Paavo, I was wondering if there is a particular pair of speakers you'd recommend for listening to classical music, budget of under $500 US.
I've listened to a few pairs of Sony's at the local store, and I was quite surprised that of the pairs I listened to, the frequency range seemed fairly similar, but it was the *clarity* of the sound that made a big difference as the price went up. Music that sounded spacious and three-dimensional on the higher priced ones, was positively flat and undynamic on the cheaper ones. In an orchestral piece for instance, on the higher priced ones, individual woodwinds would pop right out, but they were completely lost on the cheaper ones.
Have you got a specific recommendation?
-Dave Ewer
Speaker recommendation for general livingroom listening
That depends on a couple of things: what you expect to hear and what the acoustic environment is like where you want to use them.
Personally, when I hear someone referening to a classical speaker I think of mid-range clarity and precision with a sound that is more baroque than contemporary (ie. contemporary sound has elevated bass for added warmth). Is this what classical means to you?
Another issue is what are you expecting from the bottom end. Thundering tympany or are you willing to accept something a little less?
Do you have a large or small (or perhaps in-between) living room? If it is large and you are wanting thundering bass, then by all means look for something with an extended bottom end, but if you have a smaller room then you really don't want to have anything increadibly extended as you'll probably end up with a muddy response. Something that has a lower cutoff of around 40Hz-50Hz will usually perform well in both large and small rooms.
On a more technical level I'd consider a 2 way system largely superior to 3 (or more) way systems (for a given price) for this type of music or any music in which you want mid range clarity and good imaging. Going beyond 2 way pushes the price up considerably. It should have a reasonably high order crossover (3rd order is good) to obtain minimal driver overlap and the crossover frequency should be around 2-3kHz. If the overlap is too big you'll end up with a mushy response around the crossover frequency (owing to interference between woofer and tweeter) and if the crossover frequency is too high you'll end up with a thin mid-range sound in ambient rooms because the polar radiation provided by woofers is very limited above about 2kHz whereas tweeters have a broad ploar spread at these frequencies. Hence the ambient sound will be thin between 2kHz and whatever the tweeter crossover was (say 5kHz).
I can't really give you a current recommendation cos I haven't followed waht is available for a long while, though If I were personally looking for a classical loudspeaker system I'd probably be taking a look at English speakers such as those made by B&W, KEF, Tannoy etc, and If I had a budget like yours I'd be looking at 2 way systems with woofers no bigger than 8".
Actually I'm considering designing and building a new pair of speakers for my living room but haven't the time for it at the moment. I've found the drivers, have a basis of a design but it needs a lot of work to be completed. I'll still be using my existing pair in my other room. At one stage I thought they had a mid-range problem, but as it transpires it is actually a room acoustics problem which clearly shows up in a baloon popping reverberation test that I conducted a while back.
Hope this helps.
Paavo.
Personally, when I hear someone referening to a classical speaker I think of mid-range clarity and precision with a sound that is more baroque than contemporary (ie. contemporary sound has elevated bass for added warmth). Is this what classical means to you?
Another issue is what are you expecting from the bottom end. Thundering tympany or are you willing to accept something a little less?
Do you have a large or small (or perhaps in-between) living room? If it is large and you are wanting thundering bass, then by all means look for something with an extended bottom end, but if you have a smaller room then you really don't want to have anything increadibly extended as you'll probably end up with a muddy response. Something that has a lower cutoff of around 40Hz-50Hz will usually perform well in both large and small rooms.
On a more technical level I'd consider a 2 way system largely superior to 3 (or more) way systems (for a given price) for this type of music or any music in which you want mid range clarity and good imaging. Going beyond 2 way pushes the price up considerably. It should have a reasonably high order crossover (3rd order is good) to obtain minimal driver overlap and the crossover frequency should be around 2-3kHz. If the overlap is too big you'll end up with a mushy response around the crossover frequency (owing to interference between woofer and tweeter) and if the crossover frequency is too high you'll end up with a thin mid-range sound in ambient rooms because the polar radiation provided by woofers is very limited above about 2kHz whereas tweeters have a broad ploar spread at these frequencies. Hence the ambient sound will be thin between 2kHz and whatever the tweeter crossover was (say 5kHz).
I can't really give you a current recommendation cos I haven't followed waht is available for a long while, though If I were personally looking for a classical loudspeaker system I'd probably be taking a look at English speakers such as those made by B&W, KEF, Tannoy etc, and If I had a budget like yours I'd be looking at 2 way systems with woofers no bigger than 8".
Actually I'm considering designing and building a new pair of speakers for my living room but haven't the time for it at the moment. I've found the drivers, have a basis of a design but it needs a lot of work to be completed. I'll still be using my existing pair in my other room. At one stage I thought they had a mid-range problem, but as it transpires it is actually a room acoustics problem which clearly shows up in a baloon popping reverberation test that I conducted a while back.
Hope this helps.
Paavo.
Thanks Paavo. In terms of floor space, my livingroom is a combined living and dining area, an irregular shape about 5 by 10 meters.
I'm particularly interested in a very present, gutsy bottom end, with as much clarity across the spectrum as I can get. I like a lot of punch, but not necessarily the kind that is part of movie-orchestral. In other words, when the bass drum and cymbals crash, I want to know it, but clarity is important. Actually, in another room in my house, I'm using a pair of Radio Shack Minimus 7 speakers, and although they cannot handle high volumes, at mid-volume, they are very pleasing to me.
Thanks very much for your advice, and as a new user of Har-Bal, I must say the product is extremely useful!
-Dave Ewer
I'm particularly interested in a very present, gutsy bottom end, with as much clarity across the spectrum as I can get. I like a lot of punch, but not necessarily the kind that is part of movie-orchestral. In other words, when the bass drum and cymbals crash, I want to know it, but clarity is important. Actually, in another room in my house, I'm using a pair of Radio Shack Minimus 7 speakers, and although they cannot handle high volumes, at mid-volume, they are very pleasing to me.
Thanks very much for your advice, and as a new user of Har-Bal, I must say the product is extremely useful!
-Dave Ewer
Dave,
5 by 10 metres is a pretty large living area so you should be able to get reasonably clear sound with a mid sized speaker system that has a bass response down to 40Hz. That should give you the tpye of bass you're after. Mine roll off around this frequency and they certainly give punchy timpany sounds. On contemporary music they clearly show vocal plosives as well. The extra octave below 40Hz doesn't usually have much in it, unless you're into church organ music, so you're unlikely to be dissappointed.
Be prepared to spend some time experimenting with speaker placement as it can make a huge difference in the bottom end. A friend of mine just bought a pair of second hand Duntech Marquis and invited me around for a listen. When we first started listening to them it sounded very boxy and disturbing for such an expensive speaker system. The bass was woeful. But my suspicion was that placement was causing most of the problems. After moving them to a new location things improved dramatically, although, I must say that I wasn't increadibly impressed with them given the price tag. I think their use of first order crossovers is largely to blame (big overlap between drivers) giving a somewhat indistinct sound in normal ambient listening environments.
Just had a little bit of a browse on the KEF website and came up with this option that should fit your budget. KEF Coda 70's. Here's a review on them as well ( http://www.kef.com/products/coda/coda90.html ) I'm sure you can find other good options but I'm a bit partial to KEF. It was a KEF speaker design that inspired me to design and build my current coupled cavity lodspeaker system.
Cheers,
Paavo.
5 by 10 metres is a pretty large living area so you should be able to get reasonably clear sound with a mid sized speaker system that has a bass response down to 40Hz. That should give you the tpye of bass you're after. Mine roll off around this frequency and they certainly give punchy timpany sounds. On contemporary music they clearly show vocal plosives as well. The extra octave below 40Hz doesn't usually have much in it, unless you're into church organ music, so you're unlikely to be dissappointed.
Be prepared to spend some time experimenting with speaker placement as it can make a huge difference in the bottom end. A friend of mine just bought a pair of second hand Duntech Marquis and invited me around for a listen. When we first started listening to them it sounded very boxy and disturbing for such an expensive speaker system. The bass was woeful. But my suspicion was that placement was causing most of the problems. After moving them to a new location things improved dramatically, although, I must say that I wasn't increadibly impressed with them given the price tag. I think their use of first order crossovers is largely to blame (big overlap between drivers) giving a somewhat indistinct sound in normal ambient listening environments.
Just had a little bit of a browse on the KEF website and came up with this option that should fit your budget. KEF Coda 70's. Here's a review on them as well ( http://www.kef.com/products/coda/coda90.html ) I'm sure you can find other good options but I'm a bit partial to KEF. It was a KEF speaker design that inspired me to design and build my current coupled cavity lodspeaker system.
Cheers,
Paavo.
Oops. Sorry, The last link was the product link on the company web site. Here's the review:
http://www.tnt-audio.com/casse/kefcoda70_e.html
Cheers,
Paavo.
http://www.tnt-audio.com/casse/kefcoda70_e.html
Cheers,
Paavo.