Diva Swans-Best Speaker for the money EVER?  

There are posts on several other forums (HTT, HTF, etc.) about the Divas and AVS member John Kotches responded on some of them already. There's a sale going on right now @ av123 and if you happen to have the PT P-1A/P-3A combo so to use their SOCS on the 4.1 & 6.1 you definitely can't do much better that at within 2-3 times price range.

PF

PMF,

To be fair, I also write for John Johnson's publication.

Regards,



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Editor, PC/Home Theater Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity

I heard these speakers at the New York show recently, and after listening all day to speakers costing $5000 to $10,000 a pair, and some others costing up to $120,000, the Divas were a breath of fresh air with a price tag of only $699 a pair. They represent the very best buy in a commercial speaker I have ever heard and seen. I can build better speakers for less money, but I feel that the non-DIY'er would be hard pressed to find a better value.

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David Scott has posted those pictures on one of the HTF posts and they are as gorgeous as the mains. Also the prices you listed should be $100 less each during the sale.

PF

I assume that the surrounds are $599 per pair, right? Even the pricing on the center and surrounds makes a lot of sense to my way of thinking (though I have never even heard or seen them), as I feel that the center should be as good as or better than the mains in a home theater setup, assuming that a quality sub will be used with the system. Does anyone have a link where I can see the pictures and find information about the upcoming surrounds and center? Don't get me wrong, I am still a DIY kind of guy, but I have friends who would rather buy speakers, and the DIVA 4.1's represent the best price/performance ratio I have heard to date, standing up very well against speakers 8 to 10 times their price. My only gripe at the time was the fact that matching a center and surrounds might be a problem, but since Ben just mentioned the introduction of these additional speakers, I feel this just might be a winning combination!

John Kotches, I assume that you also liked what you heard from the Diva 4.1's, though I have not read any of your comments on the other forums. Are we in agreement again? http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

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[This message has been edited by Bob Sorel (edited 06-18-2001).]

Bob,

How would you compare these speakers to the Gemini's?

Rick

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The Home Theater

Rick, I'm sorry, but that would be impossible to do under the circumstances. I would have to take home a pair and use them for a month or so and do carefully level matched comparisons on a wide variety of material to make any meaningful comments between them and the Dynaudios, or any other speaker for that matter. I heard music through them, and I would like to hear spoken dialog for an extended period before passing final judgement.

I made my earlier comments based on a single afternoon's adventure at the New York show, where I was inundated with high priced speakers, all of which sounded very good. When I heard the Divas, the thing that stood out in my mind was the fact that these $700 speakers had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of in the company of hordes of other much higher priced entries. Not only did they sound great, but they also looked like high priced speakers, and I was amazed at the low price tag attached to them (I thought that maybe some kid had taken the price tag off a pair of cables and stuck them on the speakers as a prank http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif ).

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[This message has been edited by Bob Sorel (edited 06-18-2001).]

Try this link guys. In fact I believe this is the same post David Scott posts about his Diva's order and the center/surround prices. I would try to push AV123 to give you better deals on the whole package.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/...ML/038180.html

PF

Bob,

Almost in agreement anyway http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

I've heard the 5.1s and 6.1s, and they are pretty good speakers. Coming from me, an admittedly biased towards planar speakers kind of guy, add one notch to my assessment for fairness http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/wink.gif

And this means I haven't heard the 4.1s yet.


Regards,

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Editor, PC/Home Theater Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity

[This message has been edited by John Kotches (edited 06-18-2001).]

Bob,

Thanks for the reply! Yeah....until you can get the speakers into your HT it probably would be hard to know the difference.

Here are the pictures of the center & surrounds!

http://freehosting1.at.webjump.com/8...webjump/r3.jpg

http://freehosting1.at.webjump.com/8...webjump/c3.jpg

Rick



[This message has been edited by RickS (edited 06-19-2001).]

Ben Henry:

I just resurrected the HTF post (see link above) and sure enough David responded & confirmed my suspicion that you CAN convinced AV123 to give you the sale price on the center & surrounds if you are going for the whole package.

Btw, Bob, those prices are per speaker, I think!

PF

[This message has been edited by pmf (edited 06-18-2001).]

That makes a lot of sense, as it keeps the prices in proper perspective.

Well, you certainly know my answer to that question. One Stryke Power15.2 would be absolutely perfect http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif




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" With regards to your question, the Diva Rear's actually have a total of (2) tweeters and (2) 6.5" Mid/Bass drivers in a dipole design. In other words, there is (1) 6.5" driver and (1) tweeter (German Silk Dome) firing in one direction, and another set firing in another direction."

This was from a post by TinHere on AudioReview forum. The center will have the tweeter on top, but I couldn't find any other specs.

I ordered the 6.1's, surrounds, center, and a pair of 2.1's for the rear center speakers. They gave me the surrounds and center for the sale price since I ordered the package. Now I need something to run these babies...thinking about the Denon 3801, but I know it's been discontinued so may wait for the new model with DPL II.<FONT COLOR="Yellow">Text</FONT c>

David:

Welcome & thanks for joining us in the AVS Forum.

Now you are making thing real difficult for me telling me that the surround price quoted are for a pair. Does that mean I will have enough to spare for an extra pair of 2.1's?

Someone on HTF is asking about the drivers on the center and may be we should direct him over here as well.http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

PF

Hmmm....let me see now:

4.1's for mains @ $699/pr
center channel @ $499
dipole surrounds @ $599/pr (for sides)
2.1's @ $399/pr (for rears)
Total= $2196 - $200 for preordering = $1996?

That seems almost too good to be true. Have I miscalculated?

I haven't heard either the 5.1's or the 6.1's, but my assumption would be that they are better in the low bass. If (and that's a big "if") this were true, and you were going to use a high quality sub with this system in all modes, then I see no reason to go with anything higher priced than the 4.1's for mains. Now if you need 2 channel passthrough, thus bypassing your bass management and time alignment, then you might want to spring extra for the 5.1's or the 6.1's for 2 channel analog. This is all hypothetical, of course, as I have never even heard the 5.1's or the 6.1's.

John, if you get a chance to listen to all 3 of the large Divas, maybe we can encourage you to share your thoughts on how the various models compare? We'll keep in mind your bias towards planars http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif , but I'm sure we could count on your honest assessment of the differences and similarities between the various models. I'll bet there are a lot of people here who would be very grateful, as very few of us have the opportunity to audition the various models head to head. Heck, maybe you guys might want to even consider this project for an article on the "Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity" site http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

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[This message has been edited by Bob Sorel (edited 06-19-2001).]

Prices til' July 6th when the sale ends:
4.1's @ $599 a pair
center @ $399 not on sale but gave me this price w/ package
surrounds $499 see above
2.1's @ $399 a pair...includes free stands til' July 6th
Total= $1896 +shipping and tax (if you live in California)

Swan will also be coming out with a sub for the Divas.

Sseems like a very good deal. But it also sounds like the reviewer is reviewing with the spec sheet as much as his ears:

"The detail is all there, as a result of the tweeter being mounted in its own enclosure."

Seems presumptuous to me. There's lots of speakers with extraordinary detail that don't have tweeters in their own enclosures.

"I could hear no ringing in the metal drivers, due to the polymer coating."

How on earth does the reviewer know that the polymer coating is doing a damn thing? Maybe it is ringing, but the manufacturers notes on the effect of the polymer coating have convinced him otherwise.

I'm sure these are fine speakers, but this review sounds very, very contrived.

B&W is well known for using this technique in their highly praised Nautilus series....not exactly a secret.

Also well known information concerning metal drivers. Ringing is audible, and it is either there or it is not. I would also have assumed that the polymer coating would be responsible for "deadening" them. It only makes sense.

So you've heard these speakers and disagree? Or are you accusing the reviewer of dishonesty?

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[This message has been edited by Bob Sorel (edited 06-19-2001).]

Bob,

Send a note to JJ (our Editor-in-chief) with your suggestion. In the meantime, I'll point him to this thread http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

WRT to the 4.1s, Yes, it would be interesting to hear them and compare with the 5.1s and 6.1s.

So far the big issue on the 5.1s (relying on acoustic memory, never the most accurate device) -- the tweeters start out very bright, and over time calm down. I noticed a big drop in brightness at about the 70 hour mark on the 5.1s. I say about, because Stacey had the 5.1s running for about 40 hours before the benchmark, and about 30 hours of additional time and the brightness was fading away.

Regards,



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Editor, PC/Home Theater Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity

Here's a link to a site with pictures of the center and surrounds along with their specs. If you click on "home theater" on the left you can view the 6.1 set-up Max has. He's also included pictures of the 6.1's with the grilles on...thanks to Max... http://www.geocities.com/dmaaaaax/HT2.html

Bob. I haven't heard the speakers, nor do I think the reviewer is dis-honest. Most people are swayed by manufacturers comments on engineering features/benefits, and reviewers are no exception.

In all honesty there was no underlying theme to my post other than that particular review seemed very contrived. I'd actually love to hear the speakers and form my own opinion.

Geeze Bob, if you're going to get all official and everything, it's Dr. Johnson, but everybody just calls him JJ -- he only uses the PhD when he has to :-)

Sorry, I assumed you knew JJs address, staff@hometheaterhifi.com will work just fine.

Regards,




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Editor, PC/Home Theater Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity