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Post by synesis on May 26, 2017 21:51:21 GMT -5
Last night I wrote this review emotivalounge.proboards.com/post/889603/thread from my visit to Emotiva the day before. i wrote it under the name SynRG as a visitor because my Synesis account was not yet approved. As part of that review I noted how impressed I was with the Stealth 8, and also how Damon's audition had muddied my water for the plans I had for a set of monitors for my office studio, and for a set of tower speakers in another room. Today my wife and I went shopping and while she went to another store, I dropped into a pawn shop to kill some time, laughing to my self that you always hope to find a holy grail in these places but never do. As I was perusing the audio equipment aisle, I looked up and lo and behold, there was a set of Stealth 6's in pristine condition. One was still in the box, and the other was out for display. The price is $575 including tax. To make matters worse, I received an email from a guy who had a pair of little-used Dynaudio BM6A MKII's who had decided to accept a low offer I had made him earlier in the week of $500 for the pair. I have not heard the Stealth 6's, only the 8's. I know the 8's play lower of course, but wonder how similar the 6's are to the 8's otherwise. It has been a couple of years since I have heard the BM6A's and I can't find any on display locally as they are now discontinued, but I remember that of the monitors I auditioned then they were definitely my favorite. So I now face the dilemma of getting a set of monitors I know I like, or a set of the Stealth 6's that I haven't heard in hopes that they will be very close to the Stealth 8's, or put a couple hundred more with it and get a set of the T1's that I was also so impressed with. Anyone with experience comparing any of these, I'd appreciate any input. Thanks in advance. |
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Post by creimes on May 26, 2017 23:47:18 GMT -5
If you can I say buy both the Stealth 6`s and the Dynaudio`s and compare for yourself and sell the ones that you don`t pick as the winner, I have owned the Stealth 6 and I was absolutely amazed at how low they went for their size, I had to tame a 40hz peak in my room with them but their sound was ohhhh soooo good.
Chad
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Post by vcautokid on May 27, 2017 5:27:26 GMT -5
The Stealth 6 is great. About perfect size for a Studio Bridge or Desk, also great in allot of other applications too like a bedroom system where great sound doesn't always mean I need bigger. The Airmotiv 5s 6s are excellent as well. The Airmotiv 4s too is fine too where small is needed, but it never got the memo that it needed to sound small.
The Stealth 8 for me at least is the take no prisoners dynamics, punch and drive powered monitor that has great low end extension, midrange that tells all, and highs that are spot on. If you have the space because they are bit bigger than the Stealth 6, they will rock your world. They are amazing the Stealth 8. They always impress me everytime I listen to them.
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Post by stads77 on May 27, 2017 8:08:12 GMT -5
Having owned both the Stealth 8 and 6, I would say in a near field setup I would probably prefer the 6 as its size is much smaller and you get all the goodness of the 8. But in a larger space like my living room, the Stealth 8's take the cake. Love them both.
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Post by mfeust on May 27, 2017 11:35:15 GMT -5
If you can I say buy both the Stealth 6`s and the Dynaudio`s and compare for yourself and sell the ones that you don`t pick as the winner, I have owned the Stealth 6 and I was absolutely amazed at how low they went for their size, I had to tame a 40hz peak in my room with them but their sound was ohhhh soooo good. Chad +1 I also say get both and do a complete compairo. Then write a great review like your other one about your visit to Emotiva. Mark |
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Post by jmontoya21 on May 27, 2017 12:54:22 GMT -5
I own the Stealth 6 and think are fine speakers, very convenient because they're powered,impressive bass for their size,value beyond compare,having said that i have to think that there is there's better out there,but i must confess that i was using them as 2.1 stereo listening instead of their intended purpose which is near field studio recording,mixing, etc,also look at what they're going up against in my room. I haven't given up on them yet as i intend in using them for a home studio in the near future. i would also recommend that you look into Tekton Design"s Monitor Line, but i know there's isn't much info out there on them.  DSC_2872 by jmontoya21, on Flickr |
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Post by Percussionista on May 27, 2017 14:49:40 GMT -5
I have both 6's and 8's in different rooms and have tried the 8's briefly in my main theater room and on my PC desk. For near-field, as in right on your desk, a few feet from your ear and no more than 5 feet apart center-to-center, I would prefer the 6's. They are superbly balanced speakers and go plenty low enough with good clear heft. If you absolutely must have the lowest octave rumbling your tummy, cross over to a subwoofer instead. When I still had room on the desk I also had tried the 8's, but they are really domineering speakers right up close, and I had some experimentation to do to avoid having boominess when I had them too close to the back wall. Once you place these in a normal theater-type listening position, both you and the speakers many feet apart, I would definitely go with the 8's for that extra solidity at the bottom. Also, if your near-field set-up isn't quite as "near" as mine is, where you can have the speakers on stands out from your desk, then the 8's might be terrific.
I remember briefly testing the 8's in the theater room when first received, substituting them for my Vandersteen 3A signatures (3-way towers), and we watched the very dynamic movie Star Trek, Into Darkness, and brother they kicked a$$. I have them now in my bedroom system, with a 6 as center. My only concern with using these as front speakers in a large theater/music listening situation is the sound envelope they produce - or may produce - depends on your situation. In my home theater location when listening to a music recording you could almost see a large rectangular envelope around the sound, rather than just filling the room vertically (and horizontally).
I was able to set-up a switching situation between the 3A's and the 8's, though not exactly the same signal path, and two things were very apparent. (1) The very open and large soundstage of the 3A's collapsed when the 8's were switched to, and (2) The clarity and detail of the music was decidedly greater when switching to the 8's. Mind you, the 3A's were at least 15 years old in this comparison. The 8's also seemed to have a larger soundstage than the 6's.
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Post by garbulky on May 27, 2017 15:58:30 GMT -5
I have both 6's and 8's in different rooms and have tried the 8's briefly in my main theater room and on my PC desk. For near-field, as in right on your desk, a few feet from your ear and no more than 5 feet apart center-to-center, I would prefer the 6's. They are superbly balanced speakers and go plenty low enough with good clear heft. If you absolutely must have the lowest octave rumbling your tummy, cross over to a subwoofer instead. When I still had room on the desk I also had tried the 8's, but they are really domineering speakers right up close, and I had some experimentation to do to avoid having boominess when I had them too close to the back wall. Once you place these in a normal theater-type listening position, both you and the speakers many feet apart, I would definitely go with the 8's for that extra solidity at the bottom. Also, if your near-field set-up isn't quite as "near" as mine is, where you can have the speakers on stands out from your desk, then the 8's might be terrific. I remember briefly testing the 8's in the theater room when first received, substituting them for my Vandersteen 3A signatures (3-way towers), and we watched the very dynamic movie Star Trek, Into Darkness, and brother they kicked a$$. I have them now in my bedroom system, with a 6 as center. My only concern with using these as front speakers in a large theater/music listening situation is the sound envelope they produce - or may produce - depends on your situation. In my home theater location when listening to a music recording you could almost see a large rectangular envelope around the sound, rather than just filling the room vertically (and horizontally). I was able to set-up a switching situation between the 3A's and the 8's, though not exactly the same signal path, and two things were very apparent. (1) The very open and large soundstage of the 3A's collapsed when the 8's were switched to, and (2) The clarity and detail of the music was decidedly greater when switching to the 8's. Mind you, the 3A's were at least 15 years old in this comparison. The 8's also seemed to have a larger soundstage than the 6's. Putting a second sub, adjusting the crossover a bit upwards and also toying around with toe in may help a bit with the rectangular sound problem. |
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Post by Percussionista on May 27, 2017 16:56:01 GMT -5
.... My only concern with using these as front speakers in a large theater/music listening situation is the sound envelope they produce - or may produce - depends on your situation. In my home theater location when listening to a music recording you could almost see a large rectangular envelope around the sound, rather than just filling the room vertically (and horizontally). Putting a second sub, adjusting the crossover a bit upwards and also toying around with toe in may help a bit with the rectangular sound problem. Interesting... as I wasn't planning on putting the 8's in for the Vandersteen fronts I didn't spend a lot of time fussing with them. In order to avoid worse issues, I also had to place them just ahead of the V's, back corner to front corner, so the 8's were inside of the V's but just forward. This also put them way into the room, perhaps too much; the V's are 3-4 feet out. For real testing I would have had to physically move the V's away, which I was not really up for doing. My experience with setting crossovers for the fronts are to actually lower the crossover to the let the main speakers handle the basics that they handle well. The subwoofers never seem as clean, maybe not "fast enough", as the low end of good fronts. The V3A's have both a 10" woofer in the front, but also a passive 10" radiator in the back, and when there's some really low stuff presented, both are decidedly pumping! I generally cross-over below 80Hz, how far depends on the main speakers. If not, things are usually "fuzzier" ;-) |
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Post by synesis on May 27, 2017 20:13:43 GMT -5
$550 including tax for pristine Stealth Sixes. Just couldn't pass it up. Had to go to guitar center to get a cable to go from my 3.5 mm stereo connector on the mac mini on my desk to the XLS required by the monitors. First guy we talked to had no idea what we needed.  10 minutes later a second guy came by and went and got the "pro audio guy". I told him what I needed and he took me right to it immediately.  I went home and hooked everything up in my office/studio. I sampled several albums, but Celine Dion's, "A New Day" was especially moving. Also sample remixed Led Zeppelin, Queen, and various Rock albums. It is soon apparent that the Sixes show how good the mix and recording on a given work are. My office is about 13' by 13'. I listened in the near field, and also from the adjacent open rooms for grins. These guys are big and powerful in their soundstage. In the near field, bass is great, but listening from a larger environment a little less so. For desktop use a sum is probably unnecessary as the bass is deep and clean, but in larger rooms you'd need the Eights and/or a sub. It was soon apparent that the normal cues we get for our perception of loudness in distortions of various kinds occurs at a much higher threshold with these monitors, one of the beauties in being able to design a driver specifically with its active amp. These monitors will play much louder than you realize. It occurred to me that the Sixes may not have even had enough time on them to break in, so I guess I'll have to man up and just listen loudly for several hours over the next few days to make sure. Tomorrow, I will likely hook them up to my TV in the family room just for comparison and grins. I'll also have to use a 3.5 mm outlet, as I currently have nothing to serve as a D/A off of either the Toslink or USB ports on the Mac Mini, or the Toslink optical output on the TV. Even using the inexpensive D/A's on the TV and MacMini that drive the analog 3.5 ports, the Sixes sound exceptional. But it only whet's my appetite for finding out how good they will be with a proper D/A and preamp. (Suggestions welcome). Couldn't be more pleased with the bargain I ran across. I have thought about also getting the Dynaudios as well, but I am torn between that and putting the money toward some towers for the family room. Which puts me back to relative merits of the T1 vis the T2 vs. the RP-260F's. Given what I have already heard from the Stealth Sixes, they build a pretty compelling cast for the Airmotiv's. |
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Post by creimes on May 27, 2017 21:04:50 GMT -5
$550 including tax for pristine Stealth Sixes. Just couldn't pass it up. Had to go to guitar center to get a cable to go from my 3.5 mm stereo connector on the mac mini on my desk to the XLS required by the monitors. First guy we talked to had no idea what we needed. 10 minutes later a second guy came by and went and got the "pro audio guy". I told him what I needed and he took me right to it immediately. I went home and hooked everything up in my office/studio. I sampled several albums, but Celine Dion's, "A New Day" was especially moving. Also sample remixed Led Zeppelin, Queen, and various Rock albums. It is soon apparent that the Sixes show how good the mix and recording on a given work are. My office is about 13' by 13'. I listened in the near field, and also from the adjacent open rooms for grins. These guys are big and powerful in their soundstage. In the near field, bass is great, but listening from a larger environment a little less so. For desktop use a sum is probably unnecessary as the bass is deep and clean, but in larger rooms you'd need the Eights and/or a sub. It was soon apparent that the normal cues we get for our perception of loudness in distortions of various kinds occurs at a much higher threshold with these monitors, one of the beauties in being able to design a driver specifically with its active amp. These monitors will play much louder than you realize. It occurred to me that the Sixes may not have even had enough time on them to break in, so I guess I'll have to man up and just listen loudly for several hours over the next few days to make sure. Tomorrow, I will likely hook them up to my TV in the family room just for comparison and grins. I'll also have to use a 3.5 mm outlet, as I currently have nothing to serve as a D/A off of either the Toslink or USB ports on the Mac Mini, or the Toslink optical output on the TV. Even using the inexpensive D/A's on the TV and MacMini that drive the analog 3.5 ports, the Sixes sound exceptional. But it only whet's my appetite for finding out how good they will be with a proper D/A and preamp. (Suggestions welcome). Couldn't be more pleased with the bargain I ran across. I have thought about also getting the Dynaudios as well, but I am torn between that and putting the money toward some towers for the family room. Which puts me back to relative merits of the T1 vis the T2 vs. the RP-260F's. Given what I have already heard from the Stealth Sixes, they build a pretty compelling cast for the Airmotiv's. A steal at $99 |
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Post by garbulky on May 27, 2017 22:44:01 GMT -5
Bro..... you NEED to get a dac. Th dc1 is a fantastic combo. But you could also get the ego. But the dc1 is going to be gold on this. But not th mac mother nis headphone out.
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Post by synesis on May 27, 2017 22:51:34 GMT -5
Oh, absolutely I'd like a DAC, but its just which one? I just hooked the Stealths up because I was too impatient to wait until I could get one. Even so, the Stealths on a 3.5mm output are far better than what I have had, but I get the feeling they are like an eager thoroughbred waiting for the DAC gate to open.
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Post by vcautokid on May 28, 2017 16:43:22 GMT -5
Here are my Stealth 8 speakers in Action. My S7 Smartphone does not do them justice, but we use what we have. Tied in with my PreSonus AR-12 Mixer, and Tascam DR-100 mk.3, and Lenovo i7 Laptop computer.
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Post by vcautokid on May 28, 2017 18:01:30 GMT -5
XMC-1 and STealth 6s in action with the Airmotiv 6 surrounds, and the SVS SB13 Ultra Subwoofer, and the Denon DVD-3910 source, and the Sony UHD XBR-800D 4K TV at the ready.
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Post by teaman on May 28, 2017 18:01:57 GMT -5
Here are my Stealth 8 speakers in Action. My S7 Smartphone does not do them justice, but we use what we have. Tied in with my PreSonus AR-12 Mixer, and Tascam DR-100 mk.3, and Lenovo i7 Laptop computer. Strange I can't hear them at all with my pc speakers off... |
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Post by vcautokid on May 28, 2017 18:07:39 GMT -5
Oh oh, is this an excuse for a new computer? Just kidding Teaman. Hope your are doing well.
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Post by teaman on May 28, 2017 18:16:02 GMT -5
Oh oh, is this an excuse for a new computer? Just kidding Teaman. Hope your are doing well. Thanks buddy, those Stealth 8's sounded great...now that I turned the volume controls on! Tim |
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Post by synesis on May 28, 2017 23:53:46 GMT -5
Critically listening to some favorite cuts... Awesome monitors, true to the original performance. I happen know some of the folks whose recordings I listen to, or have heard them live, so I can compare the monitors representation to what I know their actual voices sound like. Spot on.
As expected in the near field the low end response is there,and of course would have been stronger with eights, but for the deal I got these are great for near field at my desk, and also for listening throughout the downstairs.
Having heard the T2's last week and the excellent integrated low end on those, I do wonder what a sub would sound like with the sixes, especially if I decide to use them in the larger family room with the TV. I have a JL Audio 12W6 and Incriminator Audio Flatlyne sub from car audio, a willing friend with a wood shop, so I could build a sub. Or I could choose from among Emotiva's 5 offerings. To some extent its a question of output in a given area, but all subs do have a sound characteristic, and I wonder which would be the most transparent with the sixes.
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Post by Tungx2 on Jun 10, 2019 11:38:43 GMT -5
I think I'm going down the road with Stealth 8s as my home theater setup.
However I only have 2 stealth 8's.
Should I hunt for a stealth 6 or stealth 8 for the center channel?
or maybe I should just get some other active speaker for the size issue?
Even a stealth 8 on its side will be a very big center speaker
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10 minutes later a second guy came by and went and got the "pro audio guy". I told him what I needed and he took me right to it immediately. 
