Andrew Robinson reviewed the Zen Master Speakers. Speaker wait times are about to go up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ7HznfA0YA

I have the F15 in the large baffle, DIY, and I'd disagree with just about every "negative" that he brought up.  In my space they are "omni-directional" and not at all listener position sensitive.  They also completely disappear.  One big difference in our rooms is that I don't have side walls anywhere close to the speakers and my ceiling is steeply vaulted.  He doesn't appear to have room treatment (me neither) and his room is many time smaller than mine.  Lastly, my bass is quite good.  While not quite as low as with my HR1s, it is deep and big.  I'd say this is likely due to my bigger baffles.  I 100% agree with his observation regarding the importance of tilting them back.

As far as his "positives," yes and more so!

Room treatment or at least somewhat speaker friendly rooms are going to make everything happen a lot easier.  I would love to have them both over for a listen to the same speakers in our room and video the look on their faces because I think the omni effect they have in here as well as the chest thumping bass would have been exactly what they were missing. The comment would undoubtedly be "I can't believe these are the same speakers", or "how did you get the sub to blend in so well?" when in fact there wasn't one.  

But, my guess is that many if not most have a room that is a lot more like Robinson's than like Decware's, so the review is more accurate to what you can expect in a similar environment.

Guess I should have sent him a ZROCK2  :)


-Steve

The HR1s aren't particularly sensitive to wall distance in my experience.  If you have woodworking skills at all I suggest you order a set of F15 drivers and build some speakers.  It's a very low risk proposition and low cost too.  If they don't work out I'm sure you'd find a buyer for the drivers without losing much money.  I have my Big baffle F15s on felt pads and they easily slide on my wood floors so I can pull them in and out.  I don't notice much difference in sound when they are 1 foot or 3 feet from the back wall.  I don't put a lot of stock in some of these reviews -- and really, that was a very positive review, IMO, unless you have an identical environment.

Axe hewn baffles?  That might be an interesting experiment!

I keep pushing the F15s only because of my experience of going from HR1s, which are sitting under covers, behind me as I type, to F15s.  I have no experience with F15s in a small-ish space though.

When you say front wall are you referring to what's behind me as I face the speakers?  I don't have any room treatments at all but I have a rather unique room.  To me it's untreatable but also very complex and full of furniture, wall hangings, plants, couch and above all volume.  Vaulted ceiling is all 45 degree angles with two huge dormers.  It's twice as wide as deep and it's 35 ft wide with wings that go much farther.

Unfortunately I can't go beyond 3+ feet off of the back wall due to limits in my speaker cables and a 3 inch step in my floor when I run into my woodstove hearth (my F15s weigh 100+ lbs each).  I'm sure many have better sound than I but given my restrictions I'm fairly satisfied.  But I'm not the best source for typical speaker evaluation either.  All I can really do is compare Monitor Audio RX6, HR1 and Big Baffled F15 speakers since those are all I've tried in my space.

Right now I'm up in my lofted second floor and the sound up hear is great.  I may have accidentally built a concert hall and not a house!  

Here's a picture that gives an idea of the chaos.  This time of year I have to move the speakers back from the woodstove and barrels of firewood end up in front.  Believe it or not, all of this clutter doesn't seem to hurt the sound much but it can throw off the center image.

I see.  Nope, no treatment.  I suppose something might fit there but it's still problematic.  As for listening fatigue, I'm not sure what that feels like so I may not be getting it.

Archie wrote on 11/07/21 at 23:09:01:


I don't know how you listen, but my comments are based on being in the "sweet spot" listening.

For a brief summary of early/late reflections and the benefits of late arrival see under "Acoustics: Cracking the Early/Late Arrival Conundrum" in this link: http://jamesromeyn.com/audiokinesis-speaker-design/#philosophy

metropolis7 wrote on 11/08/21 at 01:27:44:


Should not be a problem; under the Orion faq section it is stated:
"Q2- How critical is the speaker placement?

A2 - Basically, any dipole speaker needs breathing room around it. Even a conventional box speaker benefits greatly from as much open space around it as possible. When measured from the tweeter of the ORION, the side wall should be at least 2 ft (0.6 m) away, and the wall behind the speaker at least 4 ft (1.2 m). The side wall is not as critical as long as there is a sufficient opening for the acoustic volume flow between front and rear sides of the ORION. This then forms an acoustic pressure null towards the side wall."

5 ft out and @ 10 ft from the speakers gives you 38% (15.2') of 40 ft.

metropolis7 wrote on 11/08/21 at 03:20:21:


Listening position of 3/8 length of room is a starting point, you may have to adjust to get the soundstage you want since you can't place the speakers 10 ft apart. Try the speakers wide and move away from side wall as needed.

Not sure what you mean in the second question.