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applescrap

applescrap

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A place for people to discuss av gear, audiophile issues, and or ask questions from the community.
 
Is anybody an expert on older Bowers & Wilkins models? Or have some? Last night I moved my old CDM 1se from my bedroom to the family room. I moved the cm4s there upstairs. It's funny but I think the bookshelf sound way better and are just better quality. I will probably be selling my old CM4 for more of the cdm1s or maybe matrix 805s. Any thoughts?
 
No speaker fans?

Music, television, entertainment are the backdrops of Our Lives. You get a good pair of speakers and you won't regret it.

The night after i wrote that some cdm7se became available . They sound realllly good so friend getting cm4s. I love these old speakers.

View attachment 1485405780167.jpg
 
I want to get a smaller set of speakers to hang on the wall in the brew room i'm building, powered by a newer sony receiver I just scored used for $25 from a neighbor. It's only an 8x16' space, and i dont need a lot of bass. I dont want to spend more than $100. Any suggestions?
 
HausBrauerei_Harvey said:
I want to get a smaller set of speakers to hang on the wall in the brew room i'm building, powered by a newer sony receiver I just scored used for $25 from a neighbor. It's only an 8x16' space, and i dont need a lot of bass. I dont want to spend more than $100. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Yard sales or pawn shops. I looked for a while before finding some cheaper speakers at a yard sale.

Granted these are not notable in any way other than they were the size I wanted and capable of handling the output I was giving them.

If you want a quality set, then I'll let someone else chime in. With the burner running and other things going on, I didn't want to be too picky about sound quality. They were leagues better than the free pawn shop speakers I had been using (From the 60s).

For really good sound I prefer headphones anyway.
 
HausBrauerei_Harvey said:
I want to get a smaller set of speakers to hang on the wall in the brew room i'm building, powered by a newer sony receiver I just scored used for $25 from a neighbor. It's only an 8x16' space, and i dont need a lot of bass. I dont want to spend more than $100. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I've got these in my garage hooked up to a 20w per channel amp. They sound fantastic, but they may not meet your needs for "small". They measure about 12"x8"x8". Tons of good reviews too. http://www.parts-express.com/dayton...source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pla
 
HausBrauerei_Harvey said:
I want to get a smaller set of speakers to hang on the wall in the brew room i'm building, powered by a newer sony receiver I just scored used for $25 from a neighbor. It's only an 8x16' space, and i dont need a lot of bass. I dont want to spend more than $100. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Theres probably a thousand speakers you can get for under a $100. I got these for my zone 2 kitchen based on the endless reviews.They Sound pretty good. Theres a youtube video review on them. Somewhere and I cant remember where,Maybe the audiofile thread I mentioned, someone posted a link for a wholesale speaker company, seemed to have deep discounts..might be worth looking for..https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E7H8GG2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
Last edited by a moderator:
applescrap said:
Is anybody an expert on older Bowers & Wilkins models? Or have some? Last night I moved my old CDM 1se from my bedroom to the family room. I moved the cm4s there upstairs. It's funny but I think the bookshelf sound way better and are just better quality. I will probably be selling my old CM4 for more of the cdm1s or maybe matrix 805s. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I am no expert. But, I do have a pair of DM604 s2's.

I also have a real time audio spectrum analyzer. I once compared the performance between the DM604's and a cheap $20ea bookshelf speaker from Radio Shack.

The Radio shack bookshelf speakers had a flatter response across their 20kHz to 60Hz range, and with less THD, than the DM604's did in the same range (obviously the DM604s produced in a lower range than the bookshelfs).

Was pretty eye-opening.
 
applescrap said:
No speaker fans?

Music, television, entertainment are the backdrops of Our Lives. You get a good pair of speakers and you won't regret it.

The night after i wrote that some cdm7se became available . They sound realllly good so friend getting cm4s. I love these old speakers.
Click to expand...

Those look a LOT like a pair of Fried Audio towers I had for a little while. Decent speakers. I was more fond of Thiel Audio tho'.
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
I am no expert. But, I do have a pair of DM604 s2's.

I also have a real time audio spectrum analyzer. I once compared the performance between the DM604's and a cheap $20ea bookshelf speaker from Radio Shack.

The Radio shack bookshelf speakers had a flatter response across their 20kHz to 60Hz range, and with less THD, than the DM604's did in the same range (obviously the DM604s produced in a lower range than the bookshelfs).

Was pretty eye-opening.
Click to expand...

604s are pretty boss looking. How do they sound? I'm not sure I understand. The $20 Radio Shack speakers sounded as good?
 
HausBrauerei_Harvey said:
I want to get a smaller set of speakers to hang on the wall in the brew room i'm building, powered by a newer sony receiver I just scored used for $25 from a neighbor. It's only an 8x16' space, and i dont need a lot of bass. I dont want to spend more than $100. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Obviously I am a b&w fan, but that being said, I would consider used for your budget. Pawn shops, goodwill, etc...and a little patience. My brother-in-law scored v201 speakers for $10 at a Goodwill. I have two sets of v202 one in my garage and one in the kids room. Both people wanted a hundred and fifty or more to start. Which is pretty surprising considering they were only 250 in 1995 ish. I watched them go lower and lower and finally offered 50, which was accepted twice. I see these nice speakers that people post that are under one hundred and have great reviews, so maybe there is some good new stuff?! Especially with something like the elac b6 which for 280 were compared to bw 685s that are 600 a pair by cnet. Here is a picture of the 202s with 7inch woofers. I believe that the quality of sound from these would be shocking to most.

I scored a pair of CM ones for cheap and sold them because I didn't need the bookshelf. They are really little and they sound really good and they look really good.

View attachment 1485477160994.jpg

View attachment 1485477218394.jpg

View attachment 1485477225396.jpg
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
Those look a LOT like a pair of Fried Audio towers I had for a little while. Decent speakers. I was more fond of Thiel Audio tho'.
Click to expand...

Thiel's are some nice speakers. My cuz had a set many years ago. But I've been partial to Klispch. Would eventually like to upgrade once I complete my mancave but that's gonna be a few years down the road.
 
Heres a pic of the $400 cdm7se I scored. These are my 7th pair of Bowers & Wilkins speakers. These and the bookshelves like them are incredible. My opinion they seem to come as close to class A as I can get with my budget. They retailed for $1,800 in 1999. Man that was a lot of money back then. Cant wait to sell them and move up :)

View attachment 1485477597271.jpg

View attachment 1485477609284.jpg
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
I am no expert. But, I do have a pair of DM604 s2's.



I also have a real time audio spectrum analyzer. I once compared the performance between the DM604's and a cheap $20ea bookshelf speaker from Radio Shack.



The Radio shack bookshelf speakers had a flatter response across their 20kHz to 60Hz range, and with less THD, than the DM604's did in the same range (obviously the DM604s produced in a lower range than the bookshelfs).



Was pretty eye-opening.
Click to expand...


Please describe the test procedure.
 
I used to be an audio snob when I was single. Now that I'm married, brewing and a beer snob my audio budget is limited to Onkyo for receivers (yes, no separate amp) and Paradigm or Energy for speakers. I rarely get to blast the system due to SWMBO, so it's Sennheiser headphones for listening most of the time.
 
CU_tony said:
I scored an old pair of JBL 4311's for free in college. I have done some minor repairs and re-screened them and they sound pretty awesome to me!
Click to expand...


GREAT monitors! I use a pair of 4310's with an NAD 3020A for vinyl (from a Music Hall mmf 2.3), and I love them.

For "home theater," I picked up a Sonos Playbar, Sub, and 2 Play 1's, and I actually think they sound pretty great, AND they were super easy to setup. All wireless!
 
Once upon a time over a decade ago when I was making some extra coin playing online poker I splurged and spent about $5,000 and built some Linkwitz Orions speakers http://www.linkwitzlab.com/orion-rev3.htm including buying cables and amps for them. They sounded wonderful for a long time.

They've been in a closet for a couple of years now because their size in our den bugged the bejesus out of my wife. I will never part with them so some day someone is going to get a hella bargain at goodwill after I pass on.
 
afro_lou said:
GREAT monitors! I use a pair of 4310's with an NAD 3020A for vinyl (from a Music Hall mmf 2.3), and I love them.

For "home theater," I picked up a Sonos Playbar, Sub, and 2 Play 1's, and I actually think they sound pretty great, AND they were super easy to setup. All wireless!
Click to expand...

This thread just got a huge upgrade. Heard those sonos sound good.
 
applescrap said:
This thread just got a huge upgrade. Heard those sonos sound good.
Click to expand...


[emoji16]

I've actually been really impressed with Sonos' system! They've got a room tuning "thingy" that works through their app that actually works surprisingly well. As in, I didn't think it would do all that much, but it really locked the surrounds in with the playbar and balanced them nicely. Cool system for sure. Plus, easy streaming music playback! I'm going to expand the system into the bedroom and kitchen soon. Fun stuff!
Oh, and it actually sounds good too!
 
This one is for a bachelor party for my relative. (They were also planning for some special blended red wines, I am not sure about this. Will confirm it and share it here)
 
afro_lou said:
[emoji16]

I've actually been really impressed with Sonos' system! They've got a room tuning "thingy" that works through their app that actually works surprisingly well. As in, I didn't think it would do all that much, but it really locked the surrounds in with the playbar and balanced them nicely. Cool system for sure. Plus, easy streaming music playback! I'm going to expand the system into the bedroom and kitchen soon. Fun stuff!
Oh, and it actually sounds good too!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I met this guy and he has the whole house setup with sonos. He said it was fun.
 
beernutz said:
Once upon a time over a decade ago when I was making some extra coin playing online poker I splurged and spent about $5,000 and built some Linkwitz Orions speakers http://www.linkwitzlab.com/orion-rev3.htm including buying cables and amps for them. They sounded wonderful for a long time.

They've been in a closet for a couple of years now because their size in our den bugged the bejesus out of my wife. I will never part with them so some day someone is going to get a hella bargain at goodwill after I pass on.
Click to expand...

Spent some time on that site, very impressive. How do they sound?
 
@OH- yes, I have worked with Freeman AV numerous times, though they have all been national multi million dollar shows.
I'm not sure what sort of karaoke system you are thinking of, but I personally haven't seen a Freeman delivery smaller than an 18 wheeler. That being said they may do small in town rentals near their main base of operations, Orlando, Dallas, I think they have a DC and a Vegas warehouse as well.
 
applescrap said:
Spent some time on that site, very impressive. How do they sound?
Click to expand...

My den's acoustics weren't great but they still sounded very open and transparent with great imaging though not quite three dimensional like the reviews might lead you to believe. I didn't buy the high end 12 channel ATI6012 amp (60wpc) Sigfried Linkwitz recommended because it was over $2500 new. I bought two decent 4 channel 40 wpc Adcom amplifiers on ebay that worked well enough for much less than the cost of the recommended amp so it could be argued I wasn't driving the speakers optimally.
 
arturo7 said:
Please describe the test procedure.
Click to expand...

It was all VERY "scientifical". ;)

Sencore RTA, Sencore DAG, array of multiplexed microphones set equidistance from the speaker fronts, white noise, pink noise, individual frequencies, and an acoustically dead room. Passed the signal through a Yamaha RX-Z9. And compared results of individual tests on each type of speaker.

The DAG has the ability to specify individual frequencies. And the RTA would display if any additional frequencies were being produced by the loudspeaker thus giving a graphical display of harmonic distortion. Granted, some of the displayed distortion is caused by the receiver itself.
 
I sadly have too many expensive hobbies already to upgrade my audio any more.
Luckily I lived next to a hifi store when younger and got a great deal on a bunch of showroom stuff.
so while my receiver is a reasonably new marantz sr5400-ose, my speakers are mostly over 20 years old:
2 dynaudio audience 122 standing speakers,
1 dynaudio audience 120 center
2 dynaudio audience 52 rear speakers
subwoofer i got from a b&o set that had shipping damage.
 
JONNYROTTEN said:
Theres probably a thousand speakers you can get for under a $100. I got these for my zone 2 kitchen based on the endless reviews.They Sound pretty good. Theres a youtube video review on them. Somewhere and I cant remember where,Maybe the audiofile thread I mentioned, someone posted a link for a wholesale speaker company, seemed to have deep discounts..might be worth looking for..https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E7H8GG2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Click to expand...

these do look nice, thanks for the recommendation!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
GilaMinumBeer said:
It was all VERY "scientifical". ;)

Sencore RTA, Sencore DAG, array of multiplexed microphones set equidistance from the speaker fronts, white noise, pink noise, individual frequencies, and an acoustically dead room. Passed the signal through a Yamaha RX-Z9. And compared results of individual tests on each type of speaker.

The DAG has the ability to specify individual frequencies. And the RTA would display if any additional frequencies were being produced by the loudspeaker thus giving a graphical display of harmonic distortion. Granted, some of the displayed distortion is caused by the receiver itself.
Click to expand...


Great. Now we've all got test gear envy.
 
I'm no expert, but the new smaller Bluetooth speakers, (even Bose has one for around $100 on sale) are great for the digital age. I'm old enough to have had a rack system or two, but the big speaker cabinets do not alwAys equal better sound.
 
Hoppy2bmerry said:
I'm no expert, but the new smaller Bluetooth speakers, (even Bose has one for around $100 on sale) are great for the digital age. I'm old enough to have had a rack system or two, but the big speaker cabinets do not alwAys equal better sound.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about traveling out and about? I like the little beats pill. Small and I could get a block party started when camping.
 
I've got equipment, but sadly maple floors, high ceilings, and lots of windows means the acoustics of my rooms suck bad. I've tried and tried with reference sources and equalizers and there is no solution except putting a good set of cans on my head.
 
CU_tony said:
@OH- yes, I have worked with Freeman AV numerous times, though they have all been national multi million dollar shows.
I'm not sure what sort of karaoke system you are thinking of, but I personally haven't seen a Freeman delivery smaller than an 18 wheeler. That being said they may do small in town rentals near their main base of operations, Orlando, Dallas, I think they have a DC and a Vegas warehouse as well.
Click to expand...

Thank you Tony, I will discuss this info with them. Thank you for your support.
 
arturo7 said:
Great. Now we've all got test gear envy.
Click to expand...

Don't. Equipment was bought for commercial use. I was also a rep for RPG Acoustics. Not enough money in my area to make a good run out of HT acoustics.

By time I gave up trying the equipment was outdated and I couldn't sell it for much.

Rattle testing was always fun tho'.

passedpawn said:
I've got equipment, but sadly maple floors, high ceilings, and lots of windows means the acoustics of my rooms suck bad. I've tried and tried with reference sources and equalizers and there is no solution except putting a good set of cans on my head.
Click to expand...

Drapes, bookshelves in corners, big fluffy sofas, and thick pile rugs can do wonders.
 
^^good tips, what about placement also? I have a big sliding glass door in my family room and I am starting to wonder if the speaker's sound best halfway in the room. Right now I have them moved pretty far out. I hear you passedPawn, sounds like you have a real difficult acoustic situation there.
 
Just lost out on Matrix 805s yesterday. I think these are my next purchase or maybe the 804. Seems I keep getting deals that are too good to pass up. So if that happens I'm okay with an in-between :)
 

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