[AFMan916]

Hi all-


So I currently have the Klipsch Quintet III with 10" sub. I have a new job, and in the coming fall season I would like to upgrade my entire living/entertainment room. New furniture, new amp, new speakers, etc...I have an idea for the Amp, and obviously the furniture has no real bearing here, but what I am wondering is what to replace the Quintet system with. I had thought about just buying some Klipsch floorstanders to match the surrounds, but then realized that maybe it was time to go to a better-quality set-up.


I enjoy the sound from the Klipsch's, but sometimes it just doesn't provide enough range. There are many times that dialogue seems a little weak, and I have tried playing around with the settings to get the sound I want, but to no avail. I think my problem is I am just pining for the excellent sound that a good-quality system can produce. I have searched all over the forums, thought about a Klipsch Reference system, a Def Tech ProCinema system, a Paradigm Monitor 9 system, etc... What would you guys recommend for a good, high-quality but not ultra expensive set-up? The room it's going to be in is about 15' x 15', with regular 8 foot ceilings.


I'm looking to spend around $2,000 when all is said and done. I would be open to going with another 5.1 Satellite system, but I also like the idea of ditching the sub and going with a high-quality 2.1 up front with good surrounds. Any ideas/suggestions? Perhaps some good websites to browse around at? I'm going to try and audition some speakers around my area, but unfortunatley all I have around here is a CC, BB (non-Magnolia), and that's about it. Help me out here guys

 

[AFMan916]

nobody has ANY suggestions? That's all I'm looking for right now, some suggestions that I can research further on my own. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Lebronze]

You might want to wait for more than an hour.....

With a $2000 budget you can get alot of different speakers. Klipsch, Polk, Paradigm, AV123, Swan, B&W, Monitor Audio, and a ton more.



Try here: www.audiogon.com

 

[calnbs]

I'm not a fan of Satellite system. So I am assuming your $2,000 budget includes receiver? About $500 to receiver and $1,500 to speaker? You can easily find good deals on receiver from last years model, as they are dropping in prices for the new ones. As for speakers, its really a matter of taste. If you go ID, you will need to find someone to audition them by hitting the owner's thread or the company's forum.


Those speaker suggested by Lebronze are great selections, depending on your taste. Best to hit the owners thread to see what others think these sound like.


AV123 currently have great sales on both their Rockets and X-series. Full refund if you are not happy, including your shipping.


Aperion Audio; free shipping both ways.


Elemental Design, Axiom, SVS, HSU are other ID you can look at as well.

 

[AFMan916]

I was going to wait longer to bump it, but with the amount of posting going on it doesn't take long for new threads to move a page or two down, and I didn't want that to happen lest it get lost in the shuffle.


Anyway, $2,000 is just for speakers. The receiver is not in the equation, as I am planning on receiving it as a gift.


I will check out the ones you guys mentioned. Also, sorry for the potentially noob question, but what does ID stand for?

 

[kip_]



Quote:
Originally Posted by CADOBHuK /forum/post/14172719


For under $2k a pair, I'd get these or these . In my humble opinion they would be far above mostly everything at this price level. Unless you want towers, in which case I'd go for these .

ID stands for "internet direct", which means the company manufacturing the speakers sells them directly to you through the internet, shipping out from the factory, as opposed to having their speakers resold at the physical stores.

Awesome speakers, but way out of his budget by the time you factor in surrounds and a sub.


OP, how exactly do you plan to do 2.1 without a sub

 

[CADOBHuK]

he likes the idea of going 2.1 and I like it too. I wouldnt be wasting money on 5.1 with a $2k budget, that'd be "surrounding" yourself with a cheap sound

 

[kip_]

He can't do 2.1 on his budget with the Selah/Salk speakers, only 2.0. In his first post he said he wanted to do 2.1 without a sub and unfortunately that's impossible. In order to get a decent sub to match his speakers he'll need to spend at least $600 at one of the usual suspects (epik, ed, hsu, av123, etc.). That said, I think 2 stereo speakers is a great start. Depends on how much HT vs. Music usage he has, a sub is a must for HT, not so much music.

 

[CADOBHuK]

You're right for the most part, but 1 option would actually fit his budget for 2.1 That is a pair of SSRs + ed a3-300 with an upgraded driver, a superb sub that I would estimate on par with pb12-nsd or vtf-3, would come down to exactly $2k shipped.

 

[PAD]



Quote:
Originally Posted by CADOBHuK /forum/post/14173278


he likes the idea of going 2.1 and I like it too. I wouldnt be wasting money on 5.1 with a $2k budget, that'd be "surrounding" yourself with a cheap sound

Agreed.


Have Jim give you a package deal on Songtowers and matching center. Go with a lower cost finish and add your surrounds later. You'll be very happy and playing with the big dogs then.

 

[thirdeye11]



Quote:
Originally Posted by CADOBHuK /forum/post/14173278


he likes the idea of going 2.1 and I like it too. I wouldnt be wasting money on 5.1 with a $2k budget, that'd be "surrounding" yourself with a cheap sound

Everyone's expectations with how their system should sound are different. The good news is that $2k is the budget. The bad news is that you may have to try something in your home to get something really good, and if you don't like it send them back. If I'm not mistaken AV123 started offering 30-day in home trials and they'll eat shipping both ways if you don't like what you bought.


Given your budget I'd seriously consider the x-static line from AV123. The x-mtm encore will run you $399 a pair, the x-voce center is $399, put a pair of x-ls or x-sls encores in the rear at $199 or $299 respectively, add an MFW-15 subwoofer at $699 and you should have a really nice system under $2k including shipping.

www.**********


You could look at a LOT of different brands in your budget and get something really nice that would be a significant improvement over what you have. In the end, and many other people will tell you this, your own ears are the ones to trust. Only you know what you like not us. Audition, audition, audition if you have time. If not do an in home trial of one of the ID (internet direct) manufacturers that offers it to you and see what you think once you get them

Lots of people have had great things to say about the x-static line, and AV123 is a great company to do business with from what I've seen.


-Chad

 

[thirdeye11]



Quote:
Originally Posted by PAD /forum/post/14173591


Agreed.


Have Jim give you a package deal on Songtowers and matching center. Go with a lower cost finish and add your surrounds later. You'll be very happy and playing with the big dogs then.

I bought Salk speakers myself, and while I'd like to agree in this case I can't. He wants at a minimum 2.1 (which is 2 speakers and 1 subwoofer, PAD I know you know this but I don't think the OP does). So if he gets 2 SongTowers in black that's $1695, and a decent subwoofer will be $450-500 + shipping for something decent you're looking at $2400 just for 3 speakers and we've already blown the OP's budget by 20%.


There are plenty of good options at $2k for a whole system. Options like Salk and Selah will get the OP much further, but without stretching the budget or modifying his original expectations of spending $2k on a 5.1 system I believe we can make him happy.


-Chad

 

[AFMan916]

Yeah, sorry for my stupidity in the first post, I indeed meant 2.1 but including the sub.


I'll go ahead and clarify to the best of my ability what I'm looking for, since there seems to be some confusion (caused solely by myself haha!)


I have around $2000 to spend to construct a good-quality 5.1 system. While I know that may be a little low, I have a Klipsch Quintet III system that I could use for certain components. I have recently been looking at the RF-82s as floorstanders, with the matching center. Here is my current line of thinking: RF-82s as floorstanders with the matching center, and using my current surrounds from the Quintet system as well as the 10" sub. However, as the RF-82s will only run me around $1000 and another $300-$400 for the matching center (can't really find it anywhere for sale, any ideas?) that would leave some room for a higher-quality sub. My main reasoning for going this route is I could still use the Quintet surrounds and I would imagine that the RF-82s would match up well (however if they won't, feel free to correct me!).


Ideas/suggestions for going this route? Also, I'm looking at 40% gaming/30% movies/30% TV.

 

[kip_]

I'm not sure the regular X-series would give him quite the upgrade he is looking for. If you're buying from AV123 I'd get the X-statiks or Rockets+ a MFW-15.


AFMan, i really think you can find a better value than Klipsch. Do you like the Klipsch sound (bright treble)? Or do you you prefer neutral or warm sounding speakers or what. I agree with everyone else here... I'd spend $1200-$1400 on 2 mains and the rest on a subwoofer. Add on the rest as you can afford them. You can still use your Quintet surrounds with anything as long as they timbre match reasonably well. Oh yes, and a 10" sub is woefully inadequate for home theater. You're quite simply missing all sound below 30hz or so. There is a TON of sound below 30hz in movies, especially action films. Cloverfield for example has sound all the way down to 0hz.


I'd also suggest you look at Aperion, Ascend Acoustics, and Axiom.

 

[AFMan916]

I've been checking out av123, and I definitely think the x-static setup that thirdeye mentioned would be a good possibility. I indeed realize that 2.1 includes the sub, must have been a morning brain fart because I went back and reread my post and thought, man, that sounds like I have no idea what I'm talking about lol.


So anyway, which do you guys think sounds like a better option: My Klipsch setup, or the X-Static idea thirdeye posted. I would love to audition as much as possible, but am pretty much limited to CC and BB (another reason why the 30-day trial that av123 offers is appealing).

 

[thirdeye11]



Quote:
Originally Posted by AFMan916 /forum/post/14173646


Yeah, sorry for my stupidity in the first post, I indeed meant 2.1 but including the sub.


I'll go ahead and clarify to the best of my ability what I'm looking for, since there seems to be some confusion (caused solely by myself haha!)


I have around $2000 to spend to construct a good-quality 5.1 system. While I know that may be a little low, I have a Klipsch Quintet III system that I could use for certain components. I have recently been looking at the RF-82s as floorstanders, with the matching center. Here is my current line of thinking: RF-82s as floorstanders with the matching center, and using my current surrounds from the Quintet system as well as the 10" sub. However, as the RF-82s will only run me around $1000 and another $300-$400 for the matching center (can't really find it anywhere for sale, any ideas?) that would leave some room for a higher-quality sub. My main reasoning for going this route is I could still use the Quintet surrounds and I would imagine that the RF-82s would match up well (however if they won't, feel free to correct me!).


Ideas/suggestions for going this route? Also, I'm looking at 40% gaming/30% movies/30% TV.

If you're unhappy with the current Klipsch's you have, then why would you want to continue to use them as surrounds? You can always mix and match fronts vs. surrounds but don't expect them to "match up well" just because they're from the same manufacturer. I personally would prefer to have matching speakers all the way around, but it sounds like you won't be doing much music listening (or multi-channel music listening for that matter) so it's probably less important still!


I doubt anyone here would be able to comment on that exact combination of speakers together as you're getting pretty specific but you should get results which may be acceptable to you. Only way to find out for sure would be to try. You might end up saving yourself several hundred dollars! I think there are plenty of other options at $1,000 for fronts though that would get you further. Specifically I think you would be hard pressed to do much better than the AV123's Rocket RS450's for

 

[AFMan916]

kip-


While I do enjoy the somewhat bright sound of Klipsch, I'm pretty sure that's only because the only thing I've ever heard, HT-wise, are the 2 Sony HTIB systems I have had in the past. Suffice to say, I haven't ever really heard what amazing sound sounds like (if you could follow that haha).


I am all for building up as I go along, but if I do that I would want to make sure that my Quintet surrounds would still perform reasonably well; I looooooove surround sound, and seeing as how most of my usage comes from gaming and movies (surround for TV isn't that big of a deal for me) I would want to make sure I am still getting that wonderful surround sound feel.

 

[AFMan916]

thirdeye-


Thanks for the input. You're right, I am getting pretty specific, but I think that's only because there are SOOO many options and, not being a hardcore audiophile, I feel as though I am somewhat lost in the sea of speakers, so I am trying to stick with something I have at least a little experience with.


Right now, I'm leaning most towards AV123. Building up the front, using my Quintet surrounds (my main beef with my system now is the sound coming from up front, the surrounds are doing a pretty good job in the rear, but then again like I said, I've never really heard amazing surrounds, maybe I don't know what I'm missing haha!) and then upgrading the surrounds as time progresses.

 

[CADOBHuK]

For gaming movies and tv actually SSR's would be an overkill I think. Unless "movies" are blu-rays with ability to output DTS HD or PCM streams.

How big is your room? Whats the most important aspect of sound to you? Do you want to have the cleanest tightest quickest bass, or the strongest bass? Do you like smooth and warm midrange or dry and neutral midrange? Do you like treble to stand out, be flat in line with the rest, or recessed/rolled off?

 

[kip_]

AV123 and Aperion will also pay your return shipping if you decide to return them.


2x X-Statiks, 1x X-Vocce, an MFW-15 would give you 3.1 for about $1800 not including shipping.