Sharing my experience on auditioning Three speakers
1. Jamo C 803
2. Monitor Audio Gold GX50 and
3. ELAC 184
I started looking for my HT setup and have been on run from one showroom to another since last around 3 weeks trying to finalize front pair of bookshelf with a decent budget. after listening to few brands i straight away write of warfedale, klipsh, focal.
I am a complete novice, a lay man when it comes to sound. The best i have listened to is sennheiser PX 100 classic (Headphone) which still stands as a benchmark. i brought and broke 2 of them and the new one i tried in India were not as good comparatively. so for me i never know what soundstage was and how can different brand of amp can can completely change the sound signature of same speaker. Anyhow here is the tale and overall experience.
1. Monitor Audio Gold GX 50 : I went to get audition for MA and right from the moment i entered the place it was a pleasurable experience. The ambience was warm and people even warmer. they took care of every single query of mine however small or irrelevant it was. Speakers themselves were very small and with glossy finish gorgeous looking bookshelf. I auditioned many track on 2 different speakers(gold and bronze BX2). what amazed me more than speakers were, the etiquette with which these gadgets were handled. office boy wearing proper gloves placed the speakers/AVR on stand with utmost care. I really appreciate how respectfully these gadgets were taken care. Anyways, back to sound the monitors were plugged to Marantz AVR 7007 in stereo mode. I requested the track from barfi "main Kya karu" and the moment vocals started to come out i was in love with it. Clear, Transparent and totally controlled is how i would describe. close your eyes and you might just find yourself sitting in a recording room listening to it live. as we started proceeding further with other tracks including dire strait' sultans of swings the guitar strings were very well articulated and it was sharp and clear. even the very minor screeching sound on strings could be heard but somehow it missed on to Mid front. Lower end of bass was completely missing to say it, it was non existent. even though it was missing bass the driver seems fast and capable of reproducing fast drums perfectly. every single musical instrument could be heard so easily and it looked like as if they have a space of their own in air. On listening to summer of 69, it become a little muddier if i may say. i felt a little chaotic listening to it. after around two hours i left with a very good taste of sound and even beautiful taste of hospitality and patience but still wanting more from the bass end.
2. Jamo Concert series : I was booked for an audition of C 803. i have almost always heard good things for Jamo concert series. though i never got to hear them in flesh and blood. The place seems old with old carpet and with floor standers all around giving a sense of cluttery ness. The moment i entered the place i saw the bookshelf i was suppose to audition they being kept on another floor stander. not sweet at all. i couldn't stop myself comparing my previous day experience with monitors. how dutiful these things were handled. but in here they were just an object in a showroom. ready to be sold. We started with audition and Jamo's were clubbed to Denon integrated amp PMA 1001(not sure). Initially without a sub with just Jamo placed randomly on top. And we started with Hotel California. since i wasn't carrying my USB i had no songs to compare it with MA. and the showroom had only 1 good CD "Eagles". so we started and after that it was one of the most beautiful hour of my non musical life. The speakers were so musical. complete and relaxed. listening to them were like relaxing my brain. the vocals were deep not as smooth as MA but they were in a league of their own. i never knew what laid back sound is when i used to read in this forum when people used to say the sound is laid back. Now i know what they meant. The speakers themselves were Big in comparison. and with even bigger sound. close your eyes and one can mistake it for a much bigger loudspeaker(i guess thats what it called bigger soundstage). later in audition i requested a sub to be attached. since there was only one CD we played Hotel California once again and the room was alive. it was 'magnificent' listening to these speakers. Jamo's are easily in the category of producing Royal sound. They don't seem to be very fast speakers as MA but i can feel they were work horse. with whatever limited tracks we had with us we tested vocal and there was a sense of depth to the voice. i literally miss listening to Jagjit Singh and i couldn't stop wondering what sound they might just create. i also had a chance to audition C 809 FS and comparing side by side with 803 the Mids and the highs were exactly same as compared to younger sibling the only different being the bass since FS have tremendous amount of bass in them. I am no more a Bass Head so 803 checks all the marks. calm and pleasant, which one can come home to every single day.
Yet i couldn't stop my self missing the smoothness of GX50. sharp yet not razor sharp, smooth yet now slippery. only if these highs clubbed with Jamo's depth could be brought together !! I wish. A perfect world. Later i tried Jamo with an AVR this time 7005 and it was simply pathetic. suddenly there was no liveliness in music it was dull boring and missed something. i asked it to be plugged with a sub and even the sub started farting. i was in a shock. i guess AVR can never compete with an Integrated amp. i literally had to request them to play some songs on denon amp again just to get back to being sane again. They are like the muscle cars of 1960 made modern.
3. ELAC : i read somewhere about ELAC being premium german engineering and frankly i am a fan of german engineering so thought of giving it a shot. have personally worked with germans so i know how they work towards perfection. The showroom was small and OK looking with sales person being completely unaware of what is being sold in it. i literally had to ask them to show me the best speaker they have and then they demoed me ELAC 184. requested them to club with Amp since Onkyo since brand they keep. again i was not carrying my collection so asked them to play whatever they have and they started with mixed Bollywood. it took me only 2 mins to completely reject the speakers. they were just bad. i started to make my move out of the showroom and luckily i just went closer to the speaker out of curiosity as to how come a 40 grand speaker can sound so bad and figured there was sound dampening foam on back port blocking air and sound. i asked them to remove it and play songs again which they did and everything changed from there on. the sounded smooth same as MA. the vocals were nearly identical to MA's vocal with a punchy mids and some Bass. i listening to 3-4 numbers and liked them. For the price they are very very good. the sound stage is big. but somehow it still feels something was missing. provided i was there in the range of 40k i would have undoubtedly brought them over that very same minute but after listening to jamo and monitor it somehow faded. i don't know why i want to love these speakers but yet i cannot come to an understanding with my own self. so i guess i would pass them for now.
And now i find myself confused between Jamo and MA and i just cant think clear and in a single way about which one to buy. i am still trying to demo few more brands this week. I am hoping to find a better speaker in my price range if not then i will be completely confused between the two. Also after listening to integrated stereo amp i don't want to go AVR way and without an AVR there can never be a home theater.
any suggestion on what to do.. for both speakers and Amp/AVR
1. Jamo C 803
2. Monitor Audio Gold GX50 and
3. ELAC 184
I started looking for my HT setup and have been on run from one showroom to another since last around 3 weeks trying to finalize front pair of bookshelf with a decent budget. after listening to few brands i straight away write of warfedale, klipsh, focal.
I am a complete novice, a lay man when it comes to sound. The best i have listened to is sennheiser PX 100 classic (Headphone) which still stands as a benchmark. i brought and broke 2 of them and the new one i tried in India were not as good comparatively. so for me i never know what soundstage was and how can different brand of amp can can completely change the sound signature of same speaker. Anyhow here is the tale and overall experience.
1. Monitor Audio Gold GX 50 : I went to get audition for MA and right from the moment i entered the place it was a pleasurable experience. The ambience was warm and people even warmer. they took care of every single query of mine however small or irrelevant it was. Speakers themselves were very small and with glossy finish gorgeous looking bookshelf. I auditioned many track on 2 different speakers(gold and bronze BX2). what amazed me more than speakers were, the etiquette with which these gadgets were handled. office boy wearing proper gloves placed the speakers/AVR on stand with utmost care. I really appreciate how respectfully these gadgets were taken care. Anyways, back to sound the monitors were plugged to Marantz AVR 7007 in stereo mode. I requested the track from barfi "main Kya karu" and the moment vocals started to come out i was in love with it. Clear, Transparent and totally controlled is how i would describe. close your eyes and you might just find yourself sitting in a recording room listening to it live. as we started proceeding further with other tracks including dire strait' sultans of swings the guitar strings were very well articulated and it was sharp and clear. even the very minor screeching sound on strings could be heard but somehow it missed on to Mid front. Lower end of bass was completely missing to say it, it was non existent. even though it was missing bass the driver seems fast and capable of reproducing fast drums perfectly. every single musical instrument could be heard so easily and it looked like as if they have a space of their own in air. On listening to summer of 69, it become a little muddier if i may say. i felt a little chaotic listening to it. after around two hours i left with a very good taste of sound and even beautiful taste of hospitality and patience but still wanting more from the bass end.
2. Jamo Concert series : I was booked for an audition of C 803. i have almost always heard good things for Jamo concert series. though i never got to hear them in flesh and blood. The place seems old with old carpet and with floor standers all around giving a sense of cluttery ness. The moment i entered the place i saw the bookshelf i was suppose to audition they being kept on another floor stander. not sweet at all. i couldn't stop myself comparing my previous day experience with monitors. how dutiful these things were handled. but in here they were just an object in a showroom. ready to be sold. We started with audition and Jamo's were clubbed to Denon integrated amp PMA 1001(not sure). Initially without a sub with just Jamo placed randomly on top. And we started with Hotel California. since i wasn't carrying my USB i had no songs to compare it with MA. and the showroom had only 1 good CD "Eagles". so we started and after that it was one of the most beautiful hour of my non musical life. The speakers were so musical. complete and relaxed. listening to them were like relaxing my brain. the vocals were deep not as smooth as MA but they were in a league of their own. i never knew what laid back sound is when i used to read in this forum when people used to say the sound is laid back. Now i know what they meant. The speakers themselves were Big in comparison. and with even bigger sound. close your eyes and one can mistake it for a much bigger loudspeaker(i guess thats what it called bigger soundstage). later in audition i requested a sub to be attached. since there was only one CD we played Hotel California once again and the room was alive. it was 'magnificent' listening to these speakers. Jamo's are easily in the category of producing Royal sound. They don't seem to be very fast speakers as MA but i can feel they were work horse. with whatever limited tracks we had with us we tested vocal and there was a sense of depth to the voice. i literally miss listening to Jagjit Singh and i couldn't stop wondering what sound they might just create. i also had a chance to audition C 809 FS and comparing side by side with 803 the Mids and the highs were exactly same as compared to younger sibling the only different being the bass since FS have tremendous amount of bass in them. I am no more a Bass Head so 803 checks all the marks. calm and pleasant, which one can come home to every single day.
Yet i couldn't stop my self missing the smoothness of GX50. sharp yet not razor sharp, smooth yet now slippery. only if these highs clubbed with Jamo's depth could be brought together !! I wish. A perfect world. Later i tried Jamo with an AVR this time 7005 and it was simply pathetic. suddenly there was no liveliness in music it was dull boring and missed something. i asked it to be plugged with a sub and even the sub started farting. i was in a shock. i guess AVR can never compete with an Integrated amp. i literally had to request them to play some songs on denon amp again just to get back to being sane again. They are like the muscle cars of 1960 made modern.
3. ELAC : i read somewhere about ELAC being premium german engineering and frankly i am a fan of german engineering so thought of giving it a shot. have personally worked with germans so i know how they work towards perfection. The showroom was small and OK looking with sales person being completely unaware of what is being sold in it. i literally had to ask them to show me the best speaker they have and then they demoed me ELAC 184. requested them to club with Amp since Onkyo since brand they keep. again i was not carrying my collection so asked them to play whatever they have and they started with mixed Bollywood. it took me only 2 mins to completely reject the speakers. they were just bad. i started to make my move out of the showroom and luckily i just went closer to the speaker out of curiosity as to how come a 40 grand speaker can sound so bad and figured there was sound dampening foam on back port blocking air and sound. i asked them to remove it and play songs again which they did and everything changed from there on. the sounded smooth same as MA. the vocals were nearly identical to MA's vocal with a punchy mids and some Bass. i listening to 3-4 numbers and liked them. For the price they are very very good. the sound stage is big. but somehow it still feels something was missing. provided i was there in the range of 40k i would have undoubtedly brought them over that very same minute but after listening to jamo and monitor it somehow faded. i don't know why i want to love these speakers but yet i cannot come to an understanding with my own self. so i guess i would pass them for now.
And now i find myself confused between Jamo and MA and i just cant think clear and in a single way about which one to buy. i am still trying to demo few more brands this week. I am hoping to find a better speaker in my price range if not then i will be completely confused between the two. Also after listening to integrated stereo amp i don't want to go AVR way and without an AVR there can never be a home theater.
any suggestion on what to do.. for both speakers and Amp/AVR
. all of them including the bookshelf they carry the same signature sound but the lows differ a lot. my only apprehension for jamo's are that they are made in China.
) and to be frank its the center of my house so it actually acts like a passage to other areas of my house including kitchen, parents room, my room and a balcony. However i listened to Sonus Faber today and they were very good but frankly not that good for the price point(1.5L). i am told to audition toy towers from SF which i will do this weekend. now toy towers are sleek and very neutral sounding towers and hence inclined to audition them. 
