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Post by Cogito on Aug 29, 2020 18:36:49 GMT -5
Okay, so a couple days ago I received a pair of Edifier S3000Pro powered loudspeakers for a bedroom system. After 10 minutes of unboxing and unwrapping, I placed them on a pair of Pangea DS400 stands I had kicking around in my basement. Grabbing my iPhone8, a quick Bluetooth pairing and a press of an icon to start up Tidal, I streamed "Little Wing" by Special EFX and my jaw dropped! How the "F" is this HUGE sound coming from these little bookshelf speakers?  ? I quickly turn up a volume a bit and BOOM, I'm feeling the bass in my chest. Not thumpy/lumpy/bloated bass, but clean, detailed, deep and articulate! WAIT! A 6 1/2" mid/bass cone can't do this, at least not without compromising the sound quality in some way, right? "Okay" I said, "let's check out some horns now". A bit of Herlin Riley's "You Don't Know What Love is" should do the job. After all, to get that kind of bass from these little boxes, they must have screwed up the mid-range somehow. Well, goddamn! What kind of voodoo, "pact with the devil" magic are they using? The horns were right on! No squawk, no honk, just beautiful articulation sassy, jazzy brass! What about the top end? Well, from the dozen or so reviews I listened to on YOUTUBE (Yes, I know. Hardly a proper way to audition speakers), they sounded way too sibilant. But in "real life", they are quite smooth and no way as overbearing as they sounded on the videos. Snares and hi-hats sounded natural and detailed. Slightly forward, but natural sounding. Call me impressed... Are these speakers the ultimate in bookshelf systems? No, not quite. Playing at very high (Uncomfortable) levels, there's some compression that creeps in. You can only ask so much out of a 6 1/2" driver and 128 Watts RMS per channel and a selling price of $799.99. But when played within reasonable (and some unreasonable) levels, these puppies kick some ass! Would these replace my current system, nah... But If I were in the market for a 2.0 system with a budget of less that $1000, these would DEFINITELY be on my short list. |
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Post by creimes on Aug 29, 2020 20:43:07 GMT -5
Have you ever heard the Emotiva Airmotiv 6s or Stealth 6, they are both very impressive speakers, I had a pair of 6s and sold them as I really didn't have a place to put them, but man they were awesome speakers, the 5s I have still reside at y desktop system  Glad to hear you have something you enjoy because that's what it's all about. Cheers, Chad |
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Post by novisnick on Aug 29, 2020 20:44:25 GMT -5
Okay, so a couple days ago I received a pair of Edifier S3000Pro powered loudspeakers for a bedroom system. After 10 minutes of unboxing and unwrapping, I placed them on a pair of Pangea DS400 stands I had kicking around in my basement. Grabbing my iPhone8, a quick Bluetooth pairing and a press of an icon to start up Tidal, I streamed "Little Wing" by Special EFX and my jaw dropped! How the "F" is this HUGE sound coming from these little bookshelf speakers? ? I quickly turn up a volume a bit and BOOM, I'm feeling the bass in my chest. Not thumpy/lumpy/bloated bass, but clean, detailed, deep and articulate! WAIT! A 6 1/2" mid/bass cone can't do this, at least not without compromising the sound quality in some way, right? "Okay" I said, "let's check out some horns now". A bit of Herlin Riley's "You Don't Know What Love is" should do the job. After all, to get that kind of bass from these little boxes, they must have screwed up the mid-range somehow. Well, goddamn! What kind of voodoo, "pact with the devil" magic are they using? The horns were right on! No squawk, no honk, just beautiful articulation sassy, jazzy brass! What about the top end? Well, from the dozen or so reviews I listened to on YOUTUBE (Yes, I know. Hardly a proper way to audition speakers), they sounded way too sibilant. But in "real life", they are quite smooth and no way as overbearing as they sounded on the videos. Snares and hi-hats sounded natural and detailed. Slightly forward, but natural sounding. Call me impressed... Are these speakers the ultimate in bookshelf systems? No, not quite. Playing at very high (Uncomfortable) levels, there's some compression that creeps in. You can only ask so much out of a 6 1/2" driver and 128 Watts RMS per channel and a selling price of $799.99. But when played within reasonable (and some unreasonable) levels, these puppies kick some ass! Would these replace my current system, nah... But If I were in the market for a 2.0 system with a budget of less that $1000, these would DEFINITELY be on my short list. Thanks so much for your well written review. Reading your words made me feel as if both of us were listening to those tracks together. |
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Post by Cogito on Aug 29, 2020 21:12:38 GMT -5
Have you ever heard the Emotiva Airmotiv 6s or Stealth 6, they are both very impressive speakers, I had a pair of 6s and sold them as I really didn't have a place to put them, but man they were awesome speakers, the 5s I have still reside at y desktop system Glad to hear you have something you enjoy because that's what it's all about. Cheers, Chad No, I've never heard them. I've never thought much about powered loudspeakers before, and only considered them for desktop computer speakers (I do own a pair of Swan M200 that I bought about 12-13 years ago and are now sitting in a box in the basement), but certainly not for "hi-fi". I also own a small Class D integrated amp that I thought I'd set up in the bedroom using a Bluetooth receiver, but figured the wiring required would be too messy. That's when I started looking into powered Bluetooth speakers. The Edifier s3000PROs got consistently great reviews, so I figured "What the hell". They are MUCH better than I was expecting. |
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Post by Boomzilla on Aug 30, 2020 9:04:09 GMT -5
ALL of the newer, computer-designed speakers are sounding far better than one would expect for the size and components. The little Klipsch RP-600m speakers also do a disappearing act that's impressive. And I recently heard some KEF iQ series speakers that were shocking in their performance.
In fact, I'd go out on a limb to say that if all your listening is at "normal" living room levels, you shouldn't waste money on a tower speaker at all. A pair of bookshelf speakers and a sub might cost as much as a tower, but since the speakers can be placed in the room for the best imaging, and the sub for the best bass, the sub-sat system will sound better, overall, than the towers.
Don't expect the sat-sub system to do party levels, huge rooms, or dual use as a PA system - but within those limitations...
Boom
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Post by whitwye on Aug 30, 2020 10:27:33 GMT -5
ALL of the newer, computer-designed speakers are sounding far better than one would expect for the size and components. What's the computer calculating? What questions is it being set up to answer? |
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Post by vcautokid on Aug 30, 2020 10:44:22 GMT -5
The Klipsch RP-600m is murder balls good. Soft in the bass department. Maybe one of those new Emotiva Subwoofers? But that speaker is on my RADAR. A speaker that likes to have fun. Accuracy. Shut up about that already. Klipsch RP-600m is about having the good times. Not worrying about if anybody else likes them. Klipsch as of late has amped up what is possible for your money. In my future at least. Not close but definitely in my future.
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Post by Boomzilla on Aug 30, 2020 10:58:01 GMT -5
What's the computer calculating? What questions is it being set up to answer? Dispersion optimization Best locations to apply cabinet damping Driver to enclosure interactions Vibration monitoring of drivers Vibration monitoring of enclosures Crossover optimization Effects of grill on the speaker Optimizing height of drivers from floor Optimizing distance of drivers from each other Effects of suspension differences on drivers Effects of different materials on drivers Effects of different materials on enclosures And many, many more. |
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Post by Boomzilla on Aug 30, 2020 10:59:45 GMT -5
The Klipsch RP-600m is murder balls good. Soft in the bass department. Maybe one of those new Emotiva Subwoofers? But that speaker is on my RADAR. A speaker that likes to have fun. Accuracy. Shut up about that already. Klipsch RP-600m is about having the good times. Not worrying about if anybody else likes them. Klipsch as of late has amped up what is possible for your money. In my future at least. Not close but definitely in my future. I"m regretting having sold mine. Actually considering buying them AGAIN and keeping them the second time around... |
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Post by 405x5 on Aug 30, 2020 11:07:29 GMT -5
Okay, so a couple days ago I received a pair of Edifier S3000Pro powered loudspeakers for a bedroom system. After 10 minutes of unboxing and unwrapping, I placed them on a pair of Pangea DS400 stands I had kicking around in my basement. Grabbing my iPhone8, a quick Bluetooth pairing and a press of an icon to start up Tidal, I streamed "Little Wing" by Special EFX and my jaw dropped! How the "F" is this HUGE sound coming from these little bookshelf speakers? ? I quickly turn up a volume a bit and BOOM, I'm feeling the bass in my chest. Not thumpy/lumpy/bloated bass, but clean, detailed, deep and articulate! WAIT! A 6 1/2" mid/bass cone can't do this, at least not without compromising the sound quality in some way, right? "Okay" I said, "let's check out some horns now". A bit of Herlin Riley's "You Don't Know What Love is" should do the job. After all, to get that kind of bass from these little boxes, they must have screwed up the mid-range somehow. Well, goddamn! What kind of voodoo, "pact with the devil" magic are they using? The horns were right on! No squawk, no honk, just beautiful articulation sassy, jazzy brass! What about the top end? Well, from the dozen or so reviews I listened to on YOUTUBE (Yes, I know. Hardly a proper way to audition speakers), they sounded way too sibilant. But in "real life", they are quite smooth and no way as overbearing as they sounded on the videos. Snares and hi-hats sounded natural and detailed. Slightly forward, but natural sounding. Call me impressed... Are these speakers the ultimate in bookshelf systems? No, not quite. Playing at very high (Uncomfortable) levels, there's some compression that creeps in. You can only ask so much out of a 6 1/2" driver and 128 Watts RMS per channel and a selling price of $799.99. But when played within reasonable (and some unreasonable) levels, these puppies kick some ass! Would these replace my current system, nah... But If I were in the market for a 2.0 system with a budget of less that $1000, these would DEFINITELY be on my short list. Not surprising at all; these small powered loudspeakers have been filling the marketplace over the past several years with astonishing non critical listening capabilities. It’s almost as if all the focus is on successfully outputting the bottom end and then filling in the upper range. As you saw when really trying to crank it, they start struggling but to be expected from such compact packages. Bill |
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Post by whitwye on Aug 30, 2020 14:32:32 GMT -5
What's the computer calculating? What questions is it being set up to answer? Dispersion optimization Best locations to apply cabinet damping Driver to enclosure interactions Vibration monitoring of drivers Vibration monitoring of enclosures Crossover optimization Effects of grill on the speaker Optimizing height of drivers from floor Optimizing distance of drivers from each other Effects of suspension differences on drivers Effects of different materials on drivers Effects of different materials on enclosures And many, many more. Thanks, that's a good list of goals. Are there firms marketing CAD programs for speakers where you can, for example, add an internal brace of a specified material to a specified place, or move the tweeter an inch, and get a prediction of the result? |
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Post by mercury on Aug 30, 2020 16:12:50 GMT -5
Having good times with Klipsch RP600M  |
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Post by Boomzilla on Aug 30, 2020 17:52:04 GMT -5
Thanks, that's a good list of goals. Are there firms marketing CAD programs for speakers where you can, for example, add an internal brace of a specified material to a specified place, or move the tweeter an inch, and get a prediction of the result? There are, but to my knowledge they're mostly proprietary. There are some "consumer" programs available to DIY fans, but from what I understand, they're Model-T Fords compared to the latest Lexus model. Companies such as Meridian, KEF, and others attempt to use cutting edge computer optimization for their products. An available example would be the KEF Blade models. |
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Post by Cogito on Aug 30, 2020 19:05:50 GMT -5
ALL of the newer, computer-designed speakers are sounding far better than one would expect for the size and components. The little Klipsch RP-600m speakers also do a disappearing act that's impressive. And I recently heard some KEF iQ series speakers that were shocking in their performance. In fact, I'd go out on a limb to say that if all your listening is at "normal" living room levels, you shouldn't waste money on a tower speaker at all. A pair of bookshelf speakers and a sub might cost as much as a tower, but since the speakers can be placed in the room for the best imaging, and the sub for the best bass, the sub-sat system will sound better, overall, than the towers. Don't expect the sat-sub system to do party levels, huge rooms, or dual use as a PA system - but within those limitations... Boom LOL What's normal? For me, I might play my system as loud as you'd hear in a club like environment, sitting half way back. Every once in a while, I might crank it up with the appropriate tune I don't want to abuse my ears, especially in my advancing years. I simply enjoy the music way too much. Anyway, my main system plays WAY louder than I can endure and probably IS overkill, especially with the amplification. But it's always better to have more than you need than not have enough of what you need! As far as the Edifiers go, they fill my 16" x 18" x 8' bedroom with impactful sound and more than meet my needs. Hopefully, I don't sound too much like a fanboy, but these speakers really impressed me and that's no easy task. Now I'm eager to check out some other similar systems. I wouldn't have a problem selling off all my gear and just going with a great pair of powered speakers. No tangle of cables and a big stereo rack filled with black boxes. Hell, I can't remember the last time I used my CD Player. I've been streaming everything for the past year. |
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Post by Cogito on Aug 30, 2020 19:25:16 GMT -5
What's the computer calculating? What questions is it being set up to answer? Dispersion optimization Best locations to apply cabinet damping Driver to enclosure interactions Vibration monitoring of drivers Vibration monitoring of enclosures Crossover optimization Effects of grill on the speaker Optimizing height of drivers from floor Optimizing distance of drivers from each other Effects of suspension differences on drivers Effects of different materials on drivers Effects of different materials on enclosures And many, many more. Exactly! DSP obviously has a huge impact on the Edifiers. Even the crossovers are done in the digital domain, allowing fine tuning that typically takes very sophisticated an expensive circuitry. Not to mention, the lack of phase considerations, degradation/changes in the crossover circuity over time, component tolerances , etc. DSP can also allow you to customize the sound of your speakers to fit your tastes I strongly believe that powered speakers like the Edifier S3000PRO are the future of HiFi. The days of 100Lb power amps and stacks of components are very numbered IMHO. |
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Post by Cogito on Aug 30, 2020 19:28:40 GMT -5
Okay, so a couple days ago I received a pair of Edifier S3000Pro powered loudspeakers for a bedroom system. After 10 minutes of unboxing and unwrapping, I placed them on a pair of Pangea DS400 stands I had kicking around in my basement. Grabbing my iPhone8, a quick Bluetooth pairing and a press of an icon to start up Tidal, I streamed "Little Wing" by Special EFX and my jaw dropped! How the "F" is this HUGE sound coming from these little bookshelf speakers? ? I quickly turn up a volume a bit and BOOM, I'm feeling the bass in my chest. Not thumpy/lumpy/bloated bass, but clean, detailed, deep and articulate! WAIT! A 6 1/2" mid/bass cone can't do this, at least not without compromising the sound quality in some way, right? "Okay" I said, "let's check out some horns now". A bit of Herlin Riley's "You Don't Know What Love is" should do the job. After all, to get that kind of bass from these little boxes, they must have screwed up the mid-range somehow. Well, goddamn! What kind of voodoo, "pact with the devil" magic are they using? The horns were right on! No squawk, no honk, just beautiful articulation sassy, jazzy brass! What about the top end? Well, from the dozen or so reviews I listened to on YOUTUBE (Yes, I know. Hardly a proper way to audition speakers), they sounded way too sibilant. But in "real life", they are quite smooth and no way as overbearing as they sounded on the videos. Snares and hi-hats sounded natural and detailed. Slightly forward, but natural sounding. Call me impressed... Are these speakers the ultimate in bookshelf systems? No, not quite. Playing at very high (Uncomfortable) levels, there's some compression that creeps in. You can only ask so much out of a 6 1/2" driver and 128 Watts RMS per channel and a selling price of $799.99. But when played within reasonable (and some unreasonable) levels, these puppies kick some ass! Would these replace my current system, nah... But If I were in the market for a 2.0 system with a budget of less that $1000, these would DEFINITELY be on my short list. Thanks so much for your well written review. Reading your words made me feel as if both of us were listening to those tracks together. Thanks for the kind words. As a technical writer, I am very lacking. Too many things in my mind to organize into print. Maybe Boomzilla can pick up a pair and do a real review. I would be VERY interested in his thoughts. |
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Post by Boomzilla on Aug 30, 2020 22:28:02 GMT -5
I thought you did just GREAT!
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Post by markc on Aug 31, 2020 10:43:03 GMT -5
Thanks, that's a good list of goals. Are there firms marketing CAD programs for speakers where you can, for example, add an internal brace of a specified material to a specified place, or move the tweeter an inch, and get a prediction of the result? There are, but to my knowledge they're mostly proprietary. There are some "consumer" programs available to DIY fans, but from what I understand, they're Model-T Fords compared to the latest Lexus model. Companies such as Meridian, KEF, and others attempt to use cutting edge computer optimization for their products. An available example would be the KEF Blade models. I will put my money betting that a computer was not used to design that speaker! It was designed by a human designer for sexiness and aesthetics and maybe computer modelling was subsequently used to optimise and make the most of the overall style, but only optimising what was possible while keep that design and any limitations it had, rather than designing de novo. |
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Post by Boomzilla on Aug 31, 2020 10:58:11 GMT -5
I will put my money betting that a computer was not used to design that speaker! It was designed by a human designer for sexiness and aesthetics and maybe computer modelling was subsequently used to optimise and make the most of the overall style, but only optimising what was possible while keep that design and any limitations it had, rather than designing de novo. You want my address to send that money, markc? www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/kef-blade-loudspeaker-hi-fi/ |
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Post by Cogito on Aug 31, 2020 20:47:05 GMT -5
Here's a little update. My continued break-in and testing of the Edifiers have revealed a flaw in a system that has otherwise, impressed me greatly.
While streaming "Diving" by Art School Girlfriend, I deciding to crank it up a bit. Right away, I noticed quite a bit of port (Both ports) noise with the throbbing synthetic bass line. Yeah, it was blowing quite a bit of air from the port and the mid/bass driver was probably traveling at least 1/2-5/8" peak to peak.
If I had to guess, I was driving the speakers about 80% of their peak volume. Yes, they were loud as hell and I DON'T normally listen at these levels. Turning it down to about 65-70% the port noise completely disappeared. Note: This is the first tune I noticed this noise even though I played at these levels with plenty of other bass heavy tunes (Without the throbbing synthetic POP bass groove). While this is not great news, it shouldn't affect me in my normal day to day usage. However, if techno-pop/rap is your thing, I'm not sure these should be your first choice for powered speakers.
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? I quickly turn up a volume a bit and BOOM, I'm feeling the bass in my chest. Not thumpy/lumpy/bloated bass, but clean, detailed, deep and articulate! WAIT! A 6 1/2" mid/bass cone can't do this, at least not without compromising the sound quality in some way, right? 
Glad to hear you have something you enjoy because that's what it's all about.
