Help me Choose my Next Speakers

Be careful, they break easy...

 

Check out the Kralk TDB-12. You can have the level controls mounted on the back

 

How so?

 

cutaway view humor i'm guessing....

 

Listened for a few hours last night. I'm breaking them in on the main rig to get the best impression of their capability. So far so good, no glaring weaknesses yet.

Their packaging was pretty lame - single wall box with just two foam end caps and the typical sock. They looked rough for having only travelled a couple hundred miles. I made the UPS driver wait while I unpacked them.

 

Appears about as well constucted as any tower in this range - the typical 18mm MDF with a couple braces. The plinths are much better designed than most, but the veneer wasn't quite what I was expecting given all the reviewer comments.

 

Your Spendors are great speakers, I'd keep those and upgrade the amp so you can hear the Spendors at their best.

 

Keep in mind that they might sound better when placed in their intended space.

 

The Spendors are not going anywhere, the Tannoys are for a bedroom system.

 

Which veneer did you get?
Is the application poor?
How are they sounding in your room? My room is 14x15x10 and I'd like to know if the XT6Fs will do the job.

 

I got the (very) dark walnut. The veneer isn't as neat as my Spendors but that was to be expected. It's not book-matched either, but the color is so dark that it's not obvious.

So far they're sounding very good in my 26×15.5' room. I think they output plenty of bass but I have the Spendors sitting only 8" from their rear corners, so surely that has an effect.



They'll eventually go into my bedroom that's 15.5×15×~11

 

The lack of book-matching at this price point is surprising. Fortunately that has no impact on the sound they produce.

 

I see they come on oak also....I'd like that....or the gloss white!

 

I agree- a real bargain if found used in great shape.

 

After my earlier some what negative posts about my XT6Fs I had another longer session yesterday and for what ever reason they sounded pretty good. The bass weight/impact that I thought was missing was now there, nice full mids and smooth , but extended highs.
Whether that's because I've finally got the planets aligned with my setup or the fact that for the first time in many months I was feeling relaxed and ready to enjoy the music, who knows. I was using the Hana cart/Wand arm combo.
Agree the packaging isn't too good, one cardboard box for my pair was pretty stuffed when they arrived but fortunately no damage. My pair are in the light Oak and look quite nice in my rather dark room but not quite the finesse of the previous Monitor Audios.
I'll be interested to hear further feedback from you.

 

So how long do you expect to leave them in the main rig before moving them to your bedroom system?

 

Greetings Helom, just checking back in to find out how the new speakers are treating you. Any updates? Thanks!

 

like all speakers they take quite a while to reach "bass maturity" i have had speakers that kept increasing bass response after a year and a half of owning them. patience grasshopper.

 

Why are you ruling out Paradigm?

 

Metal drivers that sound the part IMO.

 

How are the Tannoys sounding now after a good run in period?

 

I’m very much on the same page on buying new speakers and generally looking at similar options like yours. I’ve been down the Harbeth road but bass was dissapointing and wandering whether the Spendors are better in that area?

 

Sorry for the long overdue update. I wanted to get some time with the Tannoys on my tube amp before a final assessment, which I did just last night.

The XT6Fs have taken the throne as my favorite floorstanders under $2K. The following are what I consider their strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths​

• The midrange is very nice for this price range. Not as delicate as Spendor, but good in that it's neutral, detailed, and well-focused. It's short of utmost refinement but I think that's actually due to the tweeter.

• Imaging is also very good for this class. Soundstage is deeper than many I've encountered but doesn't extend much beyond the baffle edges. Well recorded instruments are presented with pinpoint accuracy.
• Bass is tight and mostly well controlled. In my upper living room, that has suspended wood flooring, I was able to place them within 6" of the wall with very little bass boom.
• Highs are clean overall. They do lack some refinement at times, but to be fair, it's only in contrast to the best speakers I've owned/heard. They are quite a bit more refined than the MA Silver 8s I owned. On rare occasions, I can detect a slight horn coloration from its "waveguide," but again, it's very subtle.
• They have a quite neutral voicing to my ears, but I found I preferred to use them with grills on when hooked to my tube amp. This might change because I was simultaneously breaking in some NOS Sylvania GTAs. Listening without grills didn't bother me in my basement/Yamaha setup, though that room has treatments.

Weaknesses​

• The bass was somewhat boomy in my basement system which has concrete walls and floor. This was mitigated some by tilting them back. They might have been placed on a mode peak. I didn't want to move my Spendor's stands, so didn't experiment much with wall distance there. In my upper level rooms, boom was a non-issue with 90% of music.
• Another bass issue: it seemed that regardless of the room, there was a frequency at which bass was cancelled - I'm guessing due to cabinet design. This is very apparent using one of my reference test tracks: Jennifer Warnes' rendition of Ballad of the Runaway Horse. There was a particular frequency where one of the double-bass plucks sounded like a loose string - it's almost completely MIA - maybe due to its ironically named "double bass reflex" port.
• Cabinet makes itself known at times with some resonance. This is very dependant on the music and to be fair, it's a weakness I notice in many speakers <$2K.
• As already mentioned, soundstage width seems limited to position width for the most part.
• Veneer quality is a bit disappointing. Some edges are less clean than I'd like and the sheets are not book-matched.

Even despite these weaknesses, I prefer these speakers to just about all I've owned/heard under $2K and even some approaching $4K.


@Giacomo Belbo,
Whether Spendors would be an improvement depends on how you found Harbeth bass disappointing. I went from Compact 7s to Spendor 2/3s of slightly larger size. I gained bass depth and output in exchange for slower speed. However, the speed was a non-issue after 1 minute of listening because the speakers are musically superb. I found the C7 bass to sound constrained as though the woofer was impeded by too small a port- difficult to put into words -they just sounded smaller than I expected. I've since found the new Spendor A4s offer a very nice balance of depth, punch, speed, and articulation. Another brand you should look into is Jean Marie Reynaud. I have a pair of Bliss Silvers that are every bit as good as Spendor/Harbeth in the midrange, and are capable of deeper bass thanks to their quasi-transmission line cabinets. Their Bass is also tighter than my Spendors, but they fall a bit short in terms of musicality. Still, the JMRs are an incredible performance value with top-notch build quality.

 

Excellent review! I wish that I could afford the real high end vintage designs, even the modern versions with the folded horn cabinets and dual concentric drivers.

 

Thanks for the perspective appreciated! Generally I follow your comments and respect your opinion. I’m aware of JM Reynaud (but have no way of auditioning) and the same with Omegas (which are practically completely absent from the country I live in but very interesting overall).