I have noticed over the years there are a few YouTube reviewers that get excited with a product for what ever subjective reasons and start a hype train. Its ok, its their experience and they should be able to convey it in their review. But the viewer or buyer also has to take these things with a grain of salt. If you choose to buy a product based on subjective info fine but don't be surprised later if you find out it measures bad and it offends your buying decision. If you like it ignore the measurements and go about your day. If not sell it buy something else. I own speakers that measure good and bad. I use them for different things no biggie. I don't think measurements are everyrhing but they definitely play a big role in what makes for good audio gear. I'm a reviewer myself and have tried to throttle my excitement since I'm only able to give subjective adjitives and not much objective. I will admit I've gushed over the Sony CS5 but regardless they are unbeatable when on sale for $73. But $120 the hype ends as they're other good options. I'm to skeptical to spend thousands or even hundreds on a single piece of audio gear based only on subjective and anacdotal marketing. Like any other product I buy I want to to see objective data first.
Adorama routinely sells these for $350/pr, but even at that price, the Stage A130 appears to be better and cheaper. With the JBL on sale and/or with EQ for the high bass hump, I don't think there's much of a contest. Meanwhile at the $500 MSRP, you're within spitting distance of the Debut Reference or dealer discounted M16, both of which also appear to be better speakers.
At that price you might as well get the UB52's, I own the 52's and i heard the debut ref's and honestly dont like the way the refs sound. A little too boomy/bass present unless you like that.I was thinking the same thing, especially about the Elacs. I'm, by far, not a fanboy of Elac, or Andrew Jones for that matter, but the DR line seems rather solid for the price.
That's wise, but you got to kind of set your budget and choose something you can test. Unfortunately people dont feel that way and it's hard to find what youre looking seeking if you dont try a few things, so the beginning is a bit expensive.
You may, and I dont know your history or audio journey, but if you are new to it the sony would sound great. Not that I am bashing the sony. There's that douche bag on youtube who talks about cables and sells them, and he mods speakers. He moded that sony and it was amazing. But that's like investing another 200 on internal parts which sony ditched out on.
But Speakers are really all about measurements for sure, there's not much to argue about that. I think the JBL stage A130 would probably be a good addition to your collection if you plan on expanding and not blowing a lot of money.
I am just regurgitating what ive heard, this is direct from Amir and the measurements are clear. I am new to audio, less than a year, and I dont fall into that hype crap. I watch reviews almost everyday, I like audio so I like to see what's out there. But on headphones, speakers, amps, dacs, and all the goodies ive spent nearly 10k. BUTTTT I am done, im not going to buy no more crap and in addition I saved nearly 4-5k on products. I could have spent that much without sales. I never buy full price but I buy new.
Also, I've been listening nearly 6-10 hours per day. Movies here and there, so it's paying off.
I'm not trying to brag or boast, but I just filled in all the spaces I needed. I needed a home theater, got it. Needed a stereo setup, got it. Headphones for nights and times I cant be loud. Not a cheap hobby, but I tried everything prior to buying and I am really happy. It may just be purely my lack of experience, however I am really happy. I'm good.
That's what happens when all these mom and pop shops are being washed out by the internet.
Sounds interesting. Any tutorials, pictures or videos to open the speakers up?Hope I can supply some insight into the Borea which I just purchased before I read this report. On first listening I was a bit disappointed, I found these had a bit of mid range "shout", and boomy bass. My surmise was that the cabinet needed proper dampening material, and had what I call too much over lap in the crossover between the woofer and the tweeter. When I saw the graphs and what your commits were it seems that bump in the roll off the woofer is the problem. I don't think I'll mess with the crossover for now but after removing the woofer ( a delicate operation) I removed the useless material in the bottom section of the cabinet and replaced it with 3/4" compressed style fiberglass on the sides and 2" loose fiberglass at the back, There are other types of suitable materials, but I like loose and compressed fiberglass. The difference in sound after this mod was great, boomy bass was now tight, resonances through the port we low or gone and the hollow sound in the mid bass and mid range is gone. As you found using an E.Q. won't solve these problems, it's surprising to me that the manufacturer would fail on such a simple issue. With this one fix the speaker is now pretty nice sounding, maybe someone will come up with a simple fix for the crossover and take down the "shout", which would make this a great value in this price range of speakers. For those wishing to try this fix, just beware that too much dampening material will kill the bass, try some and add more if needed. I hope this sheds some light on the performance of the Borea and help out other owners.
I should start by saying I am not getting any email notations letting me know someone has responded to my reply so I guess I'll have to check this site occasionally. I did look at that link but since I didn't see a detailed enough explanation for how to safely remove the woofers I'll post how I did it.Sounds interesting. Any tutorials, pictures or videos to open the speakers up?
Fair enough
True, but low Q filters amplify the ability to notice the change, and that 1dB low Q boost at 350Hz would be synergistic with the change to the 800Hz filter.
I dunno man, you're quoting a very old post of mine. My main points I was making to Amir was that a bunch of small changes can add up to a noticeable difference if those EQ changes are working together. My comments were really to just make the EQ more accurate/flat. I was eyeballing it based on experience with using REW & Equaliser APO. If I was you I'd play about with different filters in REW to see what they do and how far they influence depending on Q value and Gain. In fact, a great tool for me to use was VirtuixCAD program, and then using the SPL Trace tool within that program to take visual graphs/pictures of frequency responses that you find on the internet & this tool traces those curves and turns them into text file format - x&y datapoints that can be used to import the frequency response into REW which is a graphing tool to see the effect of different EQ filters on the frequency response......so you can effectively use this procedure that I've described roughly to start doing your own EQ's or at least becoming familiar with how different EQ filters function. I then actually use EqualiserAPO on PC as a means of actually implementing the EQ filter set to my music. If you start getting involved with that you'll be able to answer your own questions.......I can't answer yours with any greater accuracy unless I do all these steps I've loosely described to the frequency response of this speaker for you. Instead it's more useful for you & less work for me if I just point you in the right direction.Hi Robbo99999,
Is this the EQ setting that you're recommending (pic attached)? I'm new to the whole EQ thing and not familiar with all of the terms and nomenclature. I'm using the built in DSP effects (EQ processing) from my RME Babyface Pro. Thanks, M
I tried the BR02 and couldn't warm up to them. They were recessed and messy. I was comparing the Emotiva B1+ and I preferred the forward and airy nature of the Emotiva. That was my preference at the time.What about the smaller bro's - the BR02?
I was considering the q150s (perfect for my small room, easy to drive, and not too fussy with placement, it seems) but I keep hearing about problems popping up with Kef Uni-Q drivers, so that turns me off a little bit. I do prefer smoother, more laid-back presentation (as opposed to in your face shouty treble-forward sound) but not at the expense of detail or dynamics. I guess you could call that balanced neutrality but not too cold/clinical, with natural tonality in the midrange.I tried the BR02 and couldn't warm up to them. They were recessed and messy. I was comparing the Emotiva B1+ and I preferred the forward and airy nature of the Emotiva. That was my preference at the time.
The JBL Stage A130 is a significantly better option if you want a neutral speaker. For something laid back, the KEF Q150 is a great choice. For something in your face, the Emotiva B1+.
They're all great speakers and it's just a matter of preference. Turned out that I preferred the KEF but that was me and I would happily recommend the Emotiva or JBL to anyone.
I have the BR02 and subjectively, I like them a lot. I have a small room and I feel like the sound is smooth/laid-back and not bright or shouty at all. I think they have very natural sounding tonality in the midrange and don't sound sterile/cold/clinical. Their strength is with vocals and imaging performance.I was considering the q150s (perfect for my small room, easy to drive, and not too fussy with placement, it seems) but I keep hearing about problems popping up with Kef Uni-Q drivers, so that turns me off a little bit. I do prefer smoother, more laid-back presentation (as opposed to in your face shouty treble-forward sound) but not at the expense of detail or dynamics. I guess you could call that balanced neutrality but not too cold/clinical, with natural tonality in the midrange.
So you preferred the BR02s to all of these?For reference, I've also owned the KEF Q150, KEF LS50, ELAC Debut Reference DBR62, Polk R200, JBL Studio 530, Infinity R162, etc.
No, not all. I do think it is my favorite in that price category of $300 though.^Thanks for the comments, duly noted.
So you preferred the BR02s to all of these?