[Need4spdnb]

Hello all,


I am doing a little research for my father. His family room is pretty big (19x19) and he is looking at building a home theater that will be used 50/50 music and movies. He wants tower speakers for mains, so I thought I would start there.


I have done some research and found these speakers so far:


PSB Platinum T8

Revel F52

Paradigm S8



In my home theater, I have a Tyler acoustics setup and it sounds great. I was wondering if anyone had any input on the Tyler 1 piece Signature System vs. these speakers above?


One thing is that he doesn't want to have the speakers too far away from the wall eating up space in the room. A front ported speaker would probably be best for his application, or at least I think so.


If anyone has any others to add to the list, please let me know. Again, he want's them to be fairly neutral, so please keep that in mind. I know that the best advice for him is to go and listen to any speakers that he is interested in, but that is hard to do because there aren't any dealers around that have these speakers in stock. The only ones that he can demo are the Paradigm S8 speakers, hence the reason I am asking for others opinions. I am trying to keep the MSRP of these towers to under 8K also. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[davidpa]

The Paradigms arent nuetral. Pretty strong in the mid bass region.

Is the price for just the 2 floorstanders? Or the entire HT speaker setup?


Two of the most nuetral speaker lines off the top of my head, but high on the list to audition are in order

Aerial Acoustics Model 7B, or if the budget can go up Model 9s.

Dynaudio confidence, focus, or audience line. Up the budget for the evidence line.

 

[Need4spdnb]

Price is just for floorstanders.


I forgot to mention the Focal Electra 1027 towers. I heard them and wasn't blown away by them, but they did sound good. Guess I was expecting more from a $7500 pair of speakers. It could have been the setup though, seeing as the speakers were 4 feet apart.

 

[davidpa]

If its just for the floorstanders, Aerial Acoustics Model 9s.

I went through a recent upgrade and auditioned too many speakers to list, and it came down the Aerial, and Dynaudio offerings. Aerial won.

If you can find a dealer, which isnt always easy for the Aerials, it will not be a waste of time, but I suggest making them either the very 1st to audition, or the very last, reason being, once you hear them I would be surprised if you dont make the purchase. Their that good.

 

[davidpa]

btw, the budget will have to increase a hair, but at the price you've stated, a little more goes a long way.

 

[MIkeDuke]

I have the 1027's and can say without a doubt they are great speakers. To me that is. If I were you, I would definitely try to listen to them again. I upgraded from the 927's and was very surprised at the great increase in SQ I experienced. I say give them another shot.

 

[Need4spdnb]



Quote:
Originally Posted by davidpa /forum/post/0


The Paradigms arent nuetral. Pretty strong in the mid bass region.

Is the price for just the 2 floorstanders? Or the entire HT speaker setup?


Two of the most nuetral speaker lines off the top of my head, but high on the list to audition are in order

Aerial Acoustics Model 7B, or if the budget can go up Model 9s.

Dynaudio confidence, focus, or audience line. Up the budget for the evidence line.

Davidpa,


How do the LR5's compare to the 7B or 9? Looks like the LR5 would be a perfect match for the CC5 (Identical drivers) and with stands they would be about the same as the 7B. I haven't heard them and we don't have a dealer anywhere around that we could listen to them at. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[davidpa]

The best match is as you know the LR5 w/ the CC5, BUT I have the CC5 paired w/ the 9s and with the crossover settings I have a pretty, if not perfect front soundstage.

I cant really catagorize the 7Bs in the same class as either the 9s, or the LR5s, although the 7B is a phenominal speaker in its own right, it just doesnt have the depth of the LR5s, or the 9s, by depth, I mean layers of music that the LR5s, and 9s give. Its kind of like a ferrari with all options, or a ferrari with all options minus the gold plated mirror.

If you can get ahold of an aerial owner, I would highly recommend that, as my recommendation of these speakers is based upon my demoing, and purchase of this line. All three of those mentioned are about as nuetral as your going to find, they just have different "goodies" associated with them.

 

[Bing]



Quote:
The Paradigms arent nuetral. Pretty strong in the mid bass region.

David, that's funny. I home-demoed the Paradigm Sig S2 and I thought the same thing. Paradigm is known for a forward presentation but the S2 is just right from mid upwards. The midbass though, was its Achilles Heel.


Need4Spdnb: I had those S2 6ft from the front wall and 4ft from the sides and the midbass still bloomed. I had them closer to the front wall at the very beginning but they were HORRID. It wasn't deep bass either, it was just boomy, thick midbass that overwhelmed everything. My room is 17x26x9 so we'll say it's the same as your dad's. I fear the S8 under 2ft from the front wall is too close. He could cross the bass off but why buy such a large floorstander in the first place? Focals to me have always been bass light although MikeDuke will disagree. However, my inclination is to say Focals (927Be is the one I heard) close to the wall is better than any Paradigm floorstander in the same position.

 

[Soundood]

PMC OB-1's are one to look at. Same mid and top end driver as you'll find in their awesome IB-1 studio monitors. Absolutely glorious sound and utterly transparent. You could take them into any top production studio and be immediately accepted. If he by any chance can live with a large monitor on a stand...he could get a pair of the afformentioned IB-1 monitors. They are a transmission line design and work well against a wall (designed specifically for this). That speaker will fill his space without any problems.

 

[ifor]

i hate adding more products to the list but the Dali Helicon 800 models retail for $6000 and have been very well reviewed by most magazines around the world.


just a suggestion.

 

[psgcdn]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Need4spdnb /forum/post/0


thing is that he doesn't want to have the speakers too far away from the wall eating up space in the room. .

Klipschorns fill in the corners very well without taking up much space in spite of their size. People will say that they are not neutral, but they do sound sweet to me. Plus the imaging is surreal.

 

[Need4spdnb]



Quote:
Originally Posted by psgcdn /forum/post/0


Klipschorns fill in the corners very well without taking up much space in spite of their size. People will say that they are not neutral, but they do sound sweet to me. Plus the imaging is surreal.

Thank you Peter,


I have no idea how the Klipschorns sound, but I did own the RF7 towers (one of Klipsch's best at the time) and those speakers were so bright with music that they made my ears ring. There aren't too many Klipsch dealers around and the only ones here sell the lower end lines. I'm probably going to advise him against most Klipsch speakers in general, but if I come across them, we will give em a listen.

 

[psgcdn]

I'm more a fan of the heritage line, but I haven't heard the higher end of the Reference line. I don't feel my Klipschorns are bright, but I suppose YMMV. Perhaps there is someone in your area that has a pair to let you audition. It's often asked on the Klipsch forums.