astrallite

Even if every device is fully grounded, the issue could still be caused by something else like an ungrounded cable line, or even noise caused by dimmers. If it's something electrical with your house and the electricians can't figure it out, the only way around it is to break the loop by eliminating all analog connections, which means using fiber optic connections whenever possible, whether that's for video or audio.

You're comparing $250 speakers to a pair of $4000 headphones? Pit the Focal Utopias against the Raidho D-1.1s and see if you still feel that way. Both the ribbon tweeter and the diamond woofers will have significantly faster speed of sound than that beryllium driver used by the Focal Utopias. Diamond drivers and ribbon tweeters aren't practical for headphone use because of size and weight of the magnet structure, and that's exactly where you want to compare speakers to headphones, by leveraging the advantages of one design over the other. Speakers don't have these weight and size limitations, so you can easily put drivers on them that will be faster than any electrostatic or dynamic headphone driver.

I think that's way the most popular top of the line headphones all seem to try to generate a pseudo-soundstage via a combination of an interior earcup chamber that generates reflections, and/or create a wider soundstage via flatter sound waves (from either flat transducers on electrostatic/planar drivers, or ring radiators with Sennheiser). When you take a regular dome driver (which generates rounder sound waves that compress as they reach the ear) and just put it directly on a flat baffle it sounds exactly like what it is, strapping two speakers to the sides of your head, which is why alot of people seem to agree the Focal Utopia is a reference headphone tonally, and in measurements, but sounds completely boring, whereas cans like the Stax SR009 or Hifiman HE1000 and HD800 (modded with Anax and SD Resonator) really bring out the excitement of music to listeners as they generate impressive simulated soundstages.

Revel Performa3s are indeed quite good. I had a buddy's M106 brought over to compare to my Dynaudio C1 MK2s. They sounded damn close honestly outside of bass extention (which the C1s had far more of) and just a tad less treble smoothness. The Revels started losing control at higher volumes and started to breakup a bit in the mids, but all in all a fantastic speaker. Another one worth looking at is the Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2.

Not really "on the go" IEMs, I guess it's something you can use at work in the office if headphones aren't considered acceptable for work etiquette. At home it makes more sense to use headphones unless you are one of those people who can't find any headphones comfortable and can only wear IEMs and are willing to tradeoff the soundstage you get with full sized over ear headphones.

Might shake up the high end active market for sure. I mean Dynaudio is selling an active Focus speaker (below Contour and Confidence lines) as as the 200 for $5500 for an active speaker, and they basically charge double the price for the active version of the Excite line (Xeo). So Kef charging only $600 more for the active LS50s means either it's not as high end of an active solution as Dynaudio's or they are giving a hell of a bang for the buck.

What are you looking for in treble refinement? Smoother treble? I would look at Dynaudio Confidence as soft domes can smooth the highs. For absolutely detail retrieval beryllium is certainly better, as would diamond or high end ribbon tweeters from RAAL or Raidho. The main problem with Aerial these days is they use the older, much more inexpensive Scanspeak Discovery Ring Radiator which really isn't up to snuff these days with much better tweeter materials used in high end speakers. I'm surprised they haven't at least bothered to release an update with the Scanspeak Revelator, but then again, it's their business model--using a $50 tweeter certainly allows for much higher margins than a $300-$400 tweeter. On the other hand a lot of people favorably compare their speakers to high end Dynaudios and Revels. It's an old adage from the headphone world I think that's appropriate--sometimes tonality is more important to the end-listener than absolute (measured) acoustic performance or technicalities.

I don't think any desktop system is going to be surpassing the NHT anytime soon. Many Dynaudio C1, B&W 805D owners switched and never looked back. ?

Swan D2.1SEs are pretty hard to beat for $500 if the purpose is primarily music, and at medium SPLs. They've been compared very favorably to the Ascend Sierra-1 at head 2 head matchups and AVSforum ge-to-gethers, while being about $300 cheaper. That said it probably doesn't have the same output level as the Sierra-1s, assuming unlimited amplification (which your receiver doesn't have).

I'm using some Dynaudio C1 IIs nearfield and think they are pretty fantastic. For nearfield all you need is some soft dome/non-metal drivers and you should have no problems with listening fatigue. The drivers in passive speakers are often of a higher quality as well, Dynaudio throughout their active range uses older generation drivers and of a lower quality than their Contour or Confidence lines, even their flagship AIR series uses the same drivers as the BM series but just more advanced DSP.

DIYers use off-the-shelf drivers. They can't build their own to their own specifications, or have the 3d modelling and physics suites to design their own mounted waveguides. Sorry you can't read.

What are you implying?

THX certification is not relevant for computer products. No computer product is really compliant with home theater THX certifications anyway, it would be like putting car certifications on bicycles. You know the bicycle can't perform like a car, so the certification is meaningless.

They are a pretty good deal I would say. The build philosophy of Ascend is a lot like DIYers "throw expensive drivers in a box." Although some of the big design firms like Revel and Dynaudio are really making their value felt with curved baffles and cabinets, driver waveguides, etc, to make up for it, even if OEM cost of the drivers are not that high.

Thats interesting you consider the pulsars to be superior since the pulsars are often considered overpriced since the same seas excel drivers are used in many much cheaper designs.