Welcome to my little corner of the internet. This is where you can find objective testing of a wide variety of audio gear with a dash of subjective feedback. The goal here is to help you be a better educated consumer.
If you're looking to gain some knowledge and share some laughs, come on along with me and enjoy the ride.
Fascinating! I'll get around to a deep dive to understand the graphed I information better. I'd love to know your take on the Harmon Kardon sound sticks4 and what measurements you get placing the subwoofer on the desk vs on the floor. They are for me an interesting alternative to the A2+s.
These are absolutely superb sounding! I borrowed them home over the weekend, returned them Monday and straightaway put in an order. These do everything that I want from a speaker setup, overall enoyable and clear sound, solid bass control at all volume levels, it packs a punch in the bass (though won't rumble your entire room at all times), plays both low and loud volumes with great control and is never bright/sharp. B&W (any price) is too sharp for me. The Clarity 6.2 plays female vocals so smooth and accurate, but never ever sharp. I like these speakers because I can listen to them for hours and hours, and beyond playing music accurately they let me feel the music and enjoy it. Try it. You will be surprised by how much sound, and bass, such small speakers can produce. I used a Lyngdorf TDAI 1120 and was impressed that it was able to handle these speakers. I will probably end up buying a Hypex Nilai power amplifier for even more improved dynamics, but right now I don't feel the need to buy one at all. The 1120 does it's job excellently, but it's pushed hard - always working with the volume dial above 70%. At higher listening volume around 90%.
So very interesting.... So, if your room is properly treated to include "cloud" treatment to catch that nasty vertical reflection, these are kinda awesome. Especially for the price point. Properly tuned for the room, these are almost a steal for the combination of power handling, super low distortion, and horizontal directivity. I'm very impressed by the super low distortion. That's an an impressive metric they hit for the price point. There are an abundance of objectively better speakers who's main struggle is keeping that distortion tamped down. I'd be tempted to get 9 of these for a surround setup if I could find a way to elevate and tilt them down. Tall order though. Very stinkin heavy and tall. Plus, drilling a "tilt-over" stop or whatever it's called into the back of the surround speakers would break my heart. Such a beautiful finish. I'm tempted to try and figure it out though.... haha
and again the dip around 1.2kHz seems a prominent problem with the Dynaudio woofers.....love your channel by the way, Floyd Toole himself couldn't make it better....
Can't wait for you to get the 1528, they look lovely. Does it matter to if you get the 1723 surround and 1723s height for Atmos or should you get the 1723s as surround. Or does it not make a difference?? Thanks for all your hard work
I have noticed that sound in Wanna be Startin Somethin, especially on vinyl it can be sibilant - almost like a static hihat. Good test of a speaker's "smoothness."
Have you had the opportunity to test the finnish Amphion speakers with their waveguide tweeters, crossing as low as 1600 hz? As far as flat directivity goes, I think they are hard to beat. I have the Amphion Argon 3S in my system, and I experience a very uniform tonality, and an extremely wide sweetspot almost regardless where I am in relation to the speakers. The soundstage do not change, even if I sit to the left of the left speaker, or to the rigth of the right speaker. The singer in the middle IS in the middle, whereever I sit! At least in my room and in my setup. The speakers are placed two feet in front of big windows, and at 55” flatscreen between them. So this should not be possible to have that soundstage - but it is!
Great review! I really like the subjective and objective comparisons to the various KEF lines and the MoFi 888 as those seem rather appropriate cross-shop comparisons.
Awesome I was choosing between Adam Audio T8V and the Kali Audio Choose for the Adam because of price and amt sounds nicer to my ears. Love to see a comparison between an Adam Audio A series and the Kali
Sucks that PSB is no longer making speakers in Canada. All their lines are now made in china. Love my old 600' and century 600i. They were made in Canada by Canadians. No wonder Canadians can't find work when all our companies are offshoring everything.
Re: high subwoofer crossover points. Can you get better full-range performance-taking into account linearity, directivity, dynamics, and sensitivity-from bookshelves with dedicated subs, rather than full-range speakers, at the same price point? Let's take the MoFi SourcePoints as an example. A pair of 888s is $5K. A pair of 8s is $2K (on sale direct from MoFi, $2750 MSRP), and a pair of SVS PB-3000s is $3K (a pair of SB-3000s is $2100), for an equal total of $5K (or close at $4850). Between the 888s and the 8s/PB-3000s combo, which is going to be the overall better choice for full-range playback? Assume the subs can be placed optimally.
. Depends on what is being played back. Human powered instrument music, synthetic music or home theater tracks. Those 3 common genres need very different loudspeaker capabilities. Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊
But Erin, are they giant killers? Do they compete with speakers in the 10-15k range? 😂 god after watching your videos it’s almost impossible to take anyone else seriously. And that’s nothing but a compliment.
I just saw that KEF has released new META versions of their budget Q series speakers. I hope you can get the new versions of the bookshelf Q150 and Q350 for testing and review.
I do a calibration technique using equalizer APO that allows multiple layers of PEQ of 30 point on each layer. You can get both speakers absolutely the same response at your listening position. When you do that, the imaging gets pretty damn good as long as your room is decent. I suppose they aren’t really layers as Equalizer APO allows for an unlimited number of EQ points. Each run with REW is something like 30 points and so I just keep adding 30 more points with each run.
Hey Erin. Interesting review. I'd like to see it compared to a similar model: the PS Audio SR5. Of like size and weight, they both are passive-radiator designs with a 6½ -inch midwoofer and planar tweeter.
Hi Erin,great review! It would ve really helpful if in the coming videos you can explain how to easily determine for example 20 degree toe angle,like how to measure it or for exaple that is just past the shoulders or something like that,thanks
Did you ever use a "protractor" in middle school? ;) You can search for a woodworker's "digital angle finder"...it looks like a "V" with a pivot point at the bottom of the "V". Or search for a "Starrett ProSite Miter Saw Protractor". Or simply buy a carpenter's "Speed Square".
If you are able to listen to a set of speakers in your own environment regardless of price, you love the sound ! Then all the measurements in the world whether good or bad, will not make a difference. The same goes with crossovers ( which seems not spoken about by most , which is the heart of the speaker ) You can have great sounding speakers eg: Dynaudio Special 40 at $4,000us when new, that have cheap crossover parts... what does that tell you ? .... Any speaker at the $4,000eurs price point should sound great, the only thing that will change that is your room. The 6.2 is on my short list but awaiting the Buchardt E50 to land to see how it fares. To be honest having built speakers myself, I would dearly love to see a DIY kit designed around these two Loudspeakers 😃
Great review as always. I am already getting audibly flawless playback, provided that the recording is capable, from speakers costing less than half of what these cost. None of these super speakers forgive mediocre recordings. They're certainly nice but not necessary. "A masterpiece in audio craftsmanship and innovation"? Maybe a masterpiece in CAD and CNC-ship, but "craftsmanship" means something else entirely than what this project, and just about anything else is born from today. That term has been severely watered down in this tech age. Innovative? Just about everything coming out in audio and about everything else has become so utterly predictable. Soon as I saw these, I thought, "oh wow, another iteration of purifi drivers." Nobody would turn out a poor measuring speaker with the whole purifi sink thrown in like that. There's people with close tolerance CNC ops in their garages, these days. These products look exactly like computer controlled everything. Impressive would be, if they could make something that performs as audibly well for half that price or less, which is quite possible come 2024, once you remove all the parasites and glitz from these equations.
@mrboat580 Okay. For the metrics, find another set of commercially-available loudspeakers that sound as good, play as low in-room w/o a subwoofer, AND don't suffer from A LOT more Dynamic Compression, and are HALF the cost? I'll grab my popcorn. ;) And while you think "These products look exactly like computer controlled everything", they just sound like MUSIC, which is the end goal. Honestly, HOW MUCH do you think it would cost for a DIY'er with a capable CNC in their garage just to design (TIME), pay for the raw materials, and cut just the front Aluminum baffles for these speakers??? Keep in mind they need to recoup money to pay for one expensive-@ss CNC, a bunch of cutters/milling bits, and maintenance, etc. Just.The.Front.Baffles. TBF, I don't own these yet, but I've already built my own DIY studio monitor design using the Purifi PTT6.5 midwoofers combined with both a Mundorf AMT as well as the BlieSMa T34B beryllium tweeters....and they both simply sound like "music". (I'm a drummer/percussionist/saxophonist with a home recording studio for 13 years, so I can reference my own lifelike recordings for listening comparisons). If you want to listen to mediocre recordings without cringing, there are a few very simple things you can do to switch speakers of this design and resolution to a "muffled/warm/lush mode". ;)
I find it awkward that vertical response had 3 seconds of on-screen time and there was absolutely no comment about it, especially regarding the strange behavior between 2-3 kHz.
Vertical isn't really an issue unless it is chewed up and yes I prefer a less narrow vertical dispersion throw but this doesn't have a tangible negative on stereo listening
I prefer the 888s to any Revel speakers that use ceramic coated aluminum drivers, because I feel the former has a more lush, organic timbre (is it the paper drivers?). The Revels had more of a studio monitor, sterile sound in comparison. I heard the KEF Blade 2s at a local retailer, and I had loved how they are able to recreate a more realistic sonic image of actual bands playing in physical space, than most other speakers. I don't feel that those excel at everything, but that part was truly special to me. Everything else had sounded more like it was reproducing a recording. Klipsch La Scalas, and any Magnepans 2.7 or better, had sounded very lifelike too, and those also have flaws of their own.
it's so funny all the people hacking speakers in every other product on RU-vid you guys all sound like golf ball makers every golf ball goes further every golf ball is softer every golf ball spins better speakers ranged from $1 million apiece down to $19 so picking one out of thousands is simply advertising learned nothing about audio equipment or speakers
A couple of things comes to mind here.. Your room will be a big factor with the 888, they are big and will need space to breath. Next will be your overall taste in sound Q, and how it is delivered in all frequencies. And lastly, your money and amplification. The Clarity needs an amp there's stable down to 2-3ohm, where the 888 is more forgiving. Just my 2 cents, but have a listen for yourself with these few very important things in mind.
Its so confusing....sounds like you can make any amp sound like a tube amp or any other amp by EQing. Anyways, whats confusing to me, is that with the exact same setup, running pure direct, my Arcam sounds so much better than my rz50....and i have run the exact same rew sweeps and they are identical....so how does that even make sense.....I chose the avr that sounded the best. I understand that AVRs are different that an amp, but in pure direct ir should not matter in this case, trying to understand it all.....
Well, that on axis response rises in the treble, not so dissimilar to that of the Martin Logan speaker that you ragged on. What gives? It seems you could also toe the ML's out and have pretty good sound.
Thank-you very much for your review. You offer more details than most reviewers out there. Great job! Funny about the treble you say is bright . Could it depend mostly on the amp they are powered by? I've got the xt70s hooked up to my Sony str-dh190 and don't find them bright at all. Also, you spoke of these speakers having resonance at a certain frequency, and I tried many recordings and can't get them to "resonate." One thing does resonate though. They are between my gas fireplace,and thanks to the abundant bass, they produce resonance (a lot) from a metal plate in my fireplace (like crazy) at certain bass frequencies ... Any suggestions?🙂 Thanks for your interesting reviews.
