Anyone familiar with dBX Soundfield V speakers?

[boomzilla]

[405x5]

I used to correspond regularly with someone who worked for DBX and held those systems in high regard.
Like my Allisons, those unusual cab designs and driver placement had the listening room in mind as part of the loudspeaker design.

Bill

[DYohn]

I vaguely remember those. Cheap build quality as I recall - vinyl over particle board - and don't they require an external processor that came with them? I seem to remember all the dbx Soundfield systems had some sort of magic box...

[donh50]

Kind of like Bose and some other designs, the upfiring mid/tweeter drivers add some "space" that you will either like or not. It makes the sound "bigger" in the room at the cost of imaging. IIRC they were aimed straight up and not at an angle like some other speakers so I thought the effect was sort of "lost". The ribbon tweeter is beamy like most smaller ribbons (make sure to maim at your ears). Other than, it has been many, many years since I heard them and nothing stands out in my mind (good or bad).

The dealer I worked for (as a tech, sometimes installing, rarely on the sales floor) carried dbx but IIRC we did not pick up the speaker line after trying them out for a month. Again, don;t recall anything particularly bad, they just did not stand out from the pack.

Funny, I saw (but did not hear) a pair of these a couple of years ago at a friend's house. The tweeters were blown and he was planning to try some replacements from Parts Express, No idea how it turned out; he upgraded to B&W and not sure he ever bothered to repair the dbx speakers.

HTH - Don

[thompson12]

I still have a pair I purchased back in the mid-eighties. They sounded pretty good to me then I only had them hooked up to a cheap Pioneer receiver never had them hooked up to anything hi end. The 15 inch woofers need to be reformed. I know you don't play your music loud but they did play pretty loud I lived in a single home and the one neighbor used to call the cops on me all the time even during the day. Giving them the knock test the cabinets don't sound any less than my PenDragons. I believe they're just a vinyl veneer finish. Never did any critical listening back then we were just into parting and loud music.


Mitch

[thompson12]

Feb 16, 2020 17:15:24 GMT -5 donh50 said:

Kind of like Bose and some other designs, the upfiring mid/tweeter drivers add some "space" that you will either like or not. It makes the sound "bigger" in the room at the cost of imaging. IIRC they were aimed straight up and not at an angle like some other speakers so I thought the effect was sort of "lost". The ribbon tweeter is beamy like most smaller ribbons (make sure to maim at your ears). Other than, it has been many, many years since I heard them and nothing stands out in my mind (good or bad).

The dealer I worked for (as a tech, sometimes installing, rarely on the sales floor) carried dbx but IIRC we did not pick up the speaker line after trying them out for a month. Again, don;t recall anything particularly bad, they just did not stand out from the pack.

Funny, I saw (but did not hear) a pair of these a couple of years ago at a friend's house. The tweeters were blown and he was planning to try some replacements from Parts Express, No idea how it turned out; he upgraded to B&W and not sure he ever bothered to repair the dbx speakers.

HTH - Don

I remember when I purchased these the name of these were dBX Soundfield V Imaging speakers.
Mitch

[boomzilla]

Thank y'all kindly - exactly what I wanted to know.