Dare I ask….yeah why not?

Anybody got any comments to make on a few floor standers I’m considering.

wharfedale 10.5 -£420
KEF IQ50 -£399
Tannoy revolution DC4T -£395
Mordaunt short Avianno 6 -£450

I know I need to go and listen to them, but before I do, any helpful comments will be gratefully received.
Cue comments on directional speaker wire……

Senor Woppit is your man, despite his somewhat mystical approach to such things he does appear to know his onions in this regard.

Make sure you can mass load them, especially if you’ve got dogs or kids.

Not heard any of the above but I’ve always been impressed with Mordaunt shorts for the money.

I’ve got a lovely set of Rega RS5’s i run from my Uniti and they are simply lovely. As they fire sideways for the bass you can put them against the wall. Nicely balanced sound.

Get a pair of 2nd hand KEF Audio Reference 104/2 speakers off Ebay.

Castle speakers are superb and British too, well they use to be but they are still from Skipton Yorks. My neighbour has got a pair and they are pin sharp crystal clear with a nice weight.

I have a pair of Kef Coda 10’s and they are very good but not a patch on the father-in-laws Castles.

anybody else, or Mr Whoppit thoughts?

Any particular reason you want floorstanders at that price level rather than stand mounts?

+1 for Castle
look also at Chario

Can you let me know how big your room is and also what your system is as it makes a difference. Larger floorstanders like the kefs can easily produce way too much bass for a little room and require quite a burly amp to keep them under control or they will sound a bit boomy and uncontrolled.

I’m selling some beautiful Sonus Fabers with matching stands if you can stretch your budget a “bit” 🙂

bookshelf speakers on stands would be an alternative. I had just assumed that the package would be about the same cost and won’t have the depth of bass so floorstanders would be better, but ready to be re-educated.

I haven’t listened to any more recent Tannoys, but my old 636 floorstanders still sound awesome. I’d consider Tannoy again without hesitation.

I’ve got Kef iQ5s. Very very nice sound but slightly lacking in bass for my ear, although that could well be a result of my very odd-shaped non-carpeted high-ceilinged living room. I’ve just tweaked the EQ to compensate (and I feel dirty for having done so). My dad rates them, anyway. I think the iQ50s are basically IQ5s with improved crossovers.

Also, I’ll second the suggestion of Castle speakers. My dad has a pair and they are quite simply amazing.

room is open plan lounger/diner abouit 4m wide and 9m long, ish. also open plan to the study area (so L shaped in total) which is about 2.5m square. Currently have mordaunt short alumni 5.1 set, drvien from a cambridge audio azur 640 R which is used for a mizz of home cinema and music. Thinking I’d upgrade the front pair. Might upgrade the reciever a little later, but not immediately

Don’t buy nuffink you haven’t heard playing, is all I can offer really. It’s such a subjective thing, that you need to get the speakers that suit your ears, surely.

I like my Mordaunt Short floorstanders and ‘bookshelfers’, as well as my B+W bookshelfers. If anything, the B+Ws are the best sounding speakers I have.

I’ve also got an older pair of Missions which are ok, but not amazing.

Monitor Audio for teh win !

You’ll be fine running any of those speakers you need to go and have a demo and decide what suits you best.

I’m very happy with some Monitor Audio BR6 speakers, but I suspect I’d be equally happy with any of the others from this price range. Solid bass (does home cinema without the need for a sub) and sounds good throughout the range

thanks ‘burger and all. I’m far from an expert audiophile so simple pointers to keep me from making a wasted trip to go and listen to something totally inappropriate is very handy 😀

My current experience is that I’m generally happy with the stuff I have and it sounds okay but the alumni’s are only satellites and are easily pushed beyond their abilities….why I’m thinking I might enjoy a better front pair. The room seems, to me, big enough to take a bit more speaker but I do need to keep some sense and not start lusting after something inapprpriate. Room probably not large enough for me to ever need/want to upgrade the rear pair, and probabky not the centre speaker, not now anyway.

I am wondering if the avianno 6’s might ‘match’ the rear pair on sound better, being mordaunt short again….but then I doubt I’d notice or fnd it a problem …this is a lounge first with a bit of hifi in it, not a home cinema or listening room.

Any other simple comments/sugestions before I go and try and listen to some?

might be worth considering if you want to keep the sub in the long term? I chose not to have a sub so bought a set of the bigger floorstanders (twin 6.5″ bass cones) – however if you do want to keep a sub then the smaller ones will be fine (ie 1 bass cone)

Spend the money on ebay on some 70’s BBC spendor BC-1’s…

SP-1 would be a better bet unless you like bloomy bass…

The Kef 104/s might well be interesting, using B110s they are likely to have a nice midrange but whether they would be demanding of your amp I couldn’t tell you.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stunning-KEF-104-2-Reference-Speakers-104-2-Walnut-/280678641439?pt=UK_AudioVideoElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_HiFiSpeakers&hash=item4159c02f1f

You’ve got a nice big room and to be completely honest it’s likely that most of the speakers you’ve chosen will sound decent enough. My advice to you although it goes against all audiofool principals is that you buy the ones you like the look of best but do listen to them first and if they do anything that annoys you like having spitty treble or boomy bass try something else. Then read this http://www.audiophysic.de/aufstellung/index_e.html and try to set your speakers up accordingly. The main reason that people don’t appreciate just how good even modest audio can be is largely because it’s set up wrong (and by set up I mean positioned and not having uber dumb cables and a billion pound stand, I met a guy once who had around 30k of system and speakers around 25 feet apart his dealer should have been ashamed of himself). It’s also worth getting a set up DVD for your AV gear. There are good free ones on some DVD’s although yours may have one of those microphone jobbies that seem to do the job quite well.

the trouble with that guide (and most similar ones I’ve seen) is they rely on having an almost dedicated listening room. I bet theres not many average UK living rooms which can get away with having speakers 1m from any wall..

yeah without a dedicated room the set up is a compromise, but it is still worth knowing a little to avoid some silly errors….don’t get rear port speakers and shove them against a wall etc.

I’ve not got one of the microphones no, but the receiver set up does ask what type each of the individual speakers are ( satellite, bookshelf, floorstander) and adjust bass, plus you enter distance from each to the listening position for it to adjust phase and volume or whatever it does to optimise sound effects.

I would look at B&W speakers as well, but not full floorstanders, larger bookshelf boxes on solid stands like Foundation stands. There are few if any poor speakers these days, but the sound of a speaker can be altered by what it’s connected to, I’ve heard dreadful sounding systems made up with components that really ought to work well, and others that should have been poor turned out to be really involving and enjoyable. If you can, find a quality hifi dealer who’ll let you try out a number of different speakers on decent stands. Something like these B&W 685’s, which seem to be very highly regarded.
http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/3495

Being somewhat on the inside 😉 i can tell you with some confidence that the avianao’s are by some distance the better of the four that you have listed.

although, the second hand market is crazy for speakers atm. You can get some fantastic deals on ebay. As long as you arrange to listen to them first.

lmk if you want more in depth reasons behind my opionion of the aviano, 10.5

Castle speakers are superb and British too, well they use to be but they are still from Skipton Yorks. My neighbour has got a pair and they are pin sharp crystal clear with a nice weight.

Actually they’re not made in the UK anymore. If you look up Castle’s old factory address on Google Maps, you will see a development of new houses.

The manufacture of Castle speakers moved to the far east several years ago. I shouldn’t think the oriental built speakers are any different from those made here, just that the cost to build them is far lower.

If you can get a pair of Howard S2’s on eBay, you’ll be getting a speaker on a par with something costing IRO £2000 in today’s money.

£500 should cover it. They are trully awesome speakers and the best sound you will get pound for pound. Things don’t get much better until you start spending phenomenal sums of cash.

Castle seem to be well liked but I’m inclined to stick to a bigger brand that I’ve got more chance of getting support from. Similarly I’m nervous about buying some second hand speakers on ebay…okay if I spent ~400 on something second hand it could be truly awesome, but something old won’t be easy to get suport for if I need it…will it? If I’m wrong on that I’m ready to be re-eduacted.

I have the iQ50s as my fronts, iQ10s as rears and the matching centre… the 50s are pretty good, nice and tight sounding witha reasonable amount of bass given that they are a pretty compact floor stander.

I added a bit of excessive bass with a KEF Cube though 😉

Really like them as speakers, I don’t think I would have gone with them as a pure music speaker (although they are very good), but as part of a surround set up they are very convincing for the money (actually they are about as good as I could get without spending a LOT more money)

20 year old Castle Durhams here reporting for duty.

I never realised they were such a popular brand of speaker. I like mine, suit analogue very well, tiny bit warm, but that goes ok with the lp12 front end, and a nice cabinet.

Just to change tack slightly, and without starting a new thread, what is the consensus on adding a sub to a music system?

I no longer have the luxury of floor standers, but I do have a REL Stadium to compensate for my small one’s, not quite the whole picture, but much better at the truely low notes, esspecially the organ, pressurises the entire (small) house with the windows closed 😳

I used to use a pair of active 8 inch downward firing stereo subs. Kind of odd, you didn’t really notice them till they were’nt there,then when you powered them back up again,everything fell back into place, especially with classical and jazz stuff. WIth most rock stuff, unless it was really well recorded they sounded pretty naff in a pumped up corsa full of bass bins kind of way.

1 on it’s own did sound a bit poo, but the stereo pair were really effective,provided you were quite subtle with the cutoff and the level controls.

okay I’ve managed to get a listen to some. I’ve a varied musicl taste so went off armed with a small selection, Linkin Park, Adele, Clapton and Snow Patrol…and ready to accept that no speaker woould display them all perfectly, I’m after an acceptable all rounder.

KEF iq 500, new version of the 50s apparently, but 100 quid more. Not for me. In my view a clear sound but no bass at all really, no depth to speak of, no warmth and a concern of sibilance on the ‘s’s and cymbals. KEF are not for me.

got to listen to some ‘dale 10.2s, book shelf but gave me an idea of how the 10.4 and 10.5s might sound. Quite pleasing, far more bass than the KEFs even though just bookshelf. Not the clarity, not the separation or staging, but warm and deep. Would be interested in hearing the bigger bassed sound of the floorstanders. Nice shape too.

Also heard some old Mordaunt shorts, err ms 96, or 609? I was told they were about 6 years old, shop demo, origially about 600 but offered to me at 300. I’m not interested …for the same reaosn as everyone else – the colour, an iffy sort of cherry. However they were worth a listen I thought and I found them the most enjoysble. Plenty of bass…slight concern the bass was flabby but I think it was the poor positioning of the speaker (not on flat floor, half on carpet, half on lino), otherwise more clarity and staging than the ‘dales. These speakers engaged me, I found mself tapping a foot to the music 🙂

Think the Mordaunt shorts are favourites. Oh and a visit to Richer sounds (packed so no chance of a listen in there today) and I learnt that the avianos are tested using my amp. I know Cambridge Audio and MS have some sort of relationship, seems to support the Avianos. Richer sounds were not overly keen on aranging a demo for me, which was a bit frustrating, but they did push me to take the speakers home on trial or return. That is the best way to listen to them in reality….although making a trip to return them will only happen if I clearly don’t like them so the sale is 90% made once I walk out with them and I’m sure they know that. Still, having heard the older MS speakers elsewhere I’m giving it thought.

Not that they’re floorstanders, but I’ve a pair of Castle’s last big ‘bookshelf’ speakers (you’d need a bloody big bookshelf) – Castle Edens.

They are an amazingly natural sound, if a little soft from a lower powered amp. I did have then powered by an Arcam Alpha 9, which sadly went the way of most Arcams of that era and died. A smaller Arcam Delta I picked up for peanuts really struggles to push them. However, with a big amp and a big room, I’d jump at the cance for any Castles

Have some Monitor Audio Gold Series 703 PMCs that are for sale. fabulous speaker but no room for them in my life anymore 🙁

Email me if interested…