Standmount suggestions, sub £200

Looking for some magnetically shielded standmount speakers to replace my Rega Ela's (I need the shielding so they have to go)

Budget of whatever I can get for the Ela's so probably £150-£200

I like neutral sounding speakers for acoustic music etc.

So far I have seen

AE Evo 1
Epos ELS3
Mission Volare V61

Any suggestions?

Andrew

 

Have you seen the new active monitors from Samson? They have ribon tweeters. I think you could get them for about £200.

 

They look good, but a little expensive and would be a waste of my amp

A few more options:
Mission M51
Monitor Audio R90
Monitor Audio Silver 3i

 

Hmm.. I like the Monitor Audio Gold range. The Silver is probably pretty good too.

Could you sell the amp? As I have said in a few other threads, I believe active monitors in this price range give FAR better sound for the money than a separate amp and cheap'o speakers. I'd go listen to a few at least so you can compare them to separate speakers and the amp you have.

 

Hi andrew, no suggestions, but you are going to have a tough time replacing the Ela's. I had the Missions M51's and to be honest, they arent bad, but they arent a patch on the Ela's. I suspect the same will be true of the Volare. Also the B&W 602's arent a patch on the Ela's either.

 

Andrew,

I can strongly recommend the Revolver R16. It has an RRP of £300, but they go for £150-200 used. I too listen to a lot of acoustic music and am very impressed with the lack of obvious flaws in the sound.

OK, so they don't have Focal's fancy tweeter (which sounds strident & forward 80% of the time IME) or B&W's pretty design, but they are a very well-balanced design and have a wonderfully coherent & musical presentation. They go a little deeper than you'd expect and only really disappoint during massive timpani-led dynamic swings (diddy 5" driver the limiting factor there).

BTW, don't be scared by the metal dome tweeter - its very smooth. Oh, and they're 90dB 8Ohm, so a very benign load for their size.

They're not embarrased in the company of my SF signums either, at four times the price.

DT

 

how good is your amp?

quality small speakers need decent amplifiers to really sing.

If you havent got a decent amp, I'd keep the budget speakers and look at the amp iinstead.

you might want to consider a used pair of ruarks. The models I have heard make excellent second hand buys, and the cabinets are gorgeous too. As mentioned they need a decent amp to sound their best.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ruark-epilogu...51918799QQcategoryZ111694QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Thanks for the suggestions, I've been thinking over the weekend and decided to keep the speakers and just send back the unshielded TV, I would have needed to replace the Kef's as well so it wasn't worth it.

Andrew

 

R16's on the bay btw: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Revolver-R16-...50369830QQcategoryZ112516QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem