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Mini-Monitor $1,000+ Budget Shootout! (Ascend, Harbeth, ProAc, ATC)

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19K views 42 replies 17 participants last post by  bclark8923  
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#1 · (Edited)
Mini-Monitor $1,000+ Budget Shootout! (Ascend, Harbeth, ProAc, ATC)

No Budget Mini Monitor Shootout!

Some of you may be familiar with my budget bookshelf speaker shootout (https://www.avsforum.com/forum/89-s...kshelf-compared-wharfedale-philharmonic-chane-musichall-elac-energy-kef-34.html)

Well I’ve moved apartments now and increased my budget a bit and had a change of situation. My current room setup (Pictured below next to my Sierra Luna notes) is very sub-optimal for speaker placement but watching movies and listening to music is pretty epic anyways.

With this strange setup my speaker options are very limited. Rear ported won’t work (even w/ an 80hz cut-off you still get some unwanted mid-bass bloom)

I’m using a Metrum Pavane Level 3 DAC to my Parasound halo integrated and a Rythmik L12 subwoofer with Ascend Sierra Luna's (80hz crossed) but I’m in search of the best speaker money no object to fit this space with the Luna's as my reference (I find them slightly bright at the very top end for my room and a bit thin in the mids for my liking hence my search).

If there’s any of you like me that have a small room and need the smallest speaker possible and have to have them close up against the wall but have a big budget to spend, here’s a few speakers for you (mostly quick impressions as listening to these in store mostly)

Speaker Qualifications
  • Sealed or front ported
  • No more than 9” deep and 8 inches wide (really 8" deep is all I can fit but I'm making a couple small exceptions as long as it's not over 9")
  • $1,000+ Range


Reviewed Speakers:
Harbeth P3ESR ($2,200)
Ascend Sierra Luna ($1,150)
ATC SCM 7 ($1,750)
ProAc Tablette 10 ($1,750)
Salk WOW1 ($1,300) (on the way)

Ascend Sierra Luna

Image


These are what I bought right away when I needed to downsize from my Sierra-2. They sound quite similar albeit slightly thinner from the smaller woofer. They are hyper detailed from the RAAL tweeter and very easy to place with the front port. While I love the sound in my room they can be a bit bright on the very top end and I could use a bit more presence in the mids.


  • Very clear and neutral
  • Very well extended in the highs
  • Can be sometimes thin sounding in the mids/treble depending on the track, can also seem a bit bright on the highest end of the sound more so than other speakers tested here, whether that’s neutral accuracy and my recordings are bright or the speakers are slightly bright can be hard to determine
  • The bass can be a bight light on these
  • Definitely the smallest stage/sounding of the bunch, but the fastest speaker (attack/decay)
  • Really need to set the subwoofer to a 100hz (rather than 80hz) to get a decent blending

ProAc Tablette 10

Image


These probably impressed me the least so far. They're quite balanced tonally across the whole spectrum, a bit fuller sounding than the Luna's and slightly less so than the Harbeths, but the clarity just isn't up to the level of the other speakers.


  • Bigger image than the Luna’s
  • Not as clear in the mids as the other speakers, very tonally balanced
  • Treble is perfectly balanced
  • Missing that last bit of clarity the Harbeth and Luna’s have, kind of reminds me of an upgraded Wharfedale

Harbeth P3ESR

Image


These were EXTREMELY impressive speakers. They're just a hair warm, mostly from the bass being slightly elevated, but the mids are the most natural by far and the treble is extremely smooth. I occasionally got some sibiliance from a few tracks, never a harsh sibilance though, somewhat hard to explain, but so far these are certainly my favorite


  • Extremely clear mid range, by far the best and most clear mid range of the bunch
  • Slightly warmer tonality but just a bit, a bit of bloom in the low mids/upper bass causes that
  • Bigger sound stage than the Luna’s, similar to the ProAc
  • A tiny bit of sibilance going on occasionally but otherwise a wonderful treble
  • While the detail is still there in these, the ascends have have almost a sharp accuracy, where these are on the softer side

ATC SCM 7

Image


Tonally amazing but when played quietly they’re missing the last bit of mid clarity that the Harbeths/Luna’s have. Great small monitors I’d use in a larger room than my bedroom where I plan to play them louder. Played loudly reminds me of the sound you get when you’re at a small concert. Only gripe is the top end treble is slightly rolled off. (kind of the inverse of the luna where they seem slightly bright)


  • Tonally sounds great
  • Seems to be missing that last bit of mid clarity when played quietly that you get from the Ascend/Harbeth
  • Needs a powerful amp
  • To me these sound like an upgraded ProAc
  • The bass on these blend MUCH better with my subwoofer than the Luna’s
  • Missing just that last bit of air


Salk WOW1

Image


The first word that comes to mind is... WOW :). All jokes aside this is a wonderful speaker. It's an interesting take on neutral, a very slightly laid back sound compared to the Sierra Luna, similar to the Harbeths. I've give the Harbeths the edge in clarity but at double the price I'd expect that. So if you like a slightly north of neutral sound go with the Sierra Lunas, if you like slightly laid back I'd go for these.

  • Lovely midrange, one of the best I've heard, especially the upper mids
  • Certain higher frequency sounds can sometimes sound very slightly laid back than is neutral, could be my room, but I actually enjoy this
  • Medium sized soundstage, but with these being desktop monitors not surprised
  • Being a bit larger the bass extension is nice, this is about the largest speaker I can fit in my space before it starts blocking the doorway


Final Ranking

  1. Harbeth P3ESR
  2. Salk WOW1 / Ascend Sierra Luna
  3. ATC SCM 7
  4. ProAc Tablette

Money no object I'd get the Harbeths, but at that price point I've decided to just upgrade to towers so selling off all my mini monitors, getting a new (larger) apartment next year, and ordered a custom version of the Salk Song 3 :)
 
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#2 ·
I love these kind of shootouts, I know it says front ported or sealed but with the praise of the LS50 I would think you'd have to include it in the audition, they do have port bungs to seal the port if necessary. Another solid smaller speaker is the Revel S16 on wall, it's sealed and sounds very good as well.
 
#3 ·
PMC 2x.21. Front ported but not sure about your size requirements. Haven't checked the specs. I heard the 20.21 a couple of weeks ago and thought they were outstanding. Powered by a Naim Atom. 25.21 are the latest version. Have you heard the ATC speaker you listed? Interested in hearing ATC myself.
 
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#6 ·
You know I tried that but the right speaker is in a corner and I was getting some boominess. It more depends on the speaker, but I used non ported as a way to cut the list down (otherwise there's like 10 other speakers that would go on the list haha).

I plan to probably on-wall mount them in the future (used as surrounds when I get a bigger place for 5.1 with tower mains)
 
#12 ·
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#19 ·
@bclark8923, you gotta love it when we are all telling you what speakers you have to have in your shootout!
 
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#21 ·
Depending on how unlimited your unlimited price class is, the Raidho XT-1s are hands down the best mini-monitors I’ve heard. They have an amazing ribbon/planar tweeter, rich full sound, and are front ported.

They’re upwards of $8,000 though.
 
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#24 ·
Hi Brian,


I see you are still having fun -- this hobby never ends, does it :)


I am curious - did you compare the Luna's against the other speakers by placing them on the same stands / same positioning? The way you have the Luna's wall mounted will definitely inhibit their overall stage. If possible, you might try to position them closer to ear-level as it looks like they are quite high on the wall.


I would expect the Harbeth's to sound larger, as the Luna is about half the overall size of this speaker (Sierra-2 would be the fairer comparison as it is much closer in size)


Have fun!!
 
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#26 ·
I actually had brought the Luna's to the same location I demoed the ProAc/Harbeth at so heard all three same room, same album to compare!

Still quite torn about which speakers, trying the ATC SMC 7 when they get here Tuesday
 
#27 · (Edited)
bclark8923 said:
With this strange setup my speaker options are very limited. Rear ported won’t work (even w/ an 80hz cut-off you still get some unwanted mid-bass bloom)
Click to expand...
buzzy_ said:
No need to limit yourself to "sealed or front ported," or plugged ports - even with the setup in the top picture.
Click to expand...
bclark8923 said:
You know I tried that but the right speaker is in a corner and I was getting some boominess. It more depends on the speaker, but I used non ported as a way to cut the list down (otherwise there's like 10 other speakers that would go on the list haha).

I plan to probably on-wall mount them in the future (used as surrounds when I get a bigger place for 5.1 with tower mains)
Click to expand...
buzzy_ said:
OK, just wanted to try to clear up the AVS fairy tale, repeated so often, that people should worry about that. Other room and placement effects are much more important.
Click to expand...
I'm glad someone beat me to it. We really need to stop repeating stuff like this. I know it will take a long time to change the mind of the average Joe or the standard Salesman. I just hate how stuff like this affects speaker sales/design. Andrew Jones and other speaker designers will tell you until they are blue in the face that rear port is the best for SQ but the average person would rather have a port in the front.
Someone really needs to get some custom speakers from Dennis with the same drivers in front, rear and sealed configs and run some tests so we can have a thread we can reference every time someone limits themselves because of reasons that are not proven. I'm guilty of this myself as I spent years trying to and hunting down sealed speakers as I wanted a Music only setup. To this day I still think I will order my BMR (bucket list speaker) in a sealed config as I wish to run them with dual subs.
 
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#28 ·
This quote from a recent article from KEF on How to Place a Rear Ported Speaker is pretty clear, though the rest of the article may confuse as much as clarify. But FWIW:

There is a school of thought that says rear-ported speakers should never be placed near a wall, and if you are going to place your speakers near a wall you must always use front-ported or closed-box designs. This is simply false.
Click to expand...
Also, people seem to take considerations that might matter for subs and then apply them to bookshelf speakers.
 
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#29 ·
buzzy_ said:
This quote from a recent article from KEF on How to Place a Rear Ported Speaker is pretty clear, though the rest of the article may confuse as much as clarify. But FWIW:



Also, people seem to take considerations that might matter for subs and then apply them to bookshelf speakers.
Click to expand...
The rule of thumb is that the distance from the port to the rear wall should be at least twice the diameter of the port. In many cases, that's not much of a constraint--4" should do it. The BMR doesn't come in a sealed version, although you could stuff the ports if you really wanted to.
 
#37 ·
Know all your other candidates are "high-er" end, curious how the lower priced Q-Acoustics 3010 would stack up? They are rear ported but can be plugged. 3020 might also be small enough ...

(Also, the ports on the QA's are quite small, they can be placed very close to the wall.)
 
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