Speaker Shortlist Help - 80k Stretchable to 1L

[shriharsha.p]

Hi All
After extensive auditioning through the last 3-4 weeks I have come up with the following shortlist to pair with a Yamaha RX V475. Do note this is for a listening area of approximately 20' X 16' which is a part of a largish living room of 17' X 30'. The choices after auditioning (all without subs) are:

1. Tannoy V4i + VCi. App 50k, which would leave me with enough dough to invest in a Velodyne impact 10 / comparable sub. Crystal clear and clean sound with okay bass
2. Dali Zensor 7 with Vokal center (hats off to the exhaustive review posted by @Grunthos that sparked my interest in these). App 80k leaving me with hardly 20k in an already stretched budget for a sub. Very musical, sweet and lilting sound. I auditioned only the Zensor 5 at a friend's place where I found the bass a bit lacking, but was assured the Zensor 7 has a slightly more punchier sound
3. Used MA BR6 with a BX center which are being quoted at 75k, can be reduced to say 70k or so. I am told they have > 6 months of warranty left all bills, etc will be provided. Havent auditioned but have heard these speakers are bassy and I feel that I have a room big enough to soak up the sound. These are in another town and auditioning is diificult
4. Used Wharfedale 10.6 (about 6 months old) which are being quoted at 42k. I have to buy a center channel (10.CC?) at approximately 20k and I would have about 30k or so to splurge on a sub (again Velo impact 10/equivalent). Also, I have heard that the mids are a bit recessed in Wharfedale - is that a matter of concern?
5. Finally, PSB Image T6. Kick ass speakers with mind blowing sound, and with enough punch to leave you punched in the midriff. The mids were also very clear, however, I felt the highs were a bit subdued. I am being quoted 80K with hardly any money left for the matching center (image c5 if I am not wrong) which costs app 30-35k. The low frequency response at +/- 3db is a spectacular 32hz , so i am wondering a sub is necessary at all with this

Any help, suggestions for an aspiring audiophile would be much appreciated

Thanks
Harsha

 

[Nick101]

+1 for dali zensor7.
U can also consider q acoustics 2050i both of them go well with Yamaha.

 

[srisaikat]

Currently I am very happy user of Cabasse Jersey MT31 speaker from France (after 2 years of ownership of Polk Rti-A7). It is around 73.5k. My humble request to you to have an audition at PROFX before any final buy. Liquidity on both mid & high is it's specialty. I had also auditioned PSB Image T6, but after hearing Cabasse Jersey I had to no look further (within that budget of course).

 

[milestoneseeker]

Did you also had a chance to listen to Paradigm's Monitor 9? Since Yamaha is not a bright amp, see if the pairing works well for you.

Since you have looked at PSB T5, why not try Tannoy Revolution DC6T? To be honest, I am yet to hear the Tannoy's (have heard the v4), it is a fairly well regarded floor stander. Of course, does not leave you much for a center but if I were you, I would sacrifice a center and go for a better pair of fronts.

 

[poppy]

Hi All
After extensive auditioning through the last 3-4 weeks I have come up with the following shortlist to pair with a Yamaha RX V475. Do note this is for a listening area of approximately 20' X 16' which is a part of a largish living room of 17' X 30'. The choices after auditioning (all without subs) are:

1. Tannoy V4i + VCi. App 50k, which would leave me with enough dough to invest in a Velodyne impact 10 / comparable sub. Crystal clear and clean sound with okay bass
2. Dali Zensor 7 with Vokal center (hats off to the exhaustive review posted by @Grunthos that sparked my interest in these). App 80k leaving me with hardly 20k in an already stretched budget for a sub. Very musical, sweet and lilting sound. I auditioned only the Zensor 5 at a friend's place where I found the bass a bit lacking, but was assured the Zensor 7 has a slightly more punchier sound
3. Used MA BR6 with a BX center which are being quoted at 75k, can be reduced to say 70k or so. I am told they have > 6 months of warranty left all bills, etc will be provided. Havent auditioned but have heard these speakers are bassy and I feel that I have a room big enough to soak up the sound. These are in another town and auditioning is diificult
4. Used Wharfedale 10.6 (about 6 months old) which are being quoted at 42k. I have to buy a center channel (10.CC?) at approximately 20k and I would have about 30k or so to splurge on a sub (again Velo impact 10/equivalent). Also, I have heard that the mids are a bit recessed in Wharfedale - is that a matter of concern?
5. Finally, PSB Image T6. Kick ass speakers with mind blowing sound, and with enough punch to leave you punched in the midriff. The mids were also very clear, however, I felt the highs were a bit subdued. I am being quoted 80K with hardly any money left for the matching center (image c5 if I am not wrong) which costs app 30-35k. The low frequency response at +/- 3db is a spectacular 32hz , so i am wondering a sub is necessary at all with this

Any help, suggestions for an aspiring audiophile would be much appreciated

Thanks
Harsha

Dali zensor 7:clapping:

 

[shuv]

Consider the Focal v716s.

 

[efernand1]

Hi shriharsha.p

Depending on your budget there are a lot of speaker brands available which can provide good enough room filling sound...it all depends on how much perfection you would want to achieve in terms of sound technicalities, clarity, punch etc....speakers range start from a few thousands to lakhs...it all boils down on what appeals to you in appearance, performance and ofcourse budget...

If it is not much of a challenge, you should take your own AVR (475) and audition the speakers that appeal to you....end of the day, you are the ultimate user...a few things to consider for Home Theatres...carry your kind of music and movies for the demo......

The impedance of the speakers you choose should be the SAME or more than the AVR...this will ensure that there are no overheating issues and possible blow outs....secondly....you need to ensure that the speakers you choose can perform continuously across all sound frequencies the Human ear is capable of hearing....20hz - 20khz. Next to consider is the sensitivity levels.....the higher it is ...the better the speakers will open up at low volumes....

The heart of any home theatre is the centre speaker and the subwoofer...these need to be of good quality as they will do all the work in a movie / concert....the fronts and surrounds are just passengers to provide support.

As per my experience, we as music lovers do invest a huge bit on speakers and say that we will never change them...sadly most of us do change the entire system after 3-5 years as we are never satisfied........that is the reality....

You may want to consider Boston Acoustics speakers which are well within budget, perform better than Bose or JBLs and almost match well on any AVR. Below link from HiFiMart which is a 5.1 set which will be more than satisfying for the room space you have provided...

Boston Acoustics A 360 Home Theatre Package

You may get the same package cheaper elsewhere...that is something you need to figure out at your end...

You can do a mix and match of different speaker brands for your Home Theatre system if you are not too brand conscious...only thing to keep in mind is the technical specs and watts...

Personally, I use a Marantz and Boston Acoustics and they do sound awesome for movies and music....infact I am upgrading my subwoofer to the Boston ASW 650 ....these speakers are true value for money and performance expected....

There are numerous video reviews over YouTube which can provide a decent idea of the speakers you choose....the ultimate purchase decision would be yours based on recommendations made by us / friends etc.

All the best!

 

[shriharsha.p]

Hi All
My sincere thanks for all the advices. I have auditioned a lot many brands over the last 4-5 weeks and what I have above is a shortlist on the course of action to take. I am not looking at expanding the list to include more speakers to audition - my bad I guess as this was not made very clear. What I am asking for is advise and help on what choice to exercise as the setup will stay with me for the next 3-5 years. Sound quality wise, I have made my newbie comments. Given my budget and the dimensions of the listening area, is it better to take the Mercury V4i/used route and invest in a sub upfront or take it slowly and expand later? Also, are any of the used offers I have worth it?

Here's a low down on my gear:
AVR: Yamaha RX V475
TV: Sony 48 W600B (superb TV - till last Thursday, i was living with a sturdy 21" CRT!)
Blue Ray Player: Still scouting around the forum - have Pioneer/Sony/Panasonic in mind

 

[elangoas]

Hi All
My sincere thanks for all the advices. I have auditioned a lot many brands over the last 4-5 weeks and what I have above is a shortlist on the course of action to take. I am not looking at expanding the list to include more speakers to audition - my bad I guess as this was not made very clear. What I am asking for is advise and help on what choice to exercise as the setup will stay with me for the next 3-5 years. Sound quality wise, I have made my newbie comments. Given my budget and the dimensions of the listening area, is it better to take the Mercury V4i/used route and invest in a sub upfront or take it slowly and expand later? Also, are any of the used offers I have worth it?

Here's a low down on my gear:
AVR: Yamaha RX V475
TV: Sony 48 W600B (superb TV - till last Thursday, i was living with a sturdy 21" CRT!)
Blue Ray Player: Still scouting around the forum - have Pioneer/Sony/Panasonic in mind

Do you already own the Yamaha RX 475 (or) you are yet to buy one...

If your purpose if for HT use primarily like 80% movies, a sat + Sub (or) BS + Sub combo is more than enough.. There is no need for FS as crossover in the AVR is going to kick in all the time @ 80Hz.....

If you will use it for Stereo/HT equally, then makes sense to buy a FS....

Also your listening area is quite good & big.... If you plan wisely you can have an excellent HT experience....

 

[ranjeetrain]

Hi All
My sincere thanks for all the advices. I have auditioned a lot many brands over the last 4-5 weeks and what I have above is a shortlist on the course of action to take. I am not looking at expanding the list to include more speakers to audition - my bad I guess as this was not made very clear. What I am asking for is advise and help on what choice to exercise as the setup will stay with me for the next 3-5 years. Sound quality wise, I have made my newbie comments. Given my budget and the dimensions of the listening area, is it better to take the Mercury V4i/used route and invest in a sub upfront or take it slowly and expand later? Also, are any of the used offers I have worth it?

Here's a low down on my gear:
AVR: Yamaha RX V475
TV: Sony 48 W600B (superb TV - till last Thursday, i was living with a sturdy 21" CRT!)
Blue Ray Player: Still scouting around the forum - have Pioneer/Sony/Panasonic in mind

Personally, I would not match Dali Zensor or MA BR6 with your amp. Combo will sound bright on occasions.

Look at Tannoy. Also, if budget can be increased, Tannoy DC6T.

 

[lawuwateryo]

Of course, does not leave you much for a center but if I were you, I would sacrifice a center and go for a better pair of fronts.

 

[shriharsha.p]

Do you already own the Yamaha RX 475 (or) you are yet to buy one...

If your purpose if for HT use primarily like 80% movies, a sat + Sub (or) BS + Sub combo is more than enough.. There is no need for FS as crossover in the AVR is going to kick in all the time @ 80Hz.....

If you will use it for Stereo/HT equally, then makes sense to buy a FS....

Also your listening area is quite good & big.... If you plan wisely you can have an excellent HT experience....

Hi Elangoas
I already have the RX v475. The thing is that my usage will primarily be music while my better half's and kid's usage will be movies, TV shows and cartoons. All in all, 50/50 though my preference is for music and hence the floorstanders.

 

[kanna.sridharan]

I had an opportunity to listen to the Wharfedale 159 partnered with an Arcam A19, I was really amazed with the punch the FS could throw out, it's just at ur budget, but it needs a lot of power/clean power to sing, don't know how ur AVR can handle it.

 

[reignofchaos]

Music and ht receivers absolutely don't go together. Its like making a crow sing - all it will do is make noises but will never be musical.

 

[BLASTO]

To give an idea on what each of your shortlist will sound..

(1) Thin and without body compared to others you have mentioned. Bass will be lacking and it CANNOT be . For your budget, better avoid. You will be disappointed inspite of whatever the sales guy says. The lack of bass will bring in buyer's remorse very soon after purchase.

(2) and (3) Both excellent but you cannot run away from the fact that these are bright once you bring them home. A lot of electronics are optimised for warm sound and hence you will end up fiddling with the cables, electronics with endless tweeks. This line of route is pretty common for speakers which have the extra detail and exposes your electronics raw. If you are ready to take that path, these are very interesting options.

(4) Very different sounding speakers. The details will be lost compared to others but will give you are grunty, coloured presentation with big scale. If all you are using will be AVRs for pairing. These will be very good. The moment you want to upgrade to high end stereo amp and DAC, you will feel that the speakers are not scaling up.

(5) The best option if BASS and overall presentation is what you look for. The speakers are optimised to have a balance on detail retrieval and bass presentation. Only on very high end stereo components will these speakers hide details. The scale of presentation is also very good for your room size. If you do electronics upgrade in the future, these speakers will scale very well and a lot of people stop upgrading much before the point where these speakers become the bottleneck in the setup even with stereo dacs and amps. You can also postpone the sub purchase for quite some time but will be needed eventually for movies. The center and surrounds will be more costly too. Basically you are looking at a different league.

You might also check the below the try to negotiate, I have interacted with both of them personally. Be noted that T5 will be quite a step down from T6 and RX6, quite a step up from MA Bronze.

http://www.hifivision.com/sale-owner/45990-psb-image-t5-floorstanders.html

http://www.hifivision.com/sale-owner/48358-monitor-audio-5-0-rx6-rxcx-bxfx.html

 

[shriharsha.p]

I had an opportunity to listen to the Wharfedale 159 partnered with an Arcam A19, I was really amazed with the punch the FS could throw out, it's just at ur budget, but it needs a lot of power/clean power to sing, don't know how ur AVR can handle it.

But I thought the 159s retail for 110k or thereabouts?

harsha

 

[shriharsha.p]

To give an idea on what each of your shortlist will sound..

(1) Thin and without body compared to others you have mentioned. Bass will be lacking and it CANNOT be . For your budget, better avoid. You will be disappointed inspite of whatever the sales guy says. The lack of bass will bring in buyer's remorse very soon after purchase.

(2) and (3) Both excellent but you cannot run away from the fact that these are bright once you bring them home. A lot of electronics are optimised for warm sound and hence you will end up fiddling with the cables, electronics with endless tweeks. This line of route is pretty common for speakers which have the extra detail and exposes your electronics raw. If you are ready to take that path, these are very interesting options.

(4) Very different sounding speakers. The details will be lost compared to others but will give you are grunty, coloured presentation with big scale. If all you are using will be AVRs for pairing. These will be very good. The moment you want to upgrade to high end stereo amp and DAC, you will feel that the speakers are not scaling up.

(5) The best option if BASS and overall presentation is what you look for. The speakers are optimised to have a balance on detail retrieval and bass presentation. Only on very high end stereo components will these speakers hide details. The scale of presentation is also very good for your room size. If you do electronics upgrade in the future, these speakers will scale very well and a lot of people stop upgrading much before the point where these speakers become the bottleneck in the setup even with stereo dacs and amps. You can also postpone the sub purchase for quite some time but will be needed eventually for movies. The center and surrounds will be more costly too. Basically you are looking at a different league.

You might also check the below the try to negotiate, I have interacted with both of them personally. Be noted that T5 will be quite a step down from T6 and RX6, quite a step up from MA Bronze.

http://www.hifivision.com/sale-owner/45990-psb-image-t5-floorstanders.html

http://www.hifivision.com/sale-owner/48358-monitor-audio-5-0-rx6-rxcx-bxfx.html

Many thanks for the insightful comments. I had almost finalized the Image T6 last Sunday when I was actually discouraged by the dealer saying that the RX V475 does not have enough power to drive these. He was instead pushing for the Image T5s. I was a bit surprised because the company website very clearly mentions apms in the range of 20-200 RMS will drive these for which he countered this was sales talk.

The flip side to the T6 is that the centers and the towers will push my budget to about 106-107k leaving me with next to nothing for the sub. I agree they are in a different league though and would future-proof me for a long time. Will check out the links and thanks again,

Harsha

 

[shriharsha.p]

Music and ht receivers absolutely don't go together. Its like making a crow sing - all it will do is make noises but will never be musical.

I know but I had to make a compromise as i am just starting off and separate music and movie setups would have cost me an arm and a leg.

Harsha

 

[kanna.sridharan]

But I thought the 159s retail for 110k or thereabouts?

harsha

I was quoted 1L after discounts couple of days back.

I had been auditioning a few systems in the last few days and I'm looking for speakers in the same budget as you are, the only diff. is that I'm looking for a stereo setup. I was really impressed with the Qacoustics 2050i and the Revel P12, but I really think what made the difference was the amp that was driving them the Naim Nait 5.

You should consider auditioning the Qacoustics with your AVR, I think it should pair well.

Regards

 

[shriharsha.p]

I was quoted 1L after discounts couple of days back.

I had been auditioning a few systems in the last few days and I'm looking for speakers in the same budget as you are, the only diff. is that I'm looking for a stereo setup. I was really impressed with the Qacoustics 2050i and the Revel P12, but I really think what made the difference was the amp that was driving them the Naim Nait 5.

You should consider auditioning the Qacoustics with your AVR, I think it should pair well.

Regards

Do you mind sharing where you auditioned the QA 2050i and how much you were quoted?

Harsha