Basic Set of Bookshelf Speakers for under $200?

How about some Infinity P163 bookshelf speakers for $59 each. Hard to beat at that price.

http://www.frys.com/product/7237393?site=sa:adpages%20page:P6_FRI%20date:020113

Damn. I just paid $85 each for 3 of them from Amazon, free shipping though. This would be about $30 less. Will Amazon credit me the difference? Thanks.

You just missed the NewEgg sale on Definitive StudioMonitor350's for $175! The sale ended a few days ago. I would've voted for those. They are $250 currently, (though the 450's are only $279 right now as well).

Also, unless you are specifically looking for Cherry speakers, the Polk 45B speakers in Black are $169.99, not $199.

I have read some nice things about the Andrew Jones Pioneers though.

The HTD Level Two - and 10% off > coupon code - 2013sale
http://www.htd.com/Products/bookshelf-speakers/Level-TWO-Bookshelf-Speakers?gclid=CLaoz-uTlrUCFdSnPAodrigA8A

Or, the Pioneer BS22 speakers

Yes I did get them. They are very nice speakers, and they sound great in stereo. BUT I also have an 8" sub hooked up. I didn't listen without the sub. I was going to go with the Pioneer BS22's until I found out they are rear ported.

Too bad you didn't start this thread yesterday. These were $99 for 2 weeks. I got a pair and they sound great.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960&st=klipsch+kb15

I have heard the def tech, polks and pioneers on your list. IMHO, clear winner is the def tech!

Because they sit on a shelf, and the back of speakers are only 1-2" from wall.

I still say the Drfinitives are the winner, especially without a sub. They use a side-firing passive radiator, which helps them play significantly lower than other similar sized bookshelf speakers. I think they sound great, on top of that.

Two things..

1) A passive radiator serves the same function as a port and actually has a steeper roll off below tuning.... so it doesn't guarantee lower extension than a ported speaker with similar sized cabinet (that depends on the woofer as well). It does however allow for smaller size cabinet than a ported speaker when using the same woofer.

2) When it comes to specs, Def Tech has been know to embellish more than a little

Putting the speakers near the rear wall with rear porting tends to increase the midbass.

This is not always a bad thing. Listen and decide.

The Polk R150 speakers are $150 per pair at Amazon.

For sure. They claim the 350s go down to 53Hz I believe. I saw a review of them that tested them at 79Hz. That's not really any lower than any of the other speakers mentioned here.

The Pioneer BS22 has a lower -3db at 63 hz > they have nice bass

Sorry, they claim that they go down to 30Hz
I found that article.

http://www.hometheater.com/content/definitive-technology-studiocinema-350-ht-labs-measures

That is what we said/meant. Their bass loudness/roll-off level drops from 79 hz down.

I would take another look at the HTD Level Two and the Pioneer BS22

I have owned Polk Monitors, Definitive Tech, Pioneer and HTD speakers.

However, it all comes down to your choice/preference - good luck.
Edited by zieglj01 - 2/2/13 at 8:45am

The def tech probably don't get as low was they say...but, man, they hit pretty low and it sounds great for a small bookshelf! As I have said, I did a head to head comparison of the Polk m40s vs the series one pioneer...polks won that head to head, IMHO...then about a year later, bought the def tech and now the polks sit in my basement! I have the dt sm450s (because of price, I also bought a set of sm350s) and use then in a 2.0 bedroom set up- excellent speaker for essentially 200/pr!

Specifications do not describe the sound of a speaker.

If you can find tests run identically on two different speakers by the same lab, you might have a basis for comparison that doesn't involve listening. For example, those lab results from HT Mag could be compared to the same tests in the same lab run on Polks or Pioneers or whatever. And then you would know something about which speakers have better bass extension, for example.

But you still wouldn't know anything about how they sound. Only listening tells you how a speaker will sound, and only listening in your listening room tells you how they will sound in your listening room.

The Internet has made it much too easy to buy speakers without hearing them first. And unless you already know good sound, almost anything you buy that's decent is going to impress you when you unpack it and get it fired up in your home. Especially when you think about the hassle of packing it all back up and shipping it back if you decide you don't like them.

Meanwhile, one speaker is -3dB at 80Hz, and another is -3dB at 70Hz. Do you automatically buy the second one? Why would you do that? Bass extension is only one quality -- and arguably far from the most important quality, given the availability of decent cheap subwoofers that will get you down to 30-40Hz -- of a bookshelf speaker. How smooth is the high end? How's the imaging? How's the quality of the crossover?

To illustrate my point, here are some quotes from the same review of the SM350 according to which some would have you dismiss the speaker because in their lab measurements its bass extension is not what DT claims it is:

"The StudioMonitor 350's vibrant dynamism in no way interferes with its careful subtlety, whether you're listening to a beautiful choral layering of voices (as on the Gadeamus Sacred Feast disc) or on a simpler but no less engaging arrangement of voice, accordion, and guitar on Sara K.'s 'Whiter Shade of Pale' (What Matters)."

"The bass response is smooth and natural—about as good as you're going to find in a passive speaker this size. "

Now, I'm not suggesting these 10-year old quotes are a reason to buy these speakers, any more than the 10-year old lab test is a reason not to. I'm suggesting that neither one tells you anything about how the speakers will sound in your room, or how well they will match what you want and expect to hear.

Listening, not reading specs, is how you learn how a speaker sounds.

I think you undervalue what can be gleaned from measurements. The problem being that proper measurements are many and complex and take significant experience to properly read.

Indeed: they are in some ways *better* than listening. If I put a speaker in my room and it sounds bad: measurements might show me where that can be fixed rather than tossing out the speaker as "poor sounding". I wonder how many excellent options have been tossed out because someone didn't know they needed to look for a resonance mode or standing wave, or had a problem with early reflection.

You are both correct. And in all fairness, there is a standard for those specs otherwise they would all be irrelevant. If they just let people test them in their garage with a radio shack spl meter and then publish their results your argument would hold more water. It is the speaker companies that skew and flat out lie about the test results. That is why it is important to seek independent testers. So you have to consider everything. The manu specs and features as well as independent specs and listening opinions. And listening to them at the store.
But there is no test better than hooking them up to your equipment in your room and listening to them with your ears.

Did you end up with the SM350 or the SM450? both good speakers, I bought both and really couldn't tell the difference.