Which sub £1600 standmounter for small room

[Al ears]

I'm looking to upgrade standmount speakers to go with my new Primare amp based system.

These will have to go in a smallish (approx. 5x4m) room and need to be able to work well when very close to the rear wall.

Have looked at various 5 star rated speakers reviewed by What Hi-Fi? and other mags but need to draw up a shortlist to audition. Which speakers would you suggest I add to that list.

 

[Craig M.]

atc scm19. doesn't matter what kind of music you listen to, they can do them all.

also very tolerant of room boundaries.

 

[Anonymous]

Spendor SA1, sealed box (inifinite baffle) design that will go near any boundry without a problem. Very smooth, detailed and large scale sound. Very impressive speakers indeed, worth every penny. Past reviewers have put them with kit that cost hugely more money and still got improvements.

 

[Anonymous]

During auditions I really liked the PMC TB2i and the Spendor sp3/1r2 with a Kandy K2 amp. Worth listening too.

 

[plastic penguin]

igglebert:Spendor SA1, sealed box (inifinite baffle) design that will go near any boundry without a problem. Very smooth, detailed and large scale sound. Very impressive speakers indeed, worth every penny. Past reviewers have put them with kit that cost hugely more money and still got improvements.

Depends what the OP's fav music is: if rock makes up a high percentage, Spendors are too neutral to be gripping.

Wilson Benesch Circle one are worth trying. Like the SA1's they are tiny but slightly more invigorating and satisfying imho.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Alears:

I'm looking to upgrade standmount speakers to go with my new Primare amp based system.

These will have to go in a smallish (approx. 5x4m) room and need to be able to work well when very close to the rear wall.

Have looked at various 5 star rated speakers reviewed by What Hi-Fi? and other mags but need to draw up a shortlist to audition. Which speakers would you suggest I add to that list.

Hi Alears

You should consider ATC's SCM19 speakers. The SCM19's will work well with the Primare Electronics.

Thanks

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[Anonymous]

Coming from an I30/CD31 setup, partnering with Dynaudio speakers gave best results.

I had a bigger room at my disposal, so I went with the Focus 140 model, which may be a touch bass heavy in a room with your dimensions.

Focus 110 would be the way to go, trust me.

Also, Vienna Acoustics Haydn Grand (phew) is well worth a listen, if you have a dealer nearby.

In my opinion it's the prettiest standmounter in the sub £2000 pricerange by far.

 

[the record spot]

I hear some very good things about the Audiosmile Kensai speaker. £1500 or so.

 

[Bodfish]

What Mr Spot said.

 

[Craig M.]

Lilac1:
Coming from an I30/CD31 setup, partnering with Dynaudio speakers gave best results.

I had a bigger room at my disposal, so I went with the Focus 140 model, which may be a touch bass heavy in a room with your dimensions.

Focus 110 would be the way to go, trust me.

Also, Vienna Acoustics Haydn Grand (phew) is well worth a listen, if you have a dealer nearby.

In my opinion it's the prettiest standmounter in the sub £2000 pricerange by far.

i demoed my old 110's with the i30, as you say, a very impressive pairing. my 110's still needed a fair bit of space around them though, the only way they could go against a wall is with the foam bungs inserted, which robs the speakers of too much life, imo.

i feel my atc's are better in every way.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Alears: I'm looking to upgrade standmount speakers to go with my new Primare amp based system.

These will have to go in a smallish (approx. 5x4m) room and need to be able to work well when very close to the rear wall.It will depend on your choice of music, but the Spendor SA1's are a good start as already mentioned, as is the ATC SCM11's and 19's, just make sure you budget for a very good pair of stands for them - something like Atacama's HMS2's or Partington's Broadsides. ProAc's Response D1's and KEF XQ20's are also worthy of anyone's attention in this price sector - both are front ported and not classed as bass heavy speakers.

Rear ported speakers really should be avoided, as the closer they're placed to the wall, the more the bass is reinforced.

 

[Al ears]

Many thanks for that.

I do have Partington Dreadnought stands. Looks like I will have to find a dealer here in south Wales that stocke ATC and/or Spendor!

I must say the SCM19's are tending to look most promising (my music taste is wide from folk / blues to rock and occasional classical).

 

[Anonymous]

try the dynaudios and wilson benesch too.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Alears:

Many thanks for that.

I do have Partington Dreadnought stands. Looks like I will have to find a dealer here in south Wales that stocke ATC and/or Spendor!

I must say the SCM19's are tending to look most promising (my music taste is wide from folk / blues to rock and occasional classical).

Hi Alears

The SCM19's (which feature ATC's Super Linear Magnet Technology mid/bass unit) with their clean, clear, precise, uncoloured, natural and powerful presentation will enable your Primare components to breathe.

I have used and have customers that happily continue to use various ATC speakers with Primare electronics over the years.

Thanks

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[jaxwired]

Rick, how do atc scm11s compare to dynaudios? I'm curious, but I'm afraid the bass would dissapoint me. I love the dynaudio low end and I've not heard another stand mount that compares. Thanks

 

[Craig M.]

hi jax, hope you don't mind me responding, when i went from dyn to atc there was a fair old period of adjustment. i used to love the bass power on offer from my 110's, and i had more then a few moments of doubt when i first changed. however, once i had adjusted to the sound, i realised that the way the atc's do bass is so much more accurate, detailed and even, then the focus's.

there is no lack of bass power, in fact with something that has deep, powerful bass like gorillaz - demon days, i can't believe i thought the atc's were bass shy. i think i read a post by chrimson donkey, that the atc's have great bass, they just don't add it if it isn't there to start with.

and the midrange on my 19's leaves the focus 110 for dust, it is very clear and natural sounding, making it much easier to hear what is going on in cluttered music and revealing emotion and such, in a vocal.

the treble seems to me the least "stand out" part of the speaker. i don't mean it has any flaws (to me), it's more a case of it not drawing too much attention to itself, and going for neutral, clear, inoffensive treble instead.

to sum up, to me they are about as neutral and uncoloured as i can imagine a speaker getting, they don't play favourites with music and do "man with guitar" equally as well as the chemical brothers or rage against the machine, and while i'm no classical buff i imagine, due to the natural, accurate and dynamic nature of the speakers, that they are spot on for that as well.

whether they are right for you, only you can decide, it is very different to dynaudio.

but better.

 

[jaxwired]

Craig, thanks for the great response! Very good input. I can pick up a pair of mint scm11s for about half the retail price. This would make it a fairly inexpensive experiment. The scm19s and 40s are almost never availble used over here (usa), so going that route would probably require purchasing brand new.

 

[Anonymous]

We have a new box-swapping champion. Move over Joel

 

[jaxwired]

igglebert:We have a new box-swapping champion. Move over Joel

LOL. Guilty.

 

[IJ]

Not sure how much they are in the UK, but i would suggest a listen to the Usher Be-718's

No problem close to a wall and plenty of reviews if you "Google"

 

[Al ears]

plastic penguin:

igglebert:Spendor SA1, sealed box (inifinite baffle) design that will go near any boundry without a problem. Very smooth, detailed and large scale sound. Very impressive speakers indeed, worth every penny. Past reviewers have put them with kit that cost hugely more money and still got improvements.

Depends what the OP's fav music is: if rock makes up a high percentage, Spendors are too neutral to be gripping.

Wilson Benesch Circle one are worth trying. Like the SA1's they are tiny but slightly more invigorating and satisfying imho.

Sorry but what Wilson Benesch? The only 'Circle' i can find is a turntable!

 

[the record spot]

... Audiosmile Kensai ... *cough*

 

[Frank Harvey]

jaxwired:......how do atc scm11s compare to dynaudios? I'm curious, but I'm afraid the bass would dissapoint me. I love the dynaudio low end and I've not heard another stand mount that compares.If you like the Dynaudio low end, you may not like the ATC's low end, they're quite different. The ATC's have a more even in room bass response - this you'll hear in the following way: when you hear a bass line on the average speaker, every now and again you usually hear one or two bass notes that are way louder than the others. This can be down to room placement, but is also down to ported speakers not having a flat response. The ATC's suffer from this far less because of their sealed cabinets. The Dynaudios will have a warmer, fuller bottom end, which can be quite impressive for such small speakers, but usually this type of speaker tends to lack bass and midrange detail because of their overpowering bass. To counteract this, these type of speakers need careful partnering to reduce this characteristic - as an example, Dynaudio work well with Cyrus.

The Excite standmounts are very good, I prefer them to the floorstanders, but they do need a bit of room to work well because of the above, so these wouldn't be suitable for a smaller room, especially if all walls are brick, which tends to keep the bass energy in the room. You MAY get away with it if the walls are plasterboard, which tend to soak up bass.