Running out of speakers to try!

Yes, they will tick all the boxes. Many floorstanding or standmount loudspeakers work relatively close to a wall having their ports damped but all of them work much better when well in the room. I was experimenting this week with my bw cm5's, and their high was so much better when 1 meter from the rear wall. My room can have that, however a bit ugly. In some time I will replace them by SBL's. The 72/140 is already there...

Totally different, but floor standers with a similar spec to the Wilson Benesch and the facility to adjust treble - Graham Audio's  Chartwell LS6f

ATC SCM19 Active version - used (i.e. pre-owned, pre-loved, cherished, second user)  for your budget.   Unfortunately hearing them in your home environment would probably involve taking some kind hearted and trusting dealer for a ride... asking for a home dem and then going elsewhere to buy - not a course of behaviour I'd recomend or condone.   But, if you come clean with the dealer and tell them you'd love to hear them at home but just cannot afford a new pair right now, you never know what might become of this honesty...   Maybe the dealer does used kit, maybe he does 'ex-dem'... you don't know until you ask.

Problem is, once you've heard them, you run the risk of your budget going out of the window, or if you're like me, your credit card limit being raised yet again.

It's an unforgiving world this audio reproduction one, where only the strongest willed emerge within original budget... but the rest of us spend our hours listening to the most divine music reproduction you can imagine

Bob the Builder posted:

Try treating the room a bit and also there was a post over on the systems pic thread where someone had posted a video of Mr Van Den Hul discussing speaker placement where the speakers where more diagonal rather than square on. 

 

I posted a thread a while ago about ‘conventional‘ speaker placement ie. the sentinels guarding the fireplace option ....as I was going to try mine either side of the tv across the diagonal. If my memory serves me correctly, Tobyjug has advocated this for sometime and having watched the video of Mr Van Den Hul I tried it and in my room of 6x4 metres, sounds a lot better with bass boom definitely better controlled. I also have the added bonus of now having my sofa in the ‘sweet spot’ as my lounge has a doorway  facing my fireplace. Is the Op able to try this? Next for me is to link my tv to my 172 via an optical cable to use as tv sound. 

LS50

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

The speaker that I think is stinking,y good for its price is the Russel K 50. With my 552 I hear so much more with them. Perhaps not totally totally neutral, they do seem to highlight upper mids, but generally in a superb way.. but for music replay I am finding then rather compelling. My ATCs cant compete in terms of detail and timing and musical fun, but the ATCs are I feel more neutral... 

Interesting comments there Simon - are you tempted to forsake ATC for Russell K?

I am on a similar journey to the OP and have a slightly smaller room with a suspended wooden floor. Neat Motive 2s boomed when I had a pair a few years ago. Neat Iota Alphas sound pleasant but, to me, rather insipid so they are up for sale. I recently tried a demo pair of Kudos Super 10As at home and nearly bought them - no base boom but in my room piano jazz sounded too bright and I preferred a pair of ATC SCM11s at a much lower price.

I am now trialling some SCM 19s and the sound is great up to normal listening levels with good tight bass and excellent mids (with a 250DR). The only drawback is the speakers rather dominate my small room

I am going to the Acoustica show this weekend and will have a listen to the Russell Ks there - the 50 may be a viable alternative to the SCM 19 for my circumstances but only a final listen at home will tell.

Mungochatney - I look forward to hearing more of your journey towards speaker ‘nirvana’

Bob

My recommendation is ATC offerings, both the new wall mounted versions and SCM line up to 19 - defo not the 40. Very hard to beat for sound quality and placement ease.

Listening chair and speaker placement can be key. I use a my own 2ft rule - make sure chair and speakers (measured from wherever the port is, so rear if rear ported, front if front ported) are at least 2ft from any room boundary.

One thing I'm surprised no-one has mentioned is eq. Once you know the problem low frequency range (likely between 40-50hz) you can make an eq adjustment. iTunes eq is very effective with very little sound quality loss to my ears. You can apply it to only the tracks you want it (attach an eq setting to an individual track). When iTunes eq is active but on flat setting there is zero loss (playback is bit perfect).

Arnsider posted:

Bob the Builder posted:

.... the sentinels guarding the fireplace option ...

And this, gentlemen, is the reason why Focal Sopra's visual design is as it is ...

Shropshire Hills posted:

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

The speaker that I think is stinking,y good for its price is the Russel K 50. With my 552 I hear so much more with them. Perhaps not totally totally neutral, they do seem to highlight upper mids, but generally in a superb way.. but for music replay I am finding then rather compelling. My ATCs cant compete in terms of detail and timing and musical fun, but the ATCs are I feel more neutral... 

Interesting comments there Simon - are you tempted to forsake ATC for Russell K?

I am on a similar journey to the OP and have a slightly smaller room with a suspended wooden floor. Neat Motive 2s boomed when I had a pair a few years ago. Neat Iota Alphas sound pleasant but, to me, rather insipid so they are up for sale. I recently tried a demo pair of Kudos Super 10As at home and nearly bought them - no base boom but in my room piano jazz sounded too bright and I preferred a pair of ATC SCM11s at a much lower price.

I am now trialling some SCM 19s and the sound is great up to normal listening levels with good tight bass and excellent mids (with a 250DR). The only drawback is the speakers rather dominate my small room

I am going to the Acoustica show this weekend and will have a listen to the Russell Ks there - the 50 may be a viable alternative to the SCM 19 for my circumstances but only a final listen at home will tell.

I'd have a look at the slightly larger Russel K 100 too, if you're comparing them with ATC. Russel normally uses quite modest amplification in his demos, so you might need to get a proper demo elsewhere to find out whet they are really capable of. 

I've suffered with Bass boom in my Victorian 3.8x8x2.7m high double living room from time to time especially when I first moved with Neat Motive 2s . I replaced these with the superb  PMC GB1i's and only a bout of upgraditis and a good deal brought in PMC20/23s . I suppose I was never satisfied with the Bass in my room so after countless good reports here I tried ATC SCM19.2s which were and still are a revelation . Much tighter and controlled bass which initially appeared light but not at all in reality . They do need a bit of driving but as Roger mentioned I'd look at some used active 19s of which there is a pair available at a well known site . 

I'm 99% sure of going ATC active very soon as I've extended my living room to 14m long so will be experimenting with SCM40s once unpacking is finished and the room isn't as lively . Initial signs with my passive 19s are good and feel like I could go bigger so I'm hoping Active 40s will be the sweet spot . 

In short I can highly recommend ATC up to 19 level .

pete T15 posted:

I've suffered with Bass boom in my Victorian 3.8x8x2.7m high double living room from time to time especially when I first moved with Neat Motive 2s . I replaced these with the superb  PMC GB1i's and only a bout of upgraditis and a good deal brought in PMC20/23s . I suppose I was never satisfied with the Bass in my room so after countless good reports here I tried ATC SCM19.2s which were and still are a revelation . Much tighter and controlled bass which initially appeared light but not at all in reality . They do need a bit of driving but as Roger mentioned I'd look at some used active 19s of which there is a pair available at a well known site . 

I'm 99% sure of going ATC active very soon as I've extended my living room to 14m long so will be experimenting with SCM40s once unpacking is finished and the room isn't as lively . Initial signs with my passive 19s are good and feel like I could go bigger so I'm hoping Active 40s will be the sweet spot . 

In short I can highly recommend ATC up to 19 level .

Do I read that right - 3.8m x 8m is long for its width, and you’re going to 14m long? Or is that the width you’re increasing so 14x8m? If the latter, I suggest SCM 100s!

14m is the length now its been extended which basically runs in to the kitchen so I'm slightly concerned with how this will affect things ??

The SCM100s are definitely too big and I really wanted the SCM50 Actives (there's a lovely young ex dem pair nearby) but again probably too large . 

Yes, difficult with only 3.8m width. Extend the other way! (If only!)

The longer length means that with speakers pointing down the room you probably won’t need to worry about standing waves reflecting from the rear wall, but with the restricted width your near refections, which could be significant, will be unchanged by the extension. 

My room is actually feeling a bit lighter in the bass at the moment but its still about 50% bare , promising signs so far .

I think the Active 40s are the safest option and maybe a tiny  bit of EQ if required . I'm hoping to make the Acoustica show this weekend and chat to ATC and others .

The ATC I always like the look of is the SCM 20 active tower. It comes in really good veneers, unlike the 19 and 40 which are boring black or cheesy cherry. 

My speakers (not ATC) are finished in lovely cherry - and I have never detected a hint of cheese. (Though whilst cheese and cherry may not seem a natural combination, I am sure that a creamy white stiltom would go well with a good dark cherry...)

I have enquired about the SCM 20 towers whilst researching the range but was quickly diverted away from them on a couple of occasions . As far as I'm aware the major reason for the price jump from Entry series to Classic is that the Entry boxes are bought in pre-assembled from overseas and the Classic boxes are assembled totally in house . We all have varying tastes and personally I really like the Black Satin .

At the same size of the room with Dac v1 / nap 200 my SBL sounds great. The bass is controlled and never boom. I am happy of them!

I've listened to ATC 19 actives and passives as well as 40 actives and passives. I can say for sure the 40A were easily my favourite of all, the 40 passives second. However, you need a good size room for the 40 range otherwise you're likely to over excite a typical English living room (say approx 4m x 4m) with suspended wooden floorboards and solid brick walls in the lower frequencies. Strangely just leaving the door open helped resolve any bass issue (not a possible solution for me). eq also eradicated bass issue.

Surprisingly, I prefered the 19 passives to the 19 actives in my room, simply because the 19 actives were so ruthless but I'm sure some may prefer them, depends on taste. The 19 passives were more forgiving than the 19A and sounded very musical. Both 19s were a perfect match for my room (about 4 x 4.3m, chimney breast, suspended timber floor) with zero bass issues.

Shahinian Compass could be worth a try for bass without boom in a smallish room.

But I’d second what IB says about positioning and room treatment - though it always takes me years to get round to it....

Ardbeg10y posted:

Hook posted:

To avoid confusion, I do not think that Mungochatney and Mangomonkey should be allowed to post to the same thread. 

Waiting for Mega Mindy then!

Mangochutney?