What is under $5k speaker with best bass slam?

Granted there are obviously some speakers better than others in every price category but forget everything else? No component is an island and the speaker is perhaps more affected by every other element of a system than any other component.

How can anyone possibly tell a speakers' true capability without serious attention given to the electronics, room acoustics, speaker placement, cables, line conditioning, the amount of juice coming from the wall, and vibration management applied to the speakers and to all the other components?

Fall short in any one or two of these categories and you could end up with some of the sloppiest, rolling earthquake-like, ill-defined bass you'd never care to hear unless your cruisin' in your low-rider.

Get all of these elements right and you're in a whole 'nother league and you may find that it matters a little less which speaker you chose. Assuming it's a full-range speaker of course.

All that taken into consideration the tightest, most well-defined, and most realistic bass I've ever heard by far came from a pair of used $4K (new $8700) Aerial Acoustic Model 10T speakers mated to a pair of Nuforce SE Class D amps. Never heard anything even close to it. At least until recently.

Case-in-point, there are plenty of people who will claim the Aerial Model 10T's bass was some of the worst they've ever heard.

-IMO

Hsu STF-1 subwoofer, $299. Add speaker of choice.

:)

In my experience, studio monitors are not going to do that, they are not intended for nor desired to create punchy bass. Just accurate. And typically only to around 40-50 Hz.

Steve

Question for Raquel. I know you owned both Salons and Mahlers. Would you say that the Mahlers were more dynamic and/or played louder than the Salons? Thanks.

Like Shadorne's advice, I also thought about using pro speakers. But I wonder if there's any good looking pro speakers that will not ruin the indoor scene of my house.

Not that I can think of. They all have an industrial look. The Genelec's in White look pretty cool though...

I'm on the same page a Bill - of course I suspect this is because we share the same concept of slam. Short transients that pressure the room/ears - it is almost more of a feeling than "sound" as it is so transient. This is completely different from tremendous impressive bass - my speakers with 12" woofers have very little heavy bass response - on most music it is nearly all transient effects at the low end that you perceive..... except, of course on double bass and organ if you get my meaning.

To get the full impact you also need to buy the right music - try Keb 'Mo "Slowdown" album - it has a very nice dynamic recording of drums - and use this to audition speakers. You also may need to buy acoustic treatments and use a bass management system to get a reasonably flat in room response....room modes can mess up slam too. Perception of Slam is also related to the way the 3 to 5 KHz region behaves ....many audiophile designs are deliberately rolled off in the upper mid range region (for that more polite laid back enjoyable sound) and this will reduce the perception of slam ....which is why I suggested giving pro speakers an audition.

I suspect the Genelec's may be a wee bit small in a 20 by 20 foot room but if you don't listen loud it may be worth a try.