What specs should I look for?

Room? Budget? Id recommend you try to demo some speakers to see what you like.

Since you said music , I originally went with the rc line from energy for music/ht. Worked well.

Regarding the "specs", I wouldn't worry much about them. Everyone has different opinions about brands here!

I think the specs don't necessarily help you to decide what speakers actually sound like.

Different speaker cabinets drivers, tweeters, woofers etc. all have different characteristics.

You really need to go out and spend some time in a hifi store listening to songs that you know and love on different speakers to find out what you like.

I agree with what the others posted, but I will add that the only real spec I would be looking for is the ohm rating. You need 8 ohm speakers. The 1611 will kill its self trying to push any 4 ohm speakers.

+1

Over the past 30+ years of being involved in this hobby, I've run into speakers that for example had nearly identical frequency response graphs but sounded wildly different. So unless there are significant bumps or dips in a chart, personally I don't worry about FR responses.


+1 again.

FYI: make sure the demo receiver is as "neutral" as possible ----> e.g. no bass or treble turned up/down; no loudness turned on; no DSP soundfields activated; speaker management set to "large" + "no sub" if demo'ing speakers to be used by themselves i.e. no subwoofer.

Woofer/tweeter materials - there's great sounding speakers with cellulose (paper) cones and lousy sounding ones with plastic cones; tweeters with fabric domes can sound tizzy & bright and metal domes that sound nice-n-mellow, though fabric usually is the mellower of the two in my experience & for me better for music reproduction purposes. So just hit the play button and see what actually sounds best.


+1

A 4 ohm speaker like a vintage Acoustic Research AR9 (a four way with dual 12" woofers) connected to a small receiver that has warnings about using anything below 6 ohms is a good recipe for trouble i.e. the receiver's protection system will be activated as soon as the volume goes past whisper level, or if that doesn't happen the amplifier itself might get overstressed & its life severely shortened.

Those companies have all made some excellent speakers IMO (Harmon owns Infinity & JBL btw), so even though many people don't consider them to be "audiophile" speakers, if they sound good to you that is all that matters.

You can get whatever wattage speakers you want. The watts on the receiver means it can put out 75 per channel. The watts on the speaker specs mean they can take that much before turning into a family room fire place

Even though the amp says it puts out 75watts, you'd only really use all that power if you listen really loud. In my room I listen at -15 to -12 and the crown amp calc estimates I'm using only 19 watts.

You'll get distortion because the receiver is cranked up to the max. You should never max out your receiver as it will start clipping and blow your speakers. Distortion is not a speaker's friend.

I doubt you're gonna find speakers that can only handle 50 watts since you're looking at higher end speakers plus the normal brands too.


What have you found that wasn't rated to handle 75 watts?

What is your max budget?

NHT
http://www.ebay.com/itm/320893798205...84.m1438.l2649

PSB
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PSB-Century-...item4ab7007df2

Snell
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Snell-Type-K...item231cc83181

what about these off your local Craigslist?

Paradigm Phantom V4
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ele/2987194911.html

Or Energy C-1 bookshelf
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ele/2982926790.html

Athena B1
http://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/ele/2985086491.html

Ascend CBM 170
http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/ele/2931038144.html

KEF Q-30
http://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/ele/2975883789.html

Boston VR950 towers
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ele/2986005528.html

Can't really say they play "better" since that's really up to you. But they are great value and will do you just fine! Yes to the all the other questions.

Snell, Boston, Kef, and Ascend - you should look hard at.

Towers can sound bigger, with more radiatin coverage and have
bigger bass weight and dig deeper. However, a well built book-
shelf speaker, can really perform well with good resolution in the
midrange and treble, and throw a real good soundstage - And a
lot of them have decent, respectful bass. Both towers and book-
shelf speakers can benefit from a subwoofer.

A lot of bookshelf speakers can out perform towers, that are sold
around the same price. If you love heavy deep bass, then save up
for a subwoofer.

I have owned bookshelf speakers with sensitivity lower than 89db,
that can play louder than I care to listen, in rooms bigger than a
bedroom. I have speakers with 87db sensitivity, that do perform
real nicely.

Bookshelves are way cheaper and can be upgraded with a sub. Towers would sound better due to lower bass and would not need a sub. Anything you choose always check the efficiency rating. It should be 89 or above unless you have some major amplification.

For $300, I think one of the best-sounding speakers you are going to be able to get would be the Polk Monitor 60 speakers. I thin Amazon has them for around $300. They meet all of your requirements and sound pretty decent.

If you could stretch your budget to $399, there is an outstanding deal on the excellent KEF iQ30 speakers right now at KEF Direct. They were $599, and a bargain at that price; a very fine speaker.