Conclusions and Observations

Clint DeBoer: There really isn't a "conclusion" per se for this article, however it is clear that we didn't find any speakers that were "jumping the rungs" in terms of price for performance - at least not this go-around. Considering some of the past shoot-outs we've done I wonder if this is simply chance, or a change in the industry that indicates manufacturers are putting more of their money into the design, construction and components that go into the loudspeakers. If so, that's welcome news indeed and we're happy to report as such. For me the two surprises for the evening were the Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1 speakers and the Dali Mentor-1's. The Dali's may be too bright for non-treated rooms, but in the scenario we were in during this listening session they blew away the competition. The Ascend Acoustics only surprised me because I hadn't heard them before. They are a very smooth, refined-sounding speaker and they deserve some kudos. I didn't particularly care for any of the ~$200-range speakers. I may be turning into an audio snob, but if I have to be honest I'd have to say that if you are in this price range DO NOT listen to more expensive speakers. If you keep yourself to this price range you will likely be very happy with any of the models we listened to.

If you are determined to go 2-channel and you have a larger room, the Usher's will likely cause some problems with bottoming out - they were unique in this respect in how easily they did it. Aside from that they sounded pretty darn good. RBH Sound as always makes speakers which excel - absolutely trump - midrange performance. If you aren't prepared, however, they can come across as a bit fatiguing. Good room acoustics minimizes this as does a well-balanced system with adequate bass management.

Tom Andry: While I'm a big believer in the laws of diminishing returns, don't kid yourself that you won't be able to hear the differences in your room between speakers priced many times more than your current speakers. The difference between the $200 and $400 speakers was immense. Night and day. Grand Canyon. Now between the $400 and $800 I felt the differences were less apparent. Sure, there were less design compromises in the $800 pairs, but not nearly as pronounced and much of this was aesthetics. Now, the Dali's were much better but at that price, they have to be. It's easy to say, "Oh yeah, if I was on the market, I'd buy those," but $1,800 is a lot of money for speakers. There are a lot of speakers between the $800 price point the $1,800 to look at before making that decision.

The room can play a huge part and I feel it did here too. Especially for the lower priced speakers that were never meant to be in such a large room. The upside is that Gene's room is designed to be as acoustically balanced as possible which should take the room out of the equation. Unfortunately, more than likely your room is not flat. Some of the "problems" we heard, you will not because of your room. Some of the good points will be accentuated to the point of discomfort because of your room. Some of you that have heard these speakers will wonder if we were all on crack because our description sounds nothing like your experience in your room. That's the way speakers work and that's why speaker reviews and shootouts are the hardest to do. We can measure transports, amps, displays, and just about everything else. But even speaker designers will tell you that a speaker measurement will only get you so far. You have to listen to them. I encourage you to do so if you are on the market for any of these speakers - preferably in your room.

Gene DellaSala: This was an interesting face off. I learned many things from this experience. For one, we all hear differently, and the room plays an integral part in how well a speaker will perform. A speaker with a relaxed top-end will likely sound muddy in an acoustically controlled listening space, while a bright speaker will sound bright in nearly any room. A speaker that measures linearly on/off axis, will sound the most consistent in a large variety of rooms. Thus it’s my opinion that starting with a linear speaker is usually a good idea so it’s more predictable of how it would sound in your room.

Brighter speakers tend to win in instantaneous listening face offs even when level matched. This is one reason why it’s equally importance that multiple listening sessions should occur between your choice speakers with plenty of rest in between, followed by individual testing of each speaker system optimally placed. It is my opinion we all suffered some degree of listening fatigue from doing these demos all day long towards the end of the face off leading us to varying conclusions. The next time we do a speaker face off like this, we will limit demos to 15-20 minutes with adequate breaks in between as well as using a wider variety of source material. Towards the end of this process, I felt my mind going to mush and it will take me months until I can listen to “Cousin Dupree” again from Steely Dan, despite I am a huge fan.

When choosing a speaker, it’s important to understand its application and how it will play in your listening space. Its not realistic to expect a bookshelf speaker to produce room shaking bass in a typical listening space which is why its so imperative to bass manage these speakers and mate them with a good subwoofer or two, especially in large listening spaces. I feel many of the speakers in this review would have performed much better by doing so, such as the Ushers and AV123’s. This would take unnecessary strain off the woofers and help clean up the vocals as a result.

In the sub $250 category, my pick was the AV123’s despite its shortcomings because I felt they would sound much better crossed over to a sub and their cabinetry was like a work of art.

In the $400 category, I preferred the RBH TK-5C’s but only by a small margin over the Ushers. I suspect the Usher’s would edge them out if crossed over to a subwoofer.

In the $800 and above category, I really liked the RBH MC-6C’s overall because of their spectal balance and linearity, but also couldn’t forget the incredible detail and wide soundstage of the Dali’s. I was so tempted to stick a resistor pad in the Dali’s to tone down the ribbon tweeter just to see how they would sound. If I owned them, I would have definitely done this experiment. If you’re not planning on using a sub, I’d lean towards the Sierra 1’s, especially if you’re in a lively listening space. Regardless of any product shortcomings, all of the speakers in the $800 and up price point put on quite an impressive display of fidelity and finesse. You truly do get more speaker for your money when dealing with legitimately good speaker manufacturers as evident in this face off review.