[kenJay]

Hi Audio Friends,
I am trying to narrow down my bookshelf /speaker choice and appreciate comments /your help.
I do not have a dedicated room & speakers will be in our living area so have specific needs.
Criteria:
- Must be enclosed or front ported as close to back wall.(1 foot')
- Must be no larger than 8" wide and 15" deep.
- Must be black/grey or medium cherry.
- Prefer a soft dome or ribbon tweeter. do not like the sound of metal dome (have owned Paradadigm & KEF & not a fan).
- Owned Salk Songtower QWT & NOLA  contenders which I loved.
Equipment:
- Edge Integrated Amp 100watts & Cary CD player w/ decent speaker cables and interconnects.
Listening preferences:
- Acoustic, male voices, soft jazz, soft rock, alternative rock (REM, others) all via CD
Room:
-Open living/dining room 600 Square feet   (approx 15' wide by 40' long)
- Speakers will be placed on a plateform next to TV (limited due to wife's strict asthetic prefernces)
Usage:
- 2 channel music w/ occasional use to enhancing TV sound
Speaker Choices:Looking in the 2k range (used or new)
- Salk Silk (used )
- Salk Supercharged surround (new)
- Merlin TSM MMM (used)
- Merlin TSM MMI (used)
- Scansonic MB1
- Arial Acoustics 5T (used but new modal so hard to find)
Please feel free to add to the list or let me know which you feel would match my room/listening preferences.
Due to placement being front ported or enclosed is a must
Thanks to all for your expertise & advice
Peace
ken

[kenJay]

Hi Audio Friends,
I am trying to narrow down my bookshelf /speaker choice and appreciate comments /your help.
I do not have a dedicated room & speakers will be in our living area so have specific needs.
Criteria:
- Must be enclosed or front ported as close to back wall.(1 foot')
- Must be no larger than 8" wide and 15" deep.
- Must be black/grey or medium cherry.
- Prefer a soft dome or ribbon tweeter. do not like the sound of metal dome (have owned Paradadigm & KEF & not a fan).
- Owned Salk Songtower QWT & NOLA  contenders which I loved.
Equipment:
- Edge Integrated Amp 100watts & Cary CD player w/ decent speaker cables and interconnects.
Listening preferences:
- Acoustic, male voices, soft jazz, soft rock, alternative rock (REM, others) all via CD
Room:
-Open living/dining room 600 Square feet   (approx 15' wide by 40' long)
- Speakers will be placed on a plateform next to TV (limited due to wife's strict asthetic prefernces)
Usage:
- 2 channel music w/ occasional use to enhancing TV sound
Speaker Choices:Looking in the 2k range (used or new)
- Salk Silk (used )
- Salk Supercharged surround (new)
- Merlin TSM MMM (used)
- Merlin TSM MMI (used)
- Scansonic MB1
- Arial Acoustics 5T (used but new modal so hard to find)
Please feel free to add to the list or let me know which you feel would match my room/listening preferences.
Due to placement being front ported or enclosed is a must
Thanks to all for your expertise & advice
Peace
ken
Modify message

[Hugh]

I'd go with Salk.

[FireGuy]

Louis from Omega engineers some fantastic single-driver speakers.   He should be able to design a front ported pair easy enough within your budget, wood (veneer) type and space.  Their organic sound is well beyond their price point. 

[srb]

My recommendation would be for the Salk Supercharged SongSurround.  It's a relative bargain!  The Silk monitor's Illuminator woofers are only few hundred dollars more expensive than the Excel woofers, but it sells for $1600 more.

If I was given the choice, of course preference would go to the Silk, but since they're relatively new and rare, even if you did manage to find a used pair I don't think they would have yet depreciated down near the $2K range.

Steve

[JLM]

IMO rear mounted ports get a bad rap.  The distance needed to make connections is sufficient to to give breathing space (assuming top/bottom or sides are open).  Proper vibration isolation and elimination of reflections from desktop/coffee table is more important.

I just picked up a pair of Dynaudio BM5 Mk III (2-way active stand/desk mounts) for $850 from Amazon ($1600 MSRP).  They are the bigger/active version of the well respected Excite X14 ($1500/pair MSRP).  F3 = 42 Hz, rated 118 dB/w/m.  Hand built in Denmark.  Come with IsoAcoustics stands.  Huge sound, dynamic, accurate, neutral, silky clear, easily integrates with a subwoofer, but has a rear port (stuff with a sock if that bugs you).  Sell you DAC, pre/power amp for a DAC/preamp.

[Phil A]

Welcome to AC! I like Salk too (although I don't own a pair yet)

[srb]

I personally do like ribbon tweeters, and once you've heard the RAALs they can often spoil you for other high frequency transducers, particularly for acoustic, male voices, soft jazz, soft rock and alternative rock. 

If you want to get the price down even a bit further, another option would be to have Jim Salk build you a custom cabinet version of Dennis Murphy's Philharmonic Audio Philharmonitor.

It uses a 5.5" ScanSpeak Revelator woofer and a slightly different narrower RAAL ribbon tweeter, and of course you can get it in black/grey or medium cherry with a front port for only $1450.

Steve

[kenJay]

Thanks All,
Appreciate the advice and comments:
Does anyone know the difference between Salk silk and Salk supercharges surrounds besides the woofer? Assume there are more quality parts/upgrades in the Salk Silk? Any listening experiences comparing the 2?

Also is there still an issue w/ the RAAL ribbon tweeter not being able to vertically disperse sound?
Listened to the Aerial Acoustic 5T at a local dealer yesterday. Very capable speaker but at $3800 above my budget (unless I can find one use)
As stated, looking for a front port as speaker will be 6" from back wall and all that I read shows that rear prt speakers should be at least 1 foot or ideally 2 feet from rear wall. (unless that is a false statement) and I should include them in my search.
Lastly does anyone know Dennis's website to check out his product offering.
Thanks again
Ken
 

[JohnR]

Does anyone know the difference between Salk silk and Salk supercharges surrounds besides the woofer?

Hi, you may find it better to ask more specific questions such as this directly in the Salk Circle.

[Dmason]

If you are inclined to keep all your amps, preamps, etc., I would seriously consider the Omega Alnico Monitor, for all the reasons widely mentioned on the Omega site. The sonic results, and value are off the charts.

If I personally were looking for stand mount speakers I would look active. There is now a plethora of offers that completely slay much of what is available in passives at similar price points. Dynaudio actives are superb, and the newer to North America Sonodyne actives, particularly the SRP400, are getting insanely great reviews. Feed these high resolution pro audio active speakers high resolution material and you will be in heaven.  Having said all that, I am a big believer in buying American/Canadian. So, with the Omega speakers, sans crossovers, you in effect get an active speaker, built in America.

[srb]

Lastly does anyone know Dennis's website to check out his product offering.
Thanks again

http://www.philharmonicaudio.com/

[kenJay]

THANKS to all for responding !
I just picked up a pair of Salk Silk used WOW !!!
Amazing sound
My music never sounded so good
I cannot believe the deep based from these small speakers.
Thanks again to all for your help
Peace
Ken

[JLM]

What happened to all the replies?

[Guy 13]

I am no expert in bookshelve speakers,
so I let other experiencedAudioCircle members
comments.
Sorry.

Guy 13
on planet Vietnam.

[srb]

What happened to all the replies?

Apparently two identical topics were started on the 17th - this one was posted first, then another (the one containing all of the replies) with a slightly different title was posted ~ 38 minutes later:

Help with Monitor/Bookshelf Speaker Purchase

Steve

[kenJay]

Yes, sorry, I first posted here and them realized it was the wrong area.
So reposted.
I was trying to delete this original post but could not find out how.
Peace
ken

[Letitroll98]

I'll get admin to combine them, np.

[adminRH]

The two topics are merged. The posts from each thread appear in order of the original timestamp, so they are kinda shuffled together.

Thanks Letitroll98,
Rich

[srb]

There was no information or relating comments in the first topic.  Just delete #14 and #16-#20.