Audiophiles---What do you think of these speakers?

[Hayabusa Rider]

DIY Alpha LS kit


Looking at these for late in the coming year. Just a wish list thing, but I think they are cool

 

[arcas]

You might check the forum over at partsexpress.com. Plenty of good speaker-building info over there.

 

[Siddhartha]

That is an expensive two way system. I would opt for a three way system with larger woofers and 0.5" or 1.0" tweeters

 

[Howard]

I've never heard them, but they should sound pretty good. Planars (even if they aren't true ribbons) sound pretty transparent.

Although, looking at the cabinets, they don't seem to be internally braced at all.

 

[Mucman]

I would have to listen to them in order to make an opinion.

 

[MikeMike]

ive got a 2 way system im selling. never been used. comes with passive x-overs, but i only have a pair of each, so well you might not want them lol.

yea, you should prolly go over to a forum like avsforum, or elsewhere.

MIKE

 

[Apex]

I've heard great things about them (and GR Research makes some very very good stuff, especially for the cost), but I've not had a chance to hear this model.

 

[glen]

Building speakers is a HUGE pain in the ass.
People spend insane amounts of time and engery on their midrange and tweets, but that is pointless.
Most commercial speakers these days have fantastic sound from about 200hz to 20,000hz (6 and half octavces)
10hz to 200hz is about 4 and a half octaves and is totally ignored.
The other problem is you do nto want your sub in the same spot as your mains. You want a single source in the courner to minimize destructave interfearance.
So, buy a decent $400 to $600 set of mains, cross tem over at 80 hz, and get you and SVS sub for the corner.

 

[glen]

Here you go:

B Stock SVS sub:
Model SV16-46PCi
Code: 1646pci-AR
Price: $649.00 from the VS webpage

then go to ebay and grab a set of
Paradigm Reference Studio 40 with stands ~$800

 

[EngenZerO]

Originally posted by: glen
Building speakers is a HUGE pain in the ass.
People spend insane amounts of time and engery on their midrange and tweets, but that is pointless.
Most commercial speakers these days have fantastic sound from about 200hz to 20,000hz (6 and half octavces)
10hz to 200hz is about 4 and a half octaves and is totally ignored.
The other problem is you do nto want your sub in the same spot as your mains. You want a single source in the courner to minimize destructave interfearance.
So, buy a decent $400 to $600 set of mains, cross tem over at 80 hz, and get you and SVS sub for the corner.

omg...I so agree. go out and buy a nice pair of speakers. shoot...go check out www.av123.com they have some good speakers...

 

[MikeMike]

i have an idea for my home theatre when i get out of college, but the sub motor alone costs 5 grand, and well, it could easily handle a 100 seat theatre, might be a lil overkill for like a 10 seater.

MIKE

 

[Viperoni]

Line Array's kick ass. Not many people have them, and they sound a fair bit different than regular speakers. The lack of dynamic compression and overall SPL capability is awesome. Soundstage and imaging are great too, especially with the super low tweeter crossover frequency. The only downside is that you can't be very close to the speakers, probably 10 feet or more IIRC.

Sure building speakers is a big pain, but the benefits are awesome, especially with line array's like these.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I have checked AVS and Hometheater forum and pretty much people there ooh and ahh, and compared them to 20-50k speakers. Top end Magnepans and such. Thing is I don't know those guys as well as those here. As I said, this project isnt around the corner, but it is in my nature to like to look at toys before buying

 

[glen]

Originally posted by: WinstonSmith
I have checked AVS and Hometheater forum and pretty much people there ooh and ahh, and compared them to 20-50k speakers. Top end Magnepans and such. Thing is I don't know those guys as well as those here. As I said, this project isnt around the corner, but it is in my nature to like to look at toys before buying

Yeah, but they are a bunch of wanckers.
If you want sound that good, you don't spend it on the speakers.
You get some speakers like I suggested, then you get a 1/6 or 1/12 octave EQ and the test equiptment to set it up.
Then you have decent sound. All rooms are different and affect the sound the same, even if the speaker costs $50,000 or some wanker at teh AVS forums loves it.

 

[Harvey]

Just looking at those speakers makes me cringe. :Q

< tech mode >

If the distance between any two of them is greater than 1/2 wavelength of any given frequency, you will get phase errors that cause cancellations and summations of the signal at various listening distances from the drivers. These beasts have eight drivers in a vertical line, which means you have a variety of distances between any two of them that should be capable of generating a grand phase scramble across the audio spectrum.

< /tech mode >

 

[glen]

I have to agree with harvey, you get a ton of distructive interfearance with that set up, so liek I said, put your sub in the courner.
Anyway, once you have that down, get one of these:
http://www.whiteinstruments.com/sp4710.htm
It is a 1/6 octave EQ and it will make a huge difference. I thknk that one sets itself also, so all you do is plug it in, and it sends out the pink noise and calebratesitself for each speaker for the room and listenign position.

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: glen
I have to agree with harvey, you get a ton of distructive interfearance with that set up, so liek I said, put your sub in the courner.
Anyway, once you have that down, get one of these:
http://www.whiteinstruments.com/sp4710.htm
It is a 1/6 octave EQ and it will make a huge difference. I thknk that one sets itself also, so all you do is plug it in, and it sends out the pink noise and calebratesitself for each speaker for the room and listenign position.

I have to disagree with that suggestion, too. High Q equalizers are also major phase scramblers. In fact, so is any analog filter. They're useful for smoothing out a live performance venue, but I'd rather spend the time to find speakers that sound good on their own.

Of course, there's always the sound of the room, as well. The sheer physics of speakers means there will never be an ideal transducer to convert electronic signals into acoustic ones, but we keeps on tryin'.

 

[glen]

Originally posted by: Harvey

Originally posted by: glen
I have to agree with harvey, you get a ton of distructive interfearance with that set up, so liek I said, put your sub in the courner.
Anyway, once you have that down, get one of these:
http://www.whiteinstruments.com/sp4710.htm
It is a 1/6 octave EQ and it will make a huge difference. I thknk that one sets itself also, so all you do is plug it in, and it sends out the pink noise and calebratesitself for each speaker for the room and listenign position.

I have to disagree with that suggestion, too. High Q equalizers are also major phase scramblers. In fact, so is any analog filter. They're useful for smoothing out a live performance venue, but I'd rather spend the time to find speakers that sound good on their own.

Of course, there's always the sound of the room, as well. The sheer physics of speakers means there will never be an ideal transducer to convert electronic signals into acoustic ones, but we keeps on tryin'.

You assume that one can spend time and find speakers that sound good on their own.
Well, sure you can.
But, no one can find speakers that sound good on their own that don't sound better with a good analog or digital EQ properly set up.
Well, duh they do change the phase - if they are analog, but only a little bit. You should not be makign HUGE level chages, that means a room problem or a malfunctioning speaker.

Even so, digital EQs don't change phase.
My assumption is that no one do it with speakers alone.
I have Legacy Focuse speakers.
They are argualbly the best seakers money can buy.
Some ass-hat somewhere can find a more expensive speakers using google, but there is not much evidence that any speaker is "better" - maybe some are as good, but better? come on. They sounds as crisp as $30,000 Martin Logan, have twice the dynamics, and you cna play them at a decent level. Try cranking some tunes some MLs, with some$10,000 Krell mono blocks. God, you will waqnt to shoot yorself at how poor it sounds.
At that level ($1000 t $2000), subwoofer placement and design, room treatment, and EQ are the places where you cna make real gains in sound. Going to to $20,000 speakers can actually sound worse. In fact, in my experience they usually do. However, I ahve never heard the Wilsons, like the Watt Puppies, but even those are not really considered to be better than the Legacy's.... Plus, you got a serious sub problem. Even with the Wilsons, you want to use a separate cross over and a single source sub. I swear I think no one marketing stereo speaker has evena fundamental high school level undersatndign of physics. Even though I have 3 12" woffers in each main, I cross over at 80hz, and go to a dedicated sub. Can the 6 12" drivers handle it? yeah, but they are in the wrong position in the room, you get detsrtuctive interfearance.