Looking to set up a good dedicated music set-up. Help please :) - Page 2

fwiw, look into the nht classic 3's great speaker for the price $800 imo best all around sounding speaker in its price range

Really? $1200 sounds like Studio 20s price. I thought 10s are under a grand. Try EBay or Audiogon, they should have some mint Paradigms.

If this is your first mid-fi, it'll blow you away. Good bang for the buck and very easy to drive, work well with most receivers.

Here's a reference that might give you some ideas:

http://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=18

I'm particularly impressed with several models that have "Paradigm" and "Monitor" in ther names. They often show up in posts by happy campers at AVS.

BTW, Paradigm is a Canadian company...

Forum member, HifiSponge, who had gone through a long rotation of some of the more impressive speakers on the forums, listed the NHT Classic 3 as one of the best speakers he had put in his room.

his thread can be found here http://www.avsforum.com/t/1139308/the-ever-changing-ht every page has a different set up of speakers, nearly.

As previously mentioned, it will really benefit you to go and listen to different speakers to begin to get an idea what you like. I was in a similar situation 2 years ago and spent hours trolling the boards and "learning" about what i might like. Then i finally spent several hours going to 2 audio stores and listening to several brands - it was very helpful and I ended up with a pair of paradigm 60s (used) well driven by a cheap AVR

Also, consider used off of audiogon or craigslist. I have bought speakers using both avenues very successfully. If you decide on the speakers you want, you can either wait on an audiogon listing or craigslist listing (by the way, i am not talking local craigslist - i bought speakers off craigslist 1000 miles away without a problem, a bit riskier, but there are deals out there)

it seems to me the decision between monitors and floorstanders is unique to you and perhaps where others' advice would be most helpful. once that decision is made, there is a bounty of info/opinions/discussions out there with regards to the best speakers at various price points - but again, let your ears guide you

Yeah, well, that's capitalism. If you can afford good speakers, you have no right to complain about capitalism.

I live in Detroit metro, often vacation in Canada and have a sister-in-law that lives in Canada, , so I know quite a bit about all that. The balance has tilted both ways over the years. I still remember people from this side popping over to Canada for the big savings. But since GST and PST and the universal health care plan the direction of money and people has been from Canada to the US.

With respect to Detroit, Windsor is the village on the outskirts of the far larger city, but a few dozen miles north Port Huron is dominated by traffic flow and commerce from Sarnia and east. They doubled the bridge about 10 years ago.

An amazing number of people on the US side started out in Canada: My wife's family, my daughter-in-law's family, many of my friends and associates, etc., etc.

It's not so much capitalism nearly as much as it is the cost of socialism. One basic rule about vacationing in Canada: if money matters to you, bring what you can.

PSB is another Canadian speaker company that would be worth looking into. You ought to be able to find a place to listen to them, even if they are cheaper buying through the US.

As far as towers vs. bookshelves, for bass heavy music (e.g., rap and techno), I prefer bookshelves with a sub over towers because (a) flexibility of subwoofer placement for best bass response in the room, (b) a good sub will outperform towers at lower bass frequencies, and (c) so I can run the sub a little hot and emphasize the bass

For a $1000 budget for bookshelves and a sub, look at the Jamo Sub 650 on sale for $300 at Vanns. That's a 12" sub with a 650 watt Bash amp, a great deal at that price. It also is a sealed sub, which should give you a little bit tighter bass response over comparably priced (and value) ported subs. That would then leave you $700 for the bookshelves.

No doubt. LOL

In that case, I think bookshelves make a lot of sense for you. With many people, the choice is spending their money for 2 channel audio on towers vs. bookshelves with a sub to get good low end response with their setup. You can devote your entire budget just to the bookshelves.

Check out the Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1s. Lot of love for these bookshelves in the AVS speaker forum (see the owners thread--over 2500 posts discussing the Sierra line).

Glad you found something you like

Exactly! That's how I feel 60s vs. 10s. So I sold my 60s and got Focal bookshelves (I also have Paradigm Sub12).