A noob hunt for HT speakers...

sud98

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Intro

I am starting my tryst for a home theater after investing a lot of time in analysis and forum watching, have decided on taking a plunge for it. While I have invested in a few other components like my source (Oppo BDP83) and AVR Yam 459(planning to re-use it for now), I am now looking for speakers. I have borrowed the title from magma's thread on stereo speakers, hope my experiences will add value to others as well as help me too decide my speakers.

What I am looking for

Speakers that match my music/movies taste. Primarily for movies, but I have a hunch although I initially thought this would change once the quality of my setup changes.

I am not keeping a fixed budget as I want to initially audition a wider range and then make out the compromises in terms of quality versus effect ( go for a high quality 2.0/2.1 or for budget 5.1 vs lower the movie listening experience) although rough budget would be 50k to 1Lakh.

With my large living room area and odd placement wrt furniture, I will be looking for a beefy bookshelf but would still look at a few floorstanders to check if its worth re-arranging everything in my living room.

What I am taking to audition
Music
Dire Straits - Romeo and Juliet/Sultans of wing
U2 - I still havent found what I am looking for
Indian Ocean - Maa Reva (Kandisa)
Vivaldi - Winter Symphony
Rock On - Yeh teri meri baatein
Rang De Basanti - Bhajan+Title song

Movies
Lord of the Rings -3 - Last Battle Scene
Dark Knight - Tunnel Scene
Incredibles - 1st scene
Gladiator - Russel Crowe speech in Colosseum
Bourne Identity - Chase scene

Might reduce a few due to shortage of time.
 
First Audition - ARN Systems
Setup - Ayon CD Player/Odyssey Stratos -Amp/ Marantz BDP (HT)/ Velodyne CHT15 (for HT)

S520
Looks - Nice build, smallish bookshelves
Audition - Music
Rang De Basanti -Bhajan- Voice came in crystal clear and overall feeling was quite good for vocals
Rang De Basanti - Title - Horrible - IT felt like somebody had choked the speakers in their throat and the speaker was gasping to meet all the dynamics. The dhols and other percussions were sounding real weak
Sultans of Swing - Handled the guitar and high freq notes pretty well. Overall nice
Romeo and Juliet - Again vocals makes this bookshelf sing and it came out beautifully
Indian Ocean - Maa Rewa - Again overall weaker, having heard them live and in my current system a lot of times, the feel was just not there

Movies
Dark Knight - Tunnel scene
(Unfortunately had to change the speakers as they didnt have a surround setup, so moved the s520 as surrounds and X718 as fronts and its center speaker)
Totally blown away. Fantastic LFE handling by the sub.

Overall S520 - Great for vocals, not so good for tougher and bigger soundstage music esp. Indian. Performed significantly lower than my current diy speakers, so a bit disappointing.

Couldnt audition much more, have to budget atleast two hrs to make it work properly. A good lesson for me. Also, ARN is setup more for stereo and HT is a struggle. Will hope the next one is more suited for my need.

Also, did the x718 for most of the songs and it was a significant step-up. The build quality is very good and the sound for the few songs I could play was rather complete. But at 65k, I have to evaluate my options.

Next stop - Q Acoustics
 
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Second Audition - Qacoustics
General Learning as it happened in my previous audition too. Make sure all systems you want to hear are available and setup as otherwise it takes time and you end up checking systems you may not be interested.

System - Q Acoustics 2050 with Q1010i as surrounds and Q2000C center and Q2070S sub; CA amp and CD player
Look - The piano black finish makes the build look very nice and solid.
Music - Nice handling of vocals and guitars, Bass much better and deeper than the s520 and tighter. The sound seems to get coloured a bit and seems a bit fatiguing if I have to hear it for a long time. These could be effects of the chain, but it appears the speakers were making it brighter than the original sound (esp. with Sultans of Swing and Rewa)
Movies - Played a few tracks the sound/dialog and surrounds were more than adequate. The sub seemed a bit boomy although Mridul did adjust it, still didnt feel it was good enough.

Conclusion - Good for movies (except sub), average for music
 
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Jamo
Heard the C 403/405/605/607 and s606 at cinebels. The system was paired on a sherwood CDP (???) and marantz amp. I am surprised by the sherwood cdp, I am sure they can afford better. The movies were with pioneer bd60.

The easy one first the s606 seems to be made for party music with bass overwhelming everything else.

The C403 seemed to be a bit poor on vocals. The whole range seems to be great for instrumentals. Some like the 405 appear a bit weaker on the vocals. The 605 would be a good pick for the price point. Just feel it may be a bit fatiguing in the long run but not sure.

The c605 and 607 are both very good for instruments with the 607 emphasising more on the bass and the instruments and 605 slightly better with the vocals.

BTW, on a movie setup, the c40 and c60 centers seem good but I have heard better center speakers.
The jamo 300 is pretty good, didn't check it for music, though.

The 5.1 setup with c605 comes close to 1 lakh es. if I use C4xx centers and surrounds. But I am sure there would be better prices elsewhere. Original plan was to audition wharfedales but they ditched me without telling hence moved to jamo.
 
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First Audition - ARN Systems
Setup - Ayon CD Player/Odyssey Stratos -Amp/ Marantz BDP (HT)/ Velodyne CHT15 (for HT)

S520
Looks - Nice build, smallish bookshelves
Audition - Music
Rang De Basanti -Bhajan- Voice came in crystal clear and overall feeling was quite good for vocals
Rang De Basanti - Title - Horrible - IT felt like somebody had choked the speakers in their throat and the speaker was gasping to meet all the dynamics. The dhols and other percussions were sounding real weak
Sultans of Swing - Handled the guitar and high freq notes pretty well. Overall nice
Romeo and Juliet - Again vocals makes this bookshelf sing and it came out beautifully
Indian Ocean - Maa Rewa - Again overall weaker, having heard them live and in my current system a lot of times, the feel was just not there

Movies
Dark Knight - Tunnel scene
(Unfortunately had to change the speakers as they didnt have a surround setup, so moved the s520 as surrounds and X718 as fronts and its center speaker)
Totally blown away. Fantastic LFE handling by the sub.

Overall S520 - Great for vocals, not so good for tougher and bigger soundstage music esp. Indian. Performed significantly lower than my current diy speakers, so a bit disappointing.

Couldnt audition much more, have to budget atleast two hrs to make it work properly. A good lesson for me. Also, ARN is setup more for stereo and HT is a struggle. Will hope the next one is more suited for my need.

Also, did the x718 for most of the songs and it was a significant step-up. The build quality is very good and the sound for the few songs I could play was rather complete. But at 65k, I have to evaluate my options.

Next stop - Q Acoustics


Hi
Thanks for your post. You are right that the S520's are not really designed for low freq extension or moving a lot of air, its a small woofer. The design tradeoff is in favour of better mid and high presentation which you also experienced. I am not sure why Ali didnt connect a second pair (which is in the showroom) of S520's for the rears and still retain the first pair of S520's for the fronts. You could definitely try this out to see if this works for you. Did he change the center channel anytime during your audition.

thanks
[email protected]
 
I suggest try auditioning a good 2channel setup also for both music and movies. With a good 2channel setup movies can sound good but with a slight comprimise on the surrounds, but its not much. Currently (as a temporary setup), i am watching movies using my 2channel setup and i dont feel connecting 606 AVR and i have not connected my sub also.

Once your budget permits, go for a pure HT setup so that you will get a decent quality for movies and music, instead of sacrificing at some point, coz you may feel these speakers inadequate for HT once you go for a proper stereo setup in future.

Note : This is not to demoralize you, but talking from my experience.
 
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I agree sajith. Perhaps I can come over one of these weekends and try how its sounds in your setup in a 2 channel mode. I am even thinking of a 2.1 setup and then adding the rest. However, since my usage is more towards movies than music, I feel that I can compromise on the music part. But I will check different options and may very well end up in what you are suggesting. Thanks.

Odyssey, my benchmark was actually my current diy speakers which my friend built and I wanted the fronts to be better than that. Currently, I checked with s520 in front for stereo and x718 in front with matching center and s520 in rear with the velodyne cht15 as sub.
 
Now with a 'no old edit' policy I need to add a new post :)

My next Audition was @ Audio Planet

Setup
Cambridge Audio Amp and CD player; Dune BD player

Speakers
MS Aviano 6 (FS) and MS Aviano 1
Music
From a music perspective, both were pretty good. I would compare them with Jam C407 with a better vocal representative. The Aviano 1 was one of the better bookshelves I have heard.
Movies
A bit disappointing from the overall effects to the sub performance as I felt the Jamo to hold an edge.

Costs
Total costs would be 17k for Aviano 1;22k for the sub; 16k for the center; 11k for the Avant surrounds (Aviano has no surrounds)

Had a detailed discussion with Mr. Palani and his suggestions on scaling down my budget due to the bad room acoustics and placement options would restrict overall audio experience, so no point in spending more than necessary
 
Martin Logan Motion 4 (Absolute Phase)

These are by far the best built bookshelves that I have seen. Extremely compact and stylish. They are really slender and can be wall-mounted.

Unfortunately I could only test from music perspective and not movies.

This has got to have the sweetest tweeters that I have heard. I played the same set of songs as with all other speakers (Dire Straits- Sultans.., Indian Ocean - Maa Reva) Since they played so well I also played Vivaldi - 4 seasons - Winter. I was really blown away by the sound.

As per Prithvi, they have not been broken in fully, which may explain the weaker bass. But frankly, these whip the backsides of the Jamos/Avianos/Ushers/Q acoustics overall.

So now I need to hear them in a HT environment for deciding the center speakers/subs etc.
 
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Sudhir, nice to see you are going about your quest in a very methodical manner.

Total costs would be 17k for Aviano 1;22k for the sub; 16k for the center; 11k for the Avant surrounds (Aviano has no surrounds)
About the timbre matching, don't worry too much about surrounds or center not being available in the same series. It is very rare to come across a speaker that is good for both music and movies and many speakers good for music may not have a matching center or surrounds. In that case, checkout other series from the same brand for surrounds and center. Check to see if the same tweeter is being used. If yes, buy those, they will have the same timbre for movies. If you are able to find front and center from same series, that is enough. Make sure the four surrounds (if 7.1) are the same. If available, go fo di-poles for surrounds, they make a huge difference for movies.

Also, any reason why you have edited your post to remove the prices of the ML Motion 4s? An approximate price should not do any harm if at all.
 
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The price for the Motion 4's are 36k for a pair, edited it as I wanted ideally the dealer to give the prices in his thread, but anyways.

I agree its hard to find one speaker for all, but the harder thing is that many showrooms that have great speakers don't have a HT setup.
 
After a long time, did a few auditions as was under strict instructions from the better half that the offer for funding the speakers expires this Diwali :)

Location - The shop, Andheri Link Rd, Mumbai
Speakers - Paradigm Monitor 7 and 9
Source and Amp - Denon
Demo Material - same as usual

It was a really bad listening area, had to sit on the floor of a passage. Anyway, after pushing the assistant got the speaker aligned to a better position and could listen for the next 1 hr

The Monitor 7's first - seemed nice, nice mid and treble a bit weaker on the bass side. Overall seemed weaker in creating a feeling of listening to a concert (I suppose this is called soundstage) esp. in Indian Ocean's Maa Rewa

Monitor 9 - everything seemed perfect, very tight and sharp bass, instruments very clearly separated and can be heard very nicely. Very good in the vocals. Seemed a good allrounder.

Since its been some while, I needed to finalise between the Jamo c605/c607 and the Monitor 9
 
I got thrown a new speaker by Santhol2, before I decide - Klipsch.

Location - Cinebels, Klipsch boutique, Bangalore
Source and Amp - Marantz
Speakers - Klipsch RF52

First impressions of the place, is really nice, well designed studio. Should be a good benchmark for people setting up their own.

The speakers look a bit boxy, the copper look when you open the grille, looked nice to me but might seem horrible to others.

First song - Romeo and juliet
Initial guitar and vocals excellent; mid-portion when there are multiple instruments playing seems all muddled up.

Second song - Maa rewa
High frequencies are very sweet, low end quite strong and fast. Plays quite loud even at seemingly volumes.
As the song goes on, the horn tweeters seem too sharp to my liking. The mid-range also seemed average.

By the middle of the third song, knew that these speakers were not for me, so no point in auditioning any more.
 
hi sudhir

do try out the jamo 8 series (806/807/809)
they sound better than the 6 series , i suppose the 806 which are the smaller version of the 809 are VFM chk them out (you cud get a better pricing for this @ modern world then cinebells@ millers road, you could audition @ cinebells)
Also there is a BS version of the 8 series too (dont remember the exact model)
 
Thanks Denom for completing the thread for me.

Just as an FYI, the total cost of the speakers (5.0) came to Rs. 1.05 lakhs which was close to my budget.
 
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