Budget-conscious college student looking for a solid pair of speakers

Polk Monitor 70's are a great speaker for 2channel set-ups

They can he had here though for cheaper
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882290208

Alot of people like the Infinity Primus P362/P363's for music
But you have to pick them up at a local Fry's electronics

I have the Pioneers and love them but I have a 7.2 system. For a 2.0 system I would jump on the Polk 70's especially at $179!

For a tight budget - the Boston VR1 is a solid choice. The $270
is a discontinued price.

Home Depot, nice and simple. You can get 14GA by the foot for nice and cheap there. You don't need any of the name brand stuff especially if you are trying to stay on a budget.

Yea I would go with the Polk Monitor 70s as well for $400 budget. Or if you like horn-loaded tweeters, take a look at BIC PL-76s http://www.acousticsounddesign.com/c...pid=1538&sc=32
Apply ME20 for 20% off.

Some nice bookshelves:
Energy CB20
http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...61/energy-cb20

I recommend two JBL LSR 2328P monitors. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LSR2328P/

Run em straight out of the RCA outs of your source and skip the receiver.

Out of what you're looking at, the Pioneers would be my first choice. The polks are junk.

Or why not get a 5.0 set with the Jamo s606 from Vanns for 350 total. The towers in this set are pretty good and then you have the whole 5.0 set too.

I like the Jamo 606...5.0 setup for $400 from Vanns.com. Its my favorite in the price range.

Actually...they have these on a great sale! $350 with free shipping! Thats a TERRIFIC set of speakers for cheap!!

Great idea, I'd blow the whole 800 on monitors. This is a large room and low end speakers aren't going to rock to place.

Yes.

The JBLs will play loud with LOW distortion thanks to their excellent, large woofer matched to a large EOS waveguide.

They will also have reduced side wall reflections and some level of controlled directivity.

They will be active, so there is no insertion loss... efficiency is higher than normal so 95 "harman watts" here is probably similar to 140 watts being poured into a passive speaker. There is also no concern over insufficient amplification as it's already engineered right into the product.

They have a baffle step compensation switch, which can make a huge difference of sound quality as an effect of placement.

They will produce plenty of clean, but not overdone bass which extends all the way down to 40hz or so. For most scenarios a subwoofer would be unecessary.

They are rugged professional speakers built to last.

And finally, they sound clean and detailed enough that when the time comes to build a 5.2 etc system, they can be a centerpiece (or superior surround speakers) rather than a relic of a time of poor funding.

Most TVs do a fine job of converting an HDMI signal into stereo RCA output. I think good receivers are a good investment, but with the budget of the OP, I don't think it's a vital one if he picks the right active studio monitors. The amps of the 1911 for example are probably lacking if I had to guess.

For ipod connectivity, a simple 3.5mm to RCA cord like this

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

is all a person really needs. Anything else is just pure marketing drivel.

Because I'm an elitist snob who thinks they sound very poor and overpriced - dirt cheap as they may be.


I won't comment on the pioneers, as i've only heard their ~5k EX series speakers which are just a notch below world class...

But basically there's a few things involved in loudspeaker design:

- Getting frequency response as flat as possible and power response tapering down as frequency response rises
- Making a cabinet which does not resonate (cabinet)
- Getting drivers with low distortion in their passband (drivers)
- Integrating drivers together seemlessly (crossover)
- Getting a final impedance and sensitivity which allows available amplficiation to obtain good sound quality

Now the Polk Monitor 70 speakers do have "more drivers (albeit 6.5 inch)" but they're the types of drivers which are manufactured cheaply - mediocre excursion and low linearity - so you basically "need" more to compensate. The cabinets are tall and bracing is probably sub-par to say the least. The crossovers are poor - coherency is a mess. Impedance is a question mark - they state 8 ohms but it never means a thing unless you've got a frequency response vs impedance and phase angle plot. Polks also tend to overemphasize a certain higher frequency region - whether it's on axis response or off axis flaring causing this I don't know, but that's the gist of it.

Now the JBLs (and many studio monitors in general) do a few things

- Strive for flat frequency response for monitoring purposes (no need to impress anyone with hype for sales... reproduction is what sells monitors)
- Strive for tapering power response as a function of harman research
- Making well braced and short cabinets
- Use high excursion, high linearity 8" driver
- Use excellent waveguides to reduce tweeter distortion and thus increase SPLs, not to mention create coherent match from tweeter to woofer.
- Only use two drivers, which keeps things simply
- are active, which eliminates amp purchasing from the equation.

Also, while these aren't towers, they are by no means "small" speakers.

as for a single tweeter - most loudspeaker designs only use a single tweeter. With a waveguide this is usually fine as it increases low end output. Multiple tweeters are never a good idea. Again, better drivers sound better as volume rises, whereas the inferior tweeters on the polks will likely just become unpleasant.

With a good speaker "loud" isn't "too loud".

So maybe the polks can play "louder" but it won't be the same sort of pleasant loudness.

For you budget I would get the Jamo S606. They may not have as much bass as you would like but you can always add a sub later. I think you would be most impressed with you budget.

lol

The BA VR1's would be preferable to the CS226's. You can currently get them directly from BA for $250 for a pair (with free shipping):
http://www.bostonacoustics.com/VR1-Black-Only-P310.aspx

All good choices in that price range and will probably perform similarly. I'd also look at your local Craigslist for some used Paradigm or Klipsch or JBL floor standing speakers. Both very efficient and can be had fairly cheap!

I can speak to the Monitor series since my previous setup was based on it. If you are going to get a decent sub, you may be better off with the M60s (or M50s if your budget is really tight).

If your requirement is NOT big towers, you may also want to look at the Polk Rti A3, which should also sound better with a sub. These should be under $400. Alternative to the Rti A3 is the Rti6 (previous gen to A3 but very similar in performance). The Rti6 can be had for a really cheap bargain price from Crutchfield.

You may also want to add the BIC Acoustech PL-76 to the list of potential speakers. While researching for Acoustech subs, I came across this one, and it seems like they are a bargain for what they have to offer. You should be able to get a pair for under $400 or less (google or ebay).

By the way, if you have a Frys store near by, check out the JBL ES80's they have on sale this week (Frys big anniversary sales event this weekend). I can't vouch for how they sound since I haven't auditioned them, but just based on the selling price (as compared to the MSRP), they are a bargain.