boston vr-m50 versus psb image 1b versus paradigm cinema cc70 (1 Viewer)

[felix_suwarno]

first impression!

i am not an audiophile, i dont have bat ears. wanna proof? i dont have avia or equal product at my disposal. so, please take all this with tons of grains of salt. i dont speak english too well either.

i use denon avr2802, monster cable 12g, rio volt mp3 player, sub is paradigm pdr10.

i havent tried dvd since my playstation2 stopped working 3 days ago. panasonic rp56 should arrive sometime next week.

so far i only used mp3 songs, mostly 320 bit on LAME encoder, and honestly the i have heard the bostons for only 2 hours so far.

my first ht was using paradigm cinema cc70 all around, and based on htf forumers advice, i set the crossover to 120 hz, and maximized the subwoofer cutout frequency. i didnt have anything else to compare the cinemas with ( except my pc speakers, boston ba4800 with double subwoofers ), so it sounded heavenly. people said it was bright, but i dont think so. after hearing vr-m50 and psb image 1b, i still think it is not bright whatsoever. i mean, i have never had my ears bleed after hours of listening to movies or mp3s.

what i didnt realize was that the sub sounded boomy. i mean, i didnt know what boomy really meant. when i got the psb 1b a few days ago, i lowered the sub cutout freq from 5 o'clock to 3 o'clock, and suddenly everything sounded crispy! the bass sounded tighter this way.

now that i have compared all three :

paradigm cinema cc70 rocks. i mean it. ever heard about a reviewer on a certain magazines saying "these babies sounded just as good as another speakers twice its price" ?

well, compared to psb image 1b, cc70 sounds just as good. why? well, the first time i set the image 1b as my surround, i thought they were not producing any sound. i mean, they blended nicely with the 3 front cinemas. i had to "nitpick" both cinemas and images by standing in front of them to really differentiate the difference. nonetheless, the images sound heavier, thicker, or... i dunno. warmer? but it is not noticeable if i didnt try to differentiate them. at this time, the crossover was set on 120 hz.

btw, i have to state that i dont believe with speakers break in period anymore. the images sounded good out of the box, and i have been using it for many hours at this point.

i think i am rather dissapointed with the image 1bs since they didnt show any significant improvement over the much smaller and cheaper cinemas. they may sound better if cranked up, but i live in an apartment. my neighbors who live behind the wall are grandma and grandpa. -13 on the receiver would be the loudest sound.

then i tried the vr-m50s. with vr-mc, off course. the first time i tried it, it was like the heaven's door suddenly opened on the top of my head. what a difference!!! i am not exagerrating this, folks. on my humblest opinion, vr-m50s sounded crystal clear. the highs were smooth!

"yea i can hear the difference", said wifey.

i have been listening to the vr-m50s for two hours : no ear fatigue. -24 on receiver.

my conclusion so far at this point :

-5 : warm
0 : neutral
+5 : bright

cinema cc70 and cc : -3.5
image 1b : -3.3
vr-m50 : 0

i cant believe people said cinemas sounded bright. it is not. but compared to vr-m50s ( 2.5 times more expensive ), it is coloured. but cinemas sound just as good as the image 1bs, which is about 80 bucks more expensive. i recommend it to people on budget. seriously.

i will post my thoughts when i received the rp56. damn, i have black hawk down at home ( rent from netflix ) just waiting on the desk.

 

[felix_suwarno]

i have been trying both hard rock and slow music. sounded great. smooth like baby's butt. but i dont notice the difference between 120 hz and 80 hz crossover.

so far i have been listening to them for about 8 hours. i did notice that my ears started to "bleed", but it turned out i set the treble too high on the previous setup ( cinema cc all around ), because it was too warm. after minimizing the treble a little bit, the "earbleed" was gone ( from 10 to 8 ).

 

[Chris PC]

Although I have PSB image speakers myself, I won't simply suggest you use the 1B's because I think they sound good. I do think they sound good. I would suggest you get speakers which blend as well as possible with your other speakers. If that means the 1B's then great, but if other speakers blend better, then you might want to consider those instead.

 

[felix_suwarno]

i think the image 1b paired with bostons sound just fine. i dont notice anything wrong when i use them for music listening. but i havent tried them on movie, so i cant say more.

one more thing, i dont do critical music listening. i dont sit in the middle of the room, doing nothing except listening to the music. i usually turn the system on when i clean the room, play with my baby, etc etc, in the morning.