# Mini Statements or Finalists or ?



## SkidVT (Feb 17, 2013)

Hi, 

So I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on parts for a new set of fronts and would love to hear what the good people here would suggest. I've been pretty focused on the Mini Statements as a compromise between what will sound good for my current room and what I'll move up to. The current pad is a little cramped (11'x14' with treatment) but I plan to move into a house in the next year. That house will have room for a full family of Statements or similar so I don't mind over doing it a bit right now. I guess I'll list out what I'm thinking:

- Tweeters - I really want to try ribbon tweeters. They're cool and I like the idea of a wide listening position. Right now I have the "head in a vice" thing bad with the 2 way Klipsch RB-61. But, I'm coming to you guys to convince me that I shouldn't pick one over the other just because of the tweeter technology. 

- Midrange - I want realist and smooth, both options sound good for this. Low strain is a must, I typically have the system running 5 hours or so each evening. 

- Bass - I'm running a 10" Dayton in a large box anyway so I don't really need the fronts to do the heavy lifting. I'm not opposed to it especially if it helps integrate and image but I know if I was after the visceral aspect of bass I'd go Statements right off the bat. 

- Sound stage - This is what drew me to the Statements anyway. I'm probably 80/20 music to HT and like to point to each instrument. I'm actually pretty happy with what I've achieved in this regard (sound treatment folks) IF I have my head in a 1' diameter circle and my back against the couch. Outside of that it drops off and if I stand up all bets are off. I still hear all the sound, but it's just a wall coming at me then. I typically run PLII Music and just started turning off the center for music (still comes back for movies) as the fronts by themselves just don't fill the room properly. I'll have a hard time getting the full 18" from rear of speaker to wall for the Mini's but I'm planning ahead so long as whatever I go with is still a substantial step up from what I have now. 

- Can I power them? I'm running a Yamaha RX-V673 which is a low/midlevel amp from them with about 200w total available power. I know it's not ideal and will eventually get upgraded, but I'm pretty far out from building a full pre-post amp setup. I can set it to 6ohm and the manual says that will also work for 4ohm fronts. The impedance makes the Finalists a better fit but I'm worried about the lower sensitivity. 

- Filling out to a 5 or 7 channel system? The Statements clearly have a full family to work with. I would love to build the Mini's now, build a center then the full size Statements down the road and finally fill in with monitors for rear surrounds. I'm not sure how the progression would look with the Finalists.

So, your thoughts? I really, really want to try ribbon tweeters but the placement options of the Finalists have me second guessing.


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## SkidVT (Feb 17, 2013)

Well, I feel like _should_ build the Finalists, but I _want_ to build the mini-statements. A lot of it comes down to sensitivity between the two and how my amp would like each. Perhaps someone would like to comment on that specifically? 

Jim and Curt's page show "Approximately 84 dB / 2.83v / 1 meter" for the Finalists but I can't find anything for the Minis. I'm sure it's possible to calculate but that's beyond my skills just yet.


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## Tonto (Jun 30, 2007)

I'm with you on the mini statements. Looked up the the parts list, ~$420. I did not see the tweeters listed. They are $94 each @ Madisound. Then when you add in box & labor costs, they are getting expensive. We just did a speaker review

http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/two-channel-audio/69421-official-1-000-speaker-evaluation-home-audition-event-results.html

& really liked the way the ARX-5 speakers sounded. Just what you are describing, and only $750/pair!

They are worth a listen in your room.

http://www.theaudioinsider.com/product_info.php?p=arx-a5-floorstanding-loudspeaker&products_id=227&osCsid=6db30083708e2439005f6d7f4715950b


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## Kiwilistener (Apr 5, 2010)

SkidVT said:


> Hi,
> 
> So I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on parts for a new set of fronts and would love to hear what the good people here would suggest. I've been pretty focused on the Mini Statements as a compromise between what will sound good for my current room and what I'll move up to. The current pad is a little cramped (11'x14' with treatment) but I plan to move into a house in the next year. That house will have room for a full family of Statements or similar so I don't mind over doing it a bit right now. I guess I'll list out what I'm thinking:
> 
> ...


For pure refined audio work the Finalists would be a good bet.

For quality HT & excellent audio I would opt for the Statements. They also have the advantage of being able to grow with your needs should you wish to change other components.
Your amp should drive either of these with out undue effort. The specs show 105 watts RMS, in stereo mode so that shouldn't be a problem. Of course for pure audio work you might want to consider a amp just for music reproduction.

You could also do something similar to what I'm currently building, have a peek here 
They will replace my current HT mains, which I've had for a couple of years now. This is a big design improvement on my current setup.


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## Kiwilistener (Apr 5, 2010)

SkidVT said:


> Well, I feel like _should_ build the Finalists, but I _want_ to build the mini-statements. A lot of it comes down to sensitivity between the two and how my amp would like each. Perhaps someone would like to comment on that specifically?


Looking at the response plots on Curt's site would suggest that both the Finalists and Mini Statements are around the 84/85dB range.I may be miss interpreting the graph plots so a email to curt probably would be a good thing.


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## SkidVT (Feb 17, 2013)

Well, I went with the Mini Statements and am thrilled with them. One of these days I'd love to build the rest of the family and I really wanted to try the ribbon tweeter, hence my decision to go with them. I'll try to upload some pictures when I get a chance, but I promise I did build them. They aren't finished yet anyway, just bare MDF but the towers are all sanded and sealed ready for some curly maple veneer. The bases still need some work before I stick walnut burl on them. 

I did make a little change to Jim and Curts design. I wanted the option to remove the base or replace it with a sealed base down the road. It was fairly simple, just a gusset in each corner at the bottom of the tower than houses a t-nut. The bottom (panel G) is glued into the tower against the gussets and the sides/back/front are all flush routed to the bottom. The trick is gluing those gussets in the right spot. And of course there is a set of 4 holes that then run up through each base for a 1/4" bolt to pass though and grab the t-nuts and hold it all together. The cool thing about that Precision Port is that the hole needed to mount it is the same diameter as needed to pass the flared end through. So, the hole that is in the G panel would also serve to mount the port to if I ever go that route in the future. 

There probably isn't much I can say about the sound that hasn't already been said. It's just amazing how well these image. Each instrument stands out but doesn't crowd the other instruments. The highs just float in the air without being piercing. 

The bass is a bit more than I expected. It doesn't negate the benefit of a good sub, but it comes awfully close. I find I'm running the sub (10" Dayton in a low tuned box, not super powerful but clean) a bit higher but it integrates better. It seems to re-enforce the Mini-Statements, adding the visceral effect while the Mini-Statements keep it super crisp. 

And the stage now extends well past the speakers themselves. I was hoping for a little more expanded sweet spot, but it's undoubtedly bigger than it was. And everyone that has sat in the recliner to the right of the right speaker commented that it sounds much better. The consensus is that it sounds like you're to the right of the stage, but the stage is centered between the speakers. Before that seat had practically no stereo effect and the right speaker was pretty overwhelming. 

There is a break-in period for these. When I first fired them up there was a definite improvement over the RB-61s but not huge. By the next day (they ran late into the evening) they were showing a lot more detail. The vocals have taken a little longer to settle but have come forward which was a good thing. I'm sure part of it that I'm hearing some mixes properly for the first time, but some of the vocals felt a little thin at first and kind of hidden between the instruments. 

I'm also still sorting out the settings on these, which make a HUGE difference. The distance setting in the amp has more effect than I've ever heard before with a set of speakers. I like to make most of these adjustments manually to better learn how the speakers/amp behave. By this weekend they should be loosened up enough to run REQ and get stable results and I'll run the YPAO to see what it suggests. 

So the 18" from back to wall is not a negotiable number. Everyone has made that pretty clear as well, but it's definitely true. Even cutting it to 17" made a difference. The sound was a little to airy for my taste (I think because I'm in a small room for these speakers) so I tried moving them back to the wall a little and the sound just fell apart. I moved them back out and instead added a little bit of foam to the mid-range tube which tamed it. 

Much thanks to everyone's suggestions, reviews and build logs. And of course to Jim and Curt for their hard work designing and documenting these.


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

congrats!


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## dougc (Dec 19, 2009)

Awesome - I look forward to your build pics. I would love to have a pair of Statements, but have nowhere to put them with 18" behind


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## Patzig (Oct 10, 2012)

Pictures!!! I've got Curt's aviatrix, such a good speaker for such a simple design. Would love to build some of the full sized statement


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## WLDock (Dec 19, 2009)

Nice feedback on these. Looking to build soon myself.


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