Under $500 Speaker Review

I have now tried out several new speakers all under $500. My overall conclusion is new speakers in the $300-$500 price range are outstanding. I love vintage and have a pair of mint vintage Dynaco A10's, but new speakers have much more fidelity and finesse.

I really liked the Klipsch R-15m. They played substantially louder at the same low amp level compared to other brands (because it's sensitivity is something like 92db and others in this price range are around 87). But the bass was weak. The specs on the low hz limits match what I was hearing, so that was to be expected. When listening to a stand-up bass bowing you could hear the bass but it was thin. The positives were the high trebles, mids, and the soundstage. The horns really created a phenomenal soundstage in a small area.

Wharfedale Diamond 220 & 225 really colored the music. I'm a musician so I know what instruments and voices should sound like. These speakers were far from neutral. Directly compared to the Klipsch R-15m the music sounded different. Manipulated. Especially on voices they sounded a bit muffled. Mids were also a bit more muffled at lower volumes.

Elac Debut 2.0 B6.2 in this price range was somewhere between the Klipsch R-15m and Wharfedales. I would have kept the Elacs, but then I discovered the Dali Zensor line. I have the Zensor 1 in my listening room now.

Dali seems to be the best for me. Although sensitivity is only rated at 86.5db, it still plays with lots of preciseness and separation of instruments at low volume levels. Mids are well defined. I notice a big difference in mids between Dali and Wharfedale's. Also the bass. Oh my the bass. You can hear the vibrato when bass is bowing. When bass picks you can hear lower frequencies on the Dali than the others. High trumpet sounds like a trumpet. I love how Miles Davis horn and both Cannonball and Coltrane sax sounds on Columbia CD version of "Kind of Blue". They're in my room playing, man.

I read a review of the Dali Zensor 1 speaker (Stereophile?) where reviewer compared it to speakers in $1,000 range. In fact he didn't know it was a sub $500 speaker when he tested it. Must be reason why these have an almost cult following with several passionate user groups.

Later this weekend I want to listen to Coltrane's "Blue Train" played through the Dali's. On the Klipsch and Elac when I played that vinyl it was very revealing: the quality suffered compared to CD. I think it demonstrated the weakness of my inexpensive Cambridge pre-amp. I didn't hear same phenomena on the Wharfedale's. We'll see what the Dali's do. Maybe my next purchase needs to be a tube pre-amp.

All of these speakers were tested in my 10x10 room with 7' ceilings. Carpeted basement cement floors with sheetrock over cement walls. Sheetrock ceiling. Speakers were 5' apart and 36" high, and my listening spot was 4'-5' away from them. Tested at approx. 20% volume via Peachtree Nova 65SE amp and NAD C516BEE CD player.

 

I picked up a mint set of Revel M22s for $630- above your budget, but these speakers are seriously stunning. Good bass, silky smooth midrange & treble. The clarity is unreal and simply just effortless sounding.

Appreciate the Wharfedale 225 opinion. Others may want to look at Dali vs the 225s at $100 less.

 

This is going back a decade but I've never regretted buying a pair of diminutive, high WAF rating Epos ELS-3 speakers for the living room for music and movies.

 

Thanks, but my intent of thread was to discuss new speakers that cost less than $500. Once we go down slippery path of stretching budgets and looking at used xyzzy for $699 or new for $799......stretching from that and looking at new KEF's on sale for $999 and then we're too far away from intent of my review.

Under $500 and new, please.

 

On behalf of the SHF cat herd, apologies.

 

What is "SHF cat herd"???

 

We who are notoriously unable to heed thread parameters... Start a thread on "Your 3 Favorite Dylan Songs" and the 4th post will be as list of 37 Dylan Songs.

 

Ahhh I see lol.

Anyway, when I hear a good sounding new speaker in the upper tier (quality-wise, and intended for music instead of AV HT) for sale under $500, I have a hard time picking up nuances of speakers in the $1,000 range that justify the additional expenditure. IMHO, to get an additional value out of speakers above this price-point, your other components need to reproduce suitably high-quality signals. My Peachtree Nova 65SE, NAD C516BEE CD player DAC, Cambridge pre, and vintage Sansui TT would be limiting factors. Plus my old drummer's ears. The Dali's are probably going to be the max quality for me with my ears and my equipment.

My next purchase, however, may be a tube pre-amp to enhance sound of my vinyl. I need to do some critical listening to good vinyl albums this weekend.

 

I own mostly vintage speakers that retailed for way over your ceiling when new, but I'm paying far less for them now. Not to take the subject off-track but by way of explanation. But I'm fascinated by what small money will buy in new speakers these days. That's why I own two pair of JBL LSR305 powered monitors for which I paid less than $200/pair for brand new including shipping. There's a lot of bang-for-the-buck in those (heavy) little boxes! Anyone else tried them in their search for a budget system?

 

I have a pair of the LSR308s sitting in storage. I found them to be average studio monitors. I have not tried them outside of near field monitors for recording. I keep thinking about selling them, but I always imagine scenarios where I might want to use them. Damn this pack rat mentality! Haha

Maybe I'll plug them in on my upcoming vaca and see how they perform.

 

It really does seem to be a golden age for audio components. There are definitely a lot of options for speakers, amps, turntables, DACs etc in the $300 to $500 range that are flat out good pieces. That used to be the "budget" or "entry level" or entry level category and you got what you paid for. Now that's just how much they cost. The ELACs are a good example of great sounding pair of speakers that just happen to cost $300. It's almost as if there has been so much R&D done at this point that the manufacturers would actually have to try to make them sound cheap.

I don't think this has even been more true than right now!

 

wharfedale 225

 

Why?

I found that - compared to the other speakers I tried - Wharfedale Diamond 220 & 225 really colored the music. I'm a musician so I know what instruments and voices should sound like. These speakers were not neutral. Directly compared, the music sounded different. Manipulated. Especially on voices they sounded a bit muffled. Mids were also a bit more muffled at lower volumes.

But that's my ears and my equipment. Tell us about your experience.

 

I'm very happy with my Vanatoo Transparent One's, and I hear the Zero's are very good too, and have a remote (both are powered speakers). I don't think either are over $500, but have forgotten the exact price. Wonderful bass.

 

You should check out Paradigm se atoms they just redid the line

 

Looks ike a nice speaker from specs. 89db sensitivity.

 

Nice topic! A physics thing called "Hoffman's Iron Law" BASS-ically says that within the same cabinet size, a more efficient driver will have less bass. So the Klipsch are probably best for playing loud and paired with a subwoofer.
Bass aside, how did you feel about the realism of instruments with that horn tweeter?

 

I found the higher frequency instruments to be brilliantly presented by the Klipsch horn. The tweeter horn made Miles Davis's horn sound very realistic. Some people call it harsh or too bright. Hey that's the way a trumpet really sounds a lot of the time. It's a loud bright instrument. I loved that part of the Klipsch.

The speaker is rated at about 92db sensitivity, so it played louder at a specific volume than other speakers with lower sensitivity. The bass was there but it lacked fidelity. Turning volume up did nothing to reveal more bass fidelity. The Klpisch was just not able to pass along the same lower frequencies that some other speakers in this class did, which is proved out by the numbers published by manufacturers.

 

Nice thread! I use a pair of Klipsch R-15ms in a home office set up, driven by a small 8W ChiFi EL34 tube amp and a U-Turn Orbit turntable. The R-15ms make delightful music in the desk top near field environment. Maybe it's the tube amp, but they don't sound shrill and have been a tremendous value for under $200 new. Another poster said this is something of a Golden Age; I think he's right. So many really nice components available for not a lot of money. HiFi was a fairly obscene out of reach endeavor when I was a kid, but not so much anymore, when MidFi is really great.

 

I'd suggest the Polk RTi A3 monitors belong in this discussion. A very good speaker for less than $500.

Polk Audio RTi A3 loudspeaker

 

FYI, the ELAC Uni-Fi UB5's are presently on sale at Amazon. Based on past pricing this will be temporary. Keep in mind that the entire Uni-Fi series is 4 ohm and relatively low sensitivity at 85 dB at 2.83 v/1m. Be sure your amp can handle the impedance before purchasing.

I own the UF5 towers along with the UC5 CC and am very happy with them.

 

they are somewhat colored but they sound pleasing on lots of recordings, arent power hungry and have some personality.
the elacs are more neutral but tend to need hefty amplification.

 

Yes. They seem to get short thrift from old guard audiophiles, but a wonderful speaker. I think you'd have to spend multiples of their price for a speaker/amp combo to surpass them. I've used both a Schiit SYS as well as Emotiva Control Freak for volume control with them and it makes for a great little setup.

 

I used a pair of Dali Zensor 1s for 5 years and loved them. Fantastic speakers for their amazing prices (bought them new for 200 euros, ie around 230 US dollars).

 

What I find interesting is where speakers are reviewed in the press, and how speakers are marketed. You can find two different speaker brands/models with very similar specs (size, crossover, sensitivity, freq. range etc.) and one will be marketed heavily to AV HT market and reviewed only by CNET and some AV HT media sources, while the other will be reviewed by serious audiophile/ hi-fi media and marketed to that niche.

It is a golden age I think.