Speaker Asylum

Posted by VynylTap (A) on November 16, 2007 at 11:30:22

I've been putting together a system within a budget (that would seem paltry to some here) of around $4.5k over the last year or so.

My main concern has been musicality and ease of listening, plain and simple. I’ve had “hi-end” systems in the past that could have funded a nice automobile, but those days are past as priorities change in life. I wanted something that captured a bit of that hi-end magic without being overly analytical. I researched, researched, and researched some more here and over at AudiogoN as well as across the ‘net.

I finally purchased an Outlaw RR2150 Receiver as the centerpiece and a KAB/Technics SL-1200MK2SE Turntable with fluid damper and internal arm re-wire to mate up with an Audio-Technica AT-150MLX cartridge as my primary source component.

Then on to speakers…. it’s all ‘bout synergy ain’t it?!? :-)

I started with some NHT Classic Threes – which would have normally blown my budget, but I found some on AudiogoN at a good price. They were very smooth and nice, but didn’t have that “punch” I was looking for on rock recordings. Jazz sounded okay for the most part, and small acoustic works sounded great. They are a very neutral “polite” speaker that I think would have benefited from a bit more power than the 125w RR2150 was providing them given their very low efficiency.

The first thing I did was buy an Outlaw LFM-2 sub hoping that would flesh things out a bit. It helped, but it was still a fairly boring set-up on rock recordings.

So, after some additional research, I sold the NHT’s and purchased some KEF IQ-3’s. I was looking for punch and these had it in freakin’ spades! These speakers are the living antithesis of the NHT’s, polite they most certainly are not. I thought at first this was exactly what I was looking for – punchy, tight, made rock recordings lively as all get-out. Over the course of a couple of months though – they were just too fatiguing to listen to for any period of time. The high end had a bright metallic sound to it that become increasingly unpleasant the more I listened… the curse of having owned good reproducers in the past I suppose.

I sold the KEF’s and have had some Aperion 632-LR’s running for the last several months now. I can convincingly say that these are speakers that hit well above their price point of $600 when paired with the equally impressive $650 Outlaw RR2150.

The top end is nicely extended but not bright or etched at any time with lots of "air", bass is unbelievably extended, tight, and precise without being boomy, and the midrange is simply liquid and fantastic when coupled with the RR2150. The build quality is second to none - on par and better in some respects than even the NHT's.

Things got even better when I re-introduced the LFM-2 sub into the equation. I set the bass management on the RR2150 to send everything below 60hz to the LFM-2 and it’s honestly as good a setup as I’ve ever owned, regardless of price. If you're looking for some budget speakers that don't sound the least bit "budget" I'd have a hard time recommending anything other than the Aperion 632s.