surplus madness again
Today’s trip to the surplus store netted some real bargains once again. I got three in-wall stereo speakers, plus a pretty good deal on a sewage ejector pump. I spent tonight hooking up the speakers and auditioning them. I’m not planning on trying out the sewage ejector anytime soon, as much fun as it may sound. And the bonus item: a 6-cell Mag Lite.
I hooked the various new speakers up and a/b compared them to my good old JBL Control 1 reference monitors. I’ve had the JBLs for thirteen years (damn that’s depressing) and have two sets, plus one matching subwoofer. I’m familiar with their sound, and I dig the clarity of them.
So the first contender was the Speakercraft. I know their reputation (I researched the 8.2 when a pair of those were available at the surplus outlet. I’ve never auditioned them before. Listening to some pink noise was encouraging, the highs seemed real crisp. Playing some jazz through them, I was a little disappointed in the bass. I’m hoping that gets better with it mounted in the wall. But it definitely was clear sounding, the main thing I’m after. I recognize this was a speaker bargain, and so I’m not looking for high-end performance. This is a serviceable speaker. I purchsed the only one they had.
On paper, the Niles Audio are lesser speakers, but only nominally so. The specs are very comparable, and the Niles Audio were a much better bargain at $45 each. Plus, I like the way they sounded better. I got two of the Niles, because it wasn’t obvious to me they were stereo like the Speaercraft. My JBLs without the sub blow both sets away in the low end, despite having a 3″ driver vs. the 6″ that both in-walls have. Just goes to show how important a proplerly designed enclosure is. (Note that these are not JBL consumer products; I bought them from a sound reinforcement reseller for use in my stage rig. They may look like the home bookshelf line, but that’s just a superficial resemblance.)
The Speakercraft has spring terminals that accept a banana plug, the Niles have a groovy clip that vampire taps onto your unstripped speaker wire, then clips into a mating socket on the speakers. I was having a bit of trouble at first, but it turned out to be my banana plugs on the other end, the system worked fine. It would seem easier if you didn’t already have banan plugs all over everything.
I’m happy with all of the speakers, but the advantage goes to Niles Audio. They gave me just enough of an extra taste of low end to be more convincing. Neither set sounds harsh to me, but all of the tweeters are fantastic. I’m pleased.
Plus, hey, I got a bigass Mag-Lite. Bonus.