Puneet Tanwar wrote:
I am trying to decide between these speakers for my entry-level Denon
1603 - initially for stereo use, bt perhaps later as fronts or rears.
I have auditioned all three - the KEFs and B&Ws at the same store and
the Tannoys at another store. The acoustics of the two stores were
drastically diffrent so I feel my judgement is lacking. The Tannoys
very good, but appear small. They are much cheaper too - nearly half
the price of the others. Between the KEF Q1 and the B&W 601 S3 the B&W
sounded much neater and true but the sound changed as the bass got
high - what I mean by that is that when the bass suddenly gets high,
musically, it loses continuity (only a bit). The KEFs sounded a bit
bright and not so true but they handled the bass much better - the
musical effect was very smooth over an entire song.
Yep. Kefs are better on bass. The B&W 601 - it sounds thin. The 602
is much better, IMO.
The Tannoys were good all around but I cannot compare them to the
B&Ws. I could not notice any problems with the spekers except their
small size.
That's a pretty fair assessment, IMO. The MX series are very
competant all-around, if a bit plain. Still, they are good
budget choices.
If you have enough money to buy the more expensive speakers,
consider upgrading to the Tannoy towers. Bass problems
fixed. I've seen MXm3s for not a lot more than the R1s.
P.S. space a real concern? The R1s are very good small speakers,
though a bit pricey.
I assume the B&W are more ruggedly built (?) with metal
dome and kevlar cone vs paper and ceramic for the Tannoys. The
Tannoys, however, sounded better for stereo - I am only guessing but
they seem designed for stero whereas the B&Ws seems better for a HT
setup - the frequency response in the low end is quite different.
Yep.
OTOH, both will do just fine unless you thrash them.
OPne thing to note, though - truly good music speakers will whomp
all over HT type setups as movies ARE music in essence.
The rest - a sub will deal with the effects.
I also doubt that the Denon 1603 is perhaps not enough to power the
Tannoys.
All three are easy to drive with a 1603, though I'd honestly
look at the Outlaw Audio receiver instead - it's a better
upgrade for not a lot more money.