khaiql Posted April 29, 2007 Posted April 29, 2007 Hi all, Thought I'd write up a review for people looking at these budget speakers on Ebay. I've had mine for aboout a week so they are now properly "worn in" and previously had a set of Whatmough Audiolabs Magnum package with the Whatmough Tornado subwoofer to compare with (actually brought for parents years ago, while the Accusounds are mine for my new house). As they were from the "Signature" series I assumed that they were on the top end of the Accusound range but now I don't believe this to be so as they were very similar sonically to the lower end Whatmough models I've had. The first thing I noted about the construction of the speakers was how little they weighed in comparison to the Magnums even though they had bigger drivers. The fronts had 2 8" compared with 2 6" for the Magnums. I assume that either the box isn't as heavily braced, the MDF used is thinner or the driver magnets are not as big and powerful. Even the surrounds were barely any heavier even though they were physically much bigger. The speaker terminals were also not of as high grade as one the Magnums. Actually they look like the ones you can get from Jaycar for $10 (I've had experience in car audio in my doof-doof days building sub boxes). There were also no metal spikes that can be attached to bottom of the speakers which may or may not be a big deal for some people. Initial impressions when I first brought them were that the bass was sloppy and the female vocals were not delicate enough. The bass improved markedly over the first few days but the female vocals were still not quite as good as the Magnums. I then tied them up to my new Pioneer VSX1016. Changing over from a coaxial to optical cable didn't really make any difference. However, biamping the fronts made a tremendous difference. The upper range was much more defined and the bass was even smoother. I would really suggest to people to biamp these speakers otherwise you are missing out on the potential of these speakers (removing the gold plate connecting the terminals of course). I also found the Pioneer amp to do a good job in balancing the speakers with the MCACC and leave it on all the time now. The bass is still not quiet as smooth as in the Magnums but only when compared against each other very carefully on the same song. The subwoofer is probably the weak point in the package. It is only a 10" sealed box and doesn't come anywhere close to a Richter Thor (obviously due to price difference). While the package is more than adequate for music, there wasn't enough "shaking" for my liking when watching movies like Lord Of The Rings. It is claimed to be a high excursion driver but I found it no different to the Whatmough Tornado subwoofer. I found it also surprising that Accusound have elected to seal the sub box and yet port the centre and surround speakers- I would have reversed this order as porting is more noticeable in larger drivers and sealing gives supposedly "cleaner" sound which is what you want in a centre speaker. I would definately suggest getting another subwoofer for home duties if you like action movies. My conclusion is that for their price they are still excellent value. I am comparing them against speakers that cost more than twice as much (Whatmough Magnums) and they are almost as sonically good. They do require a decent amplifier to biamp the fronts to do the package justice and I would have liked to see a 12" sub instead of the 10".
xr06t Posted May 1, 2007 Posted May 1, 2007 thanks for that.. was looking into these myself for my 1st ht.. i guess that the yamaha 659 would do as good of a job as the pio at biamping so that will have to come back onto the shopping list i guess! again, thanks!
ryanmagicaus Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 Hi! I just purchased the same speakers, waiting for them to arrive - the receiver i'm pairing them with is the yamaha 2700B the new one ... Can you tell me what bi-amping is ? waht do I have to do to get the best qualtiy sound out of this set? Thanks Ryan.
eleventyseven Posted May 2, 2007 Posted May 2, 2007 I just wish they'd change their name. Accusound conjures up about the same warm and fuzzies as brands like Goldstar Anyway, I have the centre speaker from this range and am happy with the sound and detail produced.
khaiql Posted May 3, 2007 Author Posted May 3, 2007 Hi!I just purchased the same speakers, waiting for them to arrive - the receiver i'm pairing them with is the yamaha 2700B the new one ... Can you tell me what bi-amping is ? waht do I have to do to get the best qualtiy sound out of this set? Thanks Ryan. Hi Ryan, This is as simple as I can try to explain it. Bi-amping a speaker (usually just the fronts) is when you connect 2 amplifiers to run a single speaker. This requires the speaker to have dual terminals on its binding post and an appropriate crossover. In addition, your amplifier must be able to support bi-amping (which your Yamaha can do)- e.g. in my amplifier the unused rear surround channels are used to drive the lower bass drivers while the fronts channels are used to drive the mid-range driver and tweeter. Note you must remove the gold connector that connects the two terminals on each binding post. This usually produces cleaner sound as the amplifiers aren't driven into distortion. Hope this helps. Regards, Khai
DaveMews Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 The first thing I noted about the construction of the speakers was how little they weighed in comparison to the Magnums even though they had bigger drivers. The fronts had 2 8" compared with 2 6" for the Magnums. I assume that either the box isn't as heavily braced, the MDF used is thinner or the driver magnets are not as big and powerful. Thats because the boxes on the cheap accusounds are chipboard not MDF.
KOAZ Posted May 11, 2007 Posted May 11, 2007 Thats because the boxes on the cheap accusounds are chipboard not MDF. Was just in HN QV CBD Store in Melb. Spoke to salesperson Ian. He had the Accusound package at $1299, but he is willing to sell at cost as he wants to get rid of them as he wants to bring in new stock. Consisted of: Mains: DLR-695 Cntre: DCL-145 Rears: DLR-525 In rosewood colour
ryanmagicaus Posted May 11, 2007 Posted May 11, 2007 Mine are now in and bi-amped ... this is my first HT system, so I can't really comment, but it sounds fine to me the speakers look pretty damn good and sound great. I agree about the sub woofer however, I wish it had a little more kick to it........ also I noticed when bi-ampnig the mains, the mains actually get more bass and take it away from the sub? would this be correct. Thanks Ryan.
khaiql Posted May 11, 2007 Author Posted May 11, 2007 Mine are now in and bi-amped ... this is my first HT system, so I can't really comment, but it sounds fine to me the speakers look pretty damn good and sound great. I agree about the sub woofer however, I wish it had a little more kick to it........ also I noticed when bi-ampnig the mains, the mains actually get more bass and take it away from the sub? would this be correct.Thanks Ryan. Bi-amping does "seem" to give the fronts more bass because there is more clean power going to the bass drivers (so you can turn up the amp higher before hitting distortion). It shouldn't however be taking away any bass from the sub at all because the sub has it's own amplifier and only recieves a signal from the amp. I don't know if the Yamaha amp has acoustic calibration like my Pioneer amp, but I found that I had to manually set my speakers to LARGE and my sub setting to PLUS in the menus. When I originally set the sub setting to ON only, the acoustic calibration program actually didn't send any signal to the sub even though it was switched on (maybe it thought there was enough bass already from the fronts?). I would definately check out the Yamaha manual and I think it is under YPAO? (help welcome by any Yammy owners...)
Puddock Posted May 19, 2007 Posted May 19, 2007 Was just in HN QV CBD Store in Melb. Spoke to salesperson Ian.He had the Accusound package at $1299, but he is willing to sell at cost as he wants to get rid of them as he wants to bring in new stock. Consisted of: Mains: DLR-695 Cntre: DCL-145 Rears: DLR-525 In rosewood colour These are probably Accusound Delta's - and are said to have been be the best speakers made under the Accusound brand. You would not regret buying them I have Delta fronts and centre(LCR) and am happy with them. For rears I have Tannoy CPA5s and they sem to work well together.
Exxie Posted January 24, 2008 Posted January 24, 2008 Hi Ryan,This is as simple as I can try to explain it. Bi-amping a speaker (usually just the fronts) is when you connect 2 amplifiers to run a single speaker. This requires the speaker to have dual terminals on its binding post and an appropriate crossover. In addition, your amplifier must be able to support bi-amping (which your Yamaha can do)- e.g. in my amplifier the unused rear surround channels are used to drive the lower bass drivers while the fronts channels are used to drive the mid-range driver and tweeter. Note you must remove the gold connector that connects the two terminals on each binding post. This usually produces cleaner sound as the amplifiers aren't driven into distortion. Hope this helps. Regards, Khai Hey all, I know I'm almost a year late, but I had a question on bi-amping these things off my receiver (the fronts, that is). Obviously the gold connector has to be removed. But wouldn't I need to also bypass the first crossover somehow? Also, this would mean that each front is getting double the power that the other speakers in the setup are getting, correct? Unless the amp provisions for this... Thanks in advance for any advice!
yamapro Posted January 25, 2008 Posted January 25, 2008 Hi 3xemplar, basically bi-amping is just using one amp channel to drive each part of a speaker system. One amp channel drives the upper frequencies and a seperate channel drives the lows. To do this you need speakers with the appropriate inputs (which it appears you have) which will send the amplified signal from one channel directly to the mid/high section of the crossover and the amplified signal of another channel directly to the lower frequency section of the crossover. There is no way to bypass the crossover (unless you replace it with an active xover but that's a whole other kettle of fish). You will also need either 4 mono amps, 2 stereo amps or a receiver that is capable of directing unused rear channels to biamp the fronts - not all can. Personally i am dubious of using the last approach as there are very few AVRs capable of delivering full rated amp power into 4channels simultaneously, even less that can do this whilst also driving surrounds... There may still be some benefit but it is highly unlikely you will get the full benefit of biamping that you would from the 4mono amp method. An easier method is probably to get a more powerful amplifier Other than delivering more power the real benefits of 'passive biamping' as we are discussing here are pretty debatable...
Exxie Posted January 29, 2008 Posted January 29, 2008 Hi 3xemplar,basically bi-amping is just using one amp channel to drive each part of a speaker system. One amp channel drives the upper frequencies and a seperate channel drives the lows. To do this you need speakers with the appropriate inputs (which it appears you have) which will send the amplified signal from one channel directly to the mid/high section of the crossover and the amplified signal of another channel directly to the lower frequency section of the crossover. There is no way to bypass the crossover (unless you replace it with an active xover but that's a whole other kettle of fish). Thanks for that. I was under the impression that bi-amping could improve sound quality by avoiding any distortion caused by the passive crossover in the speakers. But obviously for that to work, they would have to be bypassed and the signal being sent through each channel would have to be different (ie. one for the low frequencies and one for the mid-highs). You will also need either 4 mono amps, 2 stereo amps or a receiver that is capable of directing unused rear channels to biamp the fronts - not all can. Personally i am dubious of using the last approach as there are very few AVRs capable of delivering full rated amp power into 4channels simultaneously, even less that can do this whilst also driving surrounds... There may still be some benefit but it is highly unlikely you will get the full benefit of biamping that you would from the 4mono amp method. An easier method is probably to get a more powerful amplifier Other than delivering more power the real benefits of 'passive biamping' as we are discussing here are pretty debatable... My amp is the Pioneer AX4ASi-S. I don't need the rear surrounds in my room (but I will be using surrounds and centre), so I was planning to use those outputs for the bi-amping. There is actually an option to set these channels to do this, but the manual stated that both channels would output the same signal (ie. both lefts or both rights), which is where some of my confusion was. As mentioned above, I thought these signals would have to be different for any advantage to be had. Would this then mean that the fronts will get a disproportionate amount of power (ie. double)?
PCORF Posted January 29, 2008 Posted January 29, 2008 (edited) I have the original Accusound Deltas 860. Made in Australia. Black with resprayed Metallic Blue sides. These are great sounding speakers, especially with the new peerless tweeters I've installed in them. I think Accusound has taken a step back today, but their Eclipse Series (especially the ES30) is pretty awesome. Edited January 29, 2008 by P-Corf
Exxie Posted February 1, 2008 Posted February 1, 2008 The subwoofer is probably the weak point in the package. It is only a 10" sealed box and doesn't come anywhere close to a Richter Thor (obviously due to price difference). While the package is more than adequate for music, there wasn't enough "shaking" for my liking when watching movies like Lord Of The Rings. It is claimed to be a high excursion driver but I found it no different to the Whatmough Tornado subwoofer. I found it also surprising that Accusound have elected to seal the sub box and yet port the centre and surround speakers- I would have reversed this order as porting is more noticeable in larger drivers and sealing gives supposedly "cleaner" sound which is what you want in a centre speaker. I would definately suggest getting another subwoofer for home duties if you like action movies. Hey guys, I just thought I'd mention that when moving the sub around today I noticed that it is indeed ported on the bottom (actually, I stuck my fist in it ). Anyways, it's all hooked up and sounding good!
PCORF Posted March 16, 2008 Posted March 16, 2008 (edited) I just wish they'd change their name. Accusound conjures up about the same warm and fuzzies as brands like Goldstar Anyway, I have the centre speaker from this range and am happy with the sound and detail produced. I agree with you. They should change their name or redesign their logo. Alan Henning Loudspeakers (AHL) (or HENNING) might be a better name or a new logo. Also accusound are always so hyperactive and are bringing out a new speaker system ever 3 or 4 months or and their speakers today are more aimed at the entry level end of the market and are sold in retail stores like Harvey Norman and some Hifi shops. They have a hell (probably too many) of a lot of systems to choose from. At least many of their speakers sound decent enough for the price with excellent bass, treble and decent imaging, especially the ES20 and ES30 systems. As I said before I have a delta series system and I've been happy with it for years and is good for music and movies and it is was one of their better products. I have tried out the Krix Neuphonix/Epicentrix and I was very impressed with the sound quality and the jarrah finish to the cabinets and the big 3 members of the Krix system sounded superb and balanced. Accusound Range to be presice Pacific Series - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $1799 SA1400 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $1299 SA1600 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $1499 OM750 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $1299 OM650 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $999 OM850 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $1299 ES10 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $999 ES20 - 6 speakers; 1 subwoofer $1299 ES30 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $1699 ES60 - 6 speakers; 1 subwoofer $1999 TH100/200 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $2499 TH200/200 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $2699 TH100/300 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $2499 TH200/300 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer $2699 Signature Series 6.3 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer. 2 systems, bookshelf or floorstanding Signature Series 8.3 - 5 speakers; 1 subwoofer. 2 systems, bookshelf or floorstanding OS oudroor speakers - 4 systems, as 2 channel pairs PA speakers - 4 systems, as 2 channel pairs To be precise thats alot of speaker systems perhaps too many. And there are more systems coming. Edited March 16, 2008 by P-Corf
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