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Define good quality.
My years of experience at this tells me that far too many people are searching for deeper bass in their loudspeakers while overlooking the fact that the equipment ahead of the speakers simply is not reproducing the last two octaves down cleanly or transparently. If you get everything ahead of the speakers really working well, almost always you will hear significantly cleaner and deeper bass than you did before from the same old speakers, assuming they were good ones in the first place and that the listening room is decent.For example, a great speaker like the HT3 will not play clean musical bass if driven by an inadequate source system. The Songtower will go deeper and cleaner than you would believe if the electronics give it a chance.Best regards,Frank Van Alstine
Quote from: funkmonkey on 13 Apr 2008, 09:21 pmJust thought I would chime in here, since I am the guy that Jim sent the original e-mail to. I listened to a lot of speakers in the last few months and about a third of the way through, I gave up on finding what I wanted, for under $2,000. Once I started listening to speakers that were more in the $4-5,000-ish range I started to hear what I was looking for. With Jim's explanation I realized that my initial search may have been a little naive. You guys can argue all you want about the practicality or necessity of what I was looking for, but the bottom line is: that is what I want. Thanks to all of you who stopped in over at AVS, and actually took the time to read my thread. My solution to the $2000 challenge was to forget the initial budget and spend the money to get what I wanted, soundwise. For me it was a pair of HT3's. Jim set up an audition for me with a local owner because he thought that the HT3's were what I was looking for, and that hearing them would be a good reference point for me as I continued my search. At no time did he try and "sell" me the HT3's, but after I had heard them I quickly realized that I would be happy with nothing less than a pair of my own. I gave him my deposit about a week after I had heard them. Now I am anxiously waiting for the their arrival Someone posted in the beginning of this thread about the DIY option, and it is my opinion that DIY would be the only way to get the sound I was looking for for under $2g's, even then that may be a stretch. The SongTowers came very close, as did the Totem Hawks, but once I had heard the HT3's there really was no contest. Game Over. I win, my wallet lost. Thank you also for the continuing support and helpful insights of both Jim Salk, and Dennis Murphy that helped lead me to these fantastic speakers. You guys are great. I am proud to join the ranks of Salk Sound speaker owners.Cheers,Funk
Just thought I would chime in here, since I am the guy that Jim sent the original e-mail to. I listened to a lot of speakers in the last few months and about a third of the way through, I gave up on finding what I wanted, for under $2,000. Once I started listening to speakers that were more in the $4-5,000-ish range I started to hear what I was looking for. With Jim's explanation I realized that my initial search may have been a little naive. You guys can argue all you want about the practicality or necessity of what I was looking for, but the bottom line is: that is what I want. Thanks to all of you who stopped in over at AVS, and actually took the time to read my thread. My solution to the $2000 challenge was to forget the initial budget and spend the money to get what I wanted, soundwise. For me it was a pair of HT3's. Jim set up an audition for me with a local owner because he thought that the HT3's were what I was looking for, and that hearing them would be a good reference point for me as I continued my search. At no time did he try and "sell" me the HT3's, but after I had heard them I quickly realized that I would be happy with nothing less than a pair of my own. I gave him my deposit about a week after I had heard them. Now I am anxiously waiting for the their arrival Someone posted in the beginning of this thread about the DIY option, and it is my opinion that DIY would be the only way to get the sound I was looking for for under $2g's, even then that may be a stretch. The SongTowers came very close, as did the Totem Hawks, but once I had heard the HT3's there really was no contest. Game Over. I win, my wallet lost. Thank you also for the continuing support and helpful insights of both Jim Salk, and Dennis Murphy that helped lead me to these fantastic speakers. You guys are great. I am proud to join the ranks of Salk Sound speaker owners.Cheers,Funk
Quote from: TomS on 15 Apr 2008, 01:33 pmMarty,That is still one of the most beautiful veneer jobs I've ever seen on a speaker (Tineo?). It's also nice to see someone else still has one of those 250lb+ XBR's sitting around too (yes, I do). Very nice looking system. Congrats to you too Funk! You'll absolutely love them.Tom
Marty,That is still one of the most beautiful veneer jobs I've ever seen on a speaker (Tineo?). It's also nice to see someone else still has one of those 250lb+ XBR's sitting around too (yes, I do). Very nice looking system. Congrats to you too Funk! You'll absolutely love them.Tom
I know you won't give up the speakers, but could you ship me out the rug? Really nice.
Presumably you've heard the HT3s? It's fair to say it would depend on your listening room. Getting a subwoofer well-integrated is usually a challenge. Obviously Jim wouldn't design a "SongSub" if he didn't think it could work, but he also designed the SongTowers as a good way around needing to use a sub (as are the HT3s). The advantage of using a subwoofer (or woofers) is the ability to place the bass apart from the mains (imaging vs. bass response); the advantage of using a quarter-wave TL bass, like in the SongTowers, is getting smooth bass response with fewer fussy placement issues (not to mention phase issues). And it could be that the SongSub is better integrated with sealed (non-ported) SongTowers (I feel like I've read that somewhere??). Well, I do seem to remember reading that the Veracity QW (another TL design) wasn't ideally suited for subwoofer use, fwiw...I feel that when your mains extend down to 40Hz or so you're definitely in subwoofer-optional territory. Especially when you've got an unsealed, ported design (though ports can be plugged of course). And especially especially when the bass is as smooth as the STs' is reported to be.
If it were me, if I wanted more bass I'd save for the HT3s, which would be a bona fide upgrade, instead going through the hassle of mating subwoofer to STs. I've found that a lot of people go to the trouble of getting that sub, and then they leave it off most of the time because the mains do such a great job (for music listening as opposed to HT that is). (Or maybe it's because the subwoofer does an imperfect job..) That's assuming the HT3s would work just as well in my listening room -- they produce a lot of bass and have very flat frequency response, so good room treatments are essential.
Nice choice of wood.
Well, the HT3's are a bit out of my price range at the moment. Believe me, I wanted to get an audition and hopefully purchase a pair, but I couldn't. The ST's will do very nicely, though. I do, however, still want to mate them with a subwoofer. I know it won't be easy, but I'll get there.
