General Speaker Advice and Recommendations

Does anyone know of gold-plated copper binding posts that internally have a set-screw vs. requiring soldering? I've found the Furutech 807G but hoping there is something less expensive from elsewhere than the premium brand names.

 

Would the WBT-0735 binding posts work for you? Set screw for crimping or soldering and a little bit cheaper.

 

I think I may be going for the Salk Song3 BeAT. Just trying to figure out what amp to pair it with.

 

KT88 power amp. Something is going to need to tame that ribbon and titanium driver from tearing your ears off lol

 

Totally agree. SB Satori Be drivers are really nice and in my opinion outplay both ScanSpeak and Focal. SB guys are really brilliant at damping their drivers so that you can see where the break-up is, but it's very subtle on most drivers.

Audio-Technology drivers make crossover design effortless. There's a good chance that the mid they're using extends up to 10kHz without any significant breakup, so they can actually pull off gentle slopes.

 

When I searched that speaker, Google definitely brought me to something else. Disregard...

Found a couple options on Aliexpress that look to be good:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Vib...ml?spm=a2g0o.cart.99999999.272.62343c00MTnmGu

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/EIZ...ml?spm=a2g0o.cart.99999999.275.62343c00MTnmGu

 

Are those really pure copper? I'd worry about the thread durability, as pure copper is rather soft.

 

The Viborgs are "red copper" or "rose copper". I've got some of their power plugs and bananas, and they're perfectly fine for the money, though not soft, true "pure" copper like something from Cardas.

 

So when you say x2 Aegir, you mean buy 2 mono Aegirs, or could I just live with the single 20 W into 8 ohms?

 

Yeah I wondered what the heck "red copper" was but it only seemed to be on Aliexpress with various details. Tellurium isn't technically pure but ~90% copper, 10% tellurium adding durability while still being ~90-95% as conductive as pure copper according to the IACS standard.

 

My guess is that it's some flavor of beryllium copper. You can find a bunch of Viborg stuff on Amazon if Aliexpress gives you the heeby-jeebies.

 

Ok thanks, didn't know how inefficient they were.

 

My apartment renovation is almost done, so time to think about audio! I am building a consumer-fi surround sound system based around some Energy RC-10s and an Energy RC-LCR and a Denon X3400H mainly because I already have the speakers and like them and I can't afford to go higher end at the moment. What I am struggling with is subwoofer placement and number. I was going to get either 1 or 2 Rythmik L12s, but they are backordered until early June so I am trying to figure stuff out if possible without doing a sub crawl. Attached is a picture of my tiny living room where I will do my listening and watching. As you can see, there is barely any room for anything, and I have a weird bump out for furnace exhaust next to where the TV will be mounted. I have marked in red where I think sub placements could be. The couch will actually be an L sectional so the round table in the bottom left corner will be sofa and not accessible for a sub. From what little I understand, getting 2 subs and using them as defacto speaker stands would look cool, but not necessarily give me the benefits of 2 subs as far as filling in gaps in sound caused by my room. The other two spots don't seem ideal either. The room is tiny, though open to the left, so a single sub, barring weird room interactions should produce more than enough bass for me. Any thoughts on the situation? Am I correct in thinking that two subs as stands might be a waste of money? Is bass really as omnidirectional as some say so that a speaker to the side of the couch would still sound good?

 

I doubt you can figure it out without an actual sub. Maybe you can borrow one?

 

I have an L22 in a room probably twice the size also open to another room. In terms of output, a single L12 ought to be plenty. If you're lucky enough to find a space via measurement or sub crawl that doesn't have deep nulls, you'll be gold. If not, the real benefit of 2 subs is being able to cancel out some of the resonances through careful placement and a bunch of measuring.

The L12s at 14" are not tall enough on their own to be stands for the RC-10s. So you're still gonna have to rig something to get them high enough, so maybe not saving as much $ and effort as you thought.

As far as being omnidirectional, that depends on the crossover you set in the Denon. I have main speakers that are also small and I cross them over at 120Hz. With the 12 dB/octave crossover, that could potentially cause them to be locateable (not sure that's an actual word). Mine is in plane with the mains and centered between them, and I don't hear my sub as a separate sound source, but off at right angles to the couch, I'm not sure. I find it way worth crossing over at 120 Hz because it takes a lot of load off the bookshelf mains and to me they sound cleaner for it, but again I can place in plane and centered.

Something else I'd like to suggest looking at your layout is considering putting your right main in the little corner on the other side of the pocket door. As drawn, you have only 5 feet of separation for a near 10 ft listening distance. This is gonna make your soundstage really narrow. If you put the right main on the far side of the pocket door, then you have all of that front wall to potentially locate a single sub to get the least number/severity of nulls.

The suggestion to get a head start with a borrowed sub from @Riotvan is a good one. But it better be a good one, the L12 will go below 20 Hz in your room. I am really happy with my L22.

 

Does anyone have experience with spikes for speaker legs, or different leg confs for that matter?
I know, it probably accounts for less than 0.3% of the sound.

• I'm attempting to figure out (out of laziness, without going to the trouble of trying myself) whether spikes would have any realistic benefit. So far I fail to see the mechanism for benefit behind it. Decoupling (spring oscillator model) would probably happen at quite high frequencies.
• A soft rubber pad would make a lot more sense for me to be effective at around bass (a'la Genelec ISO-pod)
• Actual springs without damping, haha. These would then really rock!