Speakers 10 years old or older that can compete with todays best,


I attend High End Audio Shows whenever I get a chance.  I also regularly visit several of my local High End Audio parlors, so I get to hear quite a few different speaker brands all the time.  And these speakers are also at various price points. Of course, the new speakers with their current technology sound totally incredible. However, I strongly feel that my beloved Revel Salon 2 speakers, which have been around for over ten years, still sound just as good or even better than the vast majority of the newer speakers that I get a chance to hear or audition in todays market.  And that goes for speakers at, or well above the Salon 2s price point. I feel that my Revel Salon 2 speakers (especially for the money) are so incredibly outstanding compared to the current speaker offerings of today, that I will probably never part with them. Are there others who feel that your beloved older speakers compare favorably with todays, newfangled, shinny-penny, obscenely expensive models?

kennymacc

@mikelavigne wrote:

my room is epic, my set-up and room tuning is epic, any sort of dsp would be wasted and regressive in my particular room and signal path. no matter the acronym.

Impressive looking setup and listening room indeed.

Not to unnecessarily stir up the "why no DSP?"-question that appears to have been aimed your way already as an option with your system, but have you - in the analogue domain with an electronic crossover - experimented with an outboard active configuration at some point? I’d also add that a DSP can act as a digital crossover only (wholly replacing a passive ditto), sans room correction, but of course that still involves the "intervention" of a conversion to and from a digital processing part.

Though you have no doubt come to a conclusion on this matter, from my chair - and with a digital source only - the use of a DSP acting as a digital crossover is thinking about the passive counterpart it replaces, and which of the two is the lesser evil. Assessing a DSP section as such comes in conjunction with the important negation of the passive crossover to offer a direct driver-to-dedicated-amp-channel connection which, in the different converted from passive to active setups I’ve heard (that is, maintaining the same main speakers), has always led to an advantageous outcome - by a comfortable mile even.

It just seems to me that many regards the insertion of a DSP (and mostly assuming it’s acting as a room correction device exclusively) without considering that it can replace a passive crossover as a digital ditto, with all that entails wrt. driver control and overall filter implementation and the elaborate settings potentially involved here. Thinking that a DSP is mainly an add-on to an existing passive setup as a room correction means, while being perhaps its primary function as they’re mostly implemented, is really only seeing it for a part of what it can do, while arguably missing out on the most important one.

Not to unnecessarily stir up the "why no DSP?"-question that appears to have been aimed your way already as an option with your system, but have you - in the analogue domain with an electronic crossover - experimented with an outboard active configuration at some point?

@phusis

no, i have not done dsp in my 2 channel room. years ago i decided instead to fix the room; building a room without limits. then tune it to work with ultimate speakers. which over the last 20 years i have done.

when you write about dsp, replacing passive crossovers, i don’t think you imagine passive crossovers that are inside the top level speakers. what that looks like, or sounds like. and when you write about driving each separate driver with it’s own amp and dsp crossover, you forget what that means in terms of choices of amplification. my darTZeel 468 mono blocks are crazy spendy and the best amps i have heard......how is that going to fit (physically and $$$) into active crossovers for each driver? the answer is that is does not fit at all. i would have to settle for less capable amplification. a compromise.

reality is that dsp does make a great deal of sense doing particular things. fixing rooms, powering more modestly priced gear, enabling DIY’s to build interesting projects. integrating subwoofers. doing multichannel such as Dolby Atmos.

i have a never opened box unused XILICA XP-2040 upstairs in my storage attic that i bought 3 years ago intending to use it to integrate 3 subwoofers into my Home Theater. i get what dsp can do. turned out my 3 Funk Audio 18.0 subs came with their own dsp engines, so never needed the XILICA. so i’m not anti dsp.

@mijostyn ​​​​​​

Re "There is no such thing as a perfect room."

 

I’ve followed the evolution of Mike Lavigne’s room for over a dozen years, and I doubt that many people will ever get closer to a perfect room. I’d love to visit it. Hat tip to Mike!

 

Robert Harley has a really good room (and system) , I’ve read and seen in videos. Either one are to die for. Dreams.