Yes agreed, I would be blown away if they were not significantly better than Skytronic and Maplin fair.
IAG product will be designed to be the very best it possibly can be at the price, although this price point is really pushing it.
Just because they are cheap doesn't mean they are poor. Cheap labour and careful copies of Western design can go a long way. IAG's are very ambitious and their facilities have been pulled up in standard. Peter Comeau ex Mission, Hifi News, Heybrook, World Designs is now overseeing work and design there. No doubt he had his hand in these.
I suspect if you pull them apart you will find very tiny Neodymium magnets on/in the tweeters.
IAG product will be designed to be the very best it possibly can be at the price, although this price point is really pushing it.
Just because they are cheap doesn't mean they are poor. Cheap labour and careful copies of Western design can go a long way. IAG's are very ambitious and their facilities have been pulled up in standard. Peter Comeau ex Mission, Hifi News, Heybrook, World Designs is now overseeing work and design there. No doubt he had his hand in these.
I suspect if you pull them apart you will find very tiny Neodymium magnets on/in the tweeters.
Hi,
Recently I visited a driver maker in the PRC. They make a wide range of stuff in a huge factory, including some serious "name brand" stuff (sorry, I cannot say WHICH brands, but you have all come across them).
I was listening "al fresco" to a wide range of drivers (including the ones in the old Magico Mini which they incidentally do not make).
And the best sounding driver I found (obviously, no box no bass - so we are only talking midrange) was a super cheap, stamped frame ceiling speaker woofer with a tiny ND magnet and basic paper cone. It costs probably around a dollar US each. Of course, it will not play loud or low...
I also heard many drivers they where keen to have me listen to, "our best" they put it, which sounded revoltingly bad...
I asked them to use that "magic 1 USD Driver" cone etc. but to give me decent magnet and voicecoil and a cast frame. Hopefully it will not kill the "magic", so we will have a "magic" 20 USD Bass.
I disagree. You just need to find someone to supply the "magic 1 USD driver" I found (may cost 10 USD retail with grill) and the "magic 1 USD Softdome" (may also cost 10 USD retail and yes, the factory has one of them too, not their cheapest tweeter, but one that sounds nice with a minimal X-Over) and give it a "Woolworth Breadbox" and you will have a speaker cheaper and likely better in the midrange and treble than the Warfedale's...
Ciao T
Recently I visited a driver maker in the PRC. They make a wide range of stuff in a huge factory, including some serious "name brand" stuff (sorry, I cannot say WHICH brands, but you have all come across them).
I was listening "al fresco" to a wide range of drivers (including the ones in the old Magico Mini which they incidentally do not make).
And the best sounding driver I found (obviously, no box no bass - so we are only talking midrange) was a super cheap, stamped frame ceiling speaker woofer with a tiny ND magnet and basic paper cone. It costs probably around a dollar US each. Of course, it will not play loud or low...
I also heard many drivers they where keen to have me listen to, "our best" they put it, which sounded revoltingly bad...
I asked them to use that "magic 1 USD Driver" cone etc. but to give me decent magnet and voicecoil and a cast frame. Hopefully it will not kill the "magic", so we will have a "magic" 20 USD Bass.
I disagree. You just need to find someone to supply the "magic 1 USD driver" I found (may cost 10 USD retail with grill) and the "magic 1 USD Softdome" (may also cost 10 USD retail and yes, the factory has one of them too, not their cheapest tweeter, but one that sounds nice with a minimal X-Over) and give it a "Woolworth Breadbox" and you will have a speaker cheaper and likely better in the midrange and treble than the Warfedale's...
Ciao T
Hi,
That is my point.
They were for a £500 budget system which ended up being :
vinyl : SystemdekIIX, Rega RB250, Ortofon 520 (£200 used)
cd : Marantz SE cd player (£30 used)
amp : Pioneer A300X (£70 used)
tuner : quality Technics (£0 chucked in with the above by the vendor)
tape : very nice Technics double (£0 chucked in with the above by the vendor)
Various cheap decent ebay phono cables, aerial, £1.30m decent speaker cable.
Everything above for the cost performed nothing short of excellently.
I considered building the speakers, used speakers, or buying new.
The guy did not want small standmounts, something substantial.
I settled on the Wharfedales, to some degree because they look the part,
but also because with a toneless amplifier, didn't want "hifi" brightness.
With a £100 4 tier glass rack total came to around £550, and its a hell
of a system for that sort of money, the speakers don't let things down,
most of the music isn't bass and treble and here they work very well.
Bass end and treble end could be tweaked, but the system works.
Yes you can do better for the speakers, after all's said they are entry level AV
speakers, and the system would take it, but the guy had no reference points.
He has now if he wants to upgrade the speakers, but he currently doesn't.
rgds, sreten.
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Hi,
I think your really agreeing, adding a tweeter addresses one end of the
limitations of an FR, but not the typical limited bass end at the other.
I agree by sacrificing size and cone area for a given budget you should
get better midrange and treble, that has always been true simply based
on box performance for budget percentage if nothing else.
But then you need decent stands and optionally a decent subwoofer ....
rgds, sreten.
Sales Tax in the US is state-dependent (and is exclusively related to the purchaser). If the business has substantial contacts within the state of the purchaser - then it's taxed at that state's rate. If not, no tax. Madisound is Madison Wisconsin, without contacts to other states, so only those purchasing in Wisconsin pay a sales tax from Madisound.
Shipping is generally less in the US (within the lower 48), it's highly developed, highly competitive, the employees don't get paid much, and the transport taxes (including fuel taxes) are MUCH less than the UK. Of course we did coin the phrase "going postal". 😱 Generally anything sent to Hawaii or Alaska (or Caribbean territories) is a LOT more expensive to ship, sometimes much more than international locations.
Any volume discount is overall quite rare. Even the minor 4+ discount that PE has is rarely taken advantage of for most items.
Again, most of these differences come down to a very broad array of taxes (a fair bit of which you can't immediately point to), with only perhaps a minor *additional* amount actually netting to the reseller. (..there are also fluctuations in currency to deal with as well.)
IMO, the legitimate bitch here is the UK's tax system. Hell, the US is bad - but the UK is down-right retched.
with a active sub i think it will improve a lot
my systems are not high end but i have good components/drivers/cables : visaton/scanpeak/Bohlender g./fontek/epos , cambridge audio cd and amp , arcam cd and amp , tube preamp ,soundquest cables , but my JBL active sub was the icing on the cake.
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Hi,
Probably if your a bass fiend, he isn't, and he doesn't have much music
that has any real low bass. Though I'd tend to go for upgraded stereo
speakers with better bass capabilities if changing the current system.
One reason for floorstanders was not to go the sub/sat route, but
your right, bass extension is adequate IMO, not impressive for me.
They are still relatively small boxes with decent efficiency, voiced
to be used near walls (most AV speakers are), and that is the way
it is. Me I'd add a damping mass layer to the PR, but that's me.
rgds, sreten.
no i´m not
i like very tight bass , very clean , and i only use like 10% or less of the sub power. What i enjoy is the deepness and tigh bass the sub makes
i listen to classic rock almost exclusively i dont need much bass , but good woofers 60-160hz , i set my sub to cut at 80hz.
Let's face it Speakers voiced for close to wall operation are a good idea for non audiophile types.
These come close:
Markaudio woofer No 6 - Lautsprecher Selbstbau by blue planet acoustic
I can't find their listing of the No3 tweeter, but here is the CSS labeled version
Creative Sound - Product Details
They had/have a kit called Mark Start (IIRC) that bundles them with an XO
dave
I entirely agree.Cheap £100 diy speakers particularly multi-way are impossible in the UK
However importing speakers from the US/Canada can be very rewarding in a slightly higher price range.
I Have built some large horns{5 foot by8 inches by15 inches,with fostex 4 inch drive units and two 8 inch seperate woofers for a cost of less than £400.These are as good and better than any commercial speaker I have ever heard and I have had £18,00 B&W's in the house.
Planet 10 Hifi and the guys at diyaudio.com have been incredibly helpful.
I am in the process of a beta build for 10 inch full rangers kindly designed by Dave at Planet10 for speaker units which he does not supply.Icannot say too much about them yet because I have not given Dave any feedback on his design yet but I will say they are showing fantastic promise.It took me a couple of years of messing about and refining the original horns,with the help of all the people on diyaudio.com and Dave at planet 10.
However importing speakers from the US/Canada can be very rewarding in a slightly higher price range.
I Have built some large horns{5 foot by8 inches by15 inches,with fostex 4 inch drive units and two 8 inch seperate woofers for a cost of less than £400.These are as good and better than any commercial speaker I have ever heard and I have had £18,00 B&W's in the house.
Planet 10 Hifi and the guys at diyaudio.com have been incredibly helpful.
I am in the process of a beta build for 10 inch full rangers kindly designed by Dave at Planet10 for speaker units which he does not supply.Icannot say too much about them yet because I have not given Dave any feedback on his design yet but I will say they are showing fantastic promise.It took me a couple of years of messing about and refining the original horns,with the help of all the people on diyaudio.com and Dave at planet 10.
Same designer, surprisingly decent performer, way better:
Castle Knight 2 review | from TechRadar's expert reviews of Hi-fi and AV speakers
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ok i wont argue on that 🙂 but what i wanted to say is that the system were talking about can be improved with an inexpensive sub , 100w sub is more than enough , even for me (and i listen loud)
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