Worth upgrading from MA R90HD to QA 3050 or Elac F5/F6 fronts?

[ShazzC]

Hi, I currently have the following set up - Yamaha RX V675, 4 MA R90HD speakers, MA R180HD centre and a BK XXLS400 sub. The sub is crossed over at the AVR at 90hz at the moment. The room is roughly 5 x 5 metres.

I'm wondering whether I would get much benefit from upgrading the 2 front MA R90HDs to Q Accoustics 3050s or ELAC F5/F6?

Thanks

 

[Leeps]

If I were you I'd look at the MA R270's. They'd match tonally with the other Radiuses, with the option of going 7.1. I've owned this combo and for surround purposes it's excellent. Midrange is much fuller than the R90's. The R270's look good and could happily handle one or two AV receiver upgrades in the future too.

 

[ShazzC]

Thanks - are the 3050/F5/F6 overkill and won't match well with the rest of my speakers?

What about if I went up to MA Silver 200s to future proof upgrades?

 

[Leeps]

Personally I think you're thinking about this the wrong way round.

You already have speakers that are of an excellent quality: speakers that are in no way reaching their full potential with your current amplifier.

I would always recommend where possible in a surround system, using identical drivers across all speakers. So if you want to improve stereo sound by beefing up your main left and right channels, I would go for the Monitor Audio R270's which will help the midrange in your system while crucially maintaining the identical drivers across all speakers. Lobbing some Q Acoustics speakers into your system won't have the same tonal balance across all speakers and could do more harm than good.

The same is true with Monitor Audio Silvers: I've found that having owned a number of different Monitor Audio speakers (Radius, Gold, Apex), that they DO differ slightly in tonal balance. So if you want to retain your R90's as surround speakers, which is not a bad idea, then I would stick with Radius for your main left and right channels. Otherwise you will likely find that certain channels, despite whatever level you set them at, will still stand proud too much because they have a little more zing than other speakers in your set-up. This is not what you want to do in a surround system to achieve a realistic sound field.

Also, do not underestimate the quality of the Radius speakers. The weak link in your system at the moment is the amplifier, not the speakers. By all means upgrade the main left and right speakers as the R270's are more capable than the R90's, especially for 2-channel sources. But following that, I'd take a good look at upgrading your amplifier so you can really hear what the Radiuses are capable of.

 

[ShazzC]

Ah I see! Thanks I'm such a noob. I will hang on to the R90s for now and investigate the amp instead.

 

[Leeps]

No worries ShazzC.

I have had both types of systems (one mix and match, and one with identical drivers across all speakers), and there is something special about speakers that have been designed to work together.

But having owned a Radius based system (R270HD, R250HD, R90HD, R370HD), looking back the set-up was excellent and actually it was my AV receiver at the time and my poor room acoustics that was letting the system down. There's a DTS-MA Bluray about the Hubble telescope I sometimes use as a test disc. There's a moment 20 minutes in where the space shuttle takes off that's very well recorded (it was originally an IMAX feature presentation): it sounded awesome on the Radiuses and in my opinion, better, more dramatic and exciting than the far more expensive Monitor Audio Gold GX50 / GXC150 set up I owned later. But I did begin the Radius system with the R90's and added the R270's later - it did make a significant difference: particularly in the midrange. Voices were fullsome and smooth.

For the money, I think the voicing of the Radius system is excellent and a real sweet spot in the Monitor Audio range. They're also immaculately finished and are quite room/WAF friendly. And as I say, they could easily keep up with a top of the range AV receiver. I wouldn't have any qualms pairing them with my Anthem for example. They wouldn't be letting the side down so to speak.