General Speaker Advice and Recommendations

Discussion in 'Speakers' started by shotgunshane, Mar 7, 2017.

  1. Partytime

    Partytime Facebook Friend

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    Hey gang, I’m about to wire up a pair of Schiit Vidars as monoblocks.

    To wire them you connect the speaker wires to the two positive outputs on the amps. In the manual it says not to ground the wires.

    Does this mean I should not connect to the negative terminal on the speaker?

    I’ve never run monos and I’m a little confused.
     
  2. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Each +/- wire from the speaker should be connected to correct polarity top terminal. Like this:

    2B4907D6-71F7-4D30-9349-246778C24487.jpeg

    See the + and - symbols inside the solid black circles where I have the arrows pointing? Those are the ones for mono hookup.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2019
  3. Partytime

    Partytime Facebook Friend

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    Thank you.

    I figured that part out.

    So in the manual when “do not ground one of these” it’s only referring to the amp side? I’m still hooking up the pos and neg terminals on speaker side correct?
     
  4. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Yep still using the corresponding pos and neg terminals on the speaker side.
     
  5. k4rstar

    k4rstar Britney fan club president

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    That space is fairly small, with the speakers distance relative to the listening position and nearby boundaries. I would be concerned about larger multi-way towers like the Aerials overloading the room with bass and getting a decent stereo image. I personally would stick with 2-way stand-mount bookshelves + sub(s) or a compact floor-stander that takes up the same space as a stand-mount bookshelf. RE: off-axis performance, a waveguide with the tweeter can help with dispersion.

    How large was the room you auditioned the Aerials in?
     
  6. Priidik

    Priidik MOT: Estelon

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    Or a more compact 3-ways on stands (monitor style, perhaps even powered)?

    More flexibility wrt placement and battling room modes (can adjust height on stand), bass driver raised from floor helps to counter bass muddiness and perhaps the toddler can't reach the drivers to poke with a pencil.
     
  7. Partytime

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    Radical. Thank you.
     
  8. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    @zonto I haven’t heard them, but some people swear by the Goldenear Tritons. The Triton One.R I think are around $6k retail. Ribbon tweeter and powered subs built in. Might be worth a listen if you can find a place to demo. And at least these new Tritons don’t have the stupid sock going all the way around, just a long grill on the front. Pretty slim and tall (although very deep) black gloss cabinet, may go over ok with the spouse. They seem to measure fairly well too except a bit hot above 10khz - would need to listen off-axis (which is ok because I think they’d look ugly doing anything but pointing straight ahead anyhow):

    https://www.goldenear.com/images/brochures/GET_Triton_One_Literature.pdf
     
  9. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    Heard the Aerial 7T in two rooms. The first was the room I described for speakers ##3-6 in the original post. Probably 15' wide and maybe 35' deep 11.5' by 25', speakers on short wall. Biggest room at the dealer. Other speakers in that room had nowhere near the bass extension of the Aerials. Second room I heard the 7T in was narrower and maybe 25' 20' deep, speakers on short wall. They were closer to the sidewalls in the second room than I'd need to place them. Loved the sound in both rooms. The room in which I heard the KEF R11, Klipsch Forte III and Paradigm Persona 3F (the second time, on the Plinius amp) was much smaller. Maybe 12' deep and 8' wide, speakers on the short wall. Though I expected the speakers to overpower that small room, they all sounded anemic to me. Parasound integrated could have been partially to blame. All these dealer rooms were traditional rectangular rooms and demos were with the door closed.

    In my room, the right rear wall venting to the foyer adds another 5-6' of depth on that side, then there's the stairs going up to second floor and a hallway connecting the foyer to the dining room. Out the left sidewall/doorway of the living room, the kitchen / dining room / other foyer is probably ~20' deep in the aggregate as well, so think there's quite a bit of volume visible to the speakers. My old apartment had a rectangular 11x17' living room with one open doorway in a corner. In the old room, the Maggies were set up on the long wall, and the bass was stronger in that room than the current one. The new room layout isn't ideal for many reasons, but we're making do for now. The TV is currently centered on the front wall, and both speakers have pretty similar distance from their outside edge to their respective sidewalls (maybe 3-4'). With something shorter and narrower than the Maggies I can move the speakers away from the cabinet a bit and get equilateral triangle to main listening position.

    In the Aerial family:
    • 7T is 44.5" H x 9.7" W x 15.3" D. 1" ring radiator tweeter, 6" midrange, dual 7.1" woofer. (link)
    • 6T is 43.5" H x 7.7" W x 13.2" D. 1" ring radiator tweeter, 5" midrange, dual 6" woofer. (link)
    • 5T is 15.0" H x 7.9" W x 12.6" D. 1" ring radiator tweeter, single 6.7" woofer. (link)
    6T is what you describe as a compact floor-stander taking up the same space as a standmount (5T). But the 7T, despite having about 33" larger internal cabinet volume (not counting the increased # of internal braces) than the 6T, isn't that all that different practically speaking. Both are rear-ported, and I'd have 12-15" from port to front wall. I haven't heard the 5T, but it's also well-reviewed and I could demo at the same shop in New Hampshire. I thought about getting a pair of those and then a couple Rhytmik F12G subs lowpassed at 50 Hz. 5T is front-slot-ported instead of rear-ported. My wife isn't as keen on the dual sub idea in this room, but seemed amenable to one in the front right corner. She'd also like to upgrade our TV stand to something wider that is less of a black hole visually than our current Salamander.

    I missed a pair of used 7T on Audiogon recently that went for just under $5,000. Right now, can get used 6T for low $3,000s from a guy in North Carolina that works for an authorized Aerial dealer (he'll post on Audiogon this week if I don't take them); used 7T from a contact on AVS Forum for probably closer to $6,000, likely more including shipping and PayPal fees (this is overpriced compared to historical prices I've been tracking, shipping would be $500 via freight, and guy is not as willing to negotiate); and new, warrantied, B-stock 7T with a cosmetic imperfection from another dealer who quoted at $6,600. Could pick the new 7T up from factory, or potentially have them deliver. Haven't tried to heavily negotiate any of these prices.

    Could also bag the whole upgrade idea and just keep things as-is until we buy a home at some point and figure it out then. Sort of what I've been doing for the last few years, sans starting to demo speakers in the last year. Problem is that housing here in MA is so expensive I don't know when we'll be able to buy or if we'll move out of state in the next 2-3 years, so thought it might be nice to "finish" the current room with something we're both happy with while we're here.

    Looks like there's a few dealers somewhat close to me. Height may be a tough sell for some of them. ;)
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2019
  10. AdvanTech

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    What's Graham Audio up to?

    [​IMG]
     
  11. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    LS5/5. Pretty interesting acoustic “lens”. Believe it might have a 12” bass driver. This thing is a pretty massive “bookshelf” monitor and should cost a pretty penny but sound awesome, like the rest of Graham’s offerings.

    Here’s another angle of an earlier prototype I believe:

    6BA619D2-B329-403C-AAF0-60885503308E.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2019
  12. firev1

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    Kinda reminds me of the JBL PA monitors pattern control cutouts.
     
  13. Hrodulf

    Hrodulf Prohibited from acting as an MOT until year 2050

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    Oh, my... I want to see the off-axis curves on this one.
     
  14. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    depending on how low the mid crosses, i dont see how that driver arrangement would made the off axis any worse.
     
  15. crazychile

    crazychile Eastern Iowa's Spiciest Pepper

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    Who here knows a thing or two about subwoofers? I'm anticipating needing one (or two) subwoofers to go with my PAP Trio 15s once I get he Xover sorted out. I was initially intrigued by Hsu, but as I started to look into this, SVS seems to get good reviews. Which models should I be looking at if I want to keep it below $1k each and want sound quality over output? This is in a 2ch system so no HT other than general TV viewing occasionally. The PAPs are about 96dB efficient if it matters...
     
  16. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    I'd put Rythmiks out there for your consideration as well. Their servo tech supposedly makes it more responsive for music. Reviews online indicate they are possibly a better value as well than the SVS when looking at comparable models. Hsu is supposed to be great, but I didn't research them as much since I was interested in a small, sealed sub. I ended up with the L12 from Rythmik and boy is it nice, even for HT in my small room.
     
  17. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    Rhythmik F12/G is worth consideration based on what I've read, especially if SQ is the focus.
     
  18. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Hey @zonto, heard any more speakers recently? Made any decisions?
     
  19. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    Thanks for checking in. Listened to the Audio Physic Avanti a few weeks ago. The guy working at the dealership I visited picked them for the first audition after I summarized what I had and what I wanted. Within 10 seconds I knew I hated them. No bass or kick to speak of, small drivers, super expensive for what you get. I may go back to that dealership in November to hear a Devore speaker and the PSB Imagine T3 (which looks pretty good to me on paper and is cheaper than the Aerial 7T).

    In other news, my wife and I stopped by the Aerial dealer a couple weeks ago and she got to check out the Aerial 7T. They passed the looks test in-person with flying colors and she liked how they sounded. Dealer had them hooked up to the Naim Supernait 3, and I thought they didn't sound great that day (in the same room I've always heard them in), but I also didn't like how they sounded on the Naim Supernait 2 either. Was just for her to get an idea quickly as the dealer was on the way to our hotel for our annual fall vacation and they already had the Naim stuff hooked up.

    Current plan is to just keep saving money and revisit again in January after annual bonus hits. I'm less enthusiastic about buying speakers for this room given we'd likely move within a few years. I'm toying with the idea of getting a better amp for the Maggies instead, that would also work for future speakers. Right now, the current version of the Coda CSIb integrated has me intrigued. Guts of the amp section are the exact same as the Continuum No. 8 (source), and it looks pretty in silver (source; update. Will need to translate from Russian to English).
     
  20. uncola

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    crazychile you could also consider open baffle servo subwoofers from grresearch to keep your stuff all open baffle. they are diy. though there's mike lundy who builds gr research stuff for people
     

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