Does anyone have experience of the Audiovector R1 Signature bookshelf?
I have Klipsch RP150M currently paired with my Naim Nait XS2 and have been mostly satisfied with it until I took a mate to demo some speakers with my old amp (arcam FMJ A18) and felt a bit underwhelmed when i got back to my setup.
We tested the B&W 606 and the LS50 meta’s.
I can only fit my speakers approx. 20-30cm away from rear & side walls on a shelf just below ear level. Room is approx. 4m x 4m but it is living room open plan job.
Trying to establish whether they would be overkill and a waste of money and i am better of going for something like the focal 906 bookshelfs. I can home demo both, with a 90% deposit but figured worth asking here first.
I wonder if there is any way to get proper stands, which work so much better than a shelf for so-called bookshelf speakers. You really want the tweeters at ear level. The Kefs, from what I’ve read, really need a good couple of feet behind them. The Focals, having a front port, should be less fussy. Have you thought of the ProAc Tablette 10? They are sealed and can go really close to the wall - in fact they are designed to do so. They benefit massively from good stands though.
HH’s correct. Audiovector is very good. (i eard them twice, both R series and Q series)
but is rear ported so not ideal for your position
(unless you consider QR1 wich have a front port but its a smaller and lesser refined then i.e.: ProAc Tab’s)
Might it be possible to saw the two ends off the shelf, say an inch outside the supports. That would enable proper stands. Having a turntable on the same shelf as speakers isn’t a good idea anyway. It could still look nice and would sound much better. Then you’d be in a position to try different speakers, or you may be so pleased with the improvement that you don’t feel the need to change. The Custom Design FS104 is a good option.
I have my RS1 (Avantgarde Arrete version) pretty close to the wall as you can see in the picture, in a room smaller than yours, and it works fine. Stands are obviously best, but if not possible I believe they would also work fine on rubber feet - or better, on spikes/cones attached to the underside of the speaker with double-sided tape.
I would say LS50 Meta are ideal to this placement, with some small feet to raise them up.
Thoman in Germany had some of these so called desc top stands last time I visited web, in fact there are several choices to raise those bookshelf’s if HH’s suggestion is not WAF allowed.
Just saw you have the turntable on the same same shelf as the speakers - not a good idea as mentioned by HH. Solution to that issue could be to put the turntable on a dedicated shelf mounted behind your main shelf with just a little clearance in height.
I have this alcove as well I could try and fit the TT on the top shelf. Not sure where everything else goes though! Excuse the rough lead, that was my trial grounding plug which was a success!
The r1 like the rest of the r models are very good, but I have only heard them on stands, but with darkz or something similar they would work even on a shelf but not the optimal arrangement. You could ask Audiovector directly they are good at answering these kind of questions. There is also a facebook group for audiovector users you could try.
Claus
