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I've been toying with the idea of replacing my Celestion A3 main theater speakers with something else. I've had the Celestions for about 7 years. They are great speakers - but perhaps a little bit too polite in the base department. There have been some improvements in speaker technology in the last 7 years - and I'm interested in exploring the field. Because I have a subwoofer (Paradigm PW-2200) I've not been highly motivated to make this change - but still, I find it interesting to shop around.
So far, the candidate replacement speakers are the Klipsch RF-7, and the B&W 803D. I'm currently using the Klipsch RC-7 center for movies and TV. So, the Klipsch RF-7s are in the running simply because I already have a key component of theirs. Another factor in my calculus is the cabinets that I use, which were custom built to hold the Celestion A3s. It turns out that the Klipsch RF-7s and the B&W 803Ds are almost exactly the same form factor as the Celestions, so both of these choices would fit nicely in the booths constructed to hold the Celestions.
I finally got around to auditioning the 803Ds. Before I went to the dealer I spent some quality time listening to CDs on the Celestions in direct stereo mode, with no equalization or subwoofer. I took these same CDs with me to the dealer's store.
My impression of the 803Ds: Bass response was definitely improved over the Celestions. With the 803D ported in front, I'm guessing that makes a huge difference compared to the Celestions which are dual ported in the rear. The rear ports face the rear panel of the cabinet they are housed in - and I'm pretty that is why they offer less than stellar base performance than I would expect from a speaker of that size.
Treble: Very transparent and obviously improved over the Celestions.
Midrange: This was the trouble spot for me. It seemed to me that the midrange on the 803Ds was recessed. I felt it was several dB below where I was expecting it. Listening to music I'm very familiar with, it just struck me that something important was missing - as though someone had used an equalizer to de-emphasize the mids. This may also explain why the top-end seemed so striking to me - although I'm sure the diamond tweeter could take some of the credit here.
I did not listen to other speakers in the store. In particular the 802Ds are too big to fit in my cabinets anyway - so I didn't bother listening to them.
I have listened to the Klipsch RF-7s - but it was in a terrible, noisy environment, so I couldn't properly evaluate them.
The system I'm targeting is split about 50/50 between TVs/Movies and music. In another room I have a pair B&W 703s set up and dedicated to 2-channel music only. This is where I do serious music listening. The 703s sound great - and I've not had any buyer's remorse for getting them.
I'm wondering if anyone has some suggestions on what to try next? Given that the RF-7s are discontinued, it's very difficult to find a dealer who has a pair set up for listening. These speakers are still available as new on some web sites under closeout. I'm also wondering if anyone else on this board had the same experience listening to the 803Ds as I did - that is, a sense of diminished midrange? It could be that the 803Ds I listened to were just a bad sample, or damaged, or otherwise improperly configured for audio listening. I hate to discount them completely given that I only listened to them once.
Thanks for listening.
So far, the candidate replacement speakers are the Klipsch RF-7, and the B&W 803D. I'm currently using the Klipsch RC-7 center for movies and TV. So, the Klipsch RF-7s are in the running simply because I already have a key component of theirs. Another factor in my calculus is the cabinets that I use, which were custom built to hold the Celestion A3s. It turns out that the Klipsch RF-7s and the B&W 803Ds are almost exactly the same form factor as the Celestions, so both of these choices would fit nicely in the booths constructed to hold the Celestions.
I finally got around to auditioning the 803Ds. Before I went to the dealer I spent some quality time listening to CDs on the Celestions in direct stereo mode, with no equalization or subwoofer. I took these same CDs with me to the dealer's store.
My impression of the 803Ds: Bass response was definitely improved over the Celestions. With the 803D ported in front, I'm guessing that makes a huge difference compared to the Celestions which are dual ported in the rear. The rear ports face the rear panel of the cabinet they are housed in - and I'm pretty that is why they offer less than stellar base performance than I would expect from a speaker of that size.
Treble: Very transparent and obviously improved over the Celestions.
Midrange: This was the trouble spot for me. It seemed to me that the midrange on the 803Ds was recessed. I felt it was several dB below where I was expecting it. Listening to music I'm very familiar with, it just struck me that something important was missing - as though someone had used an equalizer to de-emphasize the mids. This may also explain why the top-end seemed so striking to me - although I'm sure the diamond tweeter could take some of the credit here.
I did not listen to other speakers in the store. In particular the 802Ds are too big to fit in my cabinets anyway - so I didn't bother listening to them.
I have listened to the Klipsch RF-7s - but it was in a terrible, noisy environment, so I couldn't properly evaluate them.
The system I'm targeting is split about 50/50 between TVs/Movies and music. In another room I have a pair B&W 703s set up and dedicated to 2-channel music only. This is where I do serious music listening. The 703s sound great - and I've not had any buyer's remorse for getting them.
I'm wondering if anyone has some suggestions on what to try next? Given that the RF-7s are discontinued, it's very difficult to find a dealer who has a pair set up for listening. These speakers are still available as new on some web sites under closeout. I'm also wondering if anyone else on this board had the same experience listening to the 803Ds as I did - that is, a sense of diminished midrange? It could be that the 803Ds I listened to were just a bad sample, or damaged, or otherwise improperly configured for audio listening. I hate to discount them completely given that I only listened to them once.
Thanks for listening.
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