$1000 L/R Recommendations

Do you want bookshelf or floorstanding speakers?

If you want floorstanding speakers, options mentioned frequently in this forum include:

Arx A5's $750/pair................many people have very nice things to say about them
EMP Tek E5Ti $500/pair, or E55Ti at $800/pair
NHT Classic Absolute Towers ( But they're $1000/pair)
Magnepan MMG $600/pair ( speakers are electrostatic, look "funky", but sound great.........they are very placement and room dependent)
KEF Q500 at $800/pair

Others from Polk, Infinity, etc are out there, too..........

Bookshelfs are more prevalent in this price range.........many options, and someone else can produce this list ( my time now is limited!!)

+1 on the Arx A5 towers. One of the best bang for the buck towers available. Great build quality and sounds great. I run a set with SVS subwoofers and it is awesome, but they're not sold in stores so you can't go out and demo them. But demoing in stores isn't much good anyway it will never truely give you and idea about how they will sound in your room.

I suggest that you consider the Monitor Audio Silver RX-2 speakers. They are monitor / bookshelf speakers which have an 8-inch woofer and very strong bass performance. Excellent all-round performance and very nice sound quality.

You can get them for $850 in four different wood veneer finishes (or gloss black or white for $1000).

A matching center and surrounds are readily available.

Well FWIW I will let you know how I feel about the EMP E55ti's in a few days when I get them.

Also don't forget HTD, I have their level two bookshelf system and I am extremely happy with them, sounds stupid saying I bought new speakers but I wanted 3 way towers and a nice big 3 way center

The level two bookshelves are amazing little speakers, they pack a hell of a sound for their size, they feel extremely solid and feel like a solid piece of wood when you knock on them, they have quite a bit of bass too. I've had 2-3 people that haev come over and listen to them and tell me theres no way my sub isn't on. It's not that they are loud or put out a lot of bass, its just that with lighter bass music tracks such as acoustical and soft rock, the bass sounds natural and really does sound like if I cross them over at 80hz and put on my subwoofer. It's just impressive given their small size. I have listend to many of my favorite songs over and over, I have listend to the Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds at Radio city blu ray more times than I care to admit and I don't get sick of it, I put my head back and I feel like im there.. It's the most relaxing thing in the world.. Don't get me wrong, for awhile when I brought these speakers around to listen to more expsensive brands I thought they sounded like crap compared to the B&W's and KEFs, but after spending more time with those speakers and listening, I found my ears somewhat irritated, first intital response is WOW, but they fatigued me quite quickly... The HTD's after just sitting and enjoying, they sound natural, have great detail and are just easy to listen to.

I honestly was never an audiophile and never cared that much untilt he past few months.. I really music much more than I did before.. I find myself spending an hour or two that feels like 30 minutes just listening to these songs that I love

The level two towers are 400 a pair, I can only imagine they sound much better, and the level 3's which are 3 way towers are 749 a pair I believe..

HTD Level Three towers
http://www.htd.com/Products/level-three-speakers/Level-THREE-Tower-Speakers

If you have front speakers with drivers that can go down to below 50 hz, the speakers should be allowed to operate down to around 50 Hz or lower IMO. That is what they are designed for. Let them do everything they are designed to do and use the sub ONLY to fill in at the very bottom where the main speakers cannot go.

Anything else is Misuse of Front Speakers and you should get a 25-yard penalty and loss of down...lol.

I can't imagine why anyone would operate a subwoofer as high as 100Hz. Monaural sound all the way up to 100 Hz??? That will certainly sound crummy! Nonono.

The upper f limit control ON the subwoofer should be set so it does not operate above 40-50 Hz. Tweak it for best blend between the sub and front speakers.

This should be done with the center and surround speakers OFF, so you can match the subwoofer to the front speakers and get the two to complement each other to the greatest degree possible.
Edited by commsysman - 2/11/13 at 3:10pm

I hope you don't mean setting the LPF on the sub to 50hz...the LFE channel does contain information up to 120hz. Lots of folks here have set ups with the LPF at 120hz and they sound awesome!

Also yea the speaker can probably put out at 50hz but how loud is questionable. I'd rather let the subwoofer do all the heavy lifting down there:D

The manufacturer actually rates the speakers to go down to 40 hz.

There should be no problem with setting the LPF on the sub to 40-50 Hz.

Setting it higher means the sub and main speakers are overlapping each other's frequency ranges, which is going to cause poor sound quality.

You have 6 6.5-inch speakers on the fronts, which can do a lot of "heavy lifting" down to at least 50 Hz, and they will do it with greater fidelity and less distortion than the sub, which is really optimized for frequencies below 50.

You know, you should try it and see. You will be pleased with the result, I believe.

You certainly have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying it.

I wasn't pleased when I tried it but at least I tried it.

Once again I myself wouldn't recommend setting the LPF ON THE SUB to 40-50hz as the LFE (.1) channel contains information up to 120hz.

https://audyssey.zendesk.com/entries/321931-LPF-on-LFE

100% correct. The LPF of LFE should never be changed from 120hz..

My speakers are rated to 22hz and they are actually pretty effective to 40hz.. I crossover at 80hz. I have tried everything from 40-120hz with my crossover settings and my dedicated subs just had way more output from 40hz and up. Now that I have four subs I need to go back and check to see if I prefer 90-120hz better.

With 80hz setting vs 40hz I noticed so much more punch. But this is expected when you consider the super enclosure volume, driver, amplifier, etc. It would be like buying a Porsche 911 Carrera and then never going above 40mph...
Edited by ack_bk - 2/11/13 at 3:43pm

I am not sure you have actually heard a really good subwoofer before... In fact I am quite sure you have not...

Was it 1000 per speaker?

You have some solid recommendations in this thread. The Level 3 towers and the ARX speakers are solid bang for the buck. I also really like the Ascend 340's which are under budget:
http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/cmt340m/cmt340m.html

As a projector owned I am with you on staying away from glossy.

You have lost of options in this price range and will probably drive yourself crazy going back and forth..

hey, a new pair of shoes or purse goes along way. fwiw,dont know how much more your willing to push your budget but a few suggestions kef q900 $1350 at accessories4less
monitor audio silver rx6 $1250 audio advisor

Both good choices, I am partial to the Kef Q900's myself.

Was going to recommend the ascend towers if your budget was 1000 per speaker lol...hmmmm RC-70s if you could still find them? I used to use them for my theater set up but they have now be relegated to a 2.1 set up. IMHO great sounding speakers for the price!

Also look at the Focal 814v + 800v at Ac4l. That's the setup I would have gotten if I had known about them when I got a new setup.

Are you moving away from them because you wanted something different? Was there something about the RC line you did not like?

You traitor! haha

but yea like Ack said, what did you not like about them? Or were you in the mood for an upgrade? That could help us give you better options

TRAITOR ! lol jk

I used to use RC10s as my mains than upgraded up to the 70s. Was going to go for the 50s but decided I'd spend alittle more for the 70s. Loved em!