Monitor Audio vs Wharfedale vs Tannoy

motorhead5

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I have an Onkyo TX NR 609 and in search for 5.1 speakers. My room size is around 14 x 12 (not a closed room) and usage would be around 50-50 on Music vs Movies.

I would like to have a set of Floor Standers to make my stereo experience good and I am ready to sacrifice on the surround (rear) speakers a little bit. Currently considering the below FS -

Wharf 9.5
Monitor Audio M4 (Should I stretch to M6?)
Tannoy mercury v4

Want to decide these first and then go for 'kind-of-matching' Center followed by Sub. I mostly listen to Rock / Hard Rock or Classical. Then Movies and Sports.

Request your expert inputs on the above and other better suggestions for speakers.. :)
 
Thanks spirovious!. Great thread and thanks for sharing!

Have you tried Wharf 9.5 or Monitor Audio M4 or M6 with these AVs?. I heard M4 and M6 today and liked it. Want to try these 3 with 609.
 
I tried Monitor Audio M4 and M6 with a stereo amplifier and liked it compared to Tannoy. But with Tannoy we had used a Denon receiver. Would it make a lot of difference if I use M4/M6 again with Onkyo or a Denon?.

Planning to try 609 with M4/M6 very soon. Please give suggestions in the mean time..

Need an urgent help - Who are the dealers handling Monitor Audio in Bangalore?
 
I got MA M6 speakers from Audio Planet, Koramangala. You can contact Mr. Palani (9845019192) and fix up a time to do the audtion. He is a very busy man, so no point walking into his place w/o prior appointment.
FYI I use the M6 speakers with Denon 1911, and am quite happy with the combination. Not sure how it will be with Onkyo 609.
 
Dont want to be a killjoy but
IMO for a 12 x 14 room Floorstanders would be serious overkill.
Considering the fact that you will be adding a Sub in the future. you completely defeat the point of having floostanders in a small room.
I would say go in for a equivalent priced bookshelf and work your config around that

Talking through experience I have been fiddling with the Wharf 9.6 in camparo with the B&W 685 bookshelves using A/B switch in a 11 x 22 open room for a good 1 week
considering they are almost the same price point (40k -50k)
the B&W's outshine the Wharf floorstanders in almost every department (Soundstage, imaging, Midrange, Tonal qualities)
the Wharfys however score better on Bass but that's expected. However with a sub into the equation and its a no brainer which would sound better

On another Note . i paired the wharfedale 9.6 with a borrowed Onkyo NR 809.
Onkyo and wharfys just dont gel together . with my Denon however the wharfys sound definitely better. Denon's and wharfy's pair very well together
So whichever speakers you decide to buy pair it up with the Onkyo during auditions .
 
I have been using MA M6 paired with CA Azur 650A. Very satisfied with the overall sound quality for both movies and music.
 
Ya i agree with you completely!!!!!

Go for Bookshelf, it will have definitely more performance than the Floorstanders...iam sure you woudn't have auditioned BS earlier,if you do iam sure you preference will be more towards BS than FS.

Audition the BS and then decide if you still want to go for FS


Dont want to be a killjoy but
IMO for a 12 x 14 room Floorstanders would be serious overkill.
Considering the fact that you will be adding a Sub in the future. you completely defeat the point of having floostanders in a small room.
I would say go in for a equivalent priced bookshelf and work your config around that

Talking through experience I have been fiddling with the Wharf 9.6 in camparo with the B&W 685 bookshelves using A/B switch in a 11 x 22 open room for a good 1 week
considering they are almost the same price point (40k -50k)
the B&W's outshine the Wharf floorstanders in almost every department (Soundstage, imaging, Midrange, Tonal qualities)
the Wharfys however score better on Bass but that's expected. However with a sub into the equation and its a no brainer which would sound better

On another Note . i paired the wharfedale 9.6 with a borrowed Onkyo NR 809.
Onkyo and wharfys just dont gel together . with my Denon however the wharfys sound definitely better. Denon's and wharfy's pair very well together
So whichever speakers you decide to buy pair it up with the Onkyo during auditions .
 
Thanks santnai, saimitra and sydney!!

Dont want to be a killjoy but
IMO for a 12 x 14 room Floorstanders would be serious overkill.
Considering the fact that you will be adding a Sub in the future. you completely defeat the point of having floostanders in a small room.
I would say go in for a equivalent priced bookshelf and work your config around that

Talking through experience I have been fiddling with the Wharf 9.6 in camparo with the B&W 685 bookshelves using A/B switch in a 11 x 22 open room for a good 1 week
considering they are almost the same price point (40k -50k)
the B&W's outshine the Wharf floorstanders in almost every department (Soundstage, imaging, Midrange, Tonal qualities)
the Wharfys however score better on Bass but that's expected. However with a sub into the equation and its a no brainer which would sound better

Flash and srijith,
You guys are not being killjoys. These insights are really helping me!. Btw, I have done audition for BS as well. The difference is that I have been trying the BS and FS from the same brand - Says Tannoys, Wharf and MA. Probably because of this, I found significant difference with songs in sterio mode.

With a Sub ON, the difference wasn't that high for movies. For me music is equally important, where sub may not be used, and thats where I felt FS would be better compared to BS. What do you think?

On another Note . i paired the wharfedale 9.6 with a borrowed Onkyo NR 809.
Onkyo and wharfys just dont gel together . with my Denon however the wharfys sound definitely better. Denon's and wharfy's pair very well together
So whichever speakers you decide to buy pair it up with the Onkyo during auditions .
THANKS!. This is very interesting for me - which of these speakers would gel better with Onkyo 609. I liked Wharf 9.5 and MA M4/M6 very well; but haven't tried it on 609. Tried Tannoy FS and BS with Denon 191x and it didn't impress me that much. Now I want to try all 3 with 609 and see how it would come up.. What do you all think about these combinations?

I have heard that both 609s and Wharf's are a little more on the Brighter side and hence doesn't go well together. On the other hand MA is probably not that bright. Is this right? If so, does it mean that it could go well with 609s? :)
 
1. I completely understand the general perception that FS would sound better than BS for Stereo especially with regard to Bass response.
However that argument is valid is an exceptionally large room 200 sq feet or more.
FS need place to breathe distance from back wall, distance to side walls etc etc. a speaker with a rear port would need a minimum of 1.5 feet or more to get a transient bass response and not sound boomy or excite in room frequencies. Front ported speakers would be a little easier to place atleast wrt to distance from rear wall. but the recommended is still around 1.5 feet or more.
A lot of people fail to factor in speaker placement and end up buying speakers which sounded great in an acoustically treated room at a AV shop and at home the same speakers sound mediocre.
(Placement is key) if you want to extract the best from your loudspeakers especially in 2.0 Stereo (an Equilateral triangle is the starting point where the speakers make up the 2 points and your Cranium:rolleyes: the 3rd)
Room treatment is another aspect which is overlooked. technically and practically Acoustic treatment/speaker placement would make your low fi speakers sound way better than someone who has a lakh, 2 lakh plus stereo system with bad room placement etc

2. FS will excite your smallish room and cause the bass to be a little overbearing. if 2.0 stereo us what you are looking for you will listen to it in pure direct mode on your AVR to get the best possible sound. By using the tone controls on your AVR to reduce bass or increase trble u are just degrading sound quality and moving away from what the recording artist intended. you need to understand when u use the tone control on your AVR is either boosting the 100hz(low frequency range) or 10khz(high freq range) and not the entire spectrum. So in simple its not a linear boost but a specific boost.

3. Important Question what sort of music do u listen to if u are into classic rock, classical , instrumental etc . BS will do .. if u are semi crazed headbanger or into bassy Hip Hop, techno then a high sensitivity FS would be better. However with the later 2 genres let accept facts that SQ is not really important :lol:. For a crtical stereo listener imaging , soundstage, tonal qualities play a important part. So if SPL is what u are looking for FS is the way to go. If you listen to music at levels not enough to wake up the dead BS a way better bet

4. BS also produce a lot of bass not in the same league as FS though. most BS have a frequency response of 40hz - 20khz -3db or more but if u listen to the sort of genres i mentioned above there will be just the enough amount of bass etc because most music material does not go below 60hz or 40hz at its least. Hip Hop/ trance, synthesized stuff has a primary stress on LF's so lower fq's are expected

5.Look at it this way . 40k-50k for FS buys u a bigger box, multiple drivers etc. whereas 40k-50k also buys u a BS with a single driver and a tweeter ... So where do u think the tradeoff is.. ?? well it all boils down to the quality/ tech of the Drivers . if you are a critical listener BS will give you a much better sound at your budget price point because of better bass driver, better midrange and a far superior tweeter. better crossover etc 40k-50k approx buys u basically a low fi or mid fi floorstander but the same amount buys you a mid-fi to hi-fi BS. Lets not forget you are gonna buy a Sub . although personally I am against subs for Stereo since its pretty much difficult to integrate unless u know exactly what you are doing. there are several members in this forum who have great success with integrating Subs for stereo.
If you are truly looking for good FS with SQ your primary concern i would say a budget of 1 lakh plus is a starting point

6. Tannoys mate well with Onkyo as Spiro mentioned.

7. Audition FS vs BS same price range for example not a 20k BS vs a 40k FS.

8. Don't rush in. Take your time even if it takes 5 months before you make your final call .. Audition, Audition, Audition . At the end of the day its your money and your ears . Dont get roped in by reviews or get swayed by forum members. Use it as a reference point not a deciding point

9.For Stereo at the end of the day its not speakers alone that dictate sound quality, its also your source material. Dont expect lossy mp3 to sound as good as a Lossless file formats or Cd's. There are a lot of associated equipment that will help to attain Audio Nirvana such as DAC's, Interconnects, CDP's, Amps etc etc etc etc. Speakers are just one component of the entire chain

Disclamer ::: I am no GURU . just an audiophile who has made and still makes mistakes I am still learning. I am still and will always be a Noob.:yahoo:


Cheers
- F l a s h -
 
Flash,
Thank you very much. I tried Monitor Audio M4 with my 609 AV briefly. I was initially much excited when heard MA M4 with the dealer's stereo amp. But I was disappointed when I tried the same speakers with my 609. May be it was an unfair comparison and another reason could be that I tried both back to back. Need to now listen to it again and also try Tannoy V4 and Wharf 9.5 with my 609. Need to try BSs also along with that. Will keep you folks informed.

Request you all to to share your thoughts on which speakers should I be trying for 609 AV
 
Very true.I ,Darshan & coolestone felt that we were in movie Theatre.

Oh Yes TheCoolestone mentioned about your audition experience. Infact we spoke on the phone I guess the same day. He mentioned how u guys were blown away by the Yamaha AVR if my memory serves me right
 
I agree with Kittu, Audition the speakers he mentioned
Going the Indian speaker brand way is also not a bad option. try Norge , sonodyne etc in your budget. They are highly underrated . But they are definitely worth a look at . very good VFM

If Budget permits, B&W, Quad, KEF, Dali, Epos etc

KEF Q300 are fantastic speakers and 5 star rated product . Denom another forum member has heard them and liked it a lot

The Floorstanders of the brands I mentioned above will be over your budget
 
How much is a KEF Q300 locally? A friend of mine is contemplating the audio journey :)
A new Bakraaaa ... Muhawhahahaha! :eek:hyeah: :eek:hyeah::eek:hyeah: Gobble Khush Hua ...! :D

--G0bble
:)
 
33k thereabouts MRP for the Kef I Personally prefer the B&W 685 although overpriced in India at around 50k MRP they rock lot of trickle down tech such as their nautilus tweeter from their higher series ... I took the plunge and bought them some time ago
 
A beautiful, well-constructed speaker with class-leading soundstage, imaging and bass that is fast, deep, and precise.
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