Bookshelf Speaker "Shootout" (under $600)

halo

I took delivery of a pair of the Borea BR03's in the Walnut finish on February 17, 2020 and I've been logging hours on them since that time while comparing them to some other bookshelf/stand-mount speakers in the same price range ($600 or less).

• Triangle Borea BR03
• ELAC Debut Reference DBR62
• Focal Chorus 706
• Polk Audio LSiM703
• KEF Q150

I began to audition these speakers at the beginning of the year and the Borea BR03 speakers were the last to arrive.

To give you a little context, I live in a 740 sq ft loft apartment that has 13' ceilings, exposed brick on one wall, 8' tall windows on the same wall with the exposed brick. The living room (where the stereo is located) opens up to the kitchen (no walls separating the two areas) and there is a divider wall (doesn't go all the way to the ceiling or extend fully to both side walls). In regards to acoustics, it can be a little lively but it isn't as bad as one would think given the hard surfaces - maybe the high ceiling helps to dissipate the reflections?

My stereo setup consists of the following components:

• NAD C 316BEE integrated amplifier
• Denon PMA-600NE integrated amplifier
• Cambridge Audio CXA60 integrated amplifier
• Bluesound Node 2i music streamer
• Benchmark DAC3
• Fluance RT82 turntable w/ Nagaoka MP-110 cart
• Bottlehead Reduction + Integration upgrade phono preamp
• KAB RF1 rumble filter
• Audioquest Type 8 speaker cables
• Audioquest Golden Gate interconnect cables
• Audioquest Red River interconnects cables (phono pre to RF1)
• APC H10 line conditioner / surge protector
• Pangea DS100 36" speaker stands

After listening to all the speakers listed above, I formed my conclusions based on how the speakers sound while interacting with the acoustics in my room while being driven/fed by my gear. Before going any further, I want to say that this was not a slam-dunk for the speakers that I decided to keep. In fact, it was quite difficult to choose a pair of speakers from this list that I would keep for the long term (with one exception).

The speakers I was using when I started this endeavor were the KEF Q150 and I'd been using the KEF Q150 speakers for the last year (which can be an eternity for some audiophiles. lol). I was quite pleased with their performance during that time and it wasn’t until I took part in a 2-week demo program of the Polk Legend L200 speakers that the differences between the Polk L200 and the KEF Q150 were immediately apparent. The L200 speakers have a fullness to their sound that the KEFs do not and the L200 speakers left me wanting for nothing; their bass response is very good and the midrange is full and provides that "meat on the bones" experience; vocals really stand out and I feel this is the area where the speakers are strongest (midrange). The tweeters are superb at detail retrieval while never being harsh or fatiguing. In comparison, the KEF speakers just left me a little disappointed after hearing the Polk Legend speakers and, at a significant price difference, I am/was not surprised. Therefore, I set out on a mission to find a pair of speakers that could best the KEFs and get me as close to the Polk Legend L200 as possible for >$600 USD.

The first contender to arrive was the Polk Audio LSiM703. It was immediately evident that there was a difference in the sound quality between the Q150’s and the 703’s. There was more of that “meat on the bones” sound in the midrange with the 703’s and the bass response was much deeper on the 703’s as well. Please keep in mind that the KEF Q150 is a 2-way concentric design with the tweeter dwelling in the middle of the woofer while the Polk is a 3-way design with the midrange on the top, the tweeter just below it, and the woofer below that (The woofer is housed in a separate chamber inside of the cabinet; isolating it from the midrange driver and the tweeter). Two very different speakers (and designs), to be sure, but according to the specs they should be similar in resistance and sensitivity with the Polk just edging out the KEF at 88 dB vs 86 dB. I did not notice that either speaker was any harder, or easier, to drive than the other but I did notice that the LSiM703 plays a little louder than the Q150 at the same volume level on the NAD integrated.

While doing the knuckle rap test on the cabinets, the Polk is practically inert while some resonances echoed from the KEFs cabinet. The build quality seems to be good on both speakers but I’d definitely give the Polk the upper hand here. Real wood veneer vs a vinyl covering? No contest.

The one area where the Q150 easily bests the 703 is in the width, depth, and height of the soundstage. I get a wrap around effect with the Q150’s but the 703’s have a hard time extending very far beyond their physical cabinets.

To me, the KEF are just more fun and engaging. The Polk speakers are great but I enjoy listening to music more through the KEFs than the Polk’s. The soundstage is probably a big factor there. While the LSiM703 is a great speaker, the sound just isn’t as lively. So, is it a contender/on par with the L200’s? Not really. The L200’s have such a way with detail and their bass response is very good that bests the LSiM703’s easily. The midrange really stood out to me on the L200, definitely ahead of the balanced sound I heard from the 703’s that was very polite but not as engaging as the L200. The L200 was lively enough that I really enjoyed listening to it over and over again on a wide variety of music; there was nothing I threw at the L200 that I didn’t like.

halo

Next up are the ELAC Debut Reference DBR62 speakers, which arrived the day after the LSiM703. I was pleased with the performance of the DBR82 but they didn’t stand out in any specific way to me beyond what the KEF speakers were already giving me. The soundstage on both speakers is excellent and the center image was locked in place on both speakers as well. I was expecting a fuller sound from the ELAC DBR62 since it has the 6.5” woofer compared to the 5.25” woofer on the KEF Q150 but it just didn’t work out that way, at least, not in a significant way to my ears. The ELAC DBR62 gives you a lot of sound and it is non fatiguing but it is not as laid back as the Polk LSiM while not being as “forward” as the KEF Q150. Forward may not be the right way to describe the Q150 speakers but I think, in comparison to the other two speakers so far, one could see it that way. The build quality on the DBR62 was the most disappointing of the group. While nothing was loose or falling apart, there was a very obvious seam on the Walnut vinyl wrap located on the bottom of the speaker. The vinyl wrap also seemed to be more “bubbly” to me in several spots and, for a speaker at this price point, I expect better. I liked the look of the black fascia with the Walnut cabinets but the bare metal grill over the tweeter really stood out to me and I felt it would have looked better had it been a flat black or a gloss black instead.

Next up, I had a brief encounter with the Focal Chorus 706 speakers that were supposed to be new but, when they arrived, they were clearly used previously. I tried them anyway and the sound was very distorted, especially in the midrange. This flaw could have been due to the previous owner and I would have liked to try another pair but I literally got the last ones available so I couldn’t exchange them. The cabinets were very well built; the piano gloss black is beautiful and the leather on the fascia, bottom, and top of the speaker is a different look but it’s kind of neat; they were very well put together and the knuckle rap test revealed a fairly inert cabinet.

Last up are the Triangle Borea BR03 speakers. These were the latest to arrive to the comparison due to their lack of availability (they were on backorder for a month between the time I placed the order and the time that they were delivered). Out of the box, I was less than impressed with these speakers. However, I decided to stick it out for a while and see if anything changed over the course of the next few weeks and, thankfully, my patience was rewarded. I was playing music on these every day for at least 5 hours a day for the next 2-weeks so that tallies up to a minimum of 70 hours but, I know for a fact, they had far more time on them than that. I don’t know when it happened but, at some point toward the end of the 2-weeks, the sound coming from these speakers changed and it changed for the better. To my ears, the sound is the most pleasing of the group. I’m hearing more the of details than the KEF from the 1” silk dome tweeter housed behind the EFS Phase Plug with a good, forward, midrange, and some pretty solid bass response from the 6.5” midbass/woofer. Like the Polk Legend L200, the midrange really stands out on the Borea BR03.

However, I had to experiment quite a bit with placement on these before they clicked for me. Not surprisingly, I found that the farther they are from the front wall, the better the soundstage while reducing the bass response., Because getting farther from the front wall will reduce the bass response, I do have a subwoofer in my 2-channel setup to shore up the low notes but I did evaluate all of the speakers on the list without the subwoofer first, to see what they were capable of on their own and then with the subwoofer to see if they would blend easily or if a lot of fine tuning and adjustment would be necessary.

The fit and finish on the Borea BR03 are superb. The Walnut vinyl wrap is very nice and everything seems to be very well put together. The magnetic speaker grills are my favorite of the group and the most transparent. The grills stand away from the cabinet due to the length of the magnets so there is a gap between the fascia and the grill(s). The gloss black back plate on the back of the cabinet looks nice in contrast to the Walnut finish and the biding posts are a shiny silver color with an appropriately colored ring imbedded to distinguish the proper polarity. There is a nice Triangle logo embedded in the top of the rubber material above the tweeter and the word T R I A N G L E is spelled out at the bottom of the fascia located between the front ports. All in all, I think it is an attractive speaker and, for me, that’s a plus. Good looks plus good sound sealed the deal and the Triangle Borea BR03 are replacing the KEF Q150 in my 2-channel setup. As I said earlier, this was not a slam-dunk but I do appreciate the differences between the speakers enough to decide to keep them. It is not easy for everyone to do a direct comparison like this and, if you were to do the same test in your room and on your gear, you may come to a different conclusion than I did, as this hobby is very subjective.

Overall, I think that any one of these speakers could have stayed with me for the long term. At their respective price points, they are offering a ridiculously good value for the money from their respective manufacturers.

halo

Thank you, again, to Polk & to @F1nut for putting together the L200 demo program and for allowing me to be a part of it. That was the catalyst for taking a good, hard, look at my setup and for allowing me to make the most of it based on my experiences during the comparison between all the speakers.

joecoulson

Great stuff Victor!
Thank You for the very in depth review.

mlistens03

Very cool Victor! Interesting comparison to the Q150s, maybe they're not quite the steal at $600 I thought they were when I owned them.

Though they are probably still a steal at the $300 occasional sale price!

Victor if you would like, I'm happy to add my comparison of my Q150s to my Martin Logan's. You may also prefer to keep it specific to what you've heard. just let me know!

halo

joecoulson wrote: »

Great stuff Victor!
Thank You for the very in depth review.

Thank you Joe! I appreciate it

mlistens03 wrote: »

Very cool Victor! Interesting comparison to the Q150s, maybe they're not quite the steal at $600 I thought they were when I owned them.

Though they are probably still a steal at the $300 occasional sale price!

Victor if you would like, I'm happy to add my comparison of my Q150s to my Martin Logan's. You may also prefer to keep it specific to what you've heard. just let me know!

I don’t know Micah, I thought that the KEF Q150 speakers did very well in this comparison; Especially when you take into account the sale price available from time to time.

By all means, feel free to add your thoughts on the KEF v Martin Logan experience/impressions to this thread or you can create your own. Either is good with me

indyhawg

Nice review Victor.

halo

indyhawg wrote: »

Nice review Victor.

Thanks Jeff

F1nut

Nice review Victor. I'm curious, between the Triangle and L200, which would you keep?

halo

F1nut wrote: »

Nice review Victor. I'm curious, between the Triangle and L200, which would you keep?

I think that I’d like to hear them side by side (directly) before I could say for certain. I was initially looking for a fuller sound than the KEF speakers and I think that the Triangle speakers do that but they present it in a different way than the L200.

The dispersion of the high notes is really nice on the Triangle speakers, and the midrange was very similar to the L200 (one of the first things I noticed about the L200 and what developed over time with the Triangles). Bass response is better on the L200 but it’s not bad on the Triangles by any means. Because I use a sub in my 2-channel setup, it’s kind of a moot point. Both speakers did a great job of blending in with the sub. Aesthetically, I prefer the Triangles to the L200. At 1/3 the cost, if it were my money, I think I’d stick with the Triangles. I’m surprised to hear myself say this as I was very impressed by the L200 speakers. That said, I don’t have the $1799 price of admission for the Polk’s. If I did, I’d be auditioning a lot of speakers in that price range before committing to one set.

I’d be interested to hear a comparison between the Triangle Esprit Comète EZ and the Polk Legend L200 as they are more similarly priced to one another and feature the same size drivers.

F1nut

Thanks Victor, logical answer.

mlistens03

halo wrote: »

joecoulson wrote: »

Great stuff Victor!
Thank You for the very in depth review.

Thank you Joe! I appreciate it

mlistens03 wrote: »

Very cool Victor! Interesting comparison to the Q150s, maybe they're not quite the steal at $600 I thought they were when I owned them.

Though they are probably still a steal at the $300 occasional sale price!

Victor if you would like, I'm happy to add my comparison of my Q150s to my Martin Logan's. You may also prefer to keep it specific to what you've heard. just let me know!

I don’t know Micah, I thought that the KEF Q150 speakers did very well in this comparison; Especially when you take into account the sale price available from time to time.

By all means, feel free to add your thoughts on the KEF v Martin Logan experience/impressions to this thread or you can create your own. Either is good with me

I guess I read between the lines a bit on accident, reading through again I saw little negative about them. Sorry about that!

I'll add brief thoughts on the MLs here...

Obviously Victor and I have different ears, keep that in mind.
Victor's description of the Q150s perfectly matches mine, although I did think their bass response was more than adequate, probably more my room than the speakers. Nice and tight down to 40 Hz. (I still used a sub, however.)

My Martin Logan's are much warmer and clearer at the same time. They have a bit more musicality to them, which is saying something. The mids stand out as a real high point on these. The bass is lacking quite a bit, just drops off sharply after 60 hertz or so. Sub is definitely needed.

They don't stage *quite* as well as the KEFs IMO, its deeper but the KEFs had this almost wrap around effect in my room. The Martin Logan's don't quite have that and only extend a foot or two past the speakers. They do have a good height aspect but again, not quite as good.

And I'll leave it there.

The MLs are a nice set of speakers at $800. Last I checked, you can now get them for $400 on Amazon and Crutchfield, which makes them an even better deal.

I'll have to see if I can get my ears on some Triangles sometime.

Thanks for letting me throw in my thoughts Victor!

-Micah

halo

Thank you for your input @mlistens03

Clipdat

Nice bookshelf shootout Victor, well done.

halo

Clipdat wrote: »

Nice bookshelf shootout Victor, well done.

Thanks Drew!

TopperDude

enjoyed reading your thoughts on the different speakers. Curious to hear them in person.

verb

Excellent review Vic! I hope to be able to articulate that well someday!

halo

verb wrote: »

Excellent review Vic! I hope to be able to articulate that well someday!

Thanks Dave

Clipdat

halo wrote: »

I’d be interested to hear a comparison between the Triangle Esprit Comète EZ and the Polk Legend L200 as they are more similarly priced to one another and feature the same size drivers.

Oh man, now you got me thinking about the Cometes again! I really loved those speakers and it was hard to send them back after reviewing them. Along with the way that the horn loaded tweeter reproduced the high frequencies, my favorite attribute was the way that lightweight untreated paper woofer reproduced the tone of instruments and voices! Everything was just so immediate, lively, and fast. Seriously impressive, especially for the price.

I would like to review Triangle's two bookshelf speakers above the Comete EZ in the future, the Signature Theta and the Magellan Duetto.

halo

Clipdat wrote: »

Oh man, now you got me thinking about the Cometes again! I really loved those speakers and it was hard to send them back after reviewing them. Along with the way that the horn loaded tweeter reproduced the high frequencies, my favorite attribute was the way that lightweight untreated paper woofer reproduced the tone of instruments and voices! Everything was just so immediate, lively, and fast. Seriously impressive, especially for the price.

I would like to review Triangle's two bookshelf speakers above the Comete EZ in the future, the Signature Theta and the Magellan Duetto.

Those are some good looking Triangles!

Clipdat

I agree completely. I love that glossy deep rich finish!

On another note, I'd still really like to hear the Elac Debut Reference DBR62s!

Mike Reeter

Excellent Review Victor! I know you gave all of the candidates every opportunity to prove themselves.

Glad that you've found a good Speaker that fits your needs quite well

halo

Clipdat wrote: »

I agree completely. I love that glossy deep rich finish!

On another note, I'd still really like to hear the Elac Debut Reference DBR62s!

I wouldn’t mind spending more time with the DBR62 speakers. They are definitely better than the Uni-Fi line

joecoulson

Dang those Triangles look stunning.

halo

Mike Reeter wrote: »

Excellent Review Victor! I know you gave all of the candidates every opportunity to prove themselves.

Glad that you've found a good Speaker that fits your needs quite well

Thanks Mike!

MillerLiteScott

Very nice review!!! Thanks for your time.

ZLTFUL

Nice review Victor. Planning on throwing the V601s into the mix once we get em down there?

halo

ZLTFUL wrote: »

Nice review Victor. Planning on throwing the V601s into the mix once we get em down there?

Well, as I said, I really liked the sound of the L200 speakers and, as you stated in your review - the two are pretty much interchangeable, so, if the V-601’s can do that, I’ll enjoy them as I have an extra set of stands and an extra set of outputs on the CXA60!

CottageChz

I see that you have the Triangles for sale, have you moved on to another bookshelf speaker that you like better, or just going with your new 705s?

halo

CottageChz wrote: »

I see that you have the Triangles for sale, have you moved on to another bookshelf speaker that you like better, or just going with your new 705s?

The LSiM705 speakers have been gone for quite some time now, way before I purchased the Triangle Borea BR03 bookshelf speakers.

I purchased a pair of the Wharfedale Evo 4.2 stand mount loudspeakers. I decided to stay with them and move the Triangle speakers on. The Wharfedale are almost twice the price of the Triangle speakers

CottageChz

Cool, figured it may have been a move up to a pricier speaker. Was just curious!