Post by RayoVac on Jan 9, 2010 16:00:36 GMT -5
O.K. Guys... I finally got to get things hooked up and listened to the Emo speakers. Here is what I am using for the Sound and Video:
Equipment
H/K AVR 254 Pre-Pro only.
Emo MPS-1 using all 7 channels with 200watt modules.
Oppo Blu-Ray via HDMI.
Sonos Reading from an iTunes library captured with Apple Lossless. (ALAC), feeding AVR via TOSlink.
Sony SXRD 60" RP LCOS.
SVS PC+ 20-39 SUB tuned at 20hz with updated 12.3 driver, in corner of room.
History
First off... I am by no means a guy that regularly does "Critical Reviews" listening to tons of components and doing a/b comparisons. I am about as "laymen" as you can get in A/V. I have had Klipsch nearly ALL my life. As a kid my Father had/built Klipsch... when i got old enough to buy my first audio equipment is was NAD and Klipsch then H/K and Klpsch then Yamaha and Klipsch and then I ran into Emotiva stuff. I have had Klipsch Legacy (K-Horn, LaScala. my Father's) Klipsch KV-2, KMs, Fortes and Chorus. Most recently RF-35s, RC-35, RB-35s finally to RB-75s in front, RC-7 and four RS-7s in rear. Before the whole idea of Voice and Timber matching struck home, I rad Wharfdale Diamonds Bookshelfs as my rears (about 22 years old).
Reasoning
Enough of the history. I sold all my Klipsch to take the leap into Emotiva Speakers. For a while now, I have not been overly excited about my Center. Starting with the RC-35 and even the RC-7... I struggle to hear good clean dialog, especially male dialog, lower frequency dialog etc. I tried different X-Over points, levels etc. It always ends up that we turn the volume up high enough to hear all the dialog clearly, but then when a loud passage, action etc. happens... well now it blows ya out of your seat. It is these times that shrillness of the horns grate on me. I never had any real complaint of the RB-75s or the surrounds, but for music listening... I like to really "feel" what I am listening to. Call it somewhat obnoxious levels. It is during these times... after a fun listening session where I know my neighbors shared with me, that I almost feel relieved to turn the volume down because the horns are just digging into my brain!!! Note... I clearly understand distortion, and despise dirty sound. I NEVER drive my equipment to the point of limits, clipping or distortion... or in my opinion anywhere close.
Emotiva Look
I was very please with the shipping, packaging and presentation of the Emos as I un-boxed them and prepared them for installation. The ERDs went up without issue. The 8.3s outrigger feet are very cool. I have read many say the Emos are Boxy and plain... frankly I think they look great. Yes, had I previously been a guy with Cherry or other wood grain detailed speakers... they would appear more bland. All my Klipsch where Black Ash... sure there was real wood veneer there, but as soon as you paint it all black, the wood grain details pretty much become un-noticeable at all but close distances. So from black wood grain Klpsch to black matte Emo... I think they are very, very nice. And the Wife likes them, so nothing else really matters.
Emotiva Music
I started the evening listening to a bunch of normal CD quality music via the Sonos. Stuff I have listened to many times most recently.... via my Ref-7 stuff. Mainly top 40 type pop music, christian rock, christian pop, some Boom, Boom Pow-Black Eyed Peas stuff, I through in some classic Rush-Red Barchetta, Trees, Closer to the Hear... a Bit of Journey, Styx, Boston etc. Yeah.. I am mid Forties in age. These selections where chosen primarily because when I turn off the TV and just crank the volume to jam... I end up blasting through my Sonos, just picking whatever fires me up. Finally I finished with a Demo Blu-ray I got from Oppo that has some TrueHD music/video on it. Some piano, instrumentals, an amazing acoustic guitar solo and the final track was a string quartet accompanied with a baby grand.
All my music listening ended up in Dolby PLIIx, I played with 7 Channel Stereo, Logic 7 and the other modes... the PLIIx seemed the best balance and my ears preferred it.
The very first thing I noticed, which I expected to... was the Emo's sounded smoother, more mellow. Yup... change from horns to domes and no surprise. But compared to my Klipsch, the front soundstage of the Emos seemed a bit more transparent. Almost as if it were one big wide speaker vs. three different ones, I am not sure if this would be considered good or bad. I liked it.
During the initial listening... I upped the volume as I became more comfortable, took the grills off to observe driver movements. I had the AVR set to send full range to the 8.3s everything else set at 80hz and only LFE going to the sub.
During some of my harder Rush stuff... I switch to 2 channel stereo and was pleasantly surprised at the bass being produced by the non-ported 8.3s, easily blew away my RB-75s, but that was not un-expecteted. I was also surprised at the abilities of the little ERDs... much, much smaller then the RS-7s that used to hang up there... they easily fill my 20x25 room and then some (7 Channel stereo of course).
When I went to the TrueHD demo disk, WOW... I was very, very impressed at the low volume clarity and presence that the Emos presented. And yes, with no of the shrill artifacts I would have normally experienced with my Klipsch. When the singers breath hit the mic, I could still hear it as clear as my horns reproduced. The subtle bumb of the guitars guy's palm passing the body of the instrument as he quickly strummed as if he was playing a banjo... was very, very cool to hear. Would I have heard all this with my Ref-7... sure I would... but my point of comparison is consider the PRICE!!! I was surprised NOT to find myself missing anything or wanting in the way of clarity, detail or presentation. I am by no means a music critic, so lets move on to movies.
Emotiva Movies
I already mentioned my experience and delight in the AIX TrueHD demo disk. The final test of the evening was to watch a Blu-ray. We through in Star Trek. Also to note, during setup... I messed around a bunch with my Dish SAT on HD and SD channels.
All of the speakers had the Extension set at LOW, Tweet and Mids at 0 and NO Boundry on.
Right off the bat... guess what? Yup... lower frequency dialog, HEY I COULD HEAR it. But... what happens when we hit a action scene or female teenagers screaming as they do? Balance... I did not find myself turning the volume up and down as I had to with the Klipsch.
As I mentioned in listening to music... the entire front seemed much more uniform and transparent. Could it have been a slight difference between the RC-7 horn vs the RB-75s horn which although supposedly the same, the RB-75 horn is molded into the plastic face, where the RC-7 is a stand alone driver installed into the cabinet as the other drivers are???
Those little ERDs holy crap... they did a great job. With my RS-7s I am not sure if Klipsch considers them DiPole or Bipole, they call them WDST Wide Dispersion something or another. I kind of always felt my Rear Surround RS-7s did not add much to the experience as much as the Side Surrounds did. Maybe it was a placebo affect knowing there was some cool switches to play with... but the ERDs were set with L/R Side Surround in L/R DiPole and the Rear surround as BiPole (Not-Inverted), the rears are more then 4 foot apart and a higher then ear level. I felt all 4 ERDs provided filling sound, many times during Star Trek I could hear things behind me, not just to my sides.
I did play with the Tweeter/Midrange on the 6.3 and 8.3s... about halfway through the movie I set them all to +2db. Could I tell a difference??? Not really sure, but I am leaving them that way for now. All I can tell you for sure, during the movie and after just watching content on Dish both HD channels and SD channels... I find I can easily understand the dialog. The only thing I might play with is the 6.3. Right now it is above my TV, with its Tweeter facing the top. I might flip it and put the tweeter to the bottom. I have not done it yet as I already put the E logo badge on for the orientation it is in now, don't know if I can get that off without it breaking. Because of the way they have the grill designed, you can't flip the speaker and NOT flip the grill, it will block the tweeter. The reason I debate this change is if I sit higher in my seat or stand behind it, I thing the sound it a bit better. I may try to point the 6.3 down a bit more, but I fear I will hit a point where it may want to topple out of the shelf its in, as it is a bit face heavy.
I have only had them running for a day and a half now... the whole time I have been writing this, we have been listening to some Pop=ish from a girl named Britt Nicole. Normal CD, but fairly loud... and it is very, very pleasant to my ears.
Summary/Conclusion
Ya know... when I got done un-boxing everything... I debated putting all those Emo boxes up in my Attic... thinking "Well if I return them, I will just have to get them back down". I can confidently say, I am glad I went ahead and put all the boxes in the attic.
The Emos are keepers. I am already growing used to the difference in the "more mellow" sound of the domes vs horns. I guess my ears where ready for the change. Things like the breath sounds in a singing voice that I thought could only be accurately heard in a horn, I hear them clearly with my Emos.
For me... the cost of my "Reference" system of the past vs. the current Top of the line Emo stuff... does NOT equal any significant improvement in sound to justify the difference in dollars. And in my particular case.. I find I am preferring the Emo sound and balance. Could I find equal satisfactory judgment within offerings from B&W, Paradigms Studio or Sigs or for that matter many other non-horn based speakers? Sure... but short of guys like Aperion or AV123 (what?
) unless you find/buy used... I don't think the "Bang for the Buck" is anywhere near comparable.
Just step me one more rung higher on the Emo Fanyboy ladder!!! ;D
Waiting for a UMC-1 and the ERS Subs!!!!
Rayo
Equipment
H/K AVR 254 Pre-Pro only.
Emo MPS-1 using all 7 channels with 200watt modules.
Oppo Blu-Ray via HDMI.
Sonos Reading from an iTunes library captured with Apple Lossless. (ALAC), feeding AVR via TOSlink.
Sony SXRD 60" RP LCOS.
SVS PC+ 20-39 SUB tuned at 20hz with updated 12.3 driver, in corner of room.
History
First off... I am by no means a guy that regularly does "Critical Reviews" listening to tons of components and doing a/b comparisons. I am about as "laymen" as you can get in A/V. I have had Klipsch nearly ALL my life. As a kid my Father had/built Klipsch... when i got old enough to buy my first audio equipment is was NAD and Klipsch then H/K and Klpsch then Yamaha and Klipsch and then I ran into Emotiva stuff. I have had Klipsch Legacy (K-Horn, LaScala. my Father's) Klipsch KV-2, KMs, Fortes and Chorus. Most recently RF-35s, RC-35, RB-35s finally to RB-75s in front, RC-7 and four RS-7s in rear. Before the whole idea of Voice and Timber matching struck home, I rad Wharfdale Diamonds Bookshelfs as my rears (about 22 years old).
Reasoning
Enough of the history. I sold all my Klipsch to take the leap into Emotiva Speakers. For a while now, I have not been overly excited about my Center. Starting with the RC-35 and even the RC-7... I struggle to hear good clean dialog, especially male dialog, lower frequency dialog etc. I tried different X-Over points, levels etc. It always ends up that we turn the volume up high enough to hear all the dialog clearly, but then when a loud passage, action etc. happens... well now it blows ya out of your seat. It is these times that shrillness of the horns grate on me. I never had any real complaint of the RB-75s or the surrounds, but for music listening... I like to really "feel" what I am listening to. Call it somewhat obnoxious levels. It is during these times... after a fun listening session where I know my neighbors shared with me, that I almost feel relieved to turn the volume down because the horns are just digging into my brain!!! Note... I clearly understand distortion, and despise dirty sound. I NEVER drive my equipment to the point of limits, clipping or distortion... or in my opinion anywhere close.
Emotiva Look
I was very please with the shipping, packaging and presentation of the Emos as I un-boxed them and prepared them for installation. The ERDs went up without issue. The 8.3s outrigger feet are very cool. I have read many say the Emos are Boxy and plain... frankly I think they look great. Yes, had I previously been a guy with Cherry or other wood grain detailed speakers... they would appear more bland. All my Klipsch where Black Ash... sure there was real wood veneer there, but as soon as you paint it all black, the wood grain details pretty much become un-noticeable at all but close distances. So from black wood grain Klpsch to black matte Emo... I think they are very, very nice. And the Wife likes them, so nothing else really matters.
Emotiva Music
I started the evening listening to a bunch of normal CD quality music via the Sonos. Stuff I have listened to many times most recently.... via my Ref-7 stuff. Mainly top 40 type pop music, christian rock, christian pop, some Boom, Boom Pow-Black Eyed Peas stuff, I through in some classic Rush-Red Barchetta, Trees, Closer to the Hear... a Bit of Journey, Styx, Boston etc. Yeah.. I am mid Forties in age. These selections where chosen primarily because when I turn off the TV and just crank the volume to jam... I end up blasting through my Sonos, just picking whatever fires me up. Finally I finished with a Demo Blu-ray I got from Oppo that has some TrueHD music/video on it. Some piano, instrumentals, an amazing acoustic guitar solo and the final track was a string quartet accompanied with a baby grand.
All my music listening ended up in Dolby PLIIx, I played with 7 Channel Stereo, Logic 7 and the other modes... the PLIIx seemed the best balance and my ears preferred it.
The very first thing I noticed, which I expected to... was the Emo's sounded smoother, more mellow. Yup... change from horns to domes and no surprise. But compared to my Klipsch, the front soundstage of the Emos seemed a bit more transparent. Almost as if it were one big wide speaker vs. three different ones, I am not sure if this would be considered good or bad. I liked it.
During the initial listening... I upped the volume as I became more comfortable, took the grills off to observe driver movements. I had the AVR set to send full range to the 8.3s everything else set at 80hz and only LFE going to the sub.
During some of my harder Rush stuff... I switch to 2 channel stereo and was pleasantly surprised at the bass being produced by the non-ported 8.3s, easily blew away my RB-75s, but that was not un-expecteted. I was also surprised at the abilities of the little ERDs... much, much smaller then the RS-7s that used to hang up there... they easily fill my 20x25 room and then some (7 Channel stereo of course).
When I went to the TrueHD demo disk, WOW... I was very, very impressed at the low volume clarity and presence that the Emos presented. And yes, with no of the shrill artifacts I would have normally experienced with my Klipsch. When the singers breath hit the mic, I could still hear it as clear as my horns reproduced. The subtle bumb of the guitars guy's palm passing the body of the instrument as he quickly strummed as if he was playing a banjo... was very, very cool to hear. Would I have heard all this with my Ref-7... sure I would... but my point of comparison is consider the PRICE!!! I was surprised NOT to find myself missing anything or wanting in the way of clarity, detail or presentation. I am by no means a music critic, so lets move on to movies.
Emotiva Movies
I already mentioned my experience and delight in the AIX TrueHD demo disk. The final test of the evening was to watch a Blu-ray. We through in Star Trek. Also to note, during setup... I messed around a bunch with my Dish SAT on HD and SD channels.
All of the speakers had the Extension set at LOW, Tweet and Mids at 0 and NO Boundry on.
Right off the bat... guess what? Yup... lower frequency dialog, HEY I COULD HEAR it. But... what happens when we hit a action scene or female teenagers screaming as they do? Balance... I did not find myself turning the volume up and down as I had to with the Klipsch.
As I mentioned in listening to music... the entire front seemed much more uniform and transparent. Could it have been a slight difference between the RC-7 horn vs the RB-75s horn which although supposedly the same, the RB-75 horn is molded into the plastic face, where the RC-7 is a stand alone driver installed into the cabinet as the other drivers are???
Those little ERDs holy crap... they did a great job. With my RS-7s I am not sure if Klipsch considers them DiPole or Bipole, they call them WDST Wide Dispersion something or another. I kind of always felt my Rear Surround RS-7s did not add much to the experience as much as the Side Surrounds did. Maybe it was a placebo affect knowing there was some cool switches to play with... but the ERDs were set with L/R Side Surround in L/R DiPole and the Rear surround as BiPole (Not-Inverted), the rears are more then 4 foot apart and a higher then ear level. I felt all 4 ERDs provided filling sound, many times during Star Trek I could hear things behind me, not just to my sides.
I did play with the Tweeter/Midrange on the 6.3 and 8.3s... about halfway through the movie I set them all to +2db. Could I tell a difference??? Not really sure, but I am leaving them that way for now. All I can tell you for sure, during the movie and after just watching content on Dish both HD channels and SD channels... I find I can easily understand the dialog. The only thing I might play with is the 6.3. Right now it is above my TV, with its Tweeter facing the top. I might flip it and put the tweeter to the bottom. I have not done it yet as I already put the E logo badge on for the orientation it is in now, don't know if I can get that off without it breaking. Because of the way they have the grill designed, you can't flip the speaker and NOT flip the grill, it will block the tweeter. The reason I debate this change is if I sit higher in my seat or stand behind it, I thing the sound it a bit better. I may try to point the 6.3 down a bit more, but I fear I will hit a point where it may want to topple out of the shelf its in, as it is a bit face heavy.
I have only had them running for a day and a half now... the whole time I have been writing this, we have been listening to some Pop=ish from a girl named Britt Nicole. Normal CD, but fairly loud... and it is very, very pleasant to my ears.
Summary/Conclusion
Ya know... when I got done un-boxing everything... I debated putting all those Emo boxes up in my Attic... thinking "Well if I return them, I will just have to get them back down". I can confidently say, I am glad I went ahead and put all the boxes in the attic.
The Emos are keepers. I am already growing used to the difference in the "more mellow" sound of the domes vs horns. I guess my ears where ready for the change. Things like the breath sounds in a singing voice that I thought could only be accurately heard in a horn, I hear them clearly with my Emos.
For me... the cost of my "Reference" system of the past vs. the current Top of the line Emo stuff... does NOT equal any significant improvement in sound to justify the difference in dollars. And in my particular case.. I find I am preferring the Emo sound and balance. Could I find equal satisfactory judgment within offerings from B&W, Paradigms Studio or Sigs or for that matter many other non-horn based speakers? Sure... but short of guys like Aperion or AV123 (what?
) unless you find/buy used... I don't think the "Bang for the Buck" is anywhere near comparable.Just step me one more rung higher on the Emo Fanyboy ladder!!! ;D
Waiting for a UMC-1 and the ERS Subs!!!!
Rayo
I new of the quality being a DMC-1 and MPS-1 ("The Big Dogs") owner, but beyond that... I did research.
