At the end of the summer I'm going to be putting together a budget stereo setup for a small apartment. We were originally thinking 5.1, but for now, my girlfriend and I have decided on getting good L/R speakers and maybe a center, with a decent sub that will be upgraded once we're in a better place with less worry about annoying the neighbors. For whatever we choose, it'd be nice if they made matching center and surround speaker to purchase later.
I've been doing a ton of research and have listened to what's available locally, but there's so many other options that I don't want to overlook. So please let me know which of these you'd choose, or suggest another in the same price range.
These will be going into a 12x15 foot room with carpet floors and will be powered by a Denon AVR-1712. Will be used 75% for music, 25% TV/movies. We like heavy metal, so would prefer something that isn't too bright or harsh, as this music tends to be so already. Good midbass punch is important. Everyone says Klipsch's with the horn tweeters are harsh, so they aren't on the list
- Pioneer FS-51 - available on newegg for like $130. Well reviewed, very cheap, easy to move, kinda iffy on the looks, very inefficient, can't really tell how they sound at BB.
- Pioneer FS-52 - will be available by the time we move in, and according to the sneak preview, they have improved on many areas of the old ones. Will probably be able to find the in the $200 range.
- Infinity Primus 363 - available for $199/pair. Highly reviewed, look good, sound good (the pair on display had a ringing tweeter so hard to say for sure). though I was expecting a bit more midbass, and were perhaps a tiny bit harsh
- Polk TSi series - was pretty impressed with the midbass and smoothness from the 300's, especially considering that the woofers on one side weren't even playing at 100%. I liked them better than the 400's.
- Polk Monitor series - pretty popular and liked. Issues with broken grills. From what I can tell, they're the bottom series of the Monitor/TSi/RTi tier.
- Polk RTi A5 / RTi8 - hard to tell the difference between some of the Polk lines, like these. The A7's look nice though, but are out of the budget.
(at this point if I were to get any Polk speakers, I'd probably get one of the refurb sets from Polk Direct on eBay, which brings even the TSi 500's within budget, so feel free to recommend other Polks)
- Arx A3 - Top of the budget, but these also seem well reviewed. Planar tweeter is interesting and XBL woofers suggests they should do pretty well on the low end for 5.5" s
- Athena AS-F2 - when I stumbled upon these I was all excited, but they're no longer made. I like the prospects of dual 8's, but to get them, it's a matter of convincing someone on Craigslist to ship.
So which of those would you choose? Or would you pick something else entirely? In the same budget of course... $500 or less range.
Also, could you suggest a sub to go with whichever towers you recommend? I was originally wanting to get an Epik or Hsu, but I think we'll hold off on that until we live somewhere that we'd actually be able to use a sub like that. I know the Energy s10.3 is popular around here. What about the Polk 12" ?
Thanks for the help. I've been into high end car audio for a while, but this is my first home system, and I want it to be good.
I've been doing a ton of research and have listened to what's available locally, but there's so many other options that I don't want to overlook. So please let me know which of these you'd choose, or suggest another in the same price range.
These will be going into a 12x15 foot room with carpet floors and will be powered by a Denon AVR-1712. Will be used 75% for music, 25% TV/movies. We like heavy metal, so would prefer something that isn't too bright or harsh, as this music tends to be so already. Good midbass punch is important. Everyone says Klipsch's with the horn tweeters are harsh, so they aren't on the list
- Pioneer FS-51 - available on newegg for like $130. Well reviewed, very cheap, easy to move, kinda iffy on the looks, very inefficient, can't really tell how they sound at BB.
- Pioneer FS-52 - will be available by the time we move in, and according to the sneak preview, they have improved on many areas of the old ones. Will probably be able to find the in the $200 range.
- Infinity Primus 363 - available for $199/pair. Highly reviewed, look good, sound good (the pair on display had a ringing tweeter so hard to say for sure). though I was expecting a bit more midbass, and were perhaps a tiny bit harsh
- Polk TSi series - was pretty impressed with the midbass and smoothness from the 300's, especially considering that the woofers on one side weren't even playing at 100%. I liked them better than the 400's.
- Polk Monitor series - pretty popular and liked. Issues with broken grills. From what I can tell, they're the bottom series of the Monitor/TSi/RTi tier.
- Polk RTi A5 / RTi8 - hard to tell the difference between some of the Polk lines, like these. The A7's look nice though, but are out of the budget.
(at this point if I were to get any Polk speakers, I'd probably get one of the refurb sets from Polk Direct on eBay, which brings even the TSi 500's within budget, so feel free to recommend other Polks)
- Arx A3 - Top of the budget, but these also seem well reviewed. Planar tweeter is interesting and XBL woofers suggests they should do pretty well on the low end for 5.5" s
- Athena AS-F2 - when I stumbled upon these I was all excited, but they're no longer made. I like the prospects of dual 8's, but to get them, it's a matter of convincing someone on Craigslist to ship.
So which of those would you choose? Or would you pick something else entirely? In the same budget of course... $500 or less range.
Also, could you suggest a sub to go with whichever towers you recommend? I was originally wanting to get an Epik or Hsu, but I think we'll hold off on that until we live somewhere that we'd actually be able to use a sub like that. I know the Energy s10.3 is popular around here. What about the Polk 12" ?
Thanks for the help. I've been into high end car audio for a while, but this is my first home system, and I want it to be good.