Final Options: Focal XS or Audioengine 5 + ASUS Xonar Essence STX or B&W MM-1

vpriyan

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Hi

Could anyone in this forum please tell me which would be the right choice (which can compete with old Marantz+Monitor Audio) among the three?

Focal XS 2.1 (Built-in Burr brown DAC)
Audioengine 5 + ASUS Xonar Essence STX
B&W MM-1 (Built-in DAC)

I am also trying to look for topping amp and quad actives etc but somehow my mind is sticking only to these 3 speakers

Could anyone tell me which one is best out of these 3?

Your suggestion would be helpful for me


Thanks & Regards
VPriyan
 
None of them would compare to Monitor Audio speakers but out of the 3 mentioned my choice would be AE.

There are also good high end monitors from Dynaudio and Focal if your budget permits.
 
Priyan,
I think A5 being big would help here in terms of sounding big. But, focals are generally detail oriented. So, it might have more details. MM-1 might be small, not able to reach as low as the other 2 nor sound big like A5. I would personally not go for these and instead go for Epoz Aktimate Maxi. You can consider the Mini as well. The Mini is better than A5 and costs pretty close. Not sure how you would get in India though.
 
Thanks for the info Gopi and Audiodelic

@Audiodelic,

Actually my budget is maximum 40k including DAC. So if I'm going for audioengine 5 I can spare a bit for ASUS Xonar essence stx sound card.

@Gopi
I had a look at Aktimate website. It looks attractive but it seems to be bulkier than A5. Also it seems it doesn't have DAC with optical input. So again I need to spend for sound card.
 
The maxi doesnt need a DAC as it supports wireless streaming from PC/NAS. Mini would need the soundcard just like A5. I didn't know that Mini was bigger than A5
 
the Focal and the B&W have 'lifestyle product' written all over them. And the reviews also suggest they are of this nature. Of the three you listed, I would pick the AE5 + Xonar combination without a second thought. None of these are likely to approach your Marantz + Monitor Audio setup.
 
I am getting lot of recommendations for Audioengine 5 speakers. I want to try that once but i think its not possible. Anyways it seems i can buy without listening to it due to its popularity.....
 
I'm thinking to go for AudioEngine but regarding sound card I heard that drivers are faulty and analog output has some distortions.

Can anyone comment on this?

Also could anyone please let me know if Cambridge Audio's DACMAGIC would be right choice for Audioengine 5 speakers?

Thanks
vpriyan
 
Hi Everyone

I have finally booked Focal XS Multimedia Speakers from Profx Chennai.

Considering all positives and negatives, I thought Focal XS would be a right choice for me

Thanks a lot for all your inputs and suggestions

It was really helpful

Thanks
VPriyan
 
I was looking for some speakers which had good low-end but at the same time i have so space for keeping big speakers in stands. So i thought sub-sat system would be a good match. In that case focal sub goes till 39hz +/-3db which is sufficient i hope.
 
Vinay,
A tip you might not know off : The remote is magnetic and can be actually stuck on top of the sat speaker base. A handy feature to not loose the tiny remote :)
 
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