my own "little" speaker quest - Page 3

I think the CM1 would at least be worth a listen. It does have its own sound signature, but I could see how some would like it. It pushes the vocal range foward so the singer is right in your face. This seems to particularly true of female singers. At the same time the high end is a bit rolled off, at least compared to the eras. They were a speaker that was very easy to listen to. The imaging and soundstage were very good on the CM1 maybe even a bit better then either of the eras. I had AB the CM1 against the era D5 and thought that the era was just a bit more natural. They were both good speakers though.

You thought it push the vocal range forward? To me, the midrange was recessed/lacking. Measurements seem to reflect this as well.

You are right though, I am sure some people like it.

Well what I had noticed when ABing the CM1 with the D5 is that with the CM1 the singer seemed to be only a few feet in front on you, whereas with the D5 the singer seemed to be back closer to the plane of the speakers. The vocals didn't seem necessarily louder, just more forward in the soundstage. After the audition I looked at the frequency response of the CM1 and noticed the bump between 700Hz and 1500Hz (which you can see in the soundstage measurement I attached) and assumed that it was the culprit.

Could very well be what you heard.

Of course the dealer wanted to push the more expensive speaker. I own the 685 and think it is better than the cm1. IMO the 705 is only slightly better than the 685 but not worth the extra $. B&W made this cycle of 600 too well if you ask my dealer who can't sell the cm or 700 series after people hear the 600 series.

IMO...no, but you need to listen for yourself.

Cool thread. Good luck on your quest, tpLouKY.

Unfortunately I have not heard them.

The Era D5's are very nice little speakers. The amount and quality of the bass was very surprising as well. To my ears they seem to lean on the warmer side of neutral but not in a bad way. The D5's should also be able to pair up with the MFW-15 rather nicely. They offer a lot of performance for music and HT and look good to boot. Hard to imagine being disappointed with that purchase.

Keeping with the AV123 family, you could also place three ELT525's monitors across the front. Would they squeak in at 6.12" W x 11.25" H x 9.81" D?

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IMO, B&W dealers are the worst for trying to push "more profitable" speakers..I have never had a good experience with them.

Which ones?

I would suggest some side wall treaments....you can make a frame put 2" OC703 fiberglass in it, put a nice oil painting canvas over it

They are not really high efficiency speakers and they do like high current designs, but I have head them off of a 80 watt amp and they sounded great. They are recommended for use with 50-200 watts and are ~85 db in efficiency with a nominal impedance of 8 Ohms. So they are not that hard to drive, the AV123 ELT-M's are similar.

Between the D5 and D4 it doesn't really matter too much, as long as you use a sub on all your listening. Too me the two sound identical except for the D5 extending a good bit lower. This will mean that you could cross your sub over lower if you wanted to. I have heard others (at least one other anyways) say that they can tell a difference between their midranges and they preferred the D4. Oh, also, the D4 puts out a prodigious amount of air from the rear port. Auditioning them the saleman had set one of them up about a foot in front of another speaker. When I played a bass heavy track there was this horrible sound. The only conclusion I could come to was the air out of the rear port was causing the driver on the speaker behind it to flutter. I moved the speaker a foot further into the room and the sound went away. From your setup I don't think you'll have a problem, but just so you know. The D5 is $300 more than the D4.

Even acoustic panels with stands, so they can be stored out of sight or brought out as needed?
This solution does give the flexibility of not changing the room in any way, and still does help as long as good panels are used.

Cheers
DT

I could be wrong.... but I thought the range for vocal sound was mostly between 300Hz and 3kHz. If that's correct, I would understand why the singer sounded farther away and quieter according to that graph as there is a dip between 1-5kHz.

EDIT: I just reread the post and I misinterpreted which speaker that was a graph for. If that is the CM1's output, I'd like to see the D5's output as well to compare what is happening in the vocal ranges.

Can't you camoflage the wall treatments?

I am late to the party, but the Era's and Sierra's should definitely be in your top 3 in my opinion. Also, I'd add Vandersteen into the number 2 slot.

1) Ascend Sierra's
2) Vandersteen VLR-1's
3) Era D5's

All three of those speakers are fantastic for the money. Just my $0.02.

Happy hunting.

Well I think you are taking a step backwards in sound quality with those choices when compared with the ascend sierras, but that is what you are going to have to do to get a floorstander in your price range.

Was your problem with the Sierras purely visual or were you unhappy with the sound as well. One thing that can really improve the visual impact of a bookshelf is a good hefty set of speaker stands. Ascend even makes a pair that give the sierras the appearance of being floorstanders. As you can see below.


If you simply didn't like the looks of the Sierras then I would suggest looking at other bookshelves that are better looking (era D5, NHT Classic Three, etc...)

If you're set on going with floorstanders, however, all the ones you've listed are good choices in the price range. Also look at the Polk RTi A7.