In that price range I like bookshelves regardless of room size, I think they tend to sound more coherent.
Towers rarely have enough bass extension on their own, and the crossovers tend to be more complex and more easily fucked up.
If you need more bass extension add a sub.
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Yeah that is what I was thinking as well. I like towers but they’re not really what I want right now.
…
I have a stupid question.
Is it possible to use AV stands as speaker stands (with acoustic dampening pads/pucks under the speaker) as Speaker stands. This is more of a space concern situation to be honest because it allows me to have some more game consoles and or media players around with out crowding them under the tv, but if it will utterly ruin the sound maybe its best to avoid it. I am unsure
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You can do whatever you like if it works for you. I’ve had really great success using Iso Acoustic elevated stands on a credenza with my Dynaudio Lyd 5 and they’re 16" from the back wall in a 2.1 AV system.
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Cool. RIGHT DYNAUDIO. That was the other speaker I was looking at
Has anyone here listened to the LS50 metas?
Not gonna lie. Doing research has been a frustrating experience give how few audio stores are within accessible distance from me
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I feel this. Living in south central Kentucky, it is a complete desert in that regard.
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Can’t remember if @sa11297 had Metas or OGs. My neighbor had them (Wireless II) briefly and said every half hour he had to turn them down because he’d feel fatigued.
Hmm. Then they need to be paired with something that helps control the top end. Interesting
One option, buy a pair used at a good price, listen to them and if you don’t love them or you think you can’t make them work, sell them on. If you buy at a good price you can usually flip it for the same and effectively for the cost of shipping you get the first hand experience.
First of all, my sincere condolances, my dad had ALS and I lost him a few months before my firstborn popped out. It gets better but there are still moments when I’m sad and wish he could still be here and share the moments.
Anyways, the advice to buy popular speakers used is solid advice, a match will depend on how it works in your room and personal taste so the ability to trade in with minimal loss is a plus, as always, it is a bit of a journey to get everything dialed in. Although the speaker in general might to your liking, there also might be this one thing that you notice after a while and like always, once you’ve heard it, you can’t unhear it and it starts to annoy you every time you notice it. At least, that’s how it is with me.
I have the buchard s400 MKII and I’m very happy with them, if you also are very eclectic in taste, from electronic, to EDM, hip-hop, metal, classic rock, jazz, they all handle it pretty well, that is their main talent. There are speakers that are more refined and more detail in the highs but I haven’t found one that works as well with all genres and is also a bit forgiving with lesser recordings while still being transparent to show changes in cables for example. They are very neutral and show character of the amp, i would pair them with something organic on the warm side of neutral. Also something that has some decent sound quality, I don’t think schiit would be a good match here, they are more on the bright side of neutral I think and honestly, not good enough for the S400 MK2. I’m from EU so my brand selection is a bit different but i pair it with a rega aethos, i think the new elecit is also a good pairing and naim SN3 probably as well (if you can find naim SN2 used, that is a sweet deal as well, organic and musical). Only concern is maybe your room is to small to really get them working but they have a first class trial policy so it would be easy to try them out. Note they need 200hrs (maybe even 300) to balance out so when on trial, make sure you give them juice 24/7. They work really well for movies and also take EQ very well.
Now, if you’re going to get subs I might not go for S400 as that would be a waste of its extension in the lows. I might go for harbeth p3esr or ATC SCM 19 (or even SCM 11 in a smaller room) and get some decent subs, rythmik is a brand I would look at for subs if I was in US or CA.
Dynaudio are certainly also worth looking at, both active and passive solutions.
Enjoy the hunt, don’t spend it all on components, keep some reserve. There will likely be things you want to finetune, cables, PSU, an upgrade, … in the end, the little things can add up (a lot, depending on your taste)
edit: while thinking about it, if you’re from CA, Bryston might be a good pairing with the S400
fwiw, there was in interesting speaker test by some dutch guys on youtube in the 2.5k speaker range, they also compared with different amp topology’s, class A vs class D and honestly, sometimes I also prefered the class D with certain speakers…
It also shows that some modern speakers are actually optimised for class D. A lot of modern amp builders, especially the more established brands in the commercial market, are moving towards class D or some hybrid, so logical that some speakers are also designed to take a share of that pie. Imo, an extra factor to be aware of when shopping and pairing these days
I want a bryston. I have heard them and I like their sound. They are just very expensive. I just am unsure if I can get the power and control I want out of a 2.5B versus the 3B (there is a factor of several thousand dollars between amps)
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Well. New year and no progress has been made in this regard. Things got really bad wrt to some friends deciding to be irredeemable pieces of crap and causing trouble for me and other mutual friends, and other grief stuff in the wake of my dad’s passing. Basically life crawled to a standstill lol. But I’m still aiming to get this media room finished eventually
Still looking at the following
Schitt tyr plus good preamp and good dac
Cambridge audio evo150. I’m leaning this direction because of roon streaming integration and… size and heat efficiency
Gonna wait for the g4s or s95ds now in terms of tv. Might as well
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Take a look at the Lyngdorf TDAI-1120
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Interesting. A bit underpowered for the speakers I’m looking at though. But something to take into consideration. Also. If anyone knows of a preamp that does all this so i can match an amp to it. That would be cool too
Ive been looking at some of those GaN amps too
Depending on budget and where you are you can go for its big brother the TDAI-3400, they are available used in the US once in awhile