ProAc Tablette Reference 8 & Signature 8

[southall-1998]

Has anyone compared these to its ''signature'' brother? What are the differences in sound etc?

S.

[Reffc]

Google is your friend as there's plenty of info available for them ;)

I auditioned both and owned the Signatures. Breifly, the Sigs use a far more advanced woofer and crossover and come in higher quality cabinets. They are a stonkingly good little speaker and as long as deep bass isn't on your wish list, then there's few speakers today at any price that really better them by much if anything at all. A good used pair of Ref 8 Signatures can be had for £500 these days and that's a stone cold bargain compared with anything new. They do require a gutsy amp despite their spec sheet claims to control the woofer for lower notes at higher volumes where impedance dips surprisingly low. I used mine to very good effect with a Quad 909 Mk1 power amp.

[southall-1998]

Google is your friend as there's plenty of info available for them ;)

I auditioned both and owned the Signatures. Breifly, the Sigs use a far more advanced woofer and crossover and come in higher quality cabinets. They are a stonkingly good little speaker and as long as deep bass isn't on your wish list, then there's few speakers today at any price that really better them by much if anything at all. A good used pair of Ref 8 Signatures can be had for £500 these days and that's a stone cold bargain compared with anything new. They do require a gutsy amp despite their spec sheet claims to control the woofer for lower notes at higher volumes where impedance dips surprisingly low. I used mine to very good effect with a Quad 909 Mk1 power amp.


Does the non signature version sound less smoother?

S.

[Reffc]

Yes.

Both though are voiced a little on the bright side, as was Proac's want with their monitors but with the Signatures, they can be forgiven that as they never grate at all and are very smooth. Thing is, just as with buying used cars, where shopping around for one with all the optional toys wont cost much more for say a 5 or 10 year old car as with new, the same goes for the Proacs. Good examples of the Signatures fetch not a lot more than good examples of the standard versions, although when new, I think the Signatures were £1400 and the standard versions a lot less (£800 or something). For that reason, it's not worth buying the standard ones if you can get your mits on a Signature pair.