This is my very personal experience, the opinions reached here in this post are also the result of possibly lesser experience in the field than many others, but I wish to share them and get some pointers.
I listen to classic rock, blues-rock, Rabindrasangeet, Suman and some Anjan Dutta in Bengali and Indian classical. I am in the hunt for a stereo setup than what I already posses. About 10 months or so back I picked up my beloved Zensor 1s, back then I auditioned Wharfedale 10.1, Dali Lektor, Zensor, Jamo (606 I think it was) and Triangle Colors. The KEF Q300 were out of my budget so did not audition them, could not find Monitor Audio in Kolkata and so could not.
I have found that in my collection of music it is most difficult to represent Pink Floyd properly, in other words the setup (amp + speaker) which handled everything else almost perfectly (the strings of Neil Young, the baritone timbre of Leonard Cohen's voice and the soulful guitar of B B King), failed in Pink Floyd. Either it was too bright or it was confusing to follow the music. The instruments get lost, so do the rhythm as the music is so very complex in certain cases. The at-your-face aggressive presentation has never worked with Pink Floyd. The only time I was actually 'wowed' with Pink Floyd was with the Triangle Colours and Cambridge Audio 651A + CA Azure CD player. The Lektors were not bad either but I settled for the Zensor 1s as they fell in my budget.
Since then the Zensor 1s have given me great pleasure and these are little pieces of diamonds at this price (no pun to the Wharfe Diamond line!), I love them, I really do.
As I am leaning to a better quality stereo setup, I am looking for speakers again.
Budget : 30K
Source: Flacs mostly / 320 Kbps mp3, Foobar, Dell laptop with Fiio Andes as DAC. Perhaps should mention that the Fiio is a smooth sounding DAC at a very cheap price point, it is smooth to the point of being unexciting, but quite detailed. I have to push both bass and treble a little to make it sound exciting, but can not complain the detailing revealed at meager 7k.
Room size: 10 x 11
Amplifier: At the moment Sonodyne Sia 320, will upgrade 3-4 months down the line, leaning toward CA Azur 651A.
I have heard now,
PSB Image B6: liked them, paired with NAD 326. Forceful, wide sound stage and exciting, but perhaps was missing the refinement I am looking for.
PSB Alpha B1 : Smaller brother to the B6, impressive sound stage again especially considering their size. Seemed to have been running out of steam with more complex interplay of instruments. Decent but that is about it. Both with B1 and B6 nice top end, slightly rolled off, not harsh and pleasing, more open with the B6 of course. This could be due to the NAD amp.
Elac BS : Forgetting the model number, but has to be their very entry level model, priced at 18000/pair, this had great beautiful lucid top end but the rest of it all was sheer disappointment. Not even in my consideration.
Polk RTi A3 : Spacious imaging, gives you an impression of fullness in the music, liked that. But missed the lucid mid range that I am wishing for. At ProFx it was paired with Denon amplifier and a Pionner LX series AVR. With old hindi numbers the pairing with Pioneer LX sounded quite nice, enveloping and detailed, but again lot to be desired when Shine on You Crazy Diamond was played. I think they go quite low albeit a little on the muddier side, but mids were recessed and the top not as open and airy as I would like, for example the strings at the start of Wish You Were Here did not take a hold of you as they did with Image B6.
Even then if I am to choose from what I have heard, I would go with the Image B6 and Polk in the second place. My issue is and this is the biggest one, my Zensor 1 sound as good as the Image B6 if not better! So I have not really found anything that can tell me precisely that this is money well spent.
So I am looking for suggestions from you as to what else to hear, which way should I go, suggest me some names and models. Long post, sorry about that. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
I listen to classic rock, blues-rock, Rabindrasangeet, Suman and some Anjan Dutta in Bengali and Indian classical. I am in the hunt for a stereo setup than what I already posses. About 10 months or so back I picked up my beloved Zensor 1s, back then I auditioned Wharfedale 10.1, Dali Lektor, Zensor, Jamo (606 I think it was) and Triangle Colors. The KEF Q300 were out of my budget so did not audition them, could not find Monitor Audio in Kolkata and so could not.
I have found that in my collection of music it is most difficult to represent Pink Floyd properly, in other words the setup (amp + speaker) which handled everything else almost perfectly (the strings of Neil Young, the baritone timbre of Leonard Cohen's voice and the soulful guitar of B B King), failed in Pink Floyd. Either it was too bright or it was confusing to follow the music. The instruments get lost, so do the rhythm as the music is so very complex in certain cases. The at-your-face aggressive presentation has never worked with Pink Floyd. The only time I was actually 'wowed' with Pink Floyd was with the Triangle Colours and Cambridge Audio 651A + CA Azure CD player. The Lektors were not bad either but I settled for the Zensor 1s as they fell in my budget.
Since then the Zensor 1s have given me great pleasure and these are little pieces of diamonds at this price (no pun to the Wharfe Diamond line!), I love them, I really do.
As I am leaning to a better quality stereo setup, I am looking for speakers again.
Budget : 30K
Source: Flacs mostly / 320 Kbps mp3, Foobar, Dell laptop with Fiio Andes as DAC. Perhaps should mention that the Fiio is a smooth sounding DAC at a very cheap price point, it is smooth to the point of being unexciting, but quite detailed. I have to push both bass and treble a little to make it sound exciting, but can not complain the detailing revealed at meager 7k.
Room size: 10 x 11
Amplifier: At the moment Sonodyne Sia 320, will upgrade 3-4 months down the line, leaning toward CA Azur 651A.
I have heard now,
PSB Image B6: liked them, paired with NAD 326. Forceful, wide sound stage and exciting, but perhaps was missing the refinement I am looking for.
PSB Alpha B1 : Smaller brother to the B6, impressive sound stage again especially considering their size. Seemed to have been running out of steam with more complex interplay of instruments. Decent but that is about it. Both with B1 and B6 nice top end, slightly rolled off, not harsh and pleasing, more open with the B6 of course. This could be due to the NAD amp.
Elac BS : Forgetting the model number, but has to be their very entry level model, priced at 18000/pair, this had great beautiful lucid top end but the rest of it all was sheer disappointment. Not even in my consideration.
Polk RTi A3 : Spacious imaging, gives you an impression of fullness in the music, liked that. But missed the lucid mid range that I am wishing for. At ProFx it was paired with Denon amplifier and a Pionner LX series AVR. With old hindi numbers the pairing with Pioneer LX sounded quite nice, enveloping and detailed, but again lot to be desired when Shine on You Crazy Diamond was played. I think they go quite low albeit a little on the muddier side, but mids were recessed and the top not as open and airy as I would like, for example the strings at the start of Wish You Were Here did not take a hold of you as they did with Image B6.
Even then if I am to choose from what I have heard, I would go with the Image B6 and Polk in the second place. My issue is and this is the biggest one, my Zensor 1 sound as good as the Image B6 if not better! So I have not really found anything that can tell me precisely that this is money well spent.
So I am looking for suggestions from you as to what else to hear, which way should I go, suggest me some names and models. Long post, sorry about that. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
