Reviews

Bookshelf Speaker Quality Scaling by Price Comparison

Gene DellaSalla and James Larson discuss how spending more money gets you better performance in loudspeakers.

Good vs Bad Studio Monitors - Measurements & Listening Results

Gene DellaSalla and James Larson compare 'a bunch of studio monitors' with a passive reference speaker, a custom one-off that Dennis Murphy designed recently for James.

cheapaudioman True Mini Review

The Cheap Audio Man declares the True Minis his favorite thing he saw at the 2023 Capital Audio Show.

The Philharmonic Audio Room Receives  Enjoy the Music's  "Best of CAF 2023" Award

This is what Rick Becker had to say after visiting Philharmonic Audio's room at the 2023 Capital Audio Fest,

    “I raved about Philharmonic Audio last year and this year I could hardly get in the door.  I had to stand in the back corner to listen for a few minutes.  From the time I arrived to the time I left, nobody else left the room.  What does that tell you?  I was surprised they were not writing checks as they listened.  Maybe they were having a mental meltdown over how much money they already had invested in their gear.   Enough said."

Audioholics BMR Tower Review

    “Much like the BMR Philharmonitors before them, I found the BMR Towers to be a remarkably good value.  They cater to champagne tastes on a wine budget, to use an old cliche. $3,900/pair is not a small sum of money for most people for a pair of loudspeakers, but it is a bargain for what you get in the BMR Towers.  Philharmonic Audio does not spend much money on promoting their products because they don’t need to:  word of mouth has created a demand that has kept their inventory low.  I don’t see this changing anytime soon, so those who manage to grab a pair of BMR Towers in a timely manner are a lucky few."
—— James Larson — November 3, 2021

Audioholics HT Tower Review

    “The sound quality is impeccable, much as we have come to expect from Philharmonic Audio.  I never heard anything that sounded errant or off in the slightest.  The tonality is exceptionally accurate.  As I have said about Philharmonic speakers in the past, this is another that is so dead-on accurate that it could be used in mixing and mastering music in a studio setting since it resolves the sound without bias.  If you don’t want your sound system to interject its opinion on what the source material should sound like, the BMR HT Towers are a terrific option."
—— James Larson — June 14, 2021

Our BMR Monitor is the run-away winner at Speakerfest 2022 In Phoenix, Arizona!

    The Arizona Audio and Video Club hosted a speaker demonstration of 16 stand mount speakers priced at or below $3,000/pair. Most of our competitors sent entries, including Buchardt, KEF, ATC, Sonus Faber, Tekton, Monitor Audio, GoldenEar, GR Research, Polk, and Totem. Attendees listened to the speakers throughout the day and were asked to list their first, second, and third-place choices.  The BMR monitors received more 1st place votes than all of the other speakers combined, and 5 times as many as the next-most-popular speaker.  You can see all the results here.

    “The second 'AVA room' had loudspeakers from local company Philharmonic Audio.  Dennis Murphy was on hand to lead the crowd through their aural calisthenics — and I found quite a few folks completely unprepared for the amount of work they were going to be doing.  The Philharmonic loudspeakers, which share some design heritage with Salk Sound, are quite the performers.   At their price ($3,500 which includes the sloped baffle and upgraded cabinet), the Philharmonic 3 is just fantastic.  A RAAL 70-10D ribbon tweeter is paired with a BG Neo 8 planar midrange transducer.  Bass comes from an 8″ Revelator woofer and is said to extend “usefully” down to 20Hz.  For those with lighter wallets or less space, the “Slims” tower ($2,700/pair) and the Philharmonitor ($850/pair) are both viable options.  But I have to tell you, if you can, get the Philharmonic 3.  One of my favorites in that sub-$10k space, no question at all."
—— The Part Time Audiophile, CAF 2013

    “Dennis Murphy, the gent who designed the Salk Sound Song Tower and HT2 loudspeakers, was on hand with his new venture, Philharmonic Audio.  While I was cruising through, Dennis was demo'ing the Philharmonic 3 ($3,500) in his room, fronted by Van Alstine equipment.  Featuring RAAL 10D ribbons, a BG Neo-Planar mid-range driver, and rounded out by an 8" ScanSpeak Revelator woofer, the Philharmonic 3 pushes a frequency response from 20 Hz to 30 kHz.  I hadn't intended to stay so long in this room, in order to be fair to others at the show, but with that first few notes from John Williams' Star Wars (Main Theme), I was riveted to my seat.  Big fan of orchestral music?  Say hello to the Philharmonic.  Philharmonic?  Please take a bow.  An outstanding debut!"
—— Enjoy the Music, CAF 2012

    “When I asked the price of the floorstanding Philharmonic, which I had heard producing a big sound with extended low frequencies on a recording of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, driven by an AVA amplifier, I was expecting an answer of the usual "many thousands of dollars."  Instead, I was told the speaker costs just $2800/pair!  That is a lot of speaker for the money.  The 3 combines a Raal 10D ribbon tweeter crossing over at 2900Hz to a BG Neo 8 planar-magnetic driver in an open-back enclosure.  The bottom enclosure, isolated from the upper with a 1/25" vibration-absorbing pad, handles frequencies below 650Hz and loads an 8" Scanspeak Revelator woofer with a transmission line.  Less-expensive versions of the speaker, the Philharmonic 1 and 2, differ only in the drive-units used.  Check out www.philharmonicaudio.com for the full technical story on these speakers."
—— John Atkinson, Stereophile