Speaker Reccomendations Please

Hello if you will be using a sub, why bother to get towers? For the same price level, you can get bookshelf speakers one notch higher than the floorstanders from the same manufacturer if you can sacrifice some bass (which isn't a problem for your case as you will have a sub), but the bookshelf speakers will give you significantly better overall sound quality than the towers.

With this budget you don't need to get Polk speakers as you can get much better speakers from top tier international brand - like the Dynaudio Excite X12s and X16s are worth considering. I suggest you to listen to more famous speaker brands and see if you can tell the difference in sound quality (from Polk and other less famous speakers that are made in China).

I agree, that the sub suggests you can get nicer stand mounted speakers.

You may not claim to be an audiophile, but you scored some fantastic gear! Goes for $400 for the 3800 and $800 for the 510m.

Don't know what you're listening to (music, I presume?), or what model subs you have, but that setup will be warm enough that you can pair with brighter speakers.

If this is for casual listening in a living room, you can get less sensitive speakers, because the amp puts out over 250 watts per channel.

The gear is also "decorator friendly" in that it's sexy in the sense of a classic car. I'd display it prominently and pay attention to the wood cabinetry of the speakers you're looking at (among other things, of course).

I would look at the Boston VS260 stand/shelf speakers - and they
are good.
http://www.bostonacoustics.com/-VS-2...aker-P229.aspx

However, for towers - I would look at the PSB GT1 - a very good sound and killer deal
http://www.saturdayaudio.com/picture...b_specials.htm

Floorstanding speakers versus bookshelfs performance is highly dependent on the manufacturer's design decisions.

Both can provide great audio but as decent generalization a great pair of floorstanding speakers will provide better quality in dynamics, bass response, and output.

Best Regards
KvE

As long as you have a good sub - then bookshelf speakers will do the job. You
can use the same speakers for both, music and movies/tv. The speakers that
are reccomended here, to me are better performers than the Polk Rti series.

You will have to decide, between towers and bookshelves. For the most part, I
have not listened to a tower, that sounds as good as a bookshelf, at the same
price. However, you do have to weigh in the cost of stands.

If you are new to the hifi world, at your price range I recommend you look for more famous international high end speaker brands, like the Dynaudio Excite X12 speakers - they have got budget component award 2010 from Stereophile and are 100% handcrafted in Europe, and in case you really do not like them for whatever reason, you can sell them at a very little loss since Dynaudio have one of the best resell value in the preowned or used markets around the world. Local US speaker brands like the made-in-China Polk, NHT, etc are good choices but they are not top tier international speaker brands. Getting a more famous brand is a safe bet for a hifi beginner.

Sorry I am not living in the US and do not know any dealer at your region, but you may go to this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=686371

and the US distributor of Dynaudio will give you suggestions and contacts of different Dynaudio dealers for an audition.

I do agree with this more refined statement. The question is whether this matters to the OP.

A bookshelf and tower costing the same, by the same company, will have differences. In the bookshelf, the manufacturer could afford to put better technology in, because it has a smaller cabinet and perhaps fewer drivers. The tower, even given the same sensitivity spec, has advantages.

Picture two people who are tasked with the new Olympic sport of Singing-While-Running. One is a more gifted singer with more experience and capability. The other, lesser singer, is a better athlete, who can run while tiring less.

If you ask the two to sing while just loafing, warm up jogging around the starting line, the first, better singer, will be judged to sound better.

While running slow at 10 mph, the first is starting to run out of breath, and it affects his singing. The second, being the better athlete, has no trouble singing.

At 20+ mph, the first is only gasping, and is falling behind. The second is singing as well (or poorly!) as he did at the starting line jogging.

The bookshelf and tower may even have the same rated sensitivity as eachother. But that spec is probably just at 1000 khz. At 400 hz, which is still well above your subwoofer crossover, the bookshelf might have trouble producing the same volume, IF pushed to high volumes, as the tower, with its bigger cabinet, and perhaps bigger and more numerous woofers.

So, if you play at medium volumes (more quiet than at a good professional movie theater), the tower has no advantage, and may sound worse. At high volumes, the tower will produce bass with less distortion.

What sub was given to you? If it's not a very good quality sub it will do more harm than good for music, in which case the tower speakers would be a better choice for music.

There are "bookshelf" models in your price range that have plenty of bass for small rooms for most music.

Gene

I like the idea and suggestion about the PSBs. I have Alphas for my surrounds and was close to getting some PSB Silvers a few years ago.

Later I heard some Seas driven speakers and then decided to try Ascend Acoustic's CMT340s. Smaller but sound great. The PSBs towers will sound good as well.

I like B*W and BA, but you will likely pay more for those.

Dave