Andrew Robinson R700 Review
Comments
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Yours have to sound a little boxy- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
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You've got the correct toe in but don't you think they will sound better without the boxes?Gustard X26 Pro DAC
Belles 21A Pre modded with Mundorf Supreme caps
B&K M200 Sonata monoblocks refreshed and upgraded
Polk SDA 1C's modded / 1000Va Dreadnaught
Wireworld Silver Eclipse IC's and speaker cables
Harman Kardon T65C w/Grado Gold. (Don't laugh. It sounds great!)
There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus -
Cut holes in the boxes where the drivers are. I'm sure they'll sound fine!"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
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Darkscience wrote: »Just arrived! Can't wait to get some time to open them.
Well done by you. Congrats.
Speakers: Polk Lsim, ATC SCM19 v2, NHT SuperzeroSpeaker Cables: DH Labs, Transparent, Wireworld, Canare, Monster: Beer budget, Bose ears -
Yes, congrats and enjoy!
H9"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul! -
Hope you've got some carpet in there.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Got my system set up and dialed in. 2ch music sounds really good, really really good. I am in love with the speakers HT sounds killer too, I think the center channel could be a bit better but its still really good, I have the ES10 as surrounds, the ES10 nail it for me, those are some good sound speakera really surprised me. I have been staying up late listening to music and watching movies and they R700 handle everything with ease. I really love the neutral sound, I did not need to EQ much they measured fairly flat in my room with huge room gains in the bass region. I did flatten that out and have not tried them without EQ or boosted bass, everything is just sounding good right now so dont really even care to mess with it further. I do have a PB-3000 coming monday and a pair of RT90 ceiling speakers on Monday, I am debating if putting holes in my ceiling is worth it. Hard choice, I could live with the ES10 handling the surround sounds, that I would say is the big tbe surprise for me. I am use to great 2ch in my dedicated 2ch room and expected the R700 to come close to that setup and they do 100%, its a different sound, (my other setup is Cornwall IV and they arw glorious sounding but that room is measured and treated plus running AHB2 with Dirac), the R700 keep up and do not disappoint, they have the same vibe as my Polk RT80 but with a hi-fi sound. Hard to explain how good they are, you really need to like falt frequency response, which is all I like, after years of listening to many speakers and learning about room treatment, these speakers just kill it. I do not know how much more I would need to spend to beat them but it would not be worth it. The imaging is dead center, the sound stage is really wide, not so much back or forward, very present in the speaker plane but wide. My only complaint? Hmm, not sure maybe the fact they definately have an obvoius sweep spot, if I walk around the sound is good but I lose the imagine? IDK hars to say, my Cornwall definately fill the room more and have more back to front imaging but they did not always sound that great, I had to work to really get the room properly treated, with the R700 I do not feel the need to go crazy with detailed room treatment. They have tons of detail, and very well balanced sound, idk not sure what else to say except, I am not left wondering what else is out there, maybe KEF with the uni coil thing to get that flavor, but I think anything less than an R7 and I rather have these, a steal for the price if you ask me, oh and they are Polk, so I get to live the nostalgia. Except for maybe the very top of the line, and even then just slightly, these are the best Polk I have ever heard, and one of the best sounding speakers I have ever heard in my house. I can only imagine what they would do hooked up to my Benchmark setup. If your on the fence just do it.
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Oh yea one more thought, for 2ch, I do not miss a subwoofer at all, although im getting a PB3000 for HT, I will most likely turn that off and run these full range for 2ch, the bass is detailed and punchy. Im in love for real.
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"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".
~ Not all things that can be measured can be heard and not all things heard can be measured ~
Now, with that said....Wow dude (Darkscience). Please learn how to separate paragraphs. (Said with the utmost of respect). That was kind of hard to follow/read. Also, welcome to the forum sir!
The horn versus box debate is endless and boring on SO many audio forums (at least to me). Simply pick your preference or enjoy both for certain songs/albums in different rig configurations.
BTW, you will learn to love a sub. Mark my words.....just gotta pick one that suits your style (preferences) and dial it in correctly.
Tom
~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
My apologies, I was rambling from my phone.
I have a pair of SB-3000 in my music room, dialed in, so I know what you mean, but I really like the natural sound of the R700.
We disagree on measurements, if you can hear it, you can measure it. Frequency, Impulse, Distortion, Reflection, Dispersion, Resonance, SBIR, Room Modes, Standing Waves and Directivity from the top of my head, I am sure there is a lot more. What I have never measured is how they all combine into one sound experience, that you can only do with your own ears, my ears just happen to prefer the sound of well measuring speakers/room because I can hear the bits that are not correct, (a side effect of doing a lot of critical listening with measurements).
That being said it does not matter to me if someone prefers to pick out and place speakers by ear until they sound good to them, more power to them, but I am just a firm believer that when my measurements are great, my sound is great, just based on my subjective listening afterwards, you actually end up learning to hear these differences. Similar to learning to pick out intervals between pitches when I do ear exercises in my practice routine.
Sorry do not mean to turn this into some measurement debate, I do not intend to talk much more about that, I am not trying to change anyone's mind.
I agree on that any debate about speaker type is boring. Just get what you like/can afford. I do not typically post anything negative about what anyone says, I am usually just happy that they are happy, audio is a journey, everyone has their own. -
The human ear can pick up far more nuance than can be measured. I have heard systems with amazing specs, that should sound stunning, but chased me from the room pretty quickly.
The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
A measuring device is not at all the same as brain processing/interpreting. Many things can be measured, but what those measurements mean to each person listening will vary based on brain/ear functions.
There is no direct correlation from standard measurements to how something will sound to each individual. You can make generalizations, but those will ultimately not be 100% accurate for every listening individual and listening session
Not going to turn this into a big debate as if are OK with looking at specs to decide what to buy, that's fine for YOU. But measurements don't make something sound good or pleasurable to each individual listener. And they should never be used as the sole factor to buy or not buy a product.
H9"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul! -
I can't remember who said it, some founder of some speaker brand...
"we set out to build a perfectly flat response speaker. After we did that, we set out to build One that sounded good."- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit. -
I can't remember who said it, some founder of some speaker brand...
"we set out to build a perfectly flat response speaker. After we did that, we set out to build One that sounded good."
Quite possibly Dr. Omar Bose I believe. 🤔"2 Channel & 11.2 HT "Two Channel:Magnepan LRSSchiit Audio Freya S - SS preConsonance Ref 50 - Tube preParasound HALO A21+ 2 channel ampBluesound NODE 2i streameriFi NEO iDSD DAC Oppo BDP-93KEF KC62 sub Home Theater:Full blown 11.2 set up. -
I actually believe it was Mirage.
Some of the best sounding, most boring speakers are studio monitors.- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit. -
I can't remember who said it, some founder of some speaker brand...
"we set out to build a perfectly flat response speaker. After we did that, we set out to build One that sounded good."
So true.
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
pearsall001 wrote: »
Any relation to Amar Bose?
(sorry, I realize you may have been being facetious, but I couldn't resist.)
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nooshinjohn wrote: »The human ear can pick up far more nuance than can be measured. I have heard systems with amazing specs, that should sound stunning, but chased me from the room pretty quickly.
^THIS^Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Unless your room has perfect positioning for the mains to replay low bass notes, your not going to outperform the SVS subwoofer or woofers I think you have 2. I would set them in small and cross them over around 80hz.80hz is still pretty low bass and allowing the SVS subwoofers to complete them should 1 free up head room in your amp and give you smooth accurate bass for 2 channel.Darkscience wrote: »Oh yea one more thought, for 2ch, I do not miss a subwoofer at all, although im getting a PB3000 for HT, I will most likely turn that off and run these full range for 2ch, the bass is detailed and punchy. Im in love for real.
Long are the days I try to run any speaker in full range unless the room allow for good coverage from the Left and Right position. It's really rare, you usually get peaks and dips at your seating locations. Run some bass sweeps and hear what I'm talking about.
Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
Pulled one of the 8"drivers from my R700's for a sticky beak inside. For the price the bracing and dampening is pretty impressive, The 8"drivers are heavy as. Thinking of what sort of improvement could be had by upgrading some caps and resistors. Maybe one day.
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Braddles63 wrote: »Pulled one of the 8"drivers from my R700's for a sticky beak inside. For the price the bracing and dampening is pretty impressive, The 8"drivers are heavy as. Thinking of what sort of improvement could be had by upgrading some caps and resistors. Maybe one day.
I'd like to see some pic's of the finish and the back panel. I heard there is a noticeable seem there.Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
Not as visible with the naked eye as it is with a flash photo.
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How often does one stare at the back of their speakers...geesh!Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Where's @RuSsMaN when you need him- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
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Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
Nope, but he's on the Face Book's......."Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
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Darkscience wrote: »Just arrived! Can't wait to get some time to open them.Darkscience wrote: »Just arrived! Can't wait to get some time to open them.
Can you post some more pictures of your Polk Reserves with the grill on and off. I have the signature series and I like they way they disappear into the room with the grills on, but it looks like the reserves are gray
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Hello, I own tannoy revolution xt8f. I wonder if it would be a good idea to be replaced by Polk R700‽
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Honestly speakers are personal. You would have to listen to them and see if you like them more than your Tannoy's.Hello, I own tannoy revolution xt8f. I wonder if it would be a good idea to be replaced by Polk R700‽
Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
The XT8F speakers are nice for sure in their price range. IMHO the R700 would be a lateral move if someone owns the XT8F and likes them in a two channel system. As Mantis notes, in that situation it comes down to personal preference. If the XT8F are in a home theater system with a full set of other Tannoy speakers in the line I don't see buying the R700s as wise if all the other speakers would need to be changed.
