[shaolin95]

Hi!
Maybe some of you remember that I sent an email to many HT magazines asking them to do an Online Speaker Company shootout. Unfortunately as most of you and I expected, none of the magz say yes to the idea pressumably because none of the online companies pay enough in ads to "earn" a review...sad but true thats the honesty of mag reviews now adays.
There is good news still, Ecoustics.com is going to do the Faceoff article and they are working on it just now. It will take sometime as its a complex thing but we will appreciate any input (I dont work for them but since I gave the idea they are listening to my opinions about how to do it).

Here are the products to be reviewed:
AXIOM:    Bookshelf model M22ti ($400) Tower model M40ti ($490)
HTD:       Bookshelf model Level 4 ($499)  Tower model Level 3($429)
Fluance:   Tower SV-10 ($299) also TOWERS ES-1 ($399)
Ascend Acoustics:  Bookshelf CBM-170 ($328)
Aperion :   Bookshel  MODEL f522D-LR ($180 EACH)
Onyx Rocket model RS150 ($399)


As you can see with are doing an under $500 FaceOff first and will do an under $1000 later. My opinions is that we should compare all speakers based on price and not based on speaker type (ie tower or bookshelf) since lets say, Company A sells a tower for $400 a pair and Company B sells a Bookshelf also for $400 pair, I want to know which one is the better bang for the buck since they cost the same. If we were to separate into speaker types it will IMHO defeat the purpose of the article which is to find out which Speaker is the real Best-bang-for-the-buck. I mean, isnt Company A's fault that Company B prices a bookshelf at the same price at Company A's tower. Besides, just because of being a tower it doesnt mean that it is going to sound better than a bookshelf, ,more bass probably yes, but sonically better is another story. Hope to hear your opinions on this article.
Regards

[maxwalrath]

Sounds great, my only suggestion would be to change soures/amps once to give the underperformers the benefit of the doubt. System synergy can throw things off sometimes.

Plus I hate it when manufacturers say "you didn't try it with tubes/digital/high powered ss etc."

[shaolin95]

We are having a little a problem regarding one point in particular. He wants to compare towers vs towers and bookshelves vs bookshelves. I think that defeats the purpose of the article which is to know wich one offers the best bang for the buck under $500pair. I mean, if Fluance sells towers for $200 pair and Ascend Acoustics sells the 170 bookshelf for $380pair, that isnt Fluance's fault. We still need to know if indeed the higher priced bookshelf is better than the tower. Just because it is a tower doesnt mean it is better. We are not looking for the one with more bass but with better sound quality, imaging, all that. All I want to know is where are my $500 or less better spend and it doesnt matter if its a BK or Tower. Do you agree?

[brj]

And the other question: Do you ignore the cost of speaker stands?

-Brian

[shaolin95]

Pretty much we wont take it into account but will mentioned it as a side note. When you factor the stand, a bookshelf takes almost the same space as a tower and for maybe even more money thats why I think it is fair to compare them all together.
Regards

[Carlman]

It's fair to compare them together because many consumers who would buy a $500 or less speaker may not know whether they want a monitor or floorstander.

Why not let the speakers 'speak' for themselves.  If when doing the review, all the towers sound better than all the monitors or vice versa, then categorize.  If there's no clear distinction, let the price be the only distinction.

How will the magazine make more or less money by categorizing towers and monitors?  It won't.  

Does this help?

[maxwalrath]

Whathifi compares floorstanders to monitors. I bought my first "high end" speakers based partially on the review.
I should add they were Dyn 50's. They were exactly what I wanted. I went to home depot and got some cinder blocks to put them on until the stands I ordered arrived.
I still wonder how a stack of, from bottom to top, cones-cinderblock-cones-cinderblock-blutack-speaker would hold up.

[bubba966]

This has been moved to Audio Central as it's not really an HT topic, but a general speaker discussion.

[MaxCast]

Depending on who is doing the judging, I would separate floor vs book.   Cheap Home Theater did something like this a couple years ago.

Is this for 2 channel or HT?  If for HT you could run them through a xo and turn the sub off so all would behave simularily.

Also, take the winner and include it in the $1000 speaker shoot out.

[Haoleb]

This should be very intersting!

Im an Axiom fan. I own the M80ti's and from what ive read in past head to head comparisons with the same or similar speakers the axioms came in usually around 2nd place. One word of advice, break in the axioms before doing the auditions because they will smooth out pretty nicely with a few hours.

You should also post about this on the Axiom forums if you havent already becuase everyone else will surely want to know about it!

[mattburk]

What ever happend to the results? Is that in a different thread. I was thinking about picking up a 5.1 HTD system or rocket elt system.
What do you think?

Hi!
Maybe some of you remember that I sent an email to many HT magazines asking them to do an Online Speaker Company shootout. Unfortunately as most of you and I expected, none of the magz say yes to the idea pressumably because none of the online companies pay enough in ads to "earn" a review...sad but true thats the honesty of mag reviews now adays.
There is good news still, Ecoustics.com is going to do the Faceoff article and they are working on it just now. It will take sometime as its a complex thin ...