From: andrew@alice.att.com (Andrew Hume)
Newsgroups: rec.audio
Subject: speaker auditions
Date: 21 Jul 92 17:07:27 GMT
Article-I.D.: alice.23262
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ


	Recently, i have accompanied a friend as he looked for speakers.
I did it for interest although i was also trying to compare the two Rotel CD
playes (965/955).

	The initial target price was a few hundred dollars. He went through
a list of speakers mentioned in Stereophile and some i heard good things
about in rec.audio. He then settled on $500 or so as the target but wanted to
hear the Snell E/III (~$1000) to see if they were worth the extra price. Our
short list was Fried Q/4, PSB 500, Snell E/III, NHT 1.3 (and any other speakers
that were convenient).

	Our listening selection were the following CD's:

Enya; Shepherd Moons: Carribean Blue. Good for establishing bass output
	and balance. Listen for overall sound/texture and timbre of her voice.
Windham Hills Sampler 81: The Bricklayer's Beautiful Daughter. Very good
	recording of acoustic guitar. Good for picking out details.
	Poor speakers tend to make the steely string sounds obnoxious.
Front Line Assembly; Gashed Senses & Crossfire: Prayer. Synthesised deep bass
	and lovely bouncing ball bearings in the first 60s.
King's College Choir; Britten Choral Music: This Little Babe. This is a carol
	sung as a round with 1, 2 and 3 parts. Very complex texture and sound
	prone to smearing and defects in the upper midrange and lower treble.
Eugen Jochum conducting Carmina Burana; Carl Orff:
	track 19 (si puer cum puellula). Quality of male voices
	track 23 (dulcissime). Chilling soprano (goosebumps). Sweeps upper midrange
		and treble. Prone to glare. Detailed speakers will reveal some
		subtle flaws in her technique.
	track 25 (o fortuna). Finale. Mass orchestral and choral blast. Look for
		detail in the voices and instruments. Also look for the guy in the
		chorus who sings a little longer than everyone else (he should
		appear to be lower right).
Led Zeppelin; remastered set: Black Dog. Thumping rock'n'roll.
Midnight Oil; Diesel and Dust: Beds are burning. Well produced rock'n'roll. Less
	demanding bass energy than black dog.
Pachelbel; Paillard: Canon in D Major. Gorgeous recording with textures that seem
	to be flattened by poor CD players. (CD player track rather than speakers.)


	Our first session compared the Fried Q/4 and the PSB 500, and the Rotel
965/955. The Frieds were quite good overall. Their bass was ample and well defined.
Their midrange and treble was not as good; they were rougher and timbres were
altered. The balance was bass rich. The PSBs had adequate bass but
lovely midrange and trebles. Treble voices sounded natural, detailed and smooth.
Overall balance was a tad bass-shy but not objectionably so. We were both
surprised at the high quality of sound of these PSBs.

	The CD players were also a surprise. The last time I was at this store
(audio nexus in summit nj -- highly recommended), I had heard subtle differences
between the Rotel 955 and some sony player (about $800). The differences between
the two Rotel players was much clearer and easily discernible on any track.
The 965 had sharper edges on transients, better sense of imaging and soundstage.
The 955 just had mushier sound overall. My friend heard similar effects as well.
As to which one is better? I worry about the sharpness of the 965;
coupled with bright sounding speakers and/or amp, this could be too much and
be fatiguing to listen to. I will wait until my amp is ready and then audition
it at home.

	Next, we went to Woodbridge Stereo to listen to the Snell's but found
that they stopped selling them because "no one was buying them". They showed
us their two speakers in the $1k range (Definitive Technology BP-10? and
the Mirage 7i). How depressing! the BP-10s had a clearly elevated upper midrange,
sounded bright and didn't even have great bass. The steely guitar strings and the
Orff soprano sounded horrible (couldn't even finish the track). The Mirages
were overly laid back and polite; the vocals sounded mushy but they didn't offend.
If they sell, its only because folks can't stand the BP-10s. These are poor
speakers, significantly worse than the PSBs despite costing $1k and $1.2k.
(Sure, we used different electronics at woodbridge but the adcoms were
representative of the prices range you would use for these guys.)

	We then hiked up to Sound City in Kinnelon to hear the NHTs.
The 1.3's were pretty good but fairly bass shy. They didn't do so well on
resolving detail either. Overall, not bad at $399. The 1.8s (at $500ish)
are a waste of time (an older model that sounds worse) according to the salesperson.
They were broken so we couldn't hear for ourselves. We did hear the step up from
the 1.3s -- the 2.3s. These were better but not much so; they simply add a bass driver
to the 1.3s. Poor value for the price ($875, $1.2K list). The 2.3s were nearly
competitive with the PSBs.

	Finally, we trekked down to the sole NJ Snell rep (Hitech in Eatontown).
The Snell E/III's were driven by the Rotel 965. They sounded great. Very detailed,
good imaging, good resolution of voices and instruments, particularly in the Orff.
At $990, a great buy and the best sound we had heard. We also heard the Snell J/IIIs.
These are the E/IIIs in a smaller cabinet (same drivers). They sounded quite good
and only gave up some bass (49Hz as opposed to 30Hz), overall volume and some
soundstaging to the E/IIIs. Very creditable for $650. The only problems we detected
were slightly bass-heavy balance, a little narrow soundstage (we had problems
detecting the errant guy in the Orff), and a funniness in the upper-midrange. Voices
in this range seemed a little depressed in volume and had rougher timbre.
There is an adjustment for the crossover and the small experiment we tried changed
this part of the midrange. The Stereophile review mentioned that one setting
was best, and the optional 10" stands helped remove midrange coloration.
My friend phoned Snell and they said that the E's reflected sound in the female
vocal section suffered in comparison with the C/IV.  The sound engineer had been
to Hitech and said their overly active soundroom exacerbated the problem, probably
caused the soundstage problems, and didn't know what the 2" stands we heard them
on would do.


	My friend is going to get the Snells, but would have gotten the PSBs
if price were more of an issue.  We were pleased with our listening selections --
they allowed us to clearly differentiate the speakers and detect problems.
we were both impressed with how accurate the Stereophile reports were;
we heard similar things and our overall assessments matched their's fairly well.
Apart from the Snell's, we were apalled at the sound of the $1k speakers
we heard; the PSBs were better. And I was sufficiently impressed with the
good sound I heard at Audio Nexus that I'll use them as my main recommendation
for an audio store now that Hifi Haven is defunct.  Although I am uncertain
about whether i like the Rotel 965, anyone who claims that all CD players sound
alike after hearing both the 955 and 965 simply has barnacles in their ears
(or some electronic equivalent).

		andrew hume (andrew@research.att.com)
		sean dorward