Small floor standing speaker shootout... (1 Viewer)

[steve nn]

It's been interesting following along. Considering your perimeters Craig, maybe Tue would be a good choice. To go on might be construed as a little repetitive? I'll be very surprised if the outcome is announced differently than what I'm thinking.

>>>a lot of areas to cover

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

Now I wasn't sure on how exactly to intepret that but I took it to mean that what you were hearing in these blind tests of the Rocket 550's and Ascend 340's was nearly as good if not as good (dare I say better at times? - a "wince would seem to indicate that) as what you are used to hearing from your Ref 3's "which beat all those speakers above"... so I just put 2 & 2 together....

Oh and my vote for which day to wrap it up is this. I say take a few days away from the test to sort of reboot your brain and come back all fresh for some new listening tests. Kinda like if you are in a perfume store too long you lose grasp if you know what I mean. I know this is different but I think the best test results come from eliminating as many variables as possible, and one of them is time period IMO.
-BUT-, if you feel this is not at all a factor for you personally, than go for it Tuesday

 

[CurtisSC]

Craig, I'm with Andy. When you think you have enough listening to reveal the speakers, go for it. Otherwise, make us suffer more.

 

[Craig Chase]

Kevim, by "wincing", I meant that as a compliment to both the systems from Rocket and Ascend against the more expensive Ref 3's (and, of course, the even more expensive Legacies, VMPS, B&W...etc...) that I have here.

Are either test speakers equal to the Ref 3's ? No.

But they sure are 65-75 % of the Ref 3's for 25 % of the $$$$ ...

It may well be that the $1000 level is where the law of dimishing returns kicks in for today's speakers....

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

oh, ok, gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up. Needless to say you won't be trading in your ref 3;s anytime soon

 

[CurtisSC]

Craig....to back track long before this thread, what happenned to getting speakers from HTD?

Also, I just saw in another thread on this forum a poster with the name "craig curtis".....poor guy.

 

[Craig Chase]

Kevin - The Ref 3's have found a home, for now at least ...

Curtis, I saw that about the poor guy, perhaps we should take up a collection ?

Now ... today's listening summary will be a bit more brief, my speaker switching friend could only stop by once today... so speaker "A" and "B" are in the same order again...

Basically, it was more of what I heard yesterday... "A" had more deep bass, better imaging and soundstaging than did "B".

What did become apparent today was that both these speakers love well recorded Rock... and that I could easily live with either one of these outstanding systems...

Today's score was tighter...

A: 100 points
B: 95 points

For a Value comparison, I listened to a pair of Boston Acoustics VRM90's this week... and even managed to take my own music. Granted, it was not in my room, and was also with Adcom Electronics... but the two systems being reviewed here are competitive with these $2700 per pair Bostons.

For those unfamaliar, they are dual 6.5 inch bass driver, three way mini towers... in fact, they are very close to the same size as the 550's ... roughly 39 inches tall..

 

[frank manrique]

quote:

"So... The choice goes out to you guys. I have to play in a charity golf tourney on Monday, and will be back at it Tuesday. Would you guys like to wrap up the blind tests Tuesday? Or go to the weekend? This is democracy in action..

Plan A - Go to the weekend
Plan B - Wrap it up Tuesday"

I vote for plan B (perhaps is sort of selfish from my part saying so, but would like to see the results before I go under the knife on Thursday).

"Either way, results will be discussed, TrueRTA and ETF graphs posted, all that good stuff.

Speaking of graphs, when I post one, it is in raw form. For in room sweeps, I use the Stryke audio Disc and 1/3 octave widths. Anything more and the graph has "holes" in it. But unlike magazines, there is no smoothing of the graph to keep the manufacturer happy. Most speaker companies cringe when they see what the response curve looks like in room... typically it is something like +/- 10 dB..."

yippee! Is sure hight time that some one does that very thing!

I never really understood the value of smoothed freq. response graphs even if such graphs originated from tests conducted by audio field luminaries such as John Crabbe, Joe D'Appolito, Richard Heyser, Don Keele, at al.
Most of the time I had to "read" between the lines in an attempt to make better sense of what I was being told by those graphic representations of rather complex technical tests, but I guess something is better than nothing...and definitely much better than reading the garbage usually spewed by self-appointed, untrained "audio reviewers" whose bullshit high-end audio terminology (like "these speakers lack personality; brand A are more engaging!," "pace and rhythm," "musical," "fast bass," ad nauseum) should never be taken seriously by readers to avail of their "tests" as guides to purchase reviewed speaker systems...grossly priced or otherwise.

My .02 cents...

-THTS

"...hi, my name is Frank...and am an SVS bassaholic..."

 

[Craig Chase]

Good points Frank... and darn funny, too ! ...

The blind results will be posted Tuesday, a request such as yours cannot be denied.

Curtis... I forgot, I never heard back from HTD, though Chris said they were pretty busy. Perhaps sometime soon, they will get in...

 

[Craig Chase]

Curtis - I went on to the Ascend forum to see if the guys were commenting on the review, and hopefully to get some feedback... No link was there. If you think they would be interested, please feel free to post one...... That is a good group of guys !

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

I'm sure they would be very interested....

I'm anxious to see these swans thrown in the mix though! I think they are gorgeous speakers and if they have the SQ also, than I'd likely be a future purchaser.

Craig,you are not affiliated with Ascend in anyway are you? No offernse or anything but sometimes i get that impression...most likely just the fact that you really like the sound they put out...

 

[Craig Chase]

Kevin.. No affiliation with Ascend at all... And no offense taken. In fact, one thing I never did mention... All the speakers here were purchased through normal channels. No freebies or anything like that. I have probably lost $2500 this year selling stuff off after tests...

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

hey if you are going to sell you Ascend setup can you put me first in line? I'm a poor apartment dweller so view it as charity for someone who loves music more than you could imagine! (i'm eating ramen noodles for the next month so I could get a used parasound amp-my priorites are all in order, lol!)

 

[Craig Chase]

Kevin, You are nuts... my kind of guy.

 

[CurtisSC]

Hey Craig,

I actually posted a link 2 weeks ago...but there was not much going then. Remember, we do not get as much traffic over there since we are not linked to the Ascend site and not affliated. I just bumped it.

If you are golfing tomorrow, and not doing much listening....I vote for revealing the blind results tonight.....I'm going to be gone all day Tuesday(Legoland).

http://www.ascendforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=526

Kevin....one month when I was in college, all I could afford was a case of bagel dogs from Price Club/Costco. I have not and do not want to see another one ever again.

 

[Craig Chase]

Curtis... Thanks. I will actually be getting the log Tuesday A.M. with the speaker order (which was which each night) ... I just got my family back from Wyoming tonight, so things are chaos around here... a good thing.

 

[CurtisSC]

Good to have the family home. Maybe you should have your wife do some listening too.

 

[Craig Chase]

Curtis, Perhaps another night. She just put the kids to bed, and I have not seen her in a week... In about 5 minutes... The computer will not be working...

 

[CurtisSC]

Well...some background music perhaps?

 

[Craig Chase]

Curtis - Tonight (Monday) my bride and I will be doing one last round of blind tests, with the results posted tomorrow... That way Frank can know the results before his surgery...