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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.


128x128hilde45
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,118 posts
 
hilde,

The speakers are directional so the most higher frequency energy fires straight ahead. I’d expect way more distance to the facing wall to be beneficial in reducing reflections overall. That and/or lowering the speaks as discussed (combined perhaps with a tad of tilt back to increase distance to opposite wall even slightly)) to reduce ceiling reflection. Worth a try just to find out if possible. Then maybe just some treatment on side walls at prime reflection points to you main listening position to further damp the side walls if needed.

Also listening nearfield sounds like a good idea even if just as a test to minimize effects of room acoustics, which is what you are striving for.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 
1. If I understand correctly, the Fritz Carbon's did not cause any problems.  Based on that, the VA's won't either.  As the Fritz's don't seem to be your be-all end-all, the VA's would definitely be worth auditioning, as they are a very fine speaker cut, broadly speaking, from the same acoustic cloth.

2. I'm not sure what the difference is between, say, a 14" monitor on a 26" stand vs. a 40" tower.  At all events, the VA's have adjustable spikes, so I suppose you could always tilt them a little down.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,118 posts
 
Stands could be less than 26", perhaps just a few inches elevated off floor with slight tilt up/back, if needed, like with the Isoacoustics I referenced above.
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,377 posts
 
“No piece of gear, be it speakers, dac, amplifier, is at his true potential right out of the box without means implemented to embed them in these 3 dimensions...Thinkin that any piece of gear is what it can be right out of the box, without any work at all to embed them in the room, in the house, and with all the other gear, it is ignorance pure and simple....

Some knows that, most dont even understand what i speak about.....”

@mahgister,

One look at your system and we get exactly what you speak of, just because most of us don’t go to the length of ‘Frankenstein’ our systems does not mean we don’t know what these three dimensions you often preach here. Give it a rest please and I mean no disrespect to what you have accomplished with your system! 
dgarretson
2,597 posts
 
I can’t believe the unending debate on whether equipment breaks in or the ear accustoms itself to equipment. Equipment break-in-- particularly for electro-mechanical devices like speakers-- is for real. I’ll bet that most speakers that are put up for resale or returned to dealers never get through that process.

At the moment I’m breaking in a pair of Purifi PTT6.5-W04 mid/woofers. They sounded fine out of the box, but get better and better and better and better out to a hundred hours or more. A delimited in-home demo of new equipment is mostly useless.
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