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There's a lot more bass in a 6.5" driver than most of you think

One topic of discussion I often see new audiophiles touch on is whether to get larger speakers for more bass.

I usually suggest they tune the room first, then re-evaluate. This is based on listening and measurement in several apartments I’ve lived in. Bigger speakers can be nothing but trouble if the room is not ready.


In particular, I often claim that the right room treatment can make smaller speakers behave much larger. So, to back up my claims I’d like to submit to you my recent blog post here:

https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-snr-1-room-response-and-roon.html


Look at the bass response from those little drivers! :)


I admit for a lot of listeners these speakers won’t seem as punchy as you might like, but for an apartment dweller who does 50/50 music and theater they are ideal for me. If you’d like punchy, talk to Fritz who aligns his drivers with more oomf in the bass.


erik_squires

Showing 4 responses by audioguy85

audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,033 posts
 
Read the stereophile review of diamond 225's...6.5 inch woofer, wave guide soft dome tweeter, and an unusual port on bottom of cabinet...one reviewer was astounded to see usable bass frequency output down to about 31.5 hz! Now that's nuts. Sure it was down several decibels from its rated 45 hz, but it was there and significant....pretty close to his words. I can attest to this as mine never fail to amaze me for a lousy $449 bucks! Freaking great speakers....
audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,033 posts
 
For sh#ts and giggles I just grabbed a pair of vintage recoaned the smaller advents with the fried green egg tweeters and the spit ball woofer, they are 4 ohms and I will drive them with my rogue sphinx, should be a blast! Acoustic suspension speakers are special.
audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,033 posts
 
I’m just stating what they found when reviewing the speaker (the 225’s) and in my own listening room I have to agree that Peter comeau (the designer) did a hell of a job with the budget he had to work with to design a speaker that can satisfy most. As herb Reichert put it, it’s an audio conissuer component.
Certainly there are of course better speakers! But for $449 you will be hard pressed to find one that sounds this good for that kind of cash outlay period.
To me, I find it far more satisfying and rewarding to not have to spend a fortune yet get a large slice of audio heaven. I grin every time I listen to these darn things, they are hard to walk away from and just keep you wanting to listen...I think that is what this hobby is supposed to be about really. Not who spent the most on this and that. You do not need to spend a ton to get quality, not in today’s hifi world.
There are numerous components I could list that fit this mold, including the outstanding Hana EL cartridge, the discontinued Shure m97xe cartridge. the musical fidelity v90 dac, and the AKG k550 headphones to name a few. Ton of quality for not a lot of dough.....another one was the marantz pm6005, a killer integrated amp that I unfortunately sold. 
audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,033 posts
 
I’ll let you know what my the smaller advents sound like when I get them. Ebay score with 9.5 inch acoustic suspension woofer designed by the great Henry kloss....I hear they were renown for some marvelous bass. Stereophile did a throw back to the smaller advents and were blown away by the bass response of this relatively small speaker, although it measures a bit larger than today’s typical bookshelves being that its 20 inches high etc. It can supposedly get into the 30’s with relative ease....
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