as I get older.  Also, with much of the price of floor standing speakers going into the large cabinet, I am thinking that that an equivalent, or better sound, less the low end should be achievable at “reasonable” prices.  With the application of DSP/room correction, does this eliminate the gap between most of these products? Once you get to a magic price point, are we just paying for company name, exotic materials that may or may not have an impact, and aesthetics?

There are so many monitors out there and the price range is staggering – I have named a few below. The magazines say they are all wonderful and clearly there is no place to hear them all. Where there are measurements, it differentiates them somewhat. I like dynamic resolving speakers (Magico/Vivid) and concerned about mid/bass impact between 80 Hz and 250 Hz when you crank them up where the subs do not help. I would also like a US presence and a company that builds more than 25 copies a year. What do you think? Can I get there? Is paying more than $5k just crazy for monitors? Does room correction level the playing field? Any thoughts or recommendations?

ELAC DEBUT 2.0 B6.2 and AS-61 – both sounded very good at AXPONA

ATC – Never heard them / multiple options

Kii – Great reviews out there but all seem to point to a small room

Revel –M126 Be

TAD – ME1 – sounded great in small room at AXPONA. Likely too small for my room and very expensive as you move up the line

Dynaudio – New Confidence 20 monitor coming out and Contour 20

Focal - Diablo Utopia Colour Evo (expensive) and Sopra 1

Dutch and Dutch – Not highly available in the US but supposed to be exceptional

B & W – 805 D3 – Would need a very treated room

Paradigm – Persona – I have found the entire line bright and lean on bass

Fritz - Carrera 7 Be- A small company but sounded excellent at AXPONA

KEF – A laid back.

Raidho – Expensive

Magico – Very Expensive and old Q design

Harbeth –Cabinet resonance built in - odd


128x128cdj123
audiokinesis
2,749 posts
 

@soix said:  "First, if you’re talking about large, multi-driver speakers or line array speakers IME there is a soundstage size/scale, coherence, dynamics, and perceived effortlessness thing going on that I just don’t see a monitor and subs being able to match."

Sometimes it is the exceptions to the rules that make high-end audio interesting!

I'll be showing a monitor + subs system at RMAF 2018.  On paper at least, I think my system will theoretically compete with some six-figure floorstanders in several areas, including bandwidth and dynamics and effortlessness.  Harder to compare soundstage and coherence by making educated guesses, but I don't think these are necessarily compromised by the monitor + subs format. 

So IN GENERAL I agree with you, but I'm involved with something that aspires to be an exception to the rules. 

Duke

mitch2
4,070 posts
 
Much happier with my monitors and two subs but, in fairness, the monitors have two 9-inch woofers in each sealed box and go very loud wIthout compression, the sealed-box (acoustic suspension) bass is excellent down to 40hz
ricwa
23 posts
 
I too am getting older and wanted to be able to move speakers around (constantly) by myself. Had Merlin floorstanders for 15 years then switched to monitors and found I preferred them. I have a small dedicated listening room 11x18 and listen to acoustic music (classical and jazz) at low to medium volume. I ended up with 2 entirely different sets of monitors, Harbeth 30.1 and Revel M126be. When I get tired of detail, I switch to the Harbeths and then when I crave detail, back to the Revels. I love both but they are night and day different. Note that if you didn’t like the Personas, you might not like the M126be’s. For my taste, I thought the Persona B was one of the best but ended up with the M126be’s instead.

I’ve heard a lot of live music and the 30.1s sound like live music. The Revels have more WOW factor and are surreal. I use two small subs, REL T/zeros, rolled off at 40hz with one sub at 0 phase and the other at 180 so they don’t fight each other. Subs are at very low volume. I don’t like a lot of bass but find that the two small subs in stereo at low volume settings add just a touch of fullness.
cdj123's avatar
cdj123 OP
57 posts
 

Fantastic discussion here – Please keep it coming. I kept the topic broad, so I can hear multiple opinions. I find that speakers tested through the Canada's National Research Council (NRC) or Stereophile gives great insight into flaws and solid designs. I tend to ignore the glowing review and just go right here. It is my opinion that speakers that do not test well, do not sound well. BUT, speakers that do test well, don’t necessarily sound good (getting into people’s personal opinions). I have ruled out ribbon tweeters because of dispersion issues and I do generally buy into to the Harman approach that is, if a speaker is designed well, and has a general flat and downward slope from low end to high end, along with a broad and flat off axis response, it “should” sound very good. As I had mentioned, and others commented on, I am still concerned about the low midrange impact. This is why ATC became interesting.  They have 3-way monitors in their SCM40s and SCM50s (but they seem very “old school”). The Revel M126 Be seems to have everything but the ability to generate this low end response.  The Kii and Dutch and Dutch both seem very interesting, but neither are in my area to hear. A little history of my prior speakers for a baseline – Aerial 10Ts, to Avalon Eidolon Visions to Focal Sopra 2s. With my vaulted ceilings, DSP has helped fined tune all off these – more a function of the room than the speakers. These are all excellent speakers so matching my Focals or even surpassing them in a monitor/sub configuration may not be possible.

ptss
1,964 posts
 
So cdj; how are the Revels superior to the Avalons? 
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