So in my media room I'm looking to replace a Bose kit (Sound Touch 520) with a Yamaha AVR Aventage RX-A680 along with one of these two speaker options....
Option 1: Small Bookshelf B&W
L/R - M1
C- M1
SS - M1
Sub - BW 600 (8")
Option 2: Small Towers Klipsch
L/R - RP4000f
C - RP404c
SS - RP402s
Sub - R100 (10')
Both kits are within $50 of each other. I'm leaning towards the B&W due to the size and brand... Looking for some good feedback on these two options especially if anyone has either of them more or less?
Since both are 4" drivers I assume I won't be getting that "big" sound from either...
Your comparing a very small satellite speaker against larger floor standing speakers. Additionally they both have a completely different sound characteristic. I looked at those small B&W a long time ago and they sounded OK for how tiny they are but, its not the speaker to get if you have the option to get larger ones. I prefer a Klipsch sound generally or any CD type speaker for their dynamics. My theater cutternt has DIY 1099's but I had Klipsch rf-7 before and they were nice not as nice as the 1099s.
Is size your problem? Any reason you picked those two setups.
For starters get a good sub that will make whatever speakers you get sound years better. Get something from SVS as the cheapest sub they make will hit lower and play louder than the two subs you listed. If you want small satellite speakers IMO get some used KEF3005 they are nicer than the speakers you listed and have aluminum houses with great mounts. If you want normal sized speakers klipsch are pretty good for the price assuming you like how they sound. I been seeing some really good deals on Polks higher end series on slickdeals. I dont remember the number cause im not a polk fan but they were like $200 for their $700 speakers.
One thing you generally get with klipsch is a higher sensitivity on the speaker so they will play louder with less power. More dyamic forward sounding due to the horn CD (or is it a Tweeter...I dont know anymore) . That said they are also more directional and wont have as good coverage as a normal domed tweeter. If you have a really wide seating area and site pretty close a tweeter with a 180 dispersion would be better. If you have a more narrow seating area and sit further away potentially or have lots of things to cause more reflection ( like glass walls/doors) in the room a narrower sound field would be better.
As for an AV i just got my 3rd yamaha 683 from amazon for $280. Which would work great for the type speakers your looking at and the savings you get on that receiver put that towards your sub budget.
If you want bang for buck get the Costco 7XX receiver and 5 JBL LRS305 speakers (or 308 if you have the space ) They sound fantastic and an active speaker is hard to beat compared to a standard passive one. We have that setup in our bedroom and its great. Just hook all the LRS to a power strip that turns on when your receiver turns on if you need to save power or dont want to see the white lite at night time. I covered mine with tape. Do those and a ported svs sub and it would be excellent for movies and music and sound as nice as systems costing 10x as much.
I have done lots of blind test with 4k+ speakers and those little 305s come out on top most of the time.
good luck with whatever you decided.
A good sub is the easiest thing to quantify in a system.
