Overall, I find them good when the recording of the movies are good. For instance like Thor Ragnarok, I felt it was not that great & later found out that the original Bluray recording was not good enough. Overall, I find them good but not great. My guess is that the Evo 4.CS would be definitely better.
HT upgrade recommendations
- Thread starter fLUX
- Start date
The reviews of the m15c centre don’t seem very flattering:
Yup they dont. I have read a review of the Dynaudio Emit Home Cinema package and they too found the center lacking.
Yup they dont. I have read a review of the Dynaudio Emit Home Cinema package and they too found the center lacking.
For more complex recording like "Spiderman far from home" , the Oberon Vokal did sound good.
So guys this is how the HT room kind of looks now. Plan is
i) to do some sound treatment on the wall housing the front side (absorbers/diffusers) , I dont think any further treatment is possible as it will interrupt the decor
ii) Invest in a floor carpet for the front speaker area
iii) Get a decent set of FS speakers, not avoidable as parents dont want a BS kept with stands.
Questions are
i) Thinking of going for nankarrow absorher/diffusers from Aural Exchange. Any feedback on the same ?
ii) Any decent carpet vendor in Bangalore for such purpose or any generic carpet will do ?
iii) For FS I have a budget of 1.5 - 1.7L , room size is 14.6 by 11 , should I invest so much for a room of this size or get a FS about 80k- 1l since room dynamics wont get the performacne from a 1.5 - 1.7L FS ? If i can get the desired top end/mid and need to compromise on bass i dont have a problem (as either ways i cannot add bass traps be it a BS/FS)
i) to do some sound treatment on the wall housing the front side (absorbers/diffusers) , I dont think any further treatment is possible as it will interrupt the decor
ii) Invest in a floor carpet for the front speaker area
iii) Get a decent set of FS speakers, not avoidable as parents dont want a BS kept with stands.
Questions are
i) Thinking of going for nankarrow absorher/diffusers from Aural Exchange. Any feedback on the same ?
ii) Any decent carpet vendor in Bangalore for such purpose or any generic carpet will do ?
iii) For FS I have a budget of 1.5 - 1.7L , room size is 14.6 by 11 , should I invest so much for a room of this size or get a FS about 80k- 1l since room dynamics wont get the performacne from a 1.5 - 1.7L FS ? If i can get the desired top end/mid and need to compromise on bass i dont have a problem (as either ways i cannot add bass traps be it a BS/FS)
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Love4sound
Well-Known Member
Why not try a decent PA first before upgrading speakers? I use dali entry level zensor series and for 2 months used a PA that was rated 100 watts rms. The sound stage was excellent. With avr we are hardly getting 50-60% of the speaker potential. Just my 2 cents.
More than the speaker potential wife and parents want me to put FS as it is more convenient to move around an chances of knocking them down are less. I would lik e to get a FS which would be a one time investment hence thought of getting something really good.
I will certainly add a PA in the future as th benefits would b substantial
Love4sound
Well-Known Member
Ok. I think you can try q acoustics Since u already use it and can match your entire set up
FS more covenient to move around? Your family must consist of olympic weightlifters!
From a shortlist perspective i have shortlisted the Concept 40/ Elac FS 6.2 (Used) / Wharfedale Evo 4.4 / Kef Q950 / Focal Aria 926 / Sonodyne Avant T2 / Dali Oberon 7 / Klipsch RP-6000/8000F and will likely demo some of them over this weekend over the 2 days. Unfortunately the Focal Aria 926 are not available for demo anywhere. The below list might help FM's who are looking to audition FS in Bangalore (have included Kef Q350 which is a Bookshelf as store mentioned the same as well).
Could not find any demo units for Tannoy & Revel so far. ARN Systems do not have any demo units for Revel
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FS more covenient to move around? Your family must consist of olympic weightlifters!
I phrased it wrongly , its more convenient for them to move around the room without the worry of knocking over the speakers.
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True! Ive had so many heart stopping moments when people have bumped into my Bookshelves. However, i prefer bookshelves because they are easy to move around to experiment with positioning plus swapping out if i want to listen to a different set of speakers. I have never moved my Floorstanders in over a year of having gotten them, though i know that the position that they are in is far from ideal. Its simply too mammoth a task.
Yup the FS would likely sit in the same position after initial positioning experiments.
I would be retaining most of the bookshelfs i own presently and they would be placed on TV stands most of the time. Will move them onto the dedicated stands during any critical listening sessions.
I am yet to demo the shortlisted ones. Out of the ones i own currently i prefer the Dynaudio Emit M20 -> Concept 20 -> Elac FS 57.2 -> 3020i
Let's all request hifimart to get the 4.c. should find enough tablets. I am/was interested in them as well but ended up getting the Quad SC-2 to replace my concept centre since only the 4.cs was available and both had the same driver size. Still interestedin the 4.c and would want to check them out before i get rid of the Evos.
Try and Carry your Dynaudios to the dealer to get a feel of how well it performs with his setup and thereby, establish a point of reference. If that's done, it'll be easier to tell how the other speakers compare to your existing speaker and whether the auditioned ones truly represent an upgrade.
@DB1989 I went by bike so could not unfortunately do the same. But i have heard a similar set of songs across most of the speakers so memory wise i have based my findings.
Have written a brief description about the same (all speakers were tried on stereo mode with sub turned off). For most of my listening i used the following songs unless mentioned otherwise ( Jiya Jale from Dil Se , Hotel California (2013 Remastered Version) , Beat It by Michael Jackson , Sawali Si Raat from Barfi, Raah Piya )
i) Dynaudio Emit M20 - This is my reference at home currently. They were driven out of my Denon X4500H AVR without subwoofer and obviously in an untreated room. I found the mids to be on par or better than most of the speaker I have listened to and overall signature is slightly laidback.
I listened to "Keith Dont Go" and i found the M20 dont really do justice to the guitar sequence towards the 3rd part of the song , the decay of the guitar string is not evident in the M20s
ii) XTZ Spirit 11 Towers - These were the first pair I demoed. This has a slighlty warmish signature with good lows ,mids were clear,lush and the highs seemed little rolled off. The lows were tight but quantity was slightly lacking. These have an option via a jumper on the back to set the highs t 0/-3 DB configuration as per your preference. Listened to this in a partially treated room. This was played on Marantz SR7013
iii) XTZ 95.44 Towers - I enjoyed listening to these as they were engergetic and at the same time not very bright. The mids were slightly forward, lows were tight and punchy with a good amount of quantity. Jiya Jale , Beat It and Hotel California sounded really nice with this setup with nice staging and instrument seperation. This was present in the untreated section of the showroom. This was played on a Marantz M-CR412
iv) Sonodyne Avant T2 - This was in a room which was well treated with bass traps, diffusers & absorbers setup. In terms of the listening experience. The listening experience was in a different dimension. It actually felt like i was in a concert with pinpoint stereo imaging and instrument seperation with perceptible depth. The bass seemed to be severely less on these pair but everything else sounded top notch. A must try pair for anyone looking for FS under 1L. his was played on a Denon X4500H connected to Emotiva XPA-2
v) Focal Chorus 726 - No one really attended in person, they were busy with another customer.They were playing demo content so could not play my songs. Listened to "Jiya Jale" , "Sultans of Swings" and some random songs. Was not really impressed with the vocals part of "Jiya Jale" and the guitar reproduction of "Sultans of Swings" on the Chorus 726 and found the Qacoustics 3050i which they were demoing to another customer to be better for the same songs. The random songs which i dont really remember the names of had good bass and soundstage & instrument seperation on the Focal Chorus 726. So this might just be a case of not having a right setup (they had some old Denon AVR not sure of the model) and also hurrying up which kind of distorted the experience , but overall did not like this a lot.
vi) Kef Q950 - I first played "Jiya Jale" on this pair and was not immediately attached to the music. After finishing this song the moment i played "Hotel California" it just took center stage and took control of the song immediately (there is a drum sequence at around 3.53 which was eargasmic on these pairs) ,the bass was really top notch amongst all the FS i heard till now, plenty of details with pinpoint imaging and a wide soundstage. I did not find the treble to be bright but was really musical. "Sawali Si Raat" has a nice rendition of punchy bass in between the songs and also a sound of chimes moving along , this was best rendered by Kef Q950 followed by XTZ 95.44. "Beat It" also has a sound like a firecracket rocket launch at start of the song and that also was really well rendered. This was played on a Denon X4500H
vii) Kef Q750 - Tried this after trying the Q950 and could clearly make out the Q950 was the better pair. Q750 has much lesser quantity of bass , is not as energetic as the KEF Q950 overall but otherwise similar in the overall presentation. This also was tried with the X4500H , did not give much of a further listen due to the above
viii) Kef R3 - This is one hell of a powerhouse for the size. Anytime i decide to replace one of my bookshelf , this is going to be the number one choice if budget permits. Did everything much better than the Kef Q950 , had almost a similar quantity of bass as the Q950 and was even more tighter and much more musical. These cost about 30k more than the Kef Q950s, but considering the fact that i want to keep a FS in the room i will have to let go of this pair.
ix) Klipsch RP/R Series 4000/6000/8000 - The lows on the series were really tight and humongous on quantity ,overall imaging was precise with good detail seperation. I was impressed with the RP-4000 for the power they pack at such a small size but the Klipsch were overly bright to my tastes and my ears were slightly hurting after 4-5 minutes of listening to Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing ( can be due to the fact that i demoed so many speakers before reaching to this showroom). Then they played live version of "Hotel California" and the starting bass was thumping and super tight, but again the instruments were sounding sharp to my ears. Did not Do not ask them the amp they were using to run these and they were playing these songs of CDs. One thing i liked about this demo was they were switching between different speakers in a jiffy using a switch and placing placeholders to show which speaker was playing , which is sometimes useful for a quick audition if you dont have a particular speaker shortlisted already.
x) Focal Aria 926 - A FM was kind enough to accomodate me to demo the Focal Aria 926 and i played a plethora of songs on these. These are clearly better than the Q950 on the highs and the guitar reproduction is top drawer and is making me not enjoy "Keith Dont Go" on my Dynaudio M20s anymore. You can literally feel the guitarist plucking the string along with the vibrations and string decay. Noticed the same in "Hotel California" as well where it outdid the Kef Q950 in the treble department. The lows were not as much as the Q950/R3 in quantity
Only reason i am still not wanting to go for these speakers is the increased price and the need to invest in a much better chain (parasound/hegel etc.) to get them to sing.
Overall was a nice weekend where i got to try out many floorstanders and shortlist a few. Saving up to get a LR Towers, matching Center & Poweramp as a part of this purchase.
I would still love to audition the Revel F35/F36 and Tannoy XT8F if available anywhere. Any guidance would be appreciated on the same.
Have written a brief description about the same (all speakers were tried on stereo mode with sub turned off). For most of my listening i used the following songs unless mentioned otherwise ( Jiya Jale from Dil Se , Hotel California (2013 Remastered Version) , Beat It by Michael Jackson , Sawali Si Raat from Barfi, Raah Piya )
i) Dynaudio Emit M20 - This is my reference at home currently. They were driven out of my Denon X4500H AVR without subwoofer and obviously in an untreated room. I found the mids to be on par or better than most of the speaker I have listened to and overall signature is slightly laidback.
I listened to "Keith Dont Go" and i found the M20 dont really do justice to the guitar sequence towards the 3rd part of the song , the decay of the guitar string is not evident in the M20s
ii) XTZ Spirit 11 Towers - These were the first pair I demoed. This has a slighlty warmish signature with good lows ,mids were clear,lush and the highs seemed little rolled off. The lows were tight but quantity was slightly lacking. These have an option via a jumper on the back to set the highs t 0/-3 DB configuration as per your preference. Listened to this in a partially treated room. This was played on Marantz SR7013
iii) XTZ 95.44 Towers - I enjoyed listening to these as they were engergetic and at the same time not very bright. The mids were slightly forward, lows were tight and punchy with a good amount of quantity. Jiya Jale , Beat It and Hotel California sounded really nice with this setup with nice staging and instrument seperation. This was present in the untreated section of the showroom. This was played on a Marantz M-CR412
iv) Sonodyne Avant T2 - This was in a room which was well treated with bass traps, diffusers & absorbers setup. In terms of the listening experience. The listening experience was in a different dimension. It actually felt like i was in a concert with pinpoint stereo imaging and instrument seperation with perceptible depth. The bass seemed to be severely less on these pair but everything else sounded top notch. A must try pair for anyone looking for FS under 1L. his was played on a Denon X4500H connected to Emotiva XPA-2
v) Focal Chorus 726 - No one really attended in person, they were busy with another customer.They were playing demo content so could not play my songs. Listened to "Jiya Jale" , "Sultans of Swings" and some random songs. Was not really impressed with the vocals part of "Jiya Jale" and the guitar reproduction of "Sultans of Swings" on the Chorus 726 and found the Qacoustics 3050i which they were demoing to another customer to be better for the same songs. The random songs which i dont really remember the names of had good bass and soundstage & instrument seperation on the Focal Chorus 726. So this might just be a case of not having a right setup (they had some old Denon AVR not sure of the model) and also hurrying up which kind of distorted the experience , but overall did not like this a lot.
vi) Kef Q950 - I first played "Jiya Jale" on this pair and was not immediately attached to the music. After finishing this song the moment i played "Hotel California" it just took center stage and took control of the song immediately (there is a drum sequence at around 3.53 which was eargasmic on these pairs) ,the bass was really top notch amongst all the FS i heard till now, plenty of details with pinpoint imaging and a wide soundstage. I did not find the treble to be bright but was really musical. "Sawali Si Raat" has a nice rendition of punchy bass in between the songs and also a sound of chimes moving along , this was best rendered by Kef Q950 followed by XTZ 95.44. "Beat It" also has a sound like a firecracket rocket launch at start of the song and that also was really well rendered. This was played on a Denon X4500H
vii) Kef Q750 - Tried this after trying the Q950 and could clearly make out the Q950 was the better pair. Q750 has much lesser quantity of bass , is not as energetic as the KEF Q950 overall but otherwise similar in the overall presentation. This also was tried with the X4500H , did not give much of a further listen due to the above
viii) Kef R3 - This is one hell of a powerhouse for the size. Anytime i decide to replace one of my bookshelf , this is going to be the number one choice if budget permits. Did everything much better than the Kef Q950 , had almost a similar quantity of bass as the Q950 and was even more tighter and much more musical. These cost about 30k more than the Kef Q950s, but considering the fact that i want to keep a FS in the room i will have to let go of this pair.
ix) Klipsch RP/R Series 4000/6000/8000 - The lows on the series were really tight and humongous on quantity ,overall imaging was precise with good detail seperation. I was impressed with the RP-4000 for the power they pack at such a small size but the Klipsch were overly bright to my tastes and my ears were slightly hurting after 4-5 minutes of listening to Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing ( can be due to the fact that i demoed so many speakers before reaching to this showroom). Then they played live version of "Hotel California" and the starting bass was thumping and super tight, but again the instruments were sounding sharp to my ears. Did not Do not ask them the amp they were using to run these and they were playing these songs of CDs. One thing i liked about this demo was they were switching between different speakers in a jiffy using a switch and placing placeholders to show which speaker was playing , which is sometimes useful for a quick audition if you dont have a particular speaker shortlisted already.
x) Focal Aria 926 - A FM was kind enough to accomodate me to demo the Focal Aria 926 and i played a plethora of songs on these. These are clearly better than the Q950 on the highs and the guitar reproduction is top drawer and is making me not enjoy "Keith Dont Go" on my Dynaudio M20s anymore. You can literally feel the guitarist plucking the string along with the vibrations and string decay. Noticed the same in "Hotel California" as well where it outdid the Kef Q950 in the treble department. The lows were not as much as the Q950/R3 in quantity
Only reason i am still not wanting to go for these speakers is the increased price and the need to invest in a much better chain (parasound/hegel etc.) to get them to sing.
Overall was a nice weekend where i got to try out many floorstanders and shortlist a few. Saving up to get a LR Towers, matching Center & Poweramp as a part of this purchase.
I would still love to audition the Revel F35/F36 and Tannoy XT8F if available anywhere. Any guidance would be appreciated on the same.
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Thats valuable insight! I'll definitely want to try out the Focals!
One thing about the KEFs is that they pair well with relatively cheap gear which is not something i can say for the Quad S5s. The KEFS absolutely rock on the PM 6006 and SR6013 as well as the Crown XLS1502. What was the amp powering the KEF Q950s that you heard?
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