Finally completed assembling my Finalist + Sub towers. Still need to finish them...
Here are a few pictures...
Now for the sound...oh boy are they an upgrade over the Statement Monitors.
Don't get me wrong the Monitors are good speakers...very good infact....but the finalists are in a different league all together.
The treble is crystal clear... The high hats, cymbals are very very clear and feel as if they are hanging in the air...amazing.
The mid range...oh wow... You can hear every nuance of a singers voice. I was listening to some Bollywood / Indian music that has a lot of chorus and a lot of layered instrumentation consisting of strings , violins, piano, chorus, sitar, harmonium and each instrument stood out separately. A trait which the monitors definitely did not have. That midrange is some of the best I have heard with the finalists. The sound of the stick hitting the snare rim on the drums had the visceral impact to make you sit up an listen.
Finally the bass...in my room they go very deep. I have not heard the subs kick in until now for music (they are crossed over at 30HZ) and I haven't felt anything missing. The benchmark for me in bass is can I hear the vibration of the strings of a bass guitar...and with Finalists I can :-)
For HT the bass doesn't have enough punch...which is very understandable and even B&W 803 I had earlier needed subs for HT applications.
But for me more than the individual components of the sound, it's how everything comes together as a coherent system that shows just how good Jim and Curt are in designing the speakers.
My reference for audio is my Beyerdynamic T1 headphones ($1000) plugged into a DIY B22 active ground headphone amplifier fed by Lavry DA 10 DAC.
While the sound fro Finalists running off a Marantz Receiver is not as good as my reference cans, I am sure with better amplification the sound will only get better.
I had a friend over in the morning who is running B&W 804 for his mains and he walked out of my apartment with the CAD drawings of the Finalists in his hands...on the call with a local cabinet maker :-)
Amazing job Jim and Curt...and thanks for sharing the design with the rest of us.
~nishant
Here are a few pictures...
Now for the sound...oh boy are they an upgrade over the Statement Monitors.
Don't get me wrong the Monitors are good speakers...very good infact....but the finalists are in a different league all together.
The treble is crystal clear... The high hats, cymbals are very very clear and feel as if they are hanging in the air...amazing.
The mid range...oh wow... You can hear every nuance of a singers voice. I was listening to some Bollywood / Indian music that has a lot of chorus and a lot of layered instrumentation consisting of strings , violins, piano, chorus, sitar, harmonium and each instrument stood out separately. A trait which the monitors definitely did not have. That midrange is some of the best I have heard with the finalists. The sound of the stick hitting the snare rim on the drums had the visceral impact to make you sit up an listen.
Finally the bass...in my room they go very deep. I have not heard the subs kick in until now for music (they are crossed over at 30HZ) and I haven't felt anything missing. The benchmark for me in bass is can I hear the vibration of the strings of a bass guitar...and with Finalists I can :-)
For HT the bass doesn't have enough punch...which is very understandable and even B&W 803 I had earlier needed subs for HT applications.
But for me more than the individual components of the sound, it's how everything comes together as a coherent system that shows just how good Jim and Curt are in designing the speakers.
My reference for audio is my Beyerdynamic T1 headphones ($1000) plugged into a DIY B22 active ground headphone amplifier fed by Lavry DA 10 DAC.
While the sound fro Finalists running off a Marantz Receiver is not as good as my reference cans, I am sure with better amplification the sound will only get better.
I had a friend over in the morning who is running B&W 804 for his mains and he walked out of my apartment with the CAD drawings of the Finalists in his hands...on the call with a local cabinet maker :-)
Amazing job Jim and Curt...and thanks for sharing the design with the rest of us.
~nishant
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