£300 stereo?
- Thread starter IC3
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Well next weekend i`m going to one of the music shops which kef said.
To get some advice and see how the speakers perform.
Try some of the high end stuff while you are there 
If you only need 1 input my recommendation is an Amptastic Mini-T for the amplifier. I've got one paired up with my Eltax Monitor 3s and it sounds awesome, it gets loud enough to annoy the neighbors, it's tiny and it only costs £65!
For speakers maybe something from the Warfedale Diamond range would do the job, the more sensitive the better (the eltax comes in at 89db for reference).
For £170 you could have an awesome system.
For speakers maybe something from the Warfedale Diamond range would do the job, the more sensitive the better (the eltax comes in at 89db for reference).
For £170 you could have an awesome system.
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Love my Wharfedale Diamonds...driven by an onkyo 9155, IIRC I spent about £300 as well.
I was inspired to get them by my old man's ~£300 NAD amp and ~£500 Mission floorstanders and how good dedicated amp/hifi sounds - and tbh despite costing hundreds of pounds less each, they're not far behind to my ears. Lack some clarity in comparison at high volumes and obv bass isn't quite as good, but good enough for me!
The volume at 40% on the amp is what I'd consider 'LOUD' and though I've only pushed it to 60/70% ish the speakers didn't lose any detail yet despite being almost deafening
I was inspired to get them by my old man's ~£300 NAD amp and ~£500 Mission floorstanders and how good dedicated amp/hifi sounds - and tbh despite costing hundreds of pounds less each, they're not far behind to my ears. Lack some clarity in comparison at high volumes and obv bass isn't quite as good, but good enough for me!
The volume at 40% on the amp is what I'd consider 'LOUD' and though I've only pushed it to 60/70% ish the speakers didn't lose any detail yet despite being almost deafening
These Wharfedale DIAMOND 10.3 ?
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Nope 10.1s
I`ve been to richer sounds today and i liked floor standing speakers, because of the bass it went much lower and it was much deeper than the bookshelfs.
Since i like reggae and jazz bass is important to me. Types of music i also listen to is rap,rock.
Since i like reggae and jazz bass is important to me. Types of music i also listen to is rap,rock.
Reason why your diamonds can be quite bass heavy is their location. (up against a wall and enclosed by shelving) All this will lead to elevated levels of LF. DBFB is sony's loudness function which boosts sub 100Hz by a predefined amount. The level usually falls as the volume control is turned up as it is governed by a tapping on the volume control. (referred to as a loudness tap) Past a certain point on the volume pot scale, there will be no loudness effect.
I still stand by what i said before, if you want a well rounded sound on a shoestring, go vintage. I'm not saying the wharfedales are poor, but they can be bettered for less money at the cost of looks and size.
I still stand by what i said before, if you want a well rounded sound on a shoestring, go vintage. I'm not saying the wharfedales are poor, but they can be bettered for less money at the cost of looks and size.
How do you know so much about this? I love how you know 100x more about my audio gear than i do
I am happy about my enhanced low end frequencies, as I do like the LF tones. I would much rather place the speakers in a better location though as they are as you say, extremely close to the wall, one speaker is enclosed in shelving whereas one is not, they are also sideways on into the room, and the room is an irregular shape so the LF tones get 'concentrated' in certain areas. but sadly that is the only place for them until I move out.
Also I got my diamond's 9.2's for £80, but I usually see them go for over £250, and it is a rare occasion that I find any for sale at all as they seem fairly rare in comparison to 9.1's.
Any vintage gear I have listened to (late 70's rotel and technics SU-7600 amp's i believe) have a very pleasing and well rounded tone, somehow they are just nice to listen to. Some more modern amp's sound a little too harsh for my liking.
I can't comment on vintage speakers however as i haven't listened to any. The speakers paired with the vintage amps were only about 20 years old at the most.
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The reason for vintage speakers doing well in the bass department is that the midbass drivers are usually 8-15" in size vs modern speakers which are 3.5-6.5". Same story with cabinet sizes. The modern speakers make up for the displacement deficiency by porting the cabinets and using multiple drivers, but you get vintage speakers that are ported and use multiple drivers. I won't deny that tweeter technology in particular has moved on a fair bit over the years. Woofers have come some distance but not a really long way, you can get much more bass from smaller speakers than you ever could before.
Speaker wise, if you can afford them i'd look primarily at celestion ditton 66 or 44, kef concerto, kef reference 104, tannoy monitor gold and B&W DM4. (most of these are really high brow, and will probably still cost quite a sum now) I wouldn't dismiss modern speakers either, but look around for a good deal and definitely audition them as speakers are the biggest factor affecting the sound of a system. (and it's best you buy what you like the sound of)
Vintage amps, whilst excellent sounding are more prone to failure if they are left unused for a long time, so unless you want to start dabbling in replacing capacitors, i'd stick with modern kit like that yamaha.
Speaker wise, if you can afford them i'd look primarily at celestion ditton 66 or 44, kef concerto, kef reference 104, tannoy monitor gold and B&W DM4. (most of these are really high brow, and will probably still cost quite a sum now) I wouldn't dismiss modern speakers either, but look around for a good deal and definitely audition them as speakers are the biggest factor affecting the sound of a system. (and it's best you buy what you like the sound of)
Vintage amps, whilst excellent sounding are more prone to failure if they are left unused for a long time, so unless you want to start dabbling in replacing capacitors, i'd stick with modern kit like that yamaha.
No Celestion Ditton's to be found as far as I can see, only parts.
Found some Kef Concerto's for £50 on a popular auction site
There are some Kef Reference 104's in an auction listing on the same site ending in 5 days.
Tannoy monitor gold speakers seem to be selling for crazy money (£500 to £2000
)Can only find parts for B&W DM4's. There are some DM3's about however.
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The celestion 66's are quite rare but don't tend to go for massive amounts so make excellent buys. Kef concertos are the best of the c series and should sound fantastic. Best of all if you buy them cheap you can take the B110's and T27's (mids and tweeters) out of them and sell them on for more than you pay for the whole speakers. (for the LS3/5a brigade, that's a speaker that can rival the tannoys for cost) The kef's are fairly inefficient compared with many other speakers (vintage or modern) but are still perfectly capable of going very loud. Speakers do age and obviously abuse is not good for them either. Avoid anything with a foam surround as these disintegrate. (can be replaced but it's a delicate job)
Others that i missed off that list to look at:
Tangent TM1, TM2, RS6 or RS8
Yamaha NS-1000, FX-3
Celestion ditton UL10, UL8, 22 and 33 (88's are the absolute best but i'd be surprised if you found any)
Rogers LS6, LS7 & Studio 1 (rogers speakers are usually quite expensive in general due to their association with the BBC, probably find a lot of ex world service kit on the bay)
You can go through the whole history of kef speakers here. Everything from the 1960's up to present day. To be fair though if you like the sound of the wharfedales and you find them at an irresistible price, i'd go with them as you won't be disappointed.
Others that i missed off that list to look at:
Tangent TM1, TM2, RS6 or RS8
Yamaha NS-1000, FX-3
Celestion ditton UL10, UL8, 22 and 33 (88's are the absolute best but i'd be surprised if you found any)
Rogers LS6, LS7 & Studio 1 (rogers speakers are usually quite expensive in general due to their association with the BBC, probably find a lot of ex world service kit on the bay)
You can go through the whole history of kef speakers here. Everything from the 1960's up to present day. To be fair though if you like the sound of the wharfedales and you find them at an irresistible price, i'd go with them as you won't be disappointed.
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