Home
AudioAsylum Trader
Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Diva 2.1 Speakers by jonbee

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

For Sale Ads

FAQ / News / Events

 

REVIEW: Diva 2.1 Speakers Review by jonbee at Audio Asylum

209.20.242.116


[ Follow Ups ] Thread:  [ Display   All   Email ] [ Speaker Asylum ]
[ Alert Moderator ]

A lot of postings abou this line, but no detailed reviews, so here goes:
I have been an audiophile for 35 years, and have owned over 100 pair of good to great speakers in that time. These speakers have been in two of my systems, and I have no point of reference for other systems. My ref system uses Conrad johnson PFR pre and 2300A amp, with a very good digital front end, and alphacore cabling. My smaller system uses audio refinement complete integrated, and CAL Icon powerboss cd, with alphacore cabling. Here are my observations:
There's good and bad here, as you should expect at this price. The good:
Cabinets are stunning, worthy of $2000 speakers or better.
Sound is dynamic and generally clean. I think these are generally competetive with NHT 1.5s or Paradigm Ref 20s, both of which I have owned, and a little better that Sound Dynamics RT3, which I also owned. Of course, each of these speakers has different strengths and weaknesses. They are not nearly as good as the Soliloquy 5.0, which I think are the champs under $1k.
Here's the bad:
Although I did not find the tweeter to be offensively bright in my system, as others have, it does have a slight "edge" or grain to it. It is very extended, and will highlight nastiness in the front end or recordings. More problematical to me is a "shouty" aspect to the upper midrange. These two characteristics make component matching very important. At this price point, many matching stacks are harsh sounding; that match could make these unlistenable. For inexpensive gear, maybe Yamaha or some other laid back electronics would be the best choice. My Audio Refinement amp is fine with them. I also found keeping the grills on reduced the upper mid problem, at the cost of some detail. Once again, at this price point, you don't get everything.
I hope this helps a little.


This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Amplified Parts  



Topic - REVIEW: Diva 2.1 Speakers Review by jonbee at Audio Asylum - jonbee 12:10:28 06/26/01 ( 6)