MY IMPRESSION OF THE 707/2CH

Geoff4rfc

707's...Pretty darn good in 2ch Mode

I've been dragging my heels on getting my set up fully dialed in. I still need to drag my acoustic foam out and adorn the walls behind the center and two mains.

After jamming out on my A9's for close to 10 years after upgrading from Monitor 70's (remember those and the new egg deals?), These 707's which I thought would never grace my set up, became obtainable through one of those psycho crazy deals from Adorama.

While owning two pairs of 703's and knowing that the top section of the 707 is a 703, it was very tough to justify a 707 purchase. Well I'm here to tell you right now, the 707 and the 703 does not present the same soundstage!!!

And though I would not have paid full boat for a pair (707's), I was prepared to pay a couple hundred more for the pair than what I ended up with, and, there would have been no remorse, I would have gladly paid the extra (300) and been darn grateful! But just as I was about to pull the trigger, the deal, IMO that surpassed all deals fell right into my lap.....like my grandpa used to say, "even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then".

So what then, makes the 707 so much better?? Mind you, I spent years grooming my A9's to do what the majority in the Polk world claimed with authority could not be....."the A9's are superb home theater speakers but not good for 2ch"...."the A9's rule for H.T. but are just too bright to be decent 2ch speakers".....and so on and so forth.

FWIW, I experimented long ago with amplification, using greatest hits from Chicago and specifically, blaring horn sections. Results: A9's run directly from Onkyo AVR 2ch rated 135wpc...eardrum piercing brightness. A9's run from Emotiva XPA-3 rated 200wpc....eardrum annoying brightness. A9's run from Emotiva XPA-2 rated 300wpc...bingo, no more brightness, feed them more headroom, tame the brightness.

Fast forward to, proper placement, room treatments, all shielded and quality cables at every point in the signal path from the source to the amp, 450wpc and by golly, a pair of A9's that became very impressive 2ch speakers, so much that my wife (ex) decidedly chose them over the 703's in an A/B comparison, and this girl has a great ear, never did notice when I made a physical change, but always knew when I would make an audible change. Without me mentioning it, she would call me out every time, asking me, "it sounds different, what did you do?"

Friends would come over and after a 2ch demo, would always respond the same way every time...."wow, that sounds awesome"

So why the big build up??? To make a point about the effort and achievement on yielding a result that majority dismissed as unobtainable and what's about to follow.

The 707's arrive, get unboxed and replace the A9's which have replaced the 703's and are now pulling Rear Surround duty. The 707's are connected and play 2ch and movies for a few days.

Next is MultEQ XT32 set up. With the 707's toed in so the axis crosses a foot and a half behind the main listening position and begin with some CD's, source is the Emotiva ERC3 connected via balanced XLR's to Marantz 8802, connected to Emotiva Reference XPA-DR3 via balanced XLR's.

Without room treatments, the 707's opened up the soundstage wider and deeper than what the A9's had produced. And though the A9's did a great job of imaging and detail, the 707's do a better job of separation of instruments.

This is all pretty much from initial impression, I see great things coming from these 707's, very happy with my decision to make a blind buy and Highly recommended, not just for home theater speakers, but I would recommend the 707's to operate exclusively for a 2ch effort.

dolbyd

Awesome. Having the DR3 and A9s I agree with your assessment of them together. If you spend the time you can get the A9s sounding amazing.
I have seen my setup and @Inspector 24 setup go way beyond what most people think the A9 are capable of. His system had a few years on mine and he had it down. Sounds great.
That being said the 707s will be much better. I am happy that he is picking up a set. I will be enjoying his setup for sure, and probably wishing I had bought a set.
Enjoy!

dromunds

Thanks for the review, Geoff.

tonyb

bump

tonyb

bump

Geoff4rfc

dromunds wrote: »

Thanks for the review, Geoff.

tonyb wrote: »

bump

My pleasure....and if I had the room and at these crazy low prices, I may have even sprung for a set of 707 wides………..remember this set up from 2011 with four A9's??

tonyb

Crazy sheet right there my man.

tonyb

bump

WLDock

How big is your room? Have you noticed any bass bloat that some speak of regarding these in some small to medium sized spaces? Good to hear that you are liking them.

mhardy6647

looks good to me.

Geoff4rfc

WLDock wrote: »

How big is your room? Have you noticed any bass bloat that some speak of regarding these in some small to medium sized spaces? Good to hear that you are liking them.

My space is 15' x 26ish'. I did notice some bloat right at first but they have smoothed out.

I do notice heavier LFE in the back of the room about 3' behind the Rear surrounds.

WLDock

^^OK, that's interesting to hear. I was thinking long and hard about them as the 707's are the one's I always wanted. We'll see if the 705's go on sale again as my room is only about 13' x 18' and opens to a kitchen and hallway. I get pretty good low end reinforcement.