Piled up a few speakers in the living room last night, got a quick comparison of them (in their current conditions). No measuring equipment at this point, just CD/DVD/ReQuest server and a Yamaha surround receiver. Lots of improvements planned, but if anyone's amused by the pic or interested in quick impressions, here goes:
4333As obviously ruled the roost, frequency range extending audibly past all the other candidates top and bottom. Any time I switched back to these from the others, it's just the hands-down winner. Handled everything well except older recordings- I've been listening to a lot of older music (Django, for example) and these speaker just have no mercy. There are still improvements to make on these, they'll only get better.
Next best (to me) were the L110s- I've used these much, much more than any of the others, but they had come to me with no woofers and had Vifa substitutes installed for years now. Giskard came through with some LE10Hs, and they went into the cabs. Smoother transition from JBL woofer to mid, the Vifas rolled off a bit early to my ears. These just always seem to make me smile, handling just about anything I throw at them accurately (including my own crappy bands). Very low fatigue, adequate bass (these live above my recording console, running full range with a Yamaha P2100 amp and an M&K V3B sub available when desired) and very helpful to me when tracking or mixing.
The L46s surprised me. I expected to hear the tweeters roll off early, but they're not bad. The overall voice of these speakers was really pleasant, sounding best with a sub taking over the low end, of course. Solid and stronger than I expected. They lack the nicely articulated mids of the 3-ways, but it remains to be seen if I'll miss that in a HT application: I have a total of six that are earmarked for a 5.1 setup in the LR. I'll be testing these up against the Canton Karat 20s they'll be replacing, I have a feeling they'll have a little more impact and less sweet highs...we'll see. The ones in this pic/test were from E-Bay, and the woofer surrounds have been replaced. Handled the subtleties of "prettier" music better than...
The L100 Century/4312 bastards...need work. Need something. I played a bunch of different types of music with them, and frowned through most of it. Then, I remembered Ti Dome's posts, and threw some Deep Purple at them. Hmmm. OK, gotcha. Pearl Jam. Yep. STP. Brother Cane. Rainbow. Black Sabbath. Green Day. Foo Fighters, Collective Soul, Dream Theater, Ramones, Urge Overkill, Dinosaur Jr., Replacements, Who, Alice In Chains, Primus...yeah, but these could be better, for sure. L-Pads are scratchy for one, so I don't know if the balances I set actually stay. And, I really don't like the 12" running full range, it's not pretty where it shares with the mid. Any suggestions on first moves here? These are L100 Century cabs & x-overs with 4312 components installed (2213Hs/LE5-12s/LE25-2s). Swerd's xo upgrades seem like an obvious starting point, no? Any point to sourcing the OEM 4312's xo?
Better/bigger pic in the gallery, if anyone cares. I'll be testing with a couple of better amps for the next week or so, and wiring them a bit better for quicker switches between speakers. Niles SVC-4L speaker selector should make that easier & smoother, but it's likely to add its own flavor as well.
I humbly thank all that have contributed to the madness through advice, components or just looney inspiration.
je
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Originally Posted by Fred Sanford
