swans, and axioms (1 Viewer)

[jrgreene1968]

Does anyone here have the swans or axioms, speakers? Im thinking of upgrading my towers and center, and was interested in the sound of the two. Im running polk audio right now. They sound good, but tend to be on the bright side, would like a warmer sounding speaker. Any suggestions

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

Both are great speakers but will have noticeably different sounds. The Axioms will be brighter, but not as harsh as a Klipsch or other horn-loaded speaker. The Swans, in my opinion, are one of the most neutral speakers in the price range without much tendency towards bright or warm (though remaining very smooth).

I have 6.1 mains, 2.1 surrounds, and a C3 center and absolutely love them. I started out with 4.1 mains for about 3 years before I upgraded. I feel the 4.1s are somewhat of a bastard child, simply filling a price point and not offering much if any performance gain over the 2.1 bookshelfs and not in the same league as the 5.1 towers. I would stick w/ 2.1s all around if you're on a tighter budget and as long as they're matched up with a capable sub. If you have the room in your budget and will be focusing on HT then the 5.1s are a solid step up, especially if you have a large room. If you do much 2ch music listening w/ the subwoofer disabled then the 6.1s are your best option. The 6.1s can convincingly reach into the 30hz range, even for high-impact movie soundtracks. I went without a subwoofer w/ my 6.1s in a medium size room (rental house spare bedroom) for nearly a year and honestly didn't miss my subwoofer much at all.

 

[jrgreene1968]

hey thanks for the reply...i have been looking at the 6.1 swans, i just bought a new 805 onkyo receiver and it ..matched with my polks have a pretty bright sound. I have been wanting to upgrade my speakers for awhile, so im going to use the brightness excuse on the wife, hehe. I went to a couple of hi-fi stores locally to listen to speakers, not alot offered around here. I checked out the klipsch, they made my ears hurt, they had some paradigms, and they was PROUD of them$$$$, also def techs, they seemed proud of them also, hehe. The paradigms really sounded good, but more than i can spend. Im really thinking seriously about the swans........do you know if they offer a trial pereiod, just in case they are not what i want?

Thanks
JR

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I know they give at least 30 days if you purchase from The Audio Insider or OZ Home Theater (but you're responsible for shipping both ways, and the 6.1s are 75lb EACH). NewEgg is cheaper but don't have near the customer service levels of the other two. The other two will also work with you on price on packages so you may want to buy all 5/7 speakers at once. If you're looking for the absolute best value then go with the Faux Black Cherry finish... it's a great looking finish and 2/3 the price of the Real Rosewood Veneer. I started out with BC and accidently got sent Rosewood on my 6.1s. It's an EXTREMELY nice finish but I don't think I'd pay the 50% premium for it.

 

[BrianTwig]

Thanks for posting this. I have been eyeballing some Swans for a while.

My father would like to add some audio to his living room TV. Problem is the room set up and configuration makes a full surround sound set up very problematic without a great deal of drilling, hole cutting, and running the vast majority of wires under the house in the crawl space. Which could be done in the future.

How would say the Swan 5.1s along with an SVS PB10 and possibly the Swan C2 work as a set up?

I am wary of using bookshelf surrounds on stands because of dogs and many children that run around the home often, including several babies and toddlers who are crawling and barely walking and no doubt would use the stands to try and stand up, thus knocking them over. 100% guarantee it would happen, and often!

And the shape of the room, ceiling height and angle, and furniture placement prevents inceiling surrounds.

How would the Swan R2s (on-wall surrounds) work if they couldn't be ideally or even close to ideally located?

And any advice on a lower end price receiver to run all this nonsense? He doesn't need anything fancy, and wouldn't know what or how to use it anyway.

Thanks!

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I would recommend the C3 center for anything other than a very small room or if you absolutely can't make room for the C3 center. With the 5.1s I would recommend the C3 even more because they use an identical driver compliment and are one of the best matches between tower and horizontal center I've ever heard.

How the R2s will work will really depend on the location. Is there any way you can post a picture or diagram of the room? They'll work best on a back wall parallel to the seating position.

 

[BrianTwig]

I will try to see about drawing up or somehow finding a floorplan of the room.

On the center channel, my father has his 46" Sammy DLP in an Armour and the center would need to be ONTOP of it. I am sure I could easily build a wedge to angle it downward to the listening position. Would this be alright?

The real problem with surround set up is that on one side of the room seating is right next too, and almost under where some of the seating is, and on the other side of the room it would be well off to the side and there is no real way to get the speakers behind the seating.

He may just be forced to go with the 3.1 set up.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

The differences in distance can be, for the most part, adjusted for using the distance adjustment in whatever receiver you use. If a modern receiver w/ an Auto-EQ is used then many of the sonic anomolies caused by this setup would also likely be minimized. If it's the only way to make it work then it's likely better than going 3.1.

As for the center... the C2 is small but still heavy... the C3 is just plane big and heavy. You're going to need some sort of shelf to sit either on. The kind that cost around $20 and use adjustable legs in the backs (made for sitting on top of RPTVs) would likely work well enough but make sure you find one made with DLP/LCD RPTVs in mind or else the adjustable legs won't be long enough.

 

[BrianTwig]

The center would go ontop of the armour itself, not the TV. So just building a wedge of some type would be no problem.

I have an SPL meter and Avia disc, so calibrating it for the odd ball distances would be easy, but maybe still not get the real impact and sound quality I would like for him.

He probably wouldn't really notice. Could probably get away with it.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I'd say it would work... the R2s are actually bi-polar (both drivers in-phase) and not di-polar (drivers out-of-phase) so a back-wall installation isn't a necessity, but is the optimum.

 

[BrianTwig]

Now, for a cheap receiver?

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

How cheap? Need HDMI?

 

[BrianTwig]

I have wondered about that, both on a personal level and for my father. Is HDMI really needed on a receiver? Whats the difference between running through the receiver and just plugging the DVD and DVR right into the HDMI inputs on the TV and running the audio signal back to the receiver? Other than additional cables that is.

I know with my current setup, I run the DVD by HDMI to the TV and I run an optical cable from the TV to the receiver. Seems to work fine for me.

Lets put it this way on "how cheap". My father is pretty cheap on this stuff. He is interested in getting more "power" in the audio department when watching movies. Not really interested in a full blown theater style setup. But I am trying to get him to buck up an do the right thing so he isn't disappointed.

So, bottom line, the cheaper the better, but that will still get the job done.

So you have a little better idea of what we are working with, this is his television.

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...ures/457403861

46" Sammy DLP.

Also running Dish Network HD satelitte.

I haven't much looked at receivers in a while, but this one I have given some consideration too for him. What you think?

Sony STR-DG510
http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...ures/538199750

Thanks.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I think HDMI on the receiver can be considered a necessity and a convenience depending on the application. In my setup I consider it a necessity because I have 3 HDMI sources, 2 of which take advantage of Multichannel PCM output of lossless/uncompressed audio formats (HD-DVD and BluRay). I also only have one HDMI input on my projector and only have HDMI running in-wall to the projector (so up-conversion of analog sources to HDMI is also a necessity for me).

If you aren't running any HD-Disc formats and/or only one HDMI source such as upscaling DVD player or HDTV then I would say it's likely not a necessity but a convenience.

All that said, I would stay away from ANY non-ES Sony receiver, especially when mating with great speakers like the Swans. The 5.1s are fairly effecient (90db/w/m) so you don't need a ton of power, but good clean power will really make them shine. If you're going to spend $1250+ on 5 speakers then I'd consider a receiver in atleast the $400 range, though there are some refurbs you can find in the $300 range that would be right on the borderline of what I would consider acceptable. In this $300 + price range you can go ahead and get HDMI and not have to worry about not having it, even if only a convenience.

Some models to look into:

Onkyo SR605 - $400 w/ free SH from J&R
Onkyo SR604 - $300 refurb from accessories4less.com
Onkyo SR804 - $500 refurb from ecost.com
Marantz SR4001 - $400 refurb from accessories4less.com
Denon AVR2307CI - $456 refurb from ecost.com

If you really want to stay in the sub-$200 range then here are a few that might do well enough but, in my opinion, may hold back the performance of the speakers:

JVC RXD401S - $127 refurb from ecost.com
Onkyo SR505 - $210 refurb from accessories4less.com (HDMI is video-switching only)

 

[gene c]

I replaced some Polk RTi's with Swan's (5.2's, 2.1's and a 3CB) a few months ago for the same reason. I thought the Polks were a little too bright (in my room) and the Swans were just about right. Got mine from Oz HT for $1375 shipped. Otherwise I agree with everything Stephen said. Solid build quality, smooth sound and just looking at them puts a smile on my face. I also agree about the the Sony DG510. Both Swan and Axiom deserve better. Look elswhere.

 

[Parker Clack]

Email Jon at The Audio Insider and tell him I sent you to him from HTF. Tell him what you are looking for and he will fix you up with a great deal. He is great to work with, sells Swans at the best prices anywhere and will let you check them out at home and return them if you aren't interested.