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Perhaps less of a build thread and more of a setup thread as the build is more or less finished and I'm not much of a cameraman. I still need to do the veneer work, but was eager to listen for a few weeks before I began that.
I deviated from the prescribed plans in a few spots; I shortened the cabinet height by around 3.5" overall as I wanted the look of drivers close the edge of the baffle; The overall cabinet depth is 3/4" shorter; Did my own thing for the base; and the cabinets are rear ported with a cabinet tune of 26hz, mostly due to the smaller volume.
Here is how they look now.
I have a mahogany veneer to cover them with. I am undecided on how I will finish that, likely a silver stain and shellac or just the shellac.
They have been setup for about 3-4 weeks now, guessing 30-40 hours of use and have been doing great.
Played around to the best of my ability with room placement, the room is cozy at 10'x13' so there isn't much for options. As they sit they are about 6.5' apart, 8.5' from the main listening position, have a subtle toe in, are 21" from the wall, the right speaker is about 10" from the side wall, they left is generally open to the side as seen in the picture. This seems to give the best balance in the room. I am however open to tweaks that might help get more from them. The room is open to the rest of the house on the left side. I am toying with the idea of some room treatment, but need to learn more before I commit to anything.
Listening impressions; First and foremost they sound really good, great clarity and detail, the soundstage is excellent with a superb stereo effect/central image. They get loud and stay crystal clear doing so.
However, this is where it gets a little dicey, unfortunately, I cant say my expectations were fully realized. The Statement II's are replacing (and directly compared with) Paradigm monitor 7 v7's, IMO an excellent entry level speaker. I will say that the statement II's are better than the paradigms, however in most cases the improvement is very subtle. For instance there is just tiny amount more detail in some cases, most noticeable in the bass; they sound more open, but its only subtle; in some recordings I get a sense of more 'sparkle' or 'texture', but again its very subtle. Much more noticeable is the low extension and the overall clarity at high volume.
This is where I'm looking for help, perhaps my expectations where to high, perhaps my ears aren't golden enough, or perhaps the rest of my gear is holding things back? I have also directly compared them to some B&W 604 S3, this difference/improvement from these to the Statements is more apparent. The plus side is that I'm impressed with how easy the integration into the rest of the system was given the similarities to the Paradigms.
Admittedly I haven't spent any time listening to true high end gear, so I tend to think my expectations were out of line. I know audio is a game of diminishing returns...
I am fairly confident that the crossover is correct, as is the cabinet assembly.
Gear is as follows; Chromecast audio, connected via optical cable to a pioneer VSX-1018 receiver, run in pure direct to a Crown XLS 1502 amp. Generally I stream either FLAC's or stream via Google play. Did some back to back listening tests between CD and 320 bit MP3's years ago and couldn't tell the difference.
All in a fun build, great sounding result, and I am happy. I want to get the rest out of these or readjust my expectation on what they can do.
UPDATE: Added pictures of the veneer, see below for more. I need to add that any hesitations I had on these at the start are gone, superb speaker!
I deviated from the prescribed plans in a few spots; I shortened the cabinet height by around 3.5" overall as I wanted the look of drivers close the edge of the baffle; The overall cabinet depth is 3/4" shorter; Did my own thing for the base; and the cabinets are rear ported with a cabinet tune of 26hz, mostly due to the smaller volume.
Here is how they look now.
I have a mahogany veneer to cover them with. I am undecided on how I will finish that, likely a silver stain and shellac or just the shellac.
They have been setup for about 3-4 weeks now, guessing 30-40 hours of use and have been doing great.
Played around to the best of my ability with room placement, the room is cozy at 10'x13' so there isn't much for options. As they sit they are about 6.5' apart, 8.5' from the main listening position, have a subtle toe in, are 21" from the wall, the right speaker is about 10" from the side wall, they left is generally open to the side as seen in the picture. This seems to give the best balance in the room. I am however open to tweaks that might help get more from them. The room is open to the rest of the house on the left side. I am toying with the idea of some room treatment, but need to learn more before I commit to anything.
Listening impressions; First and foremost they sound really good, great clarity and detail, the soundstage is excellent with a superb stereo effect/central image. They get loud and stay crystal clear doing so.
However, this is where it gets a little dicey, unfortunately, I cant say my expectations were fully realized. The Statement II's are replacing (and directly compared with) Paradigm monitor 7 v7's, IMO an excellent entry level speaker. I will say that the statement II's are better than the paradigms, however in most cases the improvement is very subtle. For instance there is just tiny amount more detail in some cases, most noticeable in the bass; they sound more open, but its only subtle; in some recordings I get a sense of more 'sparkle' or 'texture', but again its very subtle. Much more noticeable is the low extension and the overall clarity at high volume.
This is where I'm looking for help, perhaps my expectations where to high, perhaps my ears aren't golden enough, or perhaps the rest of my gear is holding things back? I have also directly compared them to some B&W 604 S3, this difference/improvement from these to the Statements is more apparent. The plus side is that I'm impressed with how easy the integration into the rest of the system was given the similarities to the Paradigms.
Admittedly I haven't spent any time listening to true high end gear, so I tend to think my expectations were out of line. I know audio is a game of diminishing returns...
I am fairly confident that the crossover is correct, as is the cabinet assembly.
Gear is as follows; Chromecast audio, connected via optical cable to a pioneer VSX-1018 receiver, run in pure direct to a Crown XLS 1502 amp. Generally I stream either FLAC's or stream via Google play. Did some back to back listening tests between CD and 320 bit MP3's years ago and couldn't tell the difference.
All in a fun build, great sounding result, and I am happy. I want to get the rest out of these or readjust my expectation on what they can do.
UPDATE: Added pictures of the veneer, see below for more. I need to add that any hesitations I had on these at the start are gone, superb speaker!
Anyway, Emotiva or Outlaw give you a lot of bang for the buck invested. A processor from either one will be a significant step up in sound quality over your Pioneer. The amps from Emotiva or Outlaw are also a significant improvement over your pro amp for music. There are also lots of older used 2-channel amps (Hafler, Adcom, B&K and many others) that are great for music and can be the basis of a 5.1 or 7.1 HT system. 
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