I wanted to hear how much better the new speakers were as well, but I thought I'd try demoing the bookshelves, the B100's. One reason is they would be easy to return just incase there wasn't a massive improvement over my 60Xti's. The other is that I run dual PSA TV3612 subs on all content so realistically the B100's should perform just as well as the towers since I'm not really using the bass of the towers anyway. I do have a large room, 20x50, and wanted to see how well the bookshelves performed in that space. The stands I'm using have a small plate that the speakers sit on so it doesn't cover the full bottom of the speaker so I've ordered the ML speaker stands since I wasn't sure how much that would affect the sound and they should be in this week.
I've had the B100's for about a week and I am still burning them in so I don't have full impressions yet, but from all the reviews I was initially expected to be blown way and I'm not quite sure that I am. I plan on listening to the speakers for a couple of weeks then switch back and
then hopefully I will be able to really hear how much better these speakers are. Initially the biggest change was in the treble as before when listening pretty loud the highs would be a bit shrill but with the B100's that is gone no matter how hot I crank them. I'm running the same volume as I was with the towers so power wise they seem to be able to fill my room with ease, as I sit about 12 feet away. There also seems to be better separation as the vocals seemed more forward than before and the instruments a little more spaced out.
When I upgraded from the Denon 4300h to the Anthem AVM 90 the improvement was massive as it should be with the vastly difference in price. The B100's are about half of what the 60Xti's were at launch so the performance is pretty impressive. Was I wrong in thinking there really shouldn't be a difference in the B100's and the F100's if I only run them crossed over at 80 with subs taking over the bass?