downsizing my speakers is better

[corwin99]

Ok I have to try these out and see for myself ,and no my two or not POS ,one a townhouse that I rent to my daugther and the other is a 45 feet 2 storey house near the water in Ottawa ,ont ( boyh double in value in 5 year) Pat.P

If you can, try and get a listen to the K2.. I heard one (not sure of the model#) that one really knocked my socks off when i heard it in HK. The TiK's which i also heard there were not nearly as impressive, but still very good speakers.

[gonefishin]

Hi lomarica,


While I wouldn't say that downsizing your speakers will always yield an improvement in sound quality. In certain situations...it may.


Aside from that...congrats on the improvement in your sound system


I'm not sure what your room is like...or if you have the ability to add any room treatments (wife willing ). But adding some room treatments can give nice results in (further) cleaning up the sound and bringing new life into your music.

In the future...when you feel like you may want to upgrade one of your components...try to visit the issue of room treatments and see if this is a possibility for you. You may just like the results

take care...and congrats

dan

[Woochifer]

Congrats on getting the 20s, those are excellent speakers for the money, and the improvements that you observed don't surprise me. But, I would refrain from generalizing your example to therefore mean that standmounts are inherently superior, because as with any generalization as broad as this one, there are exceptions galore.

My general experience has been that floorstanders will give you better bass extension. That just stands to reason that floorstanders have larger interior volumes and can therefore lower the tuned port frequency without creating major alterations to the rest of the frequency range. However, the tricky part is designing a cabinet that large that can also minimize resonance and other detrimental cabinet interactions. This is why so many standmounts can deliver superior soundstage and imaging resolution compared to the floormounted versions.

In general, I've found that most sub-$1,000 floorstanding speakers have significant problems with cabinet resonance and other issues. If the bass extension means a lot, then those compromises might be worthwhile to gain the extra bass. But, if the bass extension is not a paramount concern, then it might not be worthwhile to go to floorstanders.

[pelly3s]

I just have to put my two cents in on this... I love my big ugly 2ways with a 15 but hey thats just me but I honestly have heard bookshelves with the same low end. There are pros and cons to each system. On the subject of JBL's (my favorite toys every come from them) the drivers in the K2's are off shoots of pro drivers, and a pair lists for the cost of the average family car (high $20k range) the 435be is a great horn driver and the only difference between that and the pro version of the driver is a bigger back box. If you look at all the large format studio monitors they made too those were all pro drivers and sounded excellent in a home situation. Oh and gonefishin I still want you speakers lol they would sound great with the crown k2's

[gonefishin]

Oh and gonefishin I still want you speakers lol they would sound great with the crown k2's

hehe...any time you want to give'em a try


actually...I can't wait to get my speakers back up and running. I've got some new amplifiers to go to a tri-amped/DEQX-p system getting rid of the crossovers. I've tried a couple varying crossovers with my speakers...including some actives. But I kept going back to the Edgar recommended 1st/1st/2nd. The DEQX does a bit more than just establishing crosover freq...so I'm hoping for some good results. Only time will tell. *I've got my fingers crossed*

dan

[pelly3s]

I've done a lot with digital system controllers and i can tell you that you will have fun with it. i love the DBX driveracks personally. I am hoping to get my hands on some of the 435be's and use them with some Smith horns and a TAD 15" or the JBL 1500AL

[lomarica]

wow my first post that actaully got some discussion. I would say one reason my bookshelf speakers do sound better than my floorstanding is because they are further away from each other. My couch is 17 feet from the speakers so that is long ways and having the speaker further apart helped. I have a sub so any lack of bass in my bookshelf speakers is not an issue for me.

My main point in my original post was to get people to think that downsizing is ok and you may be happier with the results. My main purpose in downsizing my speakers was to get new stereo furniture and did not have anything to do with my son. I think some people misunderstood this point.

thanks for the discussion



While I wouldn't say that downsizing your speakers will always yield an improvement in sound quality. In certain situations...it may.


Aside from that...congrats on the improvement in your sound system


I'm not sure what your room is like...or if you have the ability to add any room treatments (wife willing ). But adding some room treatments can give nice results in (further) cleaning up the sound and bringing new life into your music.

In the future...when you feel like you may want to upgrade one of your components...try to visit the issue of room treatments and see if this is a possibility for you. You may just like the results

take care...and congrats

dan[/QUOTE]

[jclin4]

Woochifer said:

many standmounts can deliver superior soundstage and imaging resolution compared to the floormounted versions.

As I have been following this thread, I was in the process of puttting together the BR-1 monitors from Parts Express (my first DIY project!) for a secondary system, and wondering how would they compare to my Polk RT600i's?

Now that I've finished the BR-1's and had a brief listen, I can confirm many of the comments made here ring true, even in the budget world that I inhabit. Compared to the floorstanding speakers, the BR-1's provide much better detail and clarity. For a smaller speaker, I'm quite surprised in their ability to place instruments and voices in particular parts of the room, if in a somewhat restrained manner.

Certainly, the Polks have deeper bass and a more "physical" presence, than the smaller speakers. Now I'm presented with a new cross-roads: Do I keep the BR-1's with my main system and perhaps add a subwoofer and then move the Polks to the secondary system? I'll have the pleasure of more listening before I decide.

[kexodusc]

JClin4: Congrats on being another satisfied builder of the BR-1's. Great to hear the comparison...they're only weakness is the low sensitivity, but yeah, I haven't heard many $350-$450 speakers that can touch them from about 60 Hz on up. At $140 they're just incredible.

There's a great crossover tweak available to take them to a slightly higher level too...look up the Dayton II project by Wayne Jaeschke.

I say sell the Polks and build a subwoofer so you can have the best of everything...I've got a few ideas for ya too, depending on your budget!!!

[thepogue]

BS. The studio 20's are nice speakers, but Paradigm is in the same mid-fi class with JBL and a few in others in that the bigger the speaker they build, the worse it seems to sound.

Listen to the 100's for awhile (more than 3 minutes) then listen to the 20's 40's 60's and 80's...all the models have strenghts...but the line clearly gets stronger save the 80's which could "pump" but had a bit of a cross over gap...

and I would content that history shows that JBL made (back in the day) some very strong contenders and few where small..

Peace, Pogue