Here are my thoughts from RMAF
RMAF is the real deal, this was my first time to attend and I went with a good friend of mine who’s also into home audio but he’s an engineer and better versed on some of the detailed technical aspects of audio. We listened to dozens of speakers and subs. I’ll mention a few that I’ve seen thrown around on here and some others just to provide information.
Some common and affordable brands we listened to:
DYNAUDIO
PSB
SALK
FOCAL
ZU
B&W
TOTEM
KEF
APERION
SANDERS
MAGNEPAN
VIENNA ACCOUSTICS
SVS
Others:
Vandersteen
Von Schweikert
Dali
And many others…
The brief rundown goes like this ZU was the biggest disappointment. Granted I had read mixed things on various forums about them and wasn’t expecting a whole lot but did expect them to have better source material. They only had a turntable, they only had tube amps, which isn’t necessarily bad but they were playing recordings with subpar quality, some intended distortion, which after hearing them I’m convinced it’s because some of the more complex sounds they’d struggle with. We did hear some Robert Plant but it sounded like we were listening through a megaphone. It was almost painful at times. Five of us were in the room, we all came out just saying, that was not good at all.
Focal, Totem, KEF, Dynaudio, Vienna Acoustics, SVS and Aperion all performed well. I was a bit disappointed in the Focal and KEF R900’s. The lacked some of the clarity and came across as a bit bright in comparison with some of the others at a similar price point. Having said that, all of the above were competent performers. Dynaudio had a wireless setup that was quite good for being wireless, the XEO line. It would be a great option for those looking to have an indoor/outdoor option with easy portability.
B&W CM5 (bookshelves) really surprised me. It wasn’t superb, but after hearing the entire 600 lineup and being thoroughly underwhelmed I was surprised at just how good this little monitor did even at moderate volumes. This one surprised me.
Magnepan and Sanders both sounded very good. Sanders I believe is about twice the price of the Magnepan but both performed very well.
For "affordable" speakers Salk and PSB were the class of the show in my opinion. PSB had the Imagine T2’s and the Synchrony 1’s on display. Man both sounded absolutely fantastic. Overall the sound was on par with most of the 10k+ stuff we listened to. The Synchrony 1’s sounded better than the T2’s but not by a wide margin. Both were superbly detailed and natural and we even went back to sample them again for an extended period. They cranked the volume up well beyond levels I’d normally listen to and the T2’s performed fantastic. Maintaining clarity and separation with no harshness in instruments or voices was something other speakers cost 2 or 3x as much had trouble doing. These PSB’s did it with apparent ease and seemed to have even more to offer. Additionally the bass in the T2 was respectable, which was surprising giving it’s meager 5 inch driver configuration. Needless to say the PSB’s left us stunned. We both sat down, and within a short period we looked at each other thinking “wow, this is impressive”.
After our initial visit to PSB we hit the SALK setup. All I can say is WOW, WOW and did I say WOW? The clarity provided by the ribbon tweeter was amazing. We sampled a couple models but most of my focus was on the “Supercharged” Song Tower. This tower had the ribbon tweeter and the 5 inch version of the HT2’s 7 inch driver (I forget the driver’s specific model number). These speakers sounded absolutely stunning. At an as tested price of 3,500 we were blown away. Absolutely blown away. They imaged well, the clarity and natural sound of vocals and instruments immediately left an impression. At that point in time we couldn’t determine if we liked the SALK or PSB offerings better but we were fairly sure the SALK’s were better, at least to our ears. The next day we hit them both again and it became clear that the SALK offerings were indeed better than the PSB offerings. The sound was just more natural and detailed while having no harshness that we could detect.
Obviously everyone’s ears are different but when it comes to affordable loudspeakers SALK is now at the top of my list. Additionally, PSB’s new offerings are simply unmatched in the dealer oriented mainstream market. I’ve not heard anything in the sub 6k range that can touch what we heard from those PSB’s. If you’re not afraid of internet direct, you’ve gotta give SALK a try. Just fantastic overall offerings.
The Salk SS8’s and the Dali’s that were on display were among the best speakers at the show regardless of price. Yes some sounded better but they all cost significantly more than either of those two offerings. I believe they were both around $8,000 and both brought a LOT to the table.
