Statements II vs Anthologies for 80/20 HT/Music

[joshp214]

Hi, I am new around here but have been lurking for a while. I am considering building a set of towers and center for my HT, and cant decide between the 2 of these. I like the look and size of the Anthologies, but it seems as if the Statements would provide better overall sound. My room is fairly large, probably around 20x30 with 12' ceilings. Im using a Yamaha RX-V765 receiver, but will eventually be upgrading that as well. Any advice? Thanks

[Jim Holtz]

Hi Josh,

I couldn't reply to your email. You have recieviing emails turned off.

To answer your question, the Anthology's will perform equally with any of the Statements series for home theater usage and are only a small step behind the Statements II's for music and thats only if you have very good source components.

HTH

Jim

[joshp214]

I didn't realize that, but thank you so much for replying to my thread! Im a huge fan of your designs! One question though, the guys at Meniscus recommended the Statements II over the Anthologies, they said since I will be using a center channel they would choose the Statements II. Honestly, I think the Anthologies would fit my room better.

Im guessing they need to be located 18" off the wall like the Statement?

Also, would you recommend upgrading to the clarity px caps or would the solens be just fine?

I haven't seen anybody else build these yet on any of the forums, and Ive been looking everywhere lol.....I really appreciate what you have done for the DIY community!! Thanks for the help!

[Jim Holtz]

I didn't realize that, but thank you so much for replying to my thread! Im a huge fan of your designs! One question though, the guys at Meniscus recommended the Statements II over the Anthologies, they said since I will be using a center channel they would choose the Statements II. Honestly, I think the Anthologies would fit my room better.

Im guessing they need to be located 18" off the wall like the Statement?

Also, would you recommend upgrading to the clarity px caps or would the solens be just fine?

I haven't seen anybody else build these yet on any of the forums, and Ive been looking everywhere lol.....I really appreciate what you have done for the DIY community!! Thanks for the help!

Thank you for the kind words! Curt and I appreciate it!

If you are more music than HT and have very good source equipment, the Statements II have a bit more natural sound that is enjoyable. It is a very small difference and only noticable on extremely well recorded music.

The Finalist center is a great match to the Anthology's so I don't consider that a problem.

Positioning requirements are the same with the recommended 18" clearance.

I like Clarity caps and think they have a bit more crisp and clean sound to them than Solens but thats just me. The mid and tweetercircuits benefit the most.

I'm on vacation and typing this on a tablet so I hope it makes sense.

Jim

[joshp214]

If you were to compare these to any commercially available speaker set on the market, which would you compare them to? The only reason I ask this is to be able to give a point of reference when I show them off....Im anticipating these to sound as good as or better than any $3,000 per tower speaker on the market, just guessing.

[soundemon]

If you were to compare these to any commercially available speaker set on the market, which would you compare them to? The only reason I ask this is to be able to give a point of reference when I show them off....Im anticipating these to sound as good as or better than any $3,000 per tower speaker on the market, just guessing.

You guess correctly, and you underestimate
I built a set of the original full sized statements and at the same time was demo'ing a lot of speakers at various hifi shops. including paradigm sig8, B&W 803s, and many more, non were a match.
Only 1 speaker at the time made me think "I'd take these over my statements" and that was a pair of JAS audio Platos. The PMC EB1 was also a close contender.

I had a full list of speakers I had listened to at the time, unfortunately its in none of my build threads, but someone elses "should I build the statements" thread, and now I cant find it.

[Jim Holtz]

I haven't heard all thespeakers under $5k so I can only share my personal experience. I can say that any of the Statements sound better than Legacy Signa ture Ii's or III's which were in the$4K + price range.

Jim

[KnowScott]

I'm in the process of building the Statement cabinets. I read that it was recommended for HT use to stick with the original Statements. I see you mentioned your intended application is 80/20 HT/Music and was curious what made you choose Statement 2's over the originals?

I haven't purchased any components yet as I wanted to get the cab's mostly if not fully completed prior to taking the plunge.

Any advice is welcomed. Thanks.

Attached image of some of the cuts stacked up.

[Jim Holtz]

I'm in the process of building the Statement cabinets. I read that it was recommended for HT use to stick with the original Statements. I see you mentioned your intended application is 80/20 HT/Music and was curious what made you choose Statement 2's over the originals?

I haven't purchased any components yet as I wanted to get the cab's mostly if not fully completed prior to taking the plunge.

Any advice is welcomed. Thanks.

Attached image of some of the cuts stacked up.

I'm home from vacation now so I'll jump in with my thoughts.

The Statements, Statements II and the Anthology's are equal for home theater. The original Statements are great for music as well but, IMHO the Anthology's and Statements II's are a bit better for music if you're a discerning listener and have the front end electronics to feed them. Take your pick. They all sound great in my opinion.

HTH

Jim

[KnowScott]

I'm home from vacation now so I'll jump in with my thoughts.

The Statements, Statements II and the Anthology's are equal for home theater. The original Statements are great for music as well but, IMHO the Anthology's and Statements II's are a bit better for music if you're a discerning listener and have the front end electronics to feed them. Take your pick. They all sound great in my opinion.

HTH

Jim

I hope you had a great vacation. Thanks for your response. I'm running a Marantz AVR with an Emotiva UPA-7 amp to drive the 7 channels. I will eventually get a XPA-5. Would you qualify the current front end as adequate to feed them?

[Jim Holtz]

I hope you had a great vacation. Thanks for your response. I'm running a Marantz AVR with an Emotiva UPA-7 amp to drive the 7 channels. I will eventually get a XPA-5. Would you qualify the current front end as adequate to feed them?

Thanks! The vacation was great! We're off to the Chicago DIY event this weekend with the Anthology's then things will slow down a bit until the Iowa DIY in October.

To answer your questions;

Yes, the Marantz (receiver?) and UPA-7 should handle the music side nicely. The XPA-5 will be a nice upgrade especially if you pair it with a dedicated pre/pro going forward. That's the foundation for a good music system. How you feed and what you feed the signal with is just as important. MP3's and iTunes just don't cut it for best sound. CD's with a good DAC or streaming wav, flac files are my recommendation.

It just really depends on how important music is to you. You will hear a difference between the speakers and you'll continue to hear differences as you upgrade your electronics in the future.

OK, enough of my thoughts.

Jim

[KnowScott]

Thanks! The vacation was great! We're off to the Chicago DIY event this weekend with the Anthology's then things will slow down a bit until the Iowa DIY in October.

To answer your questions;

Yes, the Marantz (receiver?) and UPA-7 should handle the music side nicely. The XPA-5 will be a nice upgrade especially if you pair it with a dedicated pre/pro going forward. That's the foundation for a good music system. How you feed and what you feed the signal with is just as important. MP3's and iTunes just don't cut it for best sound. CD's with a good DAC or streaming wav, flac files are my recommendation.

It just really depends on how important music is to you. You will hear a difference between the speakers and you'll continue to hear differences as you upgrade your electronics in the future.

OK, enough of my thoughts.

Jim

With your sentiments it makes complete sense to go with Statement II's. Are their designs available for Statement II Monitors and Center? I'm not seeing the designs on the speakerdesignworks website.

[Jim Holtz]

With your sentiments it makes complete sense to go with Statement II's. Are their designs available for Statement II Monitors and Center? I'm not seeing the designs on the speakerdesignworks website.

Meniscus has the Statements II center kit available complete with build plans etc. The price is discounted compared to buying the parts elsewhere. No, I don't get a penny out of it. The kit is for convenience and Mark takes great care of his customers along with being a strong supporter of the DIY community. They'll also customize the crossover components for you if you like. They're good people.

I use Statements Monitors as surrounds and they blend extremely well, IMHO. The Finalists would be another step up in the overkill category but would be awesome surrounds. Honestly, Jon's Modula MT's would work great as surrounds for 1/2 the money. Now, I have to come clean and state that I really dislike surround music so I consider surround speakers as effects channels only. YMMV...

Jim

[joshp214]

Jim is there any way you could forward me the box building plans for the Anthologies, or are those on lockdown with Meniscus? I plan to buy the speaker kit eventually from them, but would like to get started on the box as it will probably take a while to get the thing finished. If you cant, I understand completely. Thanks so much!

[Jim Holtz]

Jim is there any way you could forward me the box building plans for the Anthologies, or are those on lockdown with Meniscus? I plan to buy the speaker kit eventually from them, but would like to get started on the box as it will probably take a while to get the thing finished. If you cant, I understand completely. Thanks so much!

Hi Josh,

There's no lock down from Meniscus. I've just been trying to offer a little support to Meniscus since they support the DIY community. Plus, they help out new builders by offering illustrated crossover layouts and crossover assembly for those that are unsure of their soldering skills. The design will be posted on Curt's website later this year when he gets time.

PM or email me your email address and I'll send it to you.

Jim

[Carl V]

I use Statements Monitors as surrounds and they blend extremely well, IMHO. The Finalists would be another step up in the overkill category but would be awesome surrounds. Honestly, Jon's Modula MT's would work great as surrounds for 1/2 the money. Now, I have to come clean and state that I really dislike surround music so I consider surround speakers as effects channels only. YMMV...

Thanks for all your generous time & hard work. I agree with much of what you have stated over the years.
I don't know what your musical tastes are like...where they lean...and how you listen or why you listen...
but perhaps rereading some of Kals stereophile columns or some older J Gordon Holt or some others, you might find
some common ground or at least some things that might pique our interest.

[danwee12345]

Jim,
This is my first post on these forums.
Decided to build Statements II. Can you tell me before I ordering the parts, which capacitors you recommend for the crossovers. Audyn Q4s or Solens? Since in your BOM you mentioned Solens specifically, is there a reason behind that. (One brand is better over the other?)
And the guy from the shop told me that they recommend connecting resistors in parallel so the higher power rating can be achieved instead of 10W. Any thoghts on that? (For example, instead of one 8 ohm resistor, they recomend two 16 ohms in parallel. They said there were some cases of burning the resistors with 10W ratings).
And finally, instead of one 4.5Ohm resistor, would you recommend three 15 Ohm resistors connected in parallel? Actually how important to stick with the resistor values your original circuit diagram for Statements II.
Lot of questions to start with, but really appreciate if you can give me your thoughts.

[Jim Holtz]

Jim,
This is my first post on these forums.
Decided to build Statements II. Can you tell me before I ordering the parts, which capacitors you recommend for the crossovers. Audyn Q4s or Solens? Since in your BOM you mentioned Solens specifically, is there a reason behind that. (One brand is better over the other?)
And the guy from the shop told me that they recommend connecting resistors in parallel so the higher power rating can be achieved instead of 10W. Any thoghts on that? (For example, instead of one 8 ohm resistor, they recomend two 16 ohms in parallel. They said there were some cases of burning the resistors with 10W ratings).
And finally, instead of one 4.5Ohm resistor, would you recommend three 15 Ohm resistors connected in parallel? Actually how important to stick with the resistor values your original circuit diagram for Statements II.
Lot of questions to start with, but really appreciate if you can give me your thoughts.

Welcome to the Statements family! I hope you like them as much as I do.

I speced Solens because they were the least expensive cap Meniscus listed on their website at the time we published the design. I've never used Audyn so I don't have an opinion about them. If they're equal to or better than Solens, they'd be fine. just no electrolytic caps in the crossover. I always spec the least expensive good cap to hold costs down. Most folks are fine with standard caps and don't want to spend the money for boutique caps.

Personally, I'm a Clarity cap fan. I think they sound better than Solens and they don't cost a great deal more. The mid and tweeter circuits benefit the most from better caps. I used Clarity PX in the woofer and mid circuits and Clarity ESA on the ribbon. To my ears, they're very clean and crisp sounding. You can spend huge money on caps if you want but I think Clarity offers the best sound at a reasonable price. YMMV....

Resistors; there was a builder of Mini Statements that was out in the yard and wanted to hear the music so he had them cranked to extremely high levels. Due to the way the resistors were positioned in the crossover, they got very hot and created smoke coming out of the speaker. He shut them down and replaced the resistors (repositioning them) and that corrected the issue. I believe he was using a very high power pro amp if i remember correctly. It's been a long time ago.

So, here's what I do and recommend. If you're going to really drive the Statements/Anthology's/Finalists hard, Parallel the mid resistors and it won't hurt to do the tweeter circuit too. The mids are the ones that really get a lot of power and benefit the most. I would parallel a Lynx 8.2 and 10 for the 4.5 ohm and parallel (2) two ohm resistors for the one ohm resistor in the mid circuit. Spread them apart and don't bury them in hot glue. I use zip ties to hold crossover components which allows them to breathe. The ribbon circuit is up to you.

Mark can help you with the options when you order the kit. They can get just about anything you want.

Finally, we love build threads with pictures!

HTH

Jim

[danwee12345]

Thanks for the reply.
Very helpful.
One more thing. Is it ok to connect three 15 ohms in parallel (which comes to 5 ohms) instead of getting the resistors to the exact value of 4.5 ohms? (0.5 ohms difference)
Will start a build thread once the items are ordered.
Thanks.

[Jim Holtz]

Thanks for the reply.
Very helpful.
One more thing. Is it ok to connect three 15 ohms in parallel (which comes to 5 ohms) instead of getting the resistors to the exact value of 4.5 ohms? (0.5 ohms difference)
Will start a build thread once the items are ordered.
Thanks.

According to the online calculators, paralleling (3) 5 ohm resistors equals a final value of 1.66 ohms. Paralleling a 8.2 and a 10 gives you exact value and will provide more than enough security for power handing. Talk to Mark about using Zisters instead of the Lynx resistors if you want super high power capabilities. If you are planning on driving them harder than that, you might want to look at the super high efficiency home theater designs. 8O

Bottom line, varying values of any crossover part will change the designed response of the Statements II's or any other speaker. I don't see a good reason to do that.

HTH

Jim

[danwee12345]

According to the online calculators, paralleling (3) 5 ohm resistors equals a final value of 1.66 ohms. Paralleling a 8.2 and a 10 gives you exact value and will provide more than enough security for power handing. Talk to Mark about using Zisters instead of the Lynx resistors if you want super high power capabilities. If you are planning on driving them harder than that, you might want to look at the super high efficiency home theater designs. 8O

Bottom line, varying values of any crossover part will change the designed response of the Statements II's or any other speaker. I don't see a good reason to do that.

HTH

Jim

Not three 5 ohms but 15 ohms. Anyway, I got what you trying to tell here. Stick with the exact values, right.

[joshp214]

Maybe this has been asked before, but do you think Curt could recommend an addition/change to the crossover on the Anthologies, (with plugged backs on the mids) that would allow closer wall placement with a switch like the finalists?

[Jim Holtz]

Maybe this has been asked before, but do you think Curt could recommend an addition/change to the crossover on the Anthologies, (with plugged backs on the mids) that would allow closer wall placement with a switch like the finalists?

Actually, Curt and I talked about this and he did some testing during final crossover development and decided that the Anthology's were fine without the additional resistor/switch as close as 6" from the back wall. The soundstage collapsed as expected but balance wise, they sounded great. Based on his testing, I think they'd be just fine with closer placement than the recommended 18". To be clear, this isn't an open back phenomena. All speakers, even ones designed for close or in wall positioning lose the soundstage when they're sit close to a back wall. Open back helps take the "box" sound out of a speaker with a more realistic soundstage closer to what you'd hear in a live performance. Not a concert, but a live performance.

You can also easily fine tune the sound by adding foam plugs in the mids to filter the back wave as you move them closer to the back wall. Lots of options!

To fully answer your question, any crossover changed would require measuring and listening to fine tune the sound. It's just a SWAG if you arbitrarily make changes.

HTH

Jim

[joshp214]

Actually, Curt and I talked about this and he did some testing during final crossover development and decided that the Anthology's were fine without the additional resistor/switch as close as 6" from the back wall. The soundstage collapsed as expected but balance wise, they sounded great. Based on his testing, I think they'd be just fine with closer placement than the recommended 18". To be clear, this isn't an open back phenomena. All speakers, even ones designed for close or in wall positioning lose the soundstage when they're sit close to a back wall. Open back helps take the "box" sound out of a speaker with a more realistic soundstage closer to what you'd hear in a live performance. Not a concert, but a live performance.

You can also easily fine tune the sound by adding foam plugs in the mids to filter the back wave as you move them closer to the back wall. Lots of options!

To fully answer your question, any crossover changed would require measuring and listening to fine tune the sound. It's just a SWAG if you arbitrarily make changes.

HTH

Jim

Thanks for the answer! I was beginning to lean toward the Finalists when I read about the placement options of it. I don't really like the idea of my mains sticking out 3 feet past the tv for regular viewing. I am glad to know I can move the Anthologies back toward the wall for movies or tv viewing, and move them out when its time to demo a nice musical recording, or live performance blu ray. Thanks for the help!