Home Audio Systems

Ben Lagman

Ben Lagman

Freshman
Jan 11, 2011
91
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Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, United States
I was recently at my local Best Buy and was looking around at some of the Home Audio Entertainment Systems and thought some of them sounded great. I got some demos at the Mongolia part of my local Best Buy, and I'm not going to lie, was pretty impressed with some of the stuff there. Sure, not all were amazing, but I thought a few of the speakers there were were surprisingly nice. When listening to music playback, I liked some speakers made by a brand called B&W. They were tower speakers, and were about 4 feet tall or around there and were around $700 to $1,500 each depending on the model. What brands/models have you guys enjoyed for home use?
 
Re: Home Audio Systems

The only B&W's I've heard were the 802 Diamonds. Other than the bass not going deep enough, I liked them. I don't know if I could justify the cost.

For home use, I would look at the Danley SM-60F's and DTS-10. Dual duty for listening, and demo'ing for work.
 
Re: Home Audio Systems

I've found for a small home audio system there isn't much need to mic the drum kit, or put anything more than keys and vocals through the PA, which can then be handled by a pair of modest sized (plastic 12") speakers on sticks and a few hundred watt PA head.

JR
 

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Re: Home Audio Systems

Ben Lagman said:
When listening to music playback, I liked some speakers made by a brand called B&W. They were tower speakers, and were about 4 feet tall or around there and were around $700 to $1,500 each depending on the model. What brands/models have you guys enjoyed for home use?
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Ben,

Your newbie light is showing :)~:-)~:smile:

Bowers and Wilkins is one of the grandfathers of the British HiFi world.

Anything from B&W that Best Buy is selling likely comes from an off shore facility. The big dollar B&W stuff comes from England.

The B&W 802 is one of the "standards" of recording studios and mastering. The latest incarnation of this loudspeaker has a diamond tweeter.

There's a lot of good physics on the B&W website. I suggest poking around, you'll learn something!

Another historic player in this space is ATC. Billy Woodman is a sharp loudspeaker designer, and it was great to meet him at AES several years ago.

HiFi people have much different criteria than over here in the pro-sound world. Power response and directivity behavior is totally different than what we deal with (i.e. not thought about enough).
 
Re: Home Audio Systems

Phil Graham said:
Ben,

Your newbie light is showing :)~:-)~:smile:

Bowers and Wilkins is one of the grandfathers of the British HiFi world.

Anything from B&W that Best Buy is selling likely comes from an off shore facility. The big dollar B&W stuff comes from England.

The B&W 802 is one of the "standards" of recording studios and mastering. The latest incarnation of this loudspeaker has a diamond tweeter.

There's a lot of good physics on the B&W website. I suggest poking around, you'll learn something!

Another historic player in this space is ATC. Billy Woodman is a sharp loudspeaker designer, and it was great to meet him at AES several years ago.

HiFi people have much different criteria than over here in the pro-sound world. Power response and directivity behavior is totally different than what we deal with (i.e. not thought about enough).
Click to expand...

Apologizes for the 'newbie light' going off (hehe), and thanks for the info and facts. Didn't know that about B&W, and it must've been great to meet Billy Woodman. I was really curious to see what some people here enjoy for their their home use and not in the field but I think I'm getting an idea as of what type of speakers a lot of people here use anyways, haha. Also, a Diamond Tweeter?.. I thought it was just the name of the product, but their website actually says "Diamond Tweeter"... Hmm...
 
Re: Home Audio Systems

I recall years ago Peavey made a microphone (PVM22 IIRC?) using diamond deposition to make a very rigid yet low mass diaphragm.

It seems the same technology might help a tweeter. It sure makes a nice marketing spiel.

JR
 
Re: Home Audio Systems

John Roberts said:
I recall years ago Peavey made a microphone (PVM22 IIRC?) using diamond deposition to make a very rigid yet low mass diaphragm.

It seems the same technology might help a tweeter. It sure makes a nice marketing spiel.

JR
Click to expand...

Jr,

Speed of sound is proportional to the sqrt of the stiffness of the material structure. There are lots of high stiffness materials, but diamond has nearly unparalleled specific stiffness (stiffness/unit mass). If one is trying to maximize the frequency to which pistonic behavior takes place, then diamond is an excellent choice. In this case aa vapor phase grown diamond on a mold that is later removed.
 
Re: Home Audio Systems

Ales Dravinec said:
Phil, you lost me....
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I'm no Phil but... The low mass and high stiffness both seem useful for a HF driver or mic diaphragm.

The breakup mode (just a normal resonance mode) in a diaphragm is associated with the wavelength of the frequency in the particular diaphragm material. So if the speed of sound is faster in a given material, the frequency of the lowest breakup mode for a given diaphragm diameter will be higher.

JR

PS: I guess if we made some diamond coated drumheads, the drum pitch could be silly high. A snare drum that only bats could hear.
 
Re: Home Audio Systems

John Roberts said:
I recall years ago Peavey made a microphone (PVM22 IIRC?) using diamond deposition to make a very rigid yet low mass diaphragm.


JR
Click to expand...

It was (+a neo magnet).

I bought two of them like 15 years ago, still have them. Haven't tried them in years, but seem to recall them sounding good. I'll have to give them a run some time to check out how they sound.

What I do remember is the rubberized finish which had great feel and grip, but rubbed off and stained clothes when handled by really sweaty paws.
 
Re: Home Audio Systems

John Roberts said:
I'm no Phil but... The low mass and high stiffness both seem useful for a HF driver or mic diaphragm.

The breakup mode (just a normal resonance mode) in a diaphragm is associated with the wavelength of the frequency in the particular diaphragm material. So if the speed of sound is faster in a given material, the frequency of the lowest breakup mode for a given diaphragm diameter will be higher.
Click to expand...

JR describes the details properly
 
Re: Home Audio Systems

I have heard some very nice products from Martin Logan. I have slowly started to upgrade my HT setup with a Martin Logan Cinema i center channel, and wont look back till I have some matching Left/Right Logans.
 
Re: Home Audio Systems

Brad Weber said:
The perfect gift, you can give your wife/fiancee/significant other diamonds and at the same time get some nice speakers for yourself.
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In home audio there is a technical term known as WAF. (Wife acceptance factor.)
I'm sure adding diamond anything would greatly improve the WAF.

Regards, Jack
 
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