Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

Who needs a subwoofer? just get a tiny bookshelf LOL
I have a VERY hard time believing a bookshelf speaker with a single 6" woofer can go to 30Hz at -3dB. Please....the B&W sub with a 200W amp and a 8" driver goes to 32Hz at -3db!
Silly me...all along I could've just get this tiny bookshelf and have a FULL RANGE sound. In an instant these speakers have wiped out the hi-fi industry...need to sell your CM9 guyz...useless...a floorstanding with dual 6.5" drivers and it only goes to 30Hz but at -6db! pffff losers!
Someone needs a Nobel prize for reinventing physics here...more likely it's time to cut the cr@p...both the manufacturer and Stereophile for having the guts to even publish these specs.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

But burying the REAL -3db point in a graph at the last page is just fraud. This fraud is perpetrated by the manufacturer making such ridiculous claims and Stereophile for allowing it.
How many americans do you think can read a graph like that John? assuming they understand anything about -3db point and it's meaning.
Yet the bogus spec is printed right there -30HZ.
I, as an honest person, would've start the article in BOLD letters: PLEASE NOTE THE SPECS PROVIDED BY THE MANUFACTURER ARE COMPLETE BS AND NOWHERE NEAR THE ACTUAL PERFORMANCE OF THE SPEAKER.
I suggest you start doing that if you want to keep any (little) trace of credibility left.
This is like me selling jewellery with a 18k gold sticker and price on it....but then burry inside the last page of the owner's manual the fact that it's actually scrap metal.
Because make no mistake, when it comes to speakers, the difference between 30HZ at -3db and 57HZ at -3db, is the difference between gold and scrap metal painted in gold.
Best regards.

This looks like a nice product. Debates over the low-end aside, the product has a nice response curve.

Stand-mount speakers are like compact sedans. Both still fall short of the performance of larger products. But both exhibit performance, in a small size, that far exceeds what was available 20-30 years ago.

We are debating in this forum the frequency response of the Morel stand-mount in the vicinity of 30 Hz. 20-30 years ago the debate would have centered on whether a similarly sized speaker was capable of any meaningful response around 50 Hz.

Another thing I like is that there is a raft of medium-grade stand-mounts coming out with relatively flat, or reduced prices from predecessor models. B&W, Kef, Amphion, Dynaudio, and now Morel, are getting a sense that consumers see $1,500 to $2,500 as the viable price range for an upgrade of stand-mount speakers ("affordable" for the editors who may need a sense of what that threshold might be for real consumers). $3,000 is not an "affordable" price for products in this quality grade.

Stand-mounts have their limitations; they have their benefits, too. One thing is clear though: there is a lot more than ever to be had in a small package.

That article of Elizabeth Newton's was not "wildly insightful". It took NPR's flawed assumptions and ran with them with radical subjectivism and a healthy dose of neo-Marxist analysis that seems to live only in the darkened and insular world of academia. Sure, it was written in a lively style that affirmed enjoyment of music, but those who seek "fidelity" are not against enjoyment of music despite what you seem to think.

You guys need to get out more and read more - try some of the classic canon where you will find real "insight"...

As I was reading this I was expecting to see "...and all for just $5,999.." Still $2,799 for a small bookshelf with 6" mid/bass to me is high. But yes does signal hopefully the audio companies are starting to see the bubble bursting....Upgrading today means a 2nd mortgage.

A few concerns and objections...

http://archimago.blogspot.ca/2016/02/musings-on-high-fidelity-audiophilia.html

JoeinNC, I think John's response to the hysterical blatherings by Nellomilanese was measured and entirely appropriate, and where do *you* get off in lecturing John?
Catcher10 - it's $2499, not $2799 and, yes, it appears the high priced boutique bookshelf bubble may be leaking if not bursting with such as Andrew Jones newest three way bookshelf, the Elac Uni-Fi B5 at $500 the pair.

This strange preamble has been brilliantly answered by Archimago on his website, but there’s still a few points that call for attention. First, the major part of this ferocious tirade is occupied either by an odd and meaningless anecdote about an ex-girlfriend (Both “really…?” echoing one another are supposed to tell us what? That both comments were as obvious as they are useless…? “Sun rise in the east” and “euphonia does not mean accuracy”…?), or by a confession of faith, so a lot of words for not much. Second, there’s the typical audiophile reaction “what even is reality?”, found in Ms. Newton’s text, which elsewhere should bring up the question of the validity of our senses, but here is intended to diminish the concept of reality itself. Sad. And then the idea that the truth is like a hot bath in which you can relax (“One that requires the least psychic effort or brain processing on my part to hook me in”); we have to wonder if the reasoning methodology employed by Mr. Reichert isn’t the same as his music enjoyment one. Because fidelity means “faithful” or “truthful” to the original, as annoying and difficult to assess this can be. To determine if the truth have been said, or the signal faithfully transmitted, in any field, require “psychic effort” and a level of consciousness beyond simply enjoying a pleasure… By any meaning of the words, to lose oneself into something means to lower one’s critical thinking and get partial to what’s being enjoyed. Not to get closer to its objective value, which is what “fidelity” is about. Like Archimago said, you could get an extremely euphonic system, very pleasing, and far from faithful. That’s the paradox of the high-end: audiophiles can not admit that some design choices are a deviation from fidelity. Instead, they will distort the meaning of the word “fidelity” so it will adapt to the feeling associated with one piece of equipment.

The audiophile community is embedded in a world of confusion regarding each people or each equipment’s role, which is materialized by a confusion regarding the terms they employ. Elizabeth Newton navigates with difficulties between philosophical, sentimental and practical concept, and comes up with what finally appears to be a tasteless soup. The artist role is to touch your emotions, the hardware role is to relay the information. To those who claim that their audio gear have spirituality, I would ask: what spirituality does have the molecules of air between you and the singer of a live performance?

"Let's redefine high fidelity as being faithful to the passion for and discovery of music"

Let's redefine truth as what makes me feel comfortable.