Post by vmirjamali on Sept 21, 2016 1:14:00 GMT -5
Sound Impressions:
The ribbon tweeters are very detailed but at the same time they aren't harsh to the ears. You have to be aligned to the tweeters for optimum sound so I built my own small stands for them. These can get extremely loud without getting distorted. It's really amazing. I have no need to get the bigger versions of these whatsoever.
The woofers provide excellent sounds down to midbass, but after that imo they are a bit muddy which comes from the size limitation. I put a high pass filter at 80hz at 12db cutoff and it actually made them sound better to me personally and limited the subsonic rumbles on the lowend that bothered me. Some would love the way it sounds but I prefer a more refined bass so I went the subwoofer route. As far as compared to the Adam f5 or emotiva 5s these compare closely enough I wouldn't both going up unless you absolutely don't mind the bigger size.
My Dac/Preamp and thoughts on Setup with subwoofer for 2.1 Setup:
When using the Airmotiv 4s with the Micca Origin+ I've noticed that you should use them with 50% on the windows side, and then 75% (2-3 o click position on the Micca) for the best quality sound. You can then adjust further in the player to adjust it to your liking. But this for me achieves the richest sound from the Airmotiv 4s.
If you don't do this, at super low levels there will be a channel imbalance, and at lower power levels the sound will feel a bit dull and distant. These speakers just feel like they need more juice to show off their true potential.
So at this point if you're satisfied with the bass then awesome. You're all done. If not like me due to me being spoiled from owning a Rythmik LV12R for my home theater you can get yourself a subwoofer.
I'm using them with a Rythmik L12 (I got it for $500 shipped due to multi sub discount with one I got for living room). Ideally you should go with a SB-1000/2000 as they have a built in high pass filter at 80hz, are small, and have built in outputs. But at $200 less for the same output as the SB2000, I couldn't pass up the L12's from rythmik. These are the high end options. There are plenty of cheaper options but I wanted to not deal with upgrade-itis and get back to working again. Setting them up was as simple as using a splitter and getting a fmod filter inline at 100hz as a HPF and stringing them up. Works like a charm now. Shakes the room, while being able to fully blend into the speakers.
Cons: They don't auto standby after 20 minutes or whatnot which means you have to manually hook them up to a switch physically otherwise they waste 30 watt each just sitting. Annoying blue light, I used a colored piece of tape to dim them. They also don't have a built in subwoofer out rca port or HPF built in (adam f5's for instance do, but the svs subs have this regardless if you go that route). They also have low level white noise that is heard if you put your ear to the tweeter or woofer, but according to online research this is normal to all active speakers.
Final Verdict: For the price you can't beat these. They sound better than the LSR305's, Audioengine's A5's, Adam f5's, and are smaller than them as well. They are well built, sturdy, and look awesome according to my wife (WAF is high). If you're looking for the best powered speakers under $300 shipped you can't bea these, get them.
