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Sub $200 Bookshelf Speaker Review (Jamo, Fluance, DCM)

7250 Views 51 Replies 18 Participants Last post by charmerci, Oct 26, 2019

mpk1970

Discussion Starter · Oct 19, 2019 (Edited)

3

For ****s n giggles bought some inexpensive books for a quick comparison

I listened to only 3-4 songs in 2.0 for like 1 minute each song
It was enough to easily highlight pro's con's of each

I rank them this way

1. 129.00 Fluance SX6W

Fluance SX6W High Definition... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00067OS0A?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

2. Jamo S803 $199

3. DCM $79.00

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/193084846113

Quick Review

The Fluance was more lively with the largest soundstage of the 3
But also leaned to the bright side, decent bass

The Jamo's
Voices recessed, soundstage condensed more narrow , more on warm side

DCM
Pretty good bass about same as Fluance maybe even slightly better
But voices on songs pretty bad lol
Sometimes sounds garbled
But they are only $80
They built very good-- you can put these in a garage, bedroom just to have a cheap pair

If anybody lives in South Florida and wants the DCMs or Jamo's for FREE send me a message

Going to keep the Fluance's for my bedroom
Hardly ever use my bedroom speakers anyhow

Pics below:

Speakers L to R

DCM , Jamo in middle, Fluance

See less See more

Reactions: 5

1 - 20 of 52 Posts

Zorba922

· #2 · Oct 20, 2019

Am extremely curious about a 4th budget champ: the Sony Core bookshelves. How about running off to Best Buy and grabbing a pair of the Sony Core bookshelves to compare against these 3? Those you can easily get your money back on, within 15 days. You'd be doing this forum a great service my friend.

Ryan Statz

· #3 · Oct 20, 2019

I find that interesting seeing as how the DCMs are being touted lately.

mpk1970

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 20, 2019

Ryan Statz said:
I find that interesting seeing as how the DCMs are being touted lately.

Can't expect much for $80
The bass is decent
The build and aesthetics good

That's all I can say positive

Lp85253

· #5 · Oct 20, 2019

mpk1970 said:
For ****s n giggles bought some inexpensive books for a quick comparison

I listened to only 3-4 songs in 2.0 for like 1 minute each song
It was enough to easily highlight pro's con's of each

I rank them this way

1. 129.00 Fluance SX6W

Fluance SX6W High Definition... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00067OS0A?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

2. Jamo S803 $199

3. DCM $79.00

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/193084846113

Quick Review

The Fluance was more lively with the largest soundstage of the 3
But also leaned to the bright side, decent bass

The Jamo's
Voices recessed, soundstage condensed more narrow , more on warm side

DCM
Pretty good bass about same as Fluance maybe even slightly better
But voices on songs pretty bad lol
Sometimes sounds garbled
But they are only $80
They built very good-- you can put these in a garage, bedroom just to have a cheap pair

If anybody lives in South Florida and wants the DCMs or Jamo's for FREE send me a message

Going to keep the Fluance's for my bedroom
Hardly ever use my bedroom speakers anyhow

Pics below:

Speakers L to R

DCM , Jamo in middle, Fluance

i'm interested to see if the dcm's sound different to you as time goes on..they have been getting some pretty good reviews(including Dennis Murphy).. i'd give em a couple more shot's before giving up ...as i remember your first impression of the chane a2.4 improved a bit after a couple days?

mpk1970

Discussion Starter · #6 · Oct 20, 2019

Zorba922 said:
Am extremely curious about a 4th budget champ: the Sony Core bookshelves. How about running off to Best Buy and grabbing a pair of the Sony Core bookshelves to compare against these 3? Those you can easily get your money back on, within 15 days. You'd be doing this forum a great service my friend.

Lol
These speakers were tough to review vs so many good ones I've had
That's why I didn't put much time into them
Painful

Reactions: 1

zieglj01

· #7 · Oct 20, 2019

Lp85253 said:
i'm interested to see if the dcm's sound different to you as time goes on..they have been getting some pretty good reviews(including Dennis Murphy).. i'd give em a couple more shot's before giving up ...as i remember your first impression of the chane a2.4 improved a bit after a couple days?

Yes, there are so many of us who own them and are real happy -- and we get joy from them and not pain -- and there is one owner who prefers them over the original Dayton AA speakers, and he also likes them over the Ascend 340 speakers -- so, as the Audio World Turns.

Reactions: 1

PhilharmonicDennis

· #8 · Oct 20, 2019

mpk1970 said:
For ****s n giggles bought some inexpensive books for a quick comparison

Ihttps://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/193084846113

Quick Review

The Fluance was more lively with the largest soundstage of the 3
But also leaned to the bright side, decent bass

The Jamo's
Voices recessed, soundstage condensed more narrow , more on warm side

DCM
Pretty good bass about same as Fluance maybe even slightly better
But voices on songs pretty bad lol
Sometimes sounds garbled
But they are only $80
They built very good-- you can put these in a garage, bedroom just to have a cheap pair

If anybody lives in South Florida and wants the DCMs or Jamo's for FREE send me a message

Going to keep the Fluance's for my bedroom
Hardly ever use my bedroom speakers anyhow

Pics below:

Speakers L to R

DCM , Jamo in middle, Fluance

I think maybe you need to listen for more than one minute, or try other songs, or better quality recordings. There is no way the DCM's are garbled on voice or any other material. They're the best measuring speakers I've encountered in the budget field, and one of the best period within their frequency range. The highs are a little elevated, but that's easy to correct. I'll post a full review with measurements this week.

Reactions: 5

goldark

· #9 · Oct 20, 2019

I own the DCM's as well and will have to strongly disagree that "voices sound bad."

Could you give us the list of songs you tested with? I want to see if I'm hearing what you're hearing.

hyperactiveme

· #10 · Oct 20, 2019

Never heard the Jamos characterized that way. Not sure what you listened too.

mpk1970

Discussion Starter · #11 · Oct 20, 2019

PhilharmonicDennis said:
mpk1970 said:

For ****s n giggles bought some inexpensive books for a quick comparison

Ihttps://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/193084846113

Quick Review

The Fluance was more lively with the largest soundstage of the 3
But also leaned to the bright side, decent bass

The Jamo's
Voices recessed, soundstage condensed more narrow , more on warm side

DCM
Pretty good bass about same as Fluance maybe even slightly better
But voices on songs pretty bad lol
Sometimes sounds garbled
But they are only $80
They built very good-- you can put these in a garage, bedroom just to have a cheap pair

If anybody lives in South Florida and wants the DCMs or Jamo's for FREE send me a message

Going to keep the Fluance's for my bedroom
Hardly ever use my bedroom speakers anyhow

Pics below:

Speakers L to R

DCM , Jamo in middle, Fluance

Click to expand...

I think maybe you need to listen for more than one minute, or try other songs, or better quality recordings. There is no way the DCM's are garbled on voice or any other material. They're the best measuring speakers I've encountered in the budget field, and one of the best period within their frequency range. The highs are a little elevated, but that's easy to correct. I'll post a full review with measurements this week.

I'll give them more time
But they didn't sound good
Voices lacked detail/clarity

Is it the same model??

PhilharmonicDennis

· #12 · Oct 20, 2019

mpk1970 said:
I'll give them more time
But they didn't sound good
Voices lacked detail/clarity

Is it the same model??

I think there's only one $79/pr model (160S). If the Fluance and Jamo sound significantly better than the DCM, I've gotta start slapping labels on those puppies.

mpk1970

Discussion Starter · #13 · Oct 20, 2019

PhilharmonicDennis said:
mpk1970 said:

I'll give them more time
But they didn't sound good
Voices lacked detail/clarity

Is it the same model??

Click to expand...

I think there's only one $79/pr model (160S). If the Fluance and Jamo sound significantly better than the DCM, I've gotta start slapping labels on those puppies.

Great thing about the USA many ways to make money

zieglj01

· #14 · Oct 20, 2019

PhilharmonicDennis said:
I think there's only one $79/pr model (160S). If the Fluance and Jamo sound significantly better than the DCM, I've gotta start slapping labels on those puppies.

This is the noaudiophile measurements of the Fluance

See less See more

zieglj01

· #15 · Oct 20, 2019

goldark said:
I own the DCM's as well and will have to strongly disagree that "voices sound bad."

Voices on these speakers are overall one of the best that I have heard for under $350

mpk1970

Discussion Starter · #16 · Oct 20, 2019

zieglj01 said:
goldark said:

I own the DCM's as well and will have to strongly disagree that "voices sound bad."

Click to expand...

Voices on these speakers are overall one of the best that I have heard for under $350

I'll do a recording between the 3
Post on YouTube

I know it doesn't sound great but I'll point specifically to the issues with exact points in the songs

Reactions: 1

PhilharmonicDennis

· #17 · Oct 20, 2019

zieglj01 said:
This is the noaudiophile measurements of the Fluance

Interesting. Although to be fair, the grid demarcations are only 2 dB, so what look like wild swings in the response would look less than half as bad if the standard 5 dB spacing were used. Is this a fairly old review? I had a back and forth with him about this, and I think the more recent reviews have used the customary vertical dB spacing.

mpk1970

Discussion Starter · #18 · Oct 20, 2019

PhilharmonicDennis said:
zieglj01 said:

This is the noaudiophile measurements of the Fluance

Click to expand...

Interesting. Although to be fair, the grid demarcations are only 2 dB, so what look like wild swings in the response would look less than half as bad if the standard 5 dB spacing were used. Is this a fairly old review? I had a back and forth with him about this, and I think the more recent reviews have used the customary vertical dB spacing.

Dennis,

Let's see if we agree on somethings here

Would you agree they are built pretty good and look good for $80?

Heck for $300 speakers even

Would you agree the bass is good?

zieglj01

· #19 · Oct 20, 2019

PhilharmonicDennis said:
Interesting. Although to be fair, the grid demarcations are only 2 dB, so what look like wild swings in the response would look less than half as bad if the standard 5 dB spacing were used. Is this a fairly old review? I had a back and forth with him about this, and I think the more recent reviews have used the customary vertical dB spacing.

I believe it is not recent -- as there seems to be no dates on the reviews

PhilharmonicDennis

· #20 · Oct 20, 2019

mpk1970 said:
Dennis,

Let's see if we agree on somethings here

Would you agree they are built pretty good and look good for $80?

Heck for $300 speakers even

Would you agree the bass is good?

Sure. But I want to do some more critical listening before I post any judgments on their overall quality.

Reactions: 1

1 - 20 of 52 Posts

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