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Speaker shootout update; aggressive treble eliminating some (fairly?)

I've been trying out speakers in a complicated shoot out, both bookshelves and towers — all in my home with my gear. I'm looking for speakers obtainable up to about $4k but could go up (or down) a bit if the right thing came along.

Basic facts: All speakers were run in at least 100 hours. Room is 27 x 14 x 6.5 ceilings. Powering with all QS tubes, 60w, NOS, tube R2R dac, and decent cables. No terrible reflection points; room not overly live or dampened. REL R 328 sub available but I did most listening without it.

Recent auditions, type:

Klipsch RP 600-M (budget singleton of the group)
Fritz Rev Carbon 7 mk II (bookshelf, 2 way, soft dome)
Focal 936 (tower, 3 way, inverted metal)
Martin Logan Motion 60s XTi (tower, 3 way, AMT)

Coming soon:

Salk SS 6M (bookshelf, 2 way, beryllium)
Dynaudio Evoke 30's (tower, 3 way, soft dome)

Let me speak just to the problems, rather than what was good about the speakers. So far, I've found the Klipsch, Focal, and especially the Martin Logans were all too bright — forward, aggressive, "turn it down" treble.

The ML's were the most impossible to tame and hardest to listen to on more tracks. (I did a lot of hanging of towels and other dampeners and other soft things to try to see if I could bring them to heel. I varied the recordings used. Changed cables/wires. No luck.)

The Focals were occasionally too bright; their bigger problem was a bit too much energy in my small listening space. They were better when I plugged their ports with socks.

I'm looking forward to how the next two speakers sound. The Dynaudio towers, I notice, are 10 inches shorter and half the weight of the other towers; not sure what that might mean, but it could just be right size for my space. I'm looking forward to seeing if the Salks bring more detail to the treble without also being too rolled off or harsh.

Hearing is very personal for physiological and taste reasons. However, if anyone has any thoughts about why I might be experiencing some of the phenomena I am (harsh treble, especially) based on my room or gear, etc., that might help me understand factors I'm not fully appreciating. Thanks.


hilde45
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
Klipsch RP 600-M.  Obviously these are lower end speakers.  The plastic horn on this speaker can have a tendency to resonate, causing a shouty type of result.  That combined with the metal woofer could result in a harsher upper midrange.

Focal 936 (tower, 3 way, inverted metal).  The previous generation titanium tweeters were always on the bright and harsh side.  In addition, the focal midrange drivers were always very fast responding and can come across thin/bright and sterile.  The Focal speakers need special attention to matching the proper amplifiers and equipment.

Martin Logan Motion 60s XTi.  I don't have direct experience with these, but these lower end ML speakers do have a tendency to sound very forward.  Once again, I don't know.


Fritz Rev Carbon 7 mk II (bookshelf, 2 way, soft dome).  Probably the best engineered speaker you have in this collection.  Using a scanspeak soft-dome tweeter, these are actually pretty revealing even though they are soft dome.


The Salk SS 6M could also be a very excellent choice with the Satori beryllium tweeters.  The Beryllium tweeters do not have the bright/harsh breakup that metal dome tweeters do.  However, a couple of the Satori Be tweeters do have a slight upward tilt in the 22khz area.  You'll just have to try them out to see.

I never got into Dynaudio speakers.  They never sounded good or engaging to me.  I always thought they kind of smeared the midrange and didn't have good high frequency extension.  This is my own opinion, of course.

One other speaker I would recommend trying if you can are the Revel M125 PerformaBe bookshelves.  They probably won't have the lower bass extension that the Salk do, but they have excellent tonal balance and resolution without being bright/harsh.
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
I would probably go with the Salk SS 6M.
decooney
2,334 posts
 
The room is the speaker :) 
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,477 posts
 
My Mission cyrus 781 were supposedly the best speakers Mission created...

Before my room passive treatment and active controls they were good but i was not in love... But now they are superlatively good compare to 2 years ago before i implemented the rightful acoustical embeddings...I am in love...

We can put many good speakers in a bad room and we will never fall in love with any them...

We can put many less good speakers in a good room and we will fall in love with each of them...

Speakers+ controlled room + ears = ONE blissful state

The room is the speaker :)
I will gladly stole your words.... :)



I will add that almost all non treated and non controlled acoustical room are bad unbeknownst to us sometimes because we think so much strongly that hi-fi is linked to improved electronical engineering mainly....
b_limo's avatar
b_limo
2,290 posts
 
Hi Hilde45!  Good to see where you are at in your speaker journey. Thanks for keeping us updated.

The new Carrera BE’s use the same tweeter as the Salks you have coming.  They offer loads of detail without being too bright.  They’ll need to be burned in for quite awhile though to come to their full potential.  The Salks will go through some funky changes... too bright, too dull, not enough bass.  Remember, your burning in new drivers and new crossovers.

Have the Carbon 7’s been your Favorite this far?  There’s a pair of pre owned LS7R’s for sale.  You might ask Fritz how those compare to the Carbon 7’s soundwise.

TheDyn’s will have great bass and sound really pretty nice overall.  They are a bit dry for my tastes but they are pretty nice speakers.

My guess is that the Salks are going to do it for you.  I wish you had the chance to audition the Carrrras though. Withthe 7” Revelator and Fritz’s crossovers, I think it would have been an ideal match for your tubes.

I really do think though that you’re going to really like the Salks, with that paper midbass giving you a natural tone and the beryllium tweet giving you loads of detail, they should be the best sounding speakers out of what you have auditioned.  
The BE tweets sound quite different from the soft domes though so if you don’t prefer them, I’d go for the best soft domes you can.  That might be the Carbon 7’s, the LS7R’s or an esotar dynaudio tweeter, or something with a Seas Excel.
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