Ben Jammin
Established Member
Hi All
I've been tempted by some new speakers recently and decided to take my own advise and audition first. just returned from an enjoyable morning at Deco Audio in Aylesbury, thought i'd share my experience.
Using the excellent Rega Brio 3 Amp and Rega Apollo CDP I auditioned the following speakers:
Q Acoustics 2050 - £380
Rega RS5 - £998
Audio Note AZ2H (Hemp Cone) - £1250
ProAc Studio 140 mk2 - £1690
My demo CD included songs from:
Arcade Fire
Beatles
Elbow
Fischerspooner
Glasvegas
Johnny Cash
Kings Of Leon
Massive Attack
Miike Snow
Radiohead
Sigur Ros
UNKLE
I tried to listen at a low volume to keep it realistic for what it would really be like at home, but turned it up ocassionally to compare the improvement, all the speakers improved at about the same rate when turning them up.
All speakers were good in their own way of course but one stood out for me as a little bit special. I will get to that in a minute:
Q Acoustics 2050
Nice looking in gloss white. The sound was good... it was.. fine. If somebody wanted to order a pair of speakers that would do a decent job with most kinds of music and never sound poor, i wouldn't steer them away from these. Voices were clear, bass was good, the music sounded well structured, they were capable of going very loud without much bother. However, that's where the praise from me ends, they weren't exciting at all and to be honest i'd rather listen to my tiny £100 Whafedale Diamond 9.1's.
Rega RS5
These looked lovely real wood cherry and remarkably small. Sound was a marked improvement, Johnny Cash's flowing music sounded more like it should (not flat), i was struck by individual notes more but most importantly, the music was much more enjoyable, faster, went higher and lower, filled the room more easily. I was still now blown away though, and for a £1000 speaker, i expect to be blown away. I was expecting to love these as the RS1 were amazing but lacked bass. I was disappointed and would rather have the RS1 i think. more agile.
Audio Note AZ2H (Hemp Cone)
New range for Audio Note apparently. These speakers use a hemp cone and designed to work in the corner of the room. I was dubious. They were also ugly, barely disguised chipboard, seemingly no design considerations at all but hey, they're meant for listening.
Within 2 minutes of sitting down to listen i noticed i had quietly whispered the word "wow" to myself lol, don't think i've ever said that before. I noticed i'd stopped flicking through songs to analyse how they do with different sounds. The midrange of johnny cash was a thing of beauty, voices were markedly clear and i stopped hearing the bass, but felt it. The bass was quite moderate but i felt it as part of the music rather than heard it as a seperate beat. The music seemed to fill the room more easily rather than just come from the speaker and i was surprised to hear a few sounds i'd never heard before on cheaper speakers.
They weren't perfect, the ProAc's below beat them in some ways but importantly i enjoyed listening to music and stopped thinking about the other things, i guess that's the best measurement.
ProAc Studio 140 mk2
These were taller than i thought, the bass port is at the bottom! Very beautiful real wood veneer finish. Instant impression was very good and i thought they blew the Audio Notes away but the more i listened the more i missed the Audio Notes. The ProAc's were very impressive technically, the bass was thumping, the high notes incredibly clear and the whole music held together very well, but the midrange wasn't quite as fun as the Audio Notes. It was a close call, took me about an hour to decide but listening to The Beatles (Get Back, Come Together and the Continuing story of Bungalow Bill) finally sealed it for me. On the Audio Notes i find myself randomly dancing. ProAc's sounded impressive but somehow made Beatles a little boring.
General Ramblings
Interestingly Radiohead sounded amazing on all the speakers tested. All of them seemed to struggle recreating Elbow to my satisfaction. UNKLE sounded poor on Q Acoustics and Rega but great on the two more expensive ones.
I didn't buy the Audio Note's because they are designed for corner placement and i'm moving house in 2 months so will see if they will fit then. I miss them already but thoroughly enjoyed my listening, it's proven to me again how absolutely vital it is to listen to speakers before buying.
Many many thanks to Peter and Mark at Deco Audio, great guys, very patient and friendly and knowledgable.
I've been tempted by some new speakers recently and decided to take my own advise and audition first. just returned from an enjoyable morning at Deco Audio in Aylesbury, thought i'd share my experience.
Using the excellent Rega Brio 3 Amp and Rega Apollo CDP I auditioned the following speakers:
Q Acoustics 2050 - £380
Rega RS5 - £998
Audio Note AZ2H (Hemp Cone) - £1250
ProAc Studio 140 mk2 - £1690
My demo CD included songs from:
Arcade Fire
Beatles
Elbow
Fischerspooner
Glasvegas
Johnny Cash
Kings Of Leon
Massive Attack
Miike Snow
Radiohead
Sigur Ros
UNKLE
I tried to listen at a low volume to keep it realistic for what it would really be like at home, but turned it up ocassionally to compare the improvement, all the speakers improved at about the same rate when turning them up.
All speakers were good in their own way of course but one stood out for me as a little bit special. I will get to that in a minute:
Q Acoustics 2050
Nice looking in gloss white. The sound was good... it was.. fine. If somebody wanted to order a pair of speakers that would do a decent job with most kinds of music and never sound poor, i wouldn't steer them away from these. Voices were clear, bass was good, the music sounded well structured, they were capable of going very loud without much bother. However, that's where the praise from me ends, they weren't exciting at all and to be honest i'd rather listen to my tiny £100 Whafedale Diamond 9.1's.
Rega RS5
These looked lovely real wood cherry and remarkably small. Sound was a marked improvement, Johnny Cash's flowing music sounded more like it should (not flat), i was struck by individual notes more but most importantly, the music was much more enjoyable, faster, went higher and lower, filled the room more easily. I was still now blown away though, and for a £1000 speaker, i expect to be blown away. I was expecting to love these as the RS1 were amazing but lacked bass. I was disappointed and would rather have the RS1 i think. more agile.
Audio Note AZ2H (Hemp Cone)
New range for Audio Note apparently. These speakers use a hemp cone and designed to work in the corner of the room. I was dubious. They were also ugly, barely disguised chipboard, seemingly no design considerations at all but hey, they're meant for listening.
Within 2 minutes of sitting down to listen i noticed i had quietly whispered the word "wow" to myself lol, don't think i've ever said that before. I noticed i'd stopped flicking through songs to analyse how they do with different sounds. The midrange of johnny cash was a thing of beauty, voices were markedly clear and i stopped hearing the bass, but felt it. The bass was quite moderate but i felt it as part of the music rather than heard it as a seperate beat. The music seemed to fill the room more easily rather than just come from the speaker and i was surprised to hear a few sounds i'd never heard before on cheaper speakers.
They weren't perfect, the ProAc's below beat them in some ways but importantly i enjoyed listening to music and stopped thinking about the other things, i guess that's the best measurement.
ProAc Studio 140 mk2
These were taller than i thought, the bass port is at the bottom! Very beautiful real wood veneer finish. Instant impression was very good and i thought they blew the Audio Notes away but the more i listened the more i missed the Audio Notes. The ProAc's were very impressive technically, the bass was thumping, the high notes incredibly clear and the whole music held together very well, but the midrange wasn't quite as fun as the Audio Notes. It was a close call, took me about an hour to decide but listening to The Beatles (Get Back, Come Together and the Continuing story of Bungalow Bill) finally sealed it for me. On the Audio Notes i find myself randomly dancing. ProAc's sounded impressive but somehow made Beatles a little boring.
General Ramblings
Interestingly Radiohead sounded amazing on all the speakers tested. All of them seemed to struggle recreating Elbow to my satisfaction. UNKLE sounded poor on Q Acoustics and Rega but great on the two more expensive ones.
I didn't buy the Audio Note's because they are designed for corner placement and i'm moving house in 2 months so will see if they will fit then. I miss them already but thoroughly enjoyed my listening, it's proven to me again how absolutely vital it is to listen to speakers before buying.
Many many thanks to Peter and Mark at Deco Audio, great guys, very patient and friendly and knowledgable.
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