OK - 'cat's out of the bag. I picked up the pair of 4430's Oznob had for sale. He dropped them off today, and we spent some time listening and comparing them with the XPL200A's and 4315A's.
The listening environment is less than perfect - I've got a long wall with all the speakers lined up on it, (see the first pic below). But it was still plenty to make a decent comparison.
Right away, the 4430's seemed to be flatest response of all the systems at default settings. I ran RTA curves on a DBX DriveRack 260 demonstrating this, but didn't do a screengrab. But I did then EQ them for actual flat, and the second picture shows the curve required for this. Conditions were less than optimal - I didn't bother lining everything up or measuring distances or SPL - this was just quick and for fun.
Compared to the XPL's and 4315's, the 4430's seemed to deliver a noticeably flatter sound, and the sound stage was pretty good, other than the fact they were positioned at the outsides of the lineup. I'm really impressed with how well they sound! After liistening to the XPL's and 4315's for the last few months, I was prepared for somewhat of a letdown with the 4430's, but experienced the opposite. I really like them! I do have to say I haven't implemented the DX-1 into the XPL setup yet, though it looks like I might finally be getting my hands on some JBL amps for an objective listen.
The third pic shows my "engineering station", with a laptop runing the DR-260, and the last pic is of Oznob, (Mark). Thanks again, Mark, for bringing these all the way down!
I'll post more in upcoming days, after I've set up reference curves for the XPL's and 4315's, so I can really compare them.
John
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Originally Posted by Zilch
