Live Test - Bookshelf speakers - 2500 Euro per pair - Part 3
Vložit
- čas přidán 27. 06. 2024
- Well... it's time for the last one in this triptych. We have - for now - four bookshelf speakers.
For this huge test of bookshelf speakers, we invited all the big brands ánd the less known ones. This very large mass test will give you an unbiased look into a very popular price segment in the world of monitor loudspeakers.
If you like these kind of tests, please support us on Patreon: / alphaaudio
Speakers discussed:
- KEF R3 Meta
- Elac Vela BS403
- Monitor Audio Gold 100
- ATC SCM11
NB: something went wrong with the mic-matrix. The ATC SCM11 and Wheel demo are in mono.
Index:
Timeline:
00:00:00 - 00:18:38 - Countdown
00:18:38 - 00:22:25 - Introduction
00:22:23 - 00:59:51 - KEF R3 Meta
00:59:51 - 01:40:05 - Elac Vela BD 403
01:40:05 - 02:16:05 - Monitor Audio Gold 100 G5
02:16:05 - 02:57:06 - ATC SCM 11 (due to an error in mono!)
02:57:06 - 03:06:15 - Conclusion after three sessions
03:06:15 - 03:19:44 - The Wheel turntable (in mono too) - Věda a technologie
Musicians (and techs) describing and discussing the sound is a real treat. Congratulations and many thanks!
Very welcome!
Guys this was totally awesome. Loved all of it.
Thank you guys so much for this fun comparison, thumbs up
With the ATC SCM11 and Wheel-demo, something went wrong with the mic-matrix. So... it's in Mono... Damn. Sorry for this mistake!
Don't be sorry, it sounded good, you may have stumbled on something valuable.
wow, great work, thanks you guys, very informative show
Welcome!
please bring more of these test, i think it really helps people understand speakers better. instead of all these marketing youtubers that praise every speaker that comes around
We will! Just subscribe. We have monthly live streams and lots of sample tests.
What I take from this is that unless you can audtion several amps and speakers in your own listening room you will be gambling with your purchase.
This is why aesthetics are so important to me. It's damn near the one thing about a speaker that remains a constant... I know it's not that simple, and performance definitely matters... But I do pay attention to how a speaker looks.
R3 Meta 32:20 Pass 43:11 Nilai Mammal Hands - Three Good Things from the album Shadow Work. 1:21:28 Elac. 1:52:10 MA.
Good job guys, thanks !
Welcome.
The music used:
- Beethoven, Symphony no.7, part 2: Adagietto performed by the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Philippe Herreweghe.
- Mammal Hands - Three Good Things from the album Shadow Work
- Sohn - M.I.A. from the album Trust
Just finished "building" the nilai monoblocks yesterday. I am not a handy guy so wish me luck....Hoping they power up. ;-) I am pairing them with my NAD M10 and Philharmonic BMR loudspeakers. Thank you @TheAlphaAudio for the Class D head to head
Very welcome. Have fun!
It cant be overstated how much I luv these comparative HiFi-tests from you guys,, 👍⭐👍⭐👍⭐👍
Theres a very interesting price segment one step under this one, 1500,ish Euro.
KEF LS50 META - Buchardt P300 - Triangle Comete 40th - Dynaudio Evoke 10 - Monitor Audio Silver - KEF R3 - JBL Synthesis L52 Classic - Audiovector QR1 - Elac Solano BS 283 - Mission 700 - Revel Concerta2 M16 - SVS Ultra Bookshelf - Totem Kin Play - Canton Vento 30 - Procella Audio P5 - Focal Aria K2 906 - Spendor A1 - Acoustic Energy AE500 - DALI Mentor Menuet - JBL Synthesis 4309 - Polk Audio Legend L100 - ATC SCM7 - Amphion Argon 1 - Arendal 1723 - etc etc. 😋
Great add-on this cd-player-like record player, plus JOE JACKSON!! 👏👏👏
In my experience the Vela is hard to drive. When done right they sound amazing. But that required a lot of try and error for me. Now I settled with the amp called Unico Primo by Unison Research.
After watching all three parts of this series, I have come away with two things. The Pass Labs is no joke and the audio physic step 35 is something else.
Yes. Indeed!
Monitor A.G.100, precise, detailed, composed. Balanced spkr!
Definately a nice product
Thank you Alpha Audio for your tests part 1,2 & 3 and for including ATC SCM11...Your thoughts are a good indication as to all the tested speakers. Now for higher up standmount speakers the ATC SCM19 would be very intertesting inclusion (they will need a powerful amp even more so than driving SCm 40...!)
Yes.... They need current! But if you drive them well... :-)
I review 11s vs 19s if interested. They are amazing speakers, but need a sub for full range sound as do the 11s.
That would be very interesting review! When will the review take place...?@@willbrink
I have read your review, very informative..! When I replied above I thought I was replying to Alpha Audio hence the mistake...
Hi, I used Atc SCM 7-11-19-20-40 passive models, SCM 19 among them is incredibly musical, it is a legend for me.
Thanks for the awesome video guys. I loved this so much.
Quick questions…
1. What did you guys mean when you referred to damping amp vs class A amp during the KEF test? I’m a noob and would appreciate some reading material on it.
2. Any plans to review the Technics SU-G700M2?
Thanks again!!!
Just discovered your channel, extermly interesting to listen and to hear all your thoughts as I am now looking at getting some new bookshelf speakers and like both the monitor audio and the ATC SCM11 to pair with my Atoll SDA200 Signature. Options, options, very hard to decide, thank you.
Trust your ears.
Hey! Thanks for the great comparisons, excellent content! Do you guys know where one can get the Nilai fully assembled?
Thanks for the test. Maybe Heco Celan Revolution 3 for the next time ?
Monitor Audio Gold!!!!
Great vid as always guys! Word of advise, perhaps hold on to that mic and speak into it when needed, it will prevent us from jumping into the air and getting tinnitus for the rest of the show every time you cough! Cheers
Yeah... you are right. We will pay attention to that.
My respect to the effort you guys have put into this test for our convenience, hats off to you guys. I use a sugden a21se signature with matrix mini I pro3 and was looking to decide between the amphion argon 1 and neat petite, my room is 12X18 feet, according to your experience will be the sugden be able to drive the neat petite to its potential in my room given my listening volume is between 60-65db with peaks around 70db.
Thanks.
With ease.
Monitor audios were the most immediate and enticing to me,totems would have been a nice addition
I was listening this comparison on my old Klipsch R41-PM and even with compressed youtube sound the KEF R3 Meta sounded very very big and specious.
I could not catch from your conversation what amplifier/DAC did you use.
Timeline:
00:18:38 - 00:22:25 Introduction
00:22:23 - 00:59:51 KEF R3 Meta
00:59:51 - 01:40:05 Elac Vela BD 403
01:40:05 - 02:16:05 Monitor Audio Gold 100 G5
02:16:05 - 02:57:06 ATC SCM 11 (due to an error in mono!)
02:57:06 - 03:06:15 Conclusion after three sessions
03:06:15 - 03:19:44 The Wheel turntable (in mono too)
Hello! I don’t know English, so please write the top five places in your opinion. very interesting. thanks for the info!
The turntable was the highlight!
Yeah. It is a nice piece of engineering.
@@TheAlphaAudio and to your credit it sounded analogue 😁
@@REX4340 hahaha. 👍
@@REX4340 ;-)
Another great speaker test. So many in these price ranges, but would be nice to get your setup behind some Proacs for a listen! Thank you.
We will get a pair.
@@TheAlphaAudio Awesome! 😎🙏🏼❤️
KEF Very, very refined. Very pure.
It is sensitive to toe in for good imaging. (It is quite directional, which helps if you want to cut down reflections from walls, big glass windows, etc)
I think plugging the port will help with bass response.
I had a G100; the MA has a brilliant (mid)high and space and image, but the overflow(and a little boomy) bass kill the balance, and this chararcter is completely audible in this test!
(my successor: Usher sd500 + SVSsb2000)
...do I hear correctly, that the JBL has a similar character, but with a - fortunately - slightly leaner bass?
Maybe the most balanced speaker in this part -imho-, is the Elac.
ATC is great too but is little dry for me(or just hear the mono rec?); but maybe the SCM19 would have been the right competitor, considering the prices ;) .
The R3 is perhaps too cautious, although it still sounds good.
But My all-part test-favorite is the Amphilon (possibly the Buchard) and the AudioPhysic and Revell were also great!
Anyway, thank you for this excellent experience!
This is a great work and an objective test-series!
Keep up this!
Had exact problem. On 5 different amps same character all the time then one day tried to run Densen B130....and they are shining. Just beautiful. May be useful info for somebody.
ATC. I have the SCM7 so I'm biased. I absolutely love them. ❤ For the audiophile who wants to hear the music as the musician intended it to sound or how it sounded in the studio! 😜 With that being said, ATCs are very revealing of the quality of the recording but in a non-fatiguing way. It's garbage in, garbage out. No sugar coating.
Not if they used Genelec,s, PMC,s, PSI,s, Dutch and Dutch or any other monitors in the studio, since all monitors sounds different, and on top of that, all control rooms sounds different, as do all different masteringstudios, listeningrooms, etc etc. On top of that,, Iw never heard an artist state, "that sounded exactly as I intended it to sound".
Not once over +40 years of engineering, mixing and mastering. Cheers,, 🍻😎👍
@@IrenESorius Of course, I understand. I was only teasing the kind of audiophiles (and audio sales persons) that search for that kind of sound. The "chasing unicorn" type, you know...
Great. Said it before, but great. How about the temperature on the Nilia after theses long listening sessions? Any performance difference when it’s up in temperature or more?
Barely lukewarm.
The JBL Hdi-1600 sensitivity is 85db/1w which is 5 lower than the floor stand version which is 90db/1w. I thought they were all fantastic loudspeakers too. I try to buy locally at an independent dealer. Only about half of these brands are represented in my region. On my short list would be the JBL,ATC and NEAT. I was blown away by a recent demo of ProAc and PMC. My current loudspeakers are JMR Cantibile and PMC TB1. I really would like to test ATC first ……
It'd be nice to hear a summary view of the best across all the three parts of this spectacular collection.
Live Test - Bookshelf speakers - 2500 Euro per pair
PART 1 - czcams.com/video/Ym5ILovqK7I/video.html
- Amphion Argon 3S
- Buchardt S400 MK2
- Dynaudio Evoke 20
- Revel M106
- Aurum Cantus V2M
PART 2 - czcams.com/video/ouZzvA1B1-k/video.html
- Sonus Faber
- Neat
- JBL
- GoldenEar
- AudioPhysic
PART 3 - czcams.com/video/U7sXOFirQKo/video.html
- KEF R3 Meta
- Elac Vela BS403
- Monitor Audio Gold 100
- ATC SCM11
They seemed to be the most picky with amplification, but the KEFs also express the most dimensionality and engrossing sound over headphones and the compressed CZcams algorithm. That remained consistent a couple of different headphones or DAC used.
Indeed..very good imaging!
How do you work out the positions of the speakers, as they will all need to be different. The kef r3 meta probably toed out, for optimal performance.
Well... We do prepare our streams...
interesting comparison. I'm thinking about changing the Focal Aria to the Gold 100 5G Audio Monitor, Kef R3 Meta or Kef LS50 Meta. My amplifier is Hegel H390. and my room is 15m2. maybe someone can advise? Thank you and best regards.
KEF 👍
One thing to note on the KEF, I listen to them at a local dealer, and even with a 10K luxman amp the sound was good but odd... I brought in my Rega Aethos...
The Sound was great the Rega played these very well. Lets recall these dip down to 2.9ohms.
Did you listen KEF R3 Meta or old one R3? The new have are brighter sound. R3 Meta are 4ohms and need a lot of power. I prefer old one R3 - smoother and warmer sound. Great combination with Rotel amps.
i'm thinking of going for the ket r3 meta, then heard the songs sonetti, NOW i'm confused??? which one should i go for?
The one you like most.
All these test just make me want the audiophysic step 35... wish they would be less pricy
It's an investment for years and years...
Heb nu pas het nummer van Mammal Hands eens gewoon op mijn set gespeeld, toch weer helemaal anders dan met de headphone. Grtz Phil
Mooie track blijft dat!
Hi guys firstly thanks for record. İ am using ATC scm 7 to. Not easy to drive that little Hercules. little bit more easy 11 but really you cant handle it with low watts. you need for your listening distance maybe minumum 150-200 watt for headroom and dynamic range. Pls recalculate and repeat your test with that watts range. i hear scm 11 volume really low from other speakers. Pass lab cant handle it i think.
We had some issues with the mic-setup during the part of the ATC. It was mono, that's why it sounded off... believe me: the Pass can handle the ATC... no worries.
Misschien kijk ik verkeerd maar hebben jullie ook een artikel geschreven met de eindresultaten?
Dat artikel is in de maak.
what amp you used beside the Pass Lab?
Hypex Nilai
the nilai used in the video is stereo version or mono version? It sound really nice!!!
Stereo
Ik twijfel tussen de koop van evoke 20 en atc scm11 (icm sub). Ik hou van laidback sound.. welke zouden jullie kiezen ?
Ligt helemaal aan je akoestiek en versterker.
@@TheAlphaAudio bedankt voor de reactie, ik ben benieuwd wat u hiermee bedoeld. Ik heb een nad c75bee a/b versterker en geen professionele kamer, het is een woonkamer.
@@roybrolsbeak dat begrijpen we... :-). Goed te weten dat je met een NAD draait. Die gaat nooit van zn leven de ATC's kunnen aansturen. Dat zijn behoorlijk lastige speakers namelijk. De Dynaudio kan wel.
@@TheAlphaAudio dankjewel voor de moeite!
@@roybrolsbeak wecome
Elac vela 👍
Great work! Would have liked to hear the R3 Meta’s with plugs as suggested in the video stream. That’s how I listen to them at home (with the hollow foam plugs in the port) on a Hegel amp and I don’t hear timing issues with the bass driver. I’m coming from Atc scm7 speakers. And in my search for a new and bit bigger monitor I compared the R3 Meta with Scm11 and even Scm19 at home. In my smallish room I preferred the R3 Meta (with plugs 😊)!
Can you compare Meta vs original R3?
Nope ... Sorry. No time
Will try.
@@TheAlphaAudio Thanks!
I THINK U NEED CHOICE spendor classic 4/5
Hi, please list the amplifiers you used. Can't really understand you with bad mics and heavy accents and its' not listed anywhere in the description. Thank you.
You could ask in a more friendly way? Or is your Dutch better than our English?
What the hell .. even through my smartphone's 1$ speaker, I can hear the difference between the ATC 11 and the others .. more transparency, more presence, more accurate, and the increasing emotion ..
Is it because my smartphone has a very good driver, or does these ATC just crush the game ?? I wonder .. 😊
I really enjoy your live sessions, but what I really find a problem when comparing speakers is that - due to the method you use - the distance between the speaker pairs and the toe-in cannot be changed, which makes it a bit comparing apple to oranges for me. In this hobby we all know how important speaker placement is.
Yea, that’s true. But the character of a speaker doesn’t change with toe in or placement. Performance and balance does though. But the greatest variable is room acoustics, so a speaker can sound very different in your room due to this.
Joe Jackson rocks!
YES!
is there a text box or notes with conclusions?
We write a review after every stream. You find those on www.alpha-audio.net.
@@TheAlphaAudio Big thanks!
I would love to hear the R3 Meta tested against anything by Amphion.
Check the series. In the first part we have an Amphion.
@@TheAlphaAudio Excellent! Y'all weren't altogether thrilled with those R3 Meta's, I noticed. :-)
@@CinemaDemocratica no. Not really. The pacing is a bit off. It measures really clean though.
JETs are AMTs.
You should include ATC SCM 19 in bookshelf speakers in this price range, it is impossible to get by with a suitable amplifier.
Which are the amplifiers used in the test? Tnx
Pass labs XP12, x150.8 and the Hypex Nilai.
Atc cannot be evaluated with a low power amplifier. It's a speaker that performs best with a lot of watts, otherwise the bass doesn't smooth out properly. I would have tried the scm7 which I think is superior to the scm9 and scm11.
Low power? You must be kiddng... The Nilai is 2 x 250 watts... The Pass is 2 x 150 watts with a huge power supply.
Please add subtitles to your video ( Live test, part 3 )!!!
You can enable auto subs
@@TheAlphaAudio You have great subtitles, no problem, on your video: Live Test- Part 1 and Part 2! I choose the language of my country and auto subs everything is ok! but there are no subtitles on Part 3, they are not available and we can't change anything, no auto subs! maybe you can change that?
Thanks for your great work!
@@tonysmith7112 not sure why that is the case. I will check.
Germans don't lie ,unless it's about Diesels .
Hahaha
I just heard AGAIN the musical part of the KEF R3 Meta. It does not seem that they have a problem with the Shadow flare, they look good (magnifying a capture).
Bass there is so it is not the burning the cause.
They still do not convince me, the music lacks magic, it does not excite. Pfff.
Definitely have to work on the mic for dialogue. I could barely hear you guys talking
Check our latest stream. We invested lots of time and money in better mics and better setup.
KEF R3 all the way for me; neutral, balanced and good bass extension. Elac’s second, surprisingly nice. ATC; bright and too light on bass. MA; somewhat bright and a bit meh overall.
Dali Rubicon?
They don't want to compete in live tests.
Darn..they didn’t listen to the Musician Knights 1. Now that looks like a bargain compared to any of these.
Not available here...
@@TheAlphaAudio You can’t listen to everything but I really appreciate the equipment that you do get, and your honest evaluations. Wonderful channel and I’m considering joining.
Atc was music, everything else was Hi-Fi
I am biased... But yes. :-)
Just looking into the 40as. I will definitely give them a thorough listening. Thx for what you are doing!
@@claudiuswaldschutz9179 Welcome!
nice work gays but its hard to hear you , something is wrong when you comparing that way , its hard to follow you, lost you along the way...
Great work and and and interesting sub-conclusion. BUT play some real musinc and not the psuedo 'hi-fi' jazz that 99% of people will never linsten to.
How is Joe Jackson audiophile music? Or M.I.A?