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duke Unregistered guest | what do think of m5 for fronts and sb3 for rear or vice versa,for yamaha1400,a friend of mine told me about ascend(never heard about it)which is a very affordable yet very superb sounding. |
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Silver Member Username: HawkHighlands Ranch, CO USA Post Number: 507 Registered: Dec-03 | duke: Either should work fine--I think both are superb sounding speakers, and are a good match for the Yamaha 1400. I tend to prefer using the SB-3s only in a free standing situation (on speaker stands), where the M-5s can be used on bookshelves, inside an entertainment unit, etc., as you can tailor its frequency response to account for strong boundary reflections. But also check out the L-5s, which are meant to hang directly on the walls--they also sound great. They are an M-5 in an all aluminum housing, so they are not nearly as bulky, but give off that wonderful sound as they have the exact same driver array as the M-5. So each speaker is a great choice, and it really comes down to how you want to install them as to which is the best one for you. |
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duke Unregistered guest | hawk, thanks for the information hawk,i have read a great review about the ohm walsh micro tall and micros matching center speaker,what do you think about them? and ascend cbm170 for the rears.im in taiwan,so i cant audition them. |
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Silver Member Username: HawkHighlands Ranch, CO USA Post Number: 511 Registered: Dec-03 | duke: I have not heard Ohm speakers for 20 years, but I have no doubt Rick Barnes's review is on the mark. I distinclty remember being knocked out by the sound of the Ohm Walsh F 20 years ago. The Walsh driver is very unique as it is a small thin cylinder that vibrates to produce the sound in an omni-directional manner. Like Rick, I found the sound to be clean, detailed, and very fast. In many ways, it does sound like a Magnepan. For whatever reason, and I will not opine why, Ohm speakers have never had widespread acceptance or penetration into the market. I had not seen Ohm speakers for a long time and I simply assumed they were either out of business or they had no distribution in my area. I was very happy to see they had simply changed their business model. In response to reading Rick's posting about the Ohms, I went to their website and was very impressed by the micros and micro talls. I believe, and this is merely my opinion, the Walsh driver concept is a sound alternative to the traditional cone driver. I hope Ohm's move to being an internet only sales model will be a successful strategy. Innovation is a good thing, IMO. Ascend is a traditional small cube, using traditional cone drivers. I think they are a very good speaker, with a very consistent frequency response across the audio spectrum. Very low distortion and they image beautifully. Their sound is somewhat laid-back, so it is best mated with an amp that is somewhat forward sounding (Yamaha) and not laid back sounding (such as an H/K or Pioneer Elite). Normally, this might be a serious mis-match since the Walsh driver in the Ohms is a very forward sounding speaker and the Ascends are rather laid back, so putting both into the same system may well create some dissonance. Instead, if you want a speaker to go with the Ohms up front, look into a pair of Aperion Audio Intimus 522Ds. They run just a bit more than the Ascends ($360/pair) and are a much more forward sounding speaker which will better match the Ohm Micros up front. Their website is www.aperionaudio.com. Good luck! |