[earsintraining]

I'm looking to add a couple nice sounding speakers to my system for the sole purpose of listening to and appreciating music, everything from modern top 40 rock to 80's/90's metal to classical. Here's hoping someone can relate to my description and provide advice.


I just picked up a brand new Yamaha RX-V2700 for $700, which I think was a pretty good deal.


I do some home studio work (totally amateur) and have some decent Dynaudio nearfields on this setup. When I listen to these I'm listening for a totally different reason and I'm analyzing the sound, not necessarily appreciating it. This is what these monitors are for and I think they do a great job of it.


Basically here's where I'm at. I'm in my 30's and feel I'm just beginning to appreciate and really listen to music like I never have before. Thus I want to add 2 really nice speakers on my home stereo set up to do this. I have a cheap PolkAudio 5.1 speaker system which is fine for our DVD watching etc. Yes I want to upgrade this too eventually, but for now, I need some music speakers.


I'm searching around and WAY overwhelmed on the number of brands, models etc. Holy smokes! Great to have options, but seriously! I have no issues with used speakers. To add to that I want to listen to Vinyl and will likely be seeking out an old tube Hi-Fi amp for music listening also. But again down the road.


I'm looking for people to provide maybe a handful or two of speakers I should seek out on the used market? Like JBL L5's etc. What are those tried and true speakers every music listener to should have? What are the work horses? Anything under $1000 is game, cheaper the better and I'm a budget watcher (if that's possible).


Big thanks to those who read this and reply!

 

[ericgl]

Try and hear Vandersteens, Thiels, maybe Dyn Audience SEs, and NHTs.

 

[tdogroeder]

What is your budget?


I would recommend ********** Strata Mini's with free shipping both ways.
http://www.**********/products_catego...akers&brand=54

 

[mazersteven]

Polk Audio LSi9's

http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/products/lsi9/


Used for around $500 a pair.


Then use one of these amps to drive them, and use your Yamaha as the pre/pro.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHA500

http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/2200.html

http://www.emotiva.com/bpa1.html

 

[Thelonious Monk]

above poster knows what he's talking about, although there are definitely a lot more bookshelf speakers than that available. here are some i have been looking at lately:


atc scm7 asl

swans m200

proac ref 8

role kayak

nsm 10s

thiel pcs

role skiff

gallo advia

quad 12l

orb mod1 sat

wharfedale 9.1

b&w dm602

quad 11l

arcam alto

naim n-sat

bg corp z-1

dali meneut ii

era design 4sat

aperion 422l

aerial model 5b

amphion ion

any ls3/5a

spendor s20

engima ormeus

harbeth hl-p3

focus fs-688

celestion sl6si

spica tc-50

silverline sr12

onix xls

totem tabu

aci sapphire xl

spendor sp3/1p

dynaudio focus 110

stone rothschilde a2

totem model 1 sig

totem acoustic mite

tyler mini linbrook

merlin tsm

aci emerald xl

silverline reference 15

proac response 1sc

aad pmm1

aurum cantus v3m

micropure kotaro

jm lab micro utopia

sonus faber concertino

kef 101

rogers jr149

proac super tablette

gr research paradox one

modwright/swans m1

dynaudio compact 25

hansen audio elixr

infinity signature 1

respons baby grand

diapason karis

fulton 80

celestion 3

ra labs mini-reference

paradigm atom

nht m00

odyssey epiphany

 

[kwtoxman]

Try different speaker designs, such as box, planar, ribbon, etc.


I recommend trying magnepan's. You may never look back.


kw..........

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Some helpful advice so far, I would actually suggest you start to de-familiarize with the speakers you are familiar with now, and go auditioning widely. Audition speakers both well above and below your pricepoint, from as many manufacturers you can hear near you, and get a feel for what's out there and what you like.


I run dynaudios in my home, so that's among my bias. There are some fabulous contenders around or below a grand, high on my list besides dynaudio are Onix reference, Paradigm, and Revel. Despite my affinity for dynaudios and the fact that you use them currently in a studio setting, I would recommend you defamiliarize yourself with those speakers as they're what you're used to, and try to listen with fresh ears, and listen widely. You may well end up coming back to such a brand or similar, but if you've been listening to the same speakers for a long time, especially in a critical environment, you're likely at first to notice only what's different, and mainly what is worse, rather than what may be better, and end up instead of picking what really sounds best to you, picking what sounds most familiar to you.


But finding the right pair of speakers is subjective, and patience is a good virtue. Listen widely with a wide variety of music you are familiar with. I like listening for a good hour at least on a single pair of speakers, whole songs at a time, to get a good feel for how they do overall. You'll soon begin to get a feel for what your preferences are, and that's what you should focus on. The opinions of others can be a good guide to expand your search, but other people have different tastes. Speakers that I love others may not like very much, and vice versa.


Good luck and as always have fun!

 

[earsintraining]

ericgl


Thanks!

Quote:
Originally Posted by tdogroeder /forum/post/0


What is your budget?

I'm hoping to spend less than $1000 on a pair. This is why I want to go the used route. I firmtly believe there is no reason I can't get some really nice sounding speakers that are 2 to 5 years old.


I guess that puts the Strata's out of reach.



"mazersteven"


Thanks for the polk recommendation. I wondered about the separate power amp. But you see now there's a whole new thing to research!  I would normally stay away from Berhringer for any product type, but I do understand how subjective these industries are and how price can fool people.



Thelonious Monk


Now there's a list!


kwtoxman

"Try different speaker designs, such as box, planar, ribbon, etc."


You are right I should, I've heard ribbons before, ok just Adam A7's but I've read about SLS and a couple others.



ChrisWiggles


You make some great points. I think what I'm trying to achieve is I want to be able to relax in my family room and really hear the music, if it's a vocal I want to hear that crackle in the back of the throat, or Jazz I want to hear the bristles of the brush sliding across the cymbal, or hammer of the piano as it strikes the strings. And I want to do all this WITH OUT listening to the speaker. Does that make sense?


You know I am a bit hooked on Dynaudio's. I have a nice dynaudio system in my car too, its funny I swear I hear similarities between my monitors and my car.


I want to listen to other speakers and I don't. I really don't have the budget to go into the high-end store and buy. And I hate being a lurker type. Plus to really audition something, you have to have it in your own environment. So in short, for my music speakers on my home stereo I want to be less picky. I can most likely get use to them, and as with my Dynaudios I will learn them (see here I go already talking about listening to the speaker) and I can learn to love them.



Thanks guys you've been great!

 

[earsintraining]

Oh and one last thing.


Bookshelves, really? What happened to the big floor speakers with 12" woofer, 6" mids and small tweeters?

 

[floridapoolboy]



Quote:
Originally Posted by earsintraining /forum/post/0


Oh and one last thing.


Bookshelves, really? What happened to the big floor speakers with 12" woofer, 6" mids and small tweeters?

Modern design has smaller, faster midbass sized speakers coupled with a quality subwoofer. Since the speaker is free of the demands of the lowest frequencies it can be optimized for the mids and highs, and the sub will provide much better bass response and placement flexibility. The old JBL Century 100 days are long gone!

 

[Grandarf]

I'd highly recommend Ascend 340SE. I've owned Totems (rather renowned 1200$ & 1500$ speakers) for a few years. I've always somewhat kept interested in audio and kept looking things up, one of the brand I always seemed to enjoyed was Dynaudio, but the relatively high prices kept me from buying a pair. Later I bought a pair of 340SE, as everything I had ever read about them always seemed to be very positive. Much cheaper than the Totems, but they sounded better to me and so I sold off the more expensive totems and just kept the cheaper Ascends.


I'd say the Ascends are somewhat more similar to Dynaudio than Totem was. A lot more balanced sound (neutral), 'tighter' sound, 'more in control', detail is fantastic (really lifelike), and the best part, they really don't break the bank. I'd highly recommend.


From what I gathered, Dynaudios used 1st order crossovers. Maybe that's why they seem to have that extra punch/tightness over your usual speakers... Whatever it is, I like it too, the "Dynaudio sound", but you're not really going to find the sound of 52SE, Contour, etc... on cheap speakers, the Ascends 340SE gets you as close as I've heard, but maybe other speaker 1st order crossover designs would be closer... Anybody know of other speakers with 1st order crossovers?


"top 40 rock to 80's/90'" btw, you're never going to get a great sound out of a lot of these records... It's just the way they were recorded. Good speakers will only highlight the bad recordings/sound engineering, so just a word of caution that you might be dissapointed by a lot of records... Great records will sound amazing, but a good system will slap you in the face and expose the bad recordings for what they are... Like they say, garbage in, garbage out...


I was a bit disappointed at that with my 1st real pair of speakers... Buy good amp, speakers, cd player, and put on a record, and it doesnt sound very good because of the cd... It's like wasted $$$... And sadly, A LOT of records doesn't really deserve much better than say a pair of these...

 

[Raymond Leggs]

I like big woofers (too bad I dont own any)

 

[ChrisWiggles]



Quote:
Originally Posted by earsintraining /forum/post/0


Oh and one last thing.


Bookshelves, really? What happened to the big floor speakers with 12" woofer, 6" mids and small tweeters?

The 1970s were a long time ago.

Seriously though, what has happened are a couple things. One is the widespread use of powered subwoofers in addition to the main speakers, and the other is that materials and technology are far better than thy were back then, allowing far better power handling and excursion etc in drivers, allowing smaller drivers to perform really quite excellently in comparison to their out-dated larger brethren.


Personally, I am biased towards standmount/monitor type speakers because at a given pricepoint, you simply get better performance where it matters in the mids and highs and imaging and detail and all that, instead of just getting a little more bass extension or the like. And if one has a competent subwoofer, then you have that covered pretty well already.

 

[jostenmeat]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Grandarf /forum/post/0


... Anybody know of other speakers with 1st order crossovers?


"top 40 rock to 80's/90'" btw, you're never going to get a great sound out of a lot of these records... It's just the way they were recorded. Good speakers will only highlight the bad recordings/sound engineering, so just a word of caution that you might be dissapointed by a lot of records... Great records will sound amazing, but a good system will slap you in the face and expose the bad recordings for what they are... Like they say, garbage in, garbage out...


I was a bit disappointed at that with my 1st real pair of speakers... Buy good amp, speakers, cd player, and put on a record, and it doesnt sound very good because of the cd... It's like wasted $$$... And sadly, A LOT of records doesn't really deserve much better than say a pair of these...

I believe the new 600 series from B&W should have 1st order x-overs. I find the Polk recommendations here, well, a bit peculiar. I understand the idea of making more recordings forgivable, but for someone who is used to monitors I would think that the Polks' veiled nature would be disappointing. My honest opinion and 2 cents, best of luck to the OP.

 

[earsintraining]

Well I've learned a lot this weekend. Its seems that a set of Ascend 340SE ht system might tickly my fancy.


I know I started this thread as a "music speaker only" but now I'm thinking whole HT/ Music speaker system.


I have the opportunity to pick up these


RT12 floor standing, front tower speakers


RT5 bookshelf, surround speakers


CS225 center speaker


All for an asking price of $440.


I was seriously considering the Ascend 340SE ht system, but I'm always up for a good deal.


I need my speakers to perform great (not spectacular) as both HT and Music speakers.


I will be running them with a Yamaha RX-V2700 (so far I love this things features!)


I know these Polks are older, but that doesn't mean their bad. What are the participants take on this?

 

[Grandarf]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jostenmeat /forum/post/0


I believe the new 600 series from B&W should have 1st order x-overs. I find the Polk recommendations here, well, a bit peculiar. I understand the idea of making more recordings forgivable, but for someone who is used to monitors I would think that the Polks' veiled nature would be disappointing. My honest opinion and 2 cents, best of luck to the OP.

I'm really not a big fan of BW... The 602 I believe costs about as much as the 340SE and there's really no comparison IMHO, 340SE wins hands down.


For Polk.. Well, I don't really recommend particularly Polk, it's just that crap (badly recorded/engineered music) doesn't deserve to be played on good systems. Good systems will just highlight the fact that it's crap and will not really make it sound better than an average/poor system.


That's what somewhat sucks with hifi, the weakest link is very often the recording IMHO. And like a chain, you only need one weak link for it to break (sound like crap)


So if 80% of your recordings have poor recording quality, spending on super high end system is somewhat of a waste...

Quote:
All for an asking price of $440.

Don't know of those, but it sounds like it's a good deal, getting the whole HT package for less than 1 pair of 340SE. If you can listen to it and like the sound, go for it

 

[scorch123]

earsintraining,


Slow down! It sounds like you're very close to making an impulse purchase. You will regret not taking your time, listening to speakers, borrowing speakers, etc. In less than a week, you have changed your mind from 2-channel, $1k budget to multi-channel 0.5k budget, you're all over the map.


You can find a $1k used pair of speakers that will sound better than $1k worth of surround sound. Better yet, get $500 worth of 2-channel, with $500 worth of acoustic room treatments, and you will be able to hear improvements/upgrades/tweaks down the road MUCH easier. I have learned this from my experience with various setups in my home over the years.


If you want to hear the huge variety of speakers out there, your best bet is to buy used, local (no expensive shipping charges) and under audio "blue book", live with the speakers for whatever period of time, sell them, repeat with different speakers Given enough time, you will be able to have a better idea what type of sound you're after.


Speaking of local, if you're lucky to have an active A/V or audiophile club where you live, get involved there and folks will be more than happy to help you, too.


- Steve O.

 

[Xsao]

whats a good 5.0 surround sound system for music? for around $400-700

 

[mazersteven]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Xsao /forum/post/0


whats a good 5.0 surround sound system for music? for around $400-700

AV123 X-series speakers. You can use towers as mains, or bookshelfs. Get the center, and 2 surrounds and your in business.

http://www.**********/products_catego...akers&brand=55


Here is what they look like.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=845523

 

[Grandarf]

ok not to spam, but these should really be special

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=847672


New ascend speakers