I just got a new amp (Cambridge Audio AM10) and was looking to upgrade my 30 year old Technics Speakers
Take into account that I’m in South America (Argentina), so I don’t have Amazon and all the retailers that you guys get in EEUU or Europe.
I know that Zeos recommends the Klipsch (and a friend of mine has the R 14M and I think they sound very good for the size and price) but the Polk are very similar in specs (in paper at leas) and I can get them cheaper.
I mainly listen to Rock, Metal, Jazz and some blues, no EDM or Rap.
I really can’t go to listen for myself as here we still are in kind of a lockdown and almost all HiFi retailers are still closed.
I have owned a pair of S20’s for almost a year now. I use them as the rears in my 4.1 setup and am very happy with the way they sound. The mids & highs are clear, but I would say the mids less resolved in comparison. It is a little hard for me to speak on the extension of the lows as my front tower speakers and subwoofer are taking all frequencies below 80hz and I have not heard them standalone in almost a year. I did initially consider these because of the good reviews on the low end response and I was on the fence about getting a subwoofer. But within a few weeks I decided to pull the trigger on a subwoofer anyways. Dont take that as the bass was lacking, take that as I’m just a bit of a bass head and needed more
I have never heard the RM 600P’s so I cant make a comparison to those either. What I can say is I am happy with my purchase… and they look pretty sweet with the grilles off IMO.
Another thing to note is the power port on the back does make them seem larger than you might expect them to be. The measurements provided do include the port, so not sure why they seemed larger.
Edit: I want to add that I do think the S20’s have good soundstage as well. It’s not mind blowing, but does great for the price point.
I know I didnt fully answer you post, but hopefully this helps a little bit.
RP600Ms are a spectacular pair of speakers, especially if you give them some room. A little bit tube is always nice with them, even a tube buffer. I would say that the Klipsch are clear sounding, decent bass, very dynamic, and sound very “alive”. Works great with live recordings
Would recommend getting decent speaker stands too
Sorry to ghost both of you fine folks that answered,
After all, I went with the Klipsch and I am very happy of how they sound, they are very crisp and detailed (compared to my old borrowed Technics LX70 speakers), the low end is lackig, but that is expected from a 2 way speaker, added a cheap sub (a used Yamaha SW P130).
The little AM10 can drive them to an unbearable high volume without problems and not even at max volume.
Hmm, I never did room correction before, but I don’t really have a microphone (only my smartphone to recorde) to do it, is it worth it DIY? how did you do it?
But, I really don’t hear anything wrong with them tho
I only know using the mic setup through a AVR in a HT setting. It really does effect sound from a speaker least in my room. But there are detractors that say you really should correct the Room and not rely heavily on DSP to solve poor acoustics. Also not sure if software will gain tangible improvement on a desktop, was hoping others will chime in.
Theres miniDSP and dirac-live. Says its used in automotive, suppose thats a near field environment. Plan on going this way in my own 2.1 setup for a quasi stereophile listening room (bookshelf and subs config).
A lot of modern AVRs can do it, DSP or Speaker Management Systems are used a lot in the professional area.
miniDSP is probably the cheapst option, Behringer UltraDrives are also realtively cheap (never used one, so no idea how good and easy to use they are), DBX DriveRack-series is pricier (not Xilica pricy, but half way there).
I am not sure how well either would do in a purely nearfield setup. Maybe a simple EQ (Schiit Loki, Bellari EQ570, etc.) is enough.
With the DriveRack units, you connect a measurement mic and then follow on-screen instructions. After that you can manually tweak things like delay, phase shifts, crossover, etc.
