Went to Richer Sounds today as booked in a speakers demo session which lasted a good hour maybe more.
I had full intention of buying the new Fyne F500 (ex Tannoy engineers) as these are coaxial and downward firing bass ports so perfect for mid-field workstation use so i listened to them first and well they sounded very much like my KEF Q300, almost identical in fact although the bass of my Q300 hits lower. The horn-styled tweeter has a concave recessed wave guide which looks rather cool but the whole thing only comes in black and looks rather cheap given its usual £800 price tag (currently on offer for £500 only at RS).
The reason I now want to change my Q300 is because the driver cones are aluminium without the veins that later gens of Uni-Q had to mitigate the issue gen 1 had whereby after a few years dent lines would appear on the cones and after 10 years or so I've had enough of looking at those dent lines
At £500 they would be a sidegrade given they sound so identical, which is no bad thing but then I also eyelined last night the TRIANGLE Comete 40th Anniversary edition in a beautiful walnut wood cabinet and magnesium horn tweeter. Every review praises the sound quality and even ZEOS called it basically endgame for most people. Sadly RS did not have these in for demo and they are special order only as only 2000 were made and each one is numbered.
I also eyelined the Focal Aria Evo X N1, again a beautiful cabinet and speaker design, not coaxial but reviews praised the sound. RS had this in for demo so I listened to them whilst chatting with the RS staff. I noted my Q300s and a preference for a warm smooth sound with excellent imaging and soundstage and he pointed to a small pair of B&W 707 S3 speakers and said "forget about the size, just listen to them!". I also listened to a pair of Monitor Audio Studio 89 as they looked really neat.
Well the 707 S3 were doing some kind of absolute magic! The bass and stereo imaging and general soundstage wrapped around my whole head. I've not heard non coaxial speakers do this, the imaging felt even wider than my Q300 and the bass was fast but very detailed and impactful. These felt like they could be used midfield without any problems at all and the bungs at the back helped control the bass down a bit if near a wall. I immediately put that in the top spot as everything about them was a decent upgrade over my Q300s. The timbre was reminding me of the Sennheiser HD650s with male and female vocals feeling really "live", the placement of instruments and vocals was precise as well, everything had a directionality to it, if I moved my head around then the sonics did not change either which again is some magic as you only tended to get that with coaxial speakers. The bass felt like it hit just as low as my Q300s even though both driver and cabinets are smaller than the Q300 - I don't know how they did it but they engineered massive sound from such a small speaker.
I then listened to the Focal and immediately knew they were a NO. Soundstage and imaging was too narrow to the point I felt fatigue within minutes. I have no idea what kind of person could ever listen to speakers that present sound like this, it would give me a headache in quick time. Great dynamics, bass and detail was superb, but it lacked any sort of stereo imaging or soundstage.
Then came the Studio 89, great low end and detail with some decent stereo imaging which I'd say was on par with the Q300s though nowhere close to the 707s, the left speaker was rattling with bass though and some tracks felt like the soundstage was a bit narrow in some areas but not others, so the imaging and presentation was not as precise as the 707 and felt a bit wavy. The faulty left speaker didn't inspire confidence either but man the design of the front was really cool, shame really.
So yeah, I went in today expecting to come home with the Fyne F500 but ended up ordering the 707
- They come with a free pair of 3M Audioquest cables worth £450 so will throw them on marketplace for £250 probably to claw some back, also got a 2% discount on request as I would have got cashback via TopCashback had I ordered online which was nice.
I listened to these speakers using my playlist I've posted before:
And they had not heard many of the songs off there so pinched a few for their Tidal demo streams
Overall an excellent day, went way over budget but YOLO and all that. Looking forward to seeing how the Aiyima A80 drives them, plenty of power so should be more than capable and similar in presentation to the warm/smooth nature of the amp they used in the demo room today.
I'm now sat back at home listening to the same tracks on my Q300 and yeah they still sound superb but I just can't stand the dents any more as mentioned lol.
I went for the Mocha colour btw.
Also amusing that the KEF LS50 Meta have the same driver size yet were incapable of producing bass that I felt was acceptable for the price. My Q300s produce bass that is a league beyond the LS50 Meta. boggles the mind that they cost £1000+ for a downgrade in dynamics so need to spend more buying a subwoofer....
See you in another 10+ years I guess!
