neilo13

I need some opinions and recommendations on speakers for my new setup. The salesman I am dealing with is hell bent on selling me B & W speakers, and while they seem to be high quality, they are a bit out of the price range I wanted to spend. I had been browsing crutchfield and it seems that Polk Audio's products are more in line with my budget. Can anyone offer advice one way or the other? Should I just spend the $$ for B & W or is there another, cheaper brand that is still good quality?

As a reference point, right now I have a Pioneer htiab and those speakers sound fine to me.

Brian Shannon

B&W are good quality speakers, I have them in two rooms.

In your post you do not say if you have listened to them? Have you? What do you think? Forget about what the salesman wants, make a choice you can live with.

What are you going to use to power your new speakers? If you intend to use the Pioneer HTIB then forget about the B&W's.

Sdallnct

What is your budget? And what are you going to drive them with?

IMO, nothing will effect the sound more then your speakers. And even good speakers sound different from one another. You really should make every effort to listen to speakers before purchase. As an example, I agree Polk makes a nice speaker. But I don't like them and would never buy them. Doesn't make them bad, just my preference.

B&W are an excellent speaker. And imo most I have heard are significantly different then the Polks I have heard. So I certainly wouldn't buy Polks without listening to them just because you know you like B&W.

My usual suspect list includes B&W, but also KEF, Celestion, Maggies, Mirage, and a few others.

For a great deal, you might look at NHT. These are excellent little speakers, but they are going out of business. I know sounds odd to recommend a speaker going out of business, but they are nice speakers.

There are also some deals on the very nice little Nanosats' from Mirage.

neilo13

I'll be purchasing a new receiver, either Pioneer Elite VSX-01TXH, Pioneer VSX-1018AH-K, or Denon AVR-1909 or AVR-2309CI.

I did listen to the B & W and while they sound good, I was not blown away. I'll try and get out to some other stores to demo some other speakers, as this guy is starting to tick me off with the B & W talk.

My budget for the speakers is to get 5.1, including sub for under $1000.

Thanks for your input so far everyone.

Sdallnct

May not be the best prices, but some ideas that should be in your range

http://www.svsound.com/products-sys-sbs_black.cfm

http://www.accessories4less.com/make...n-Black/1.html

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...ge-nanosat-5-1

http://www.listenup.com/NHT+Absolute...o-W-p-NHT.html

SoSpacey

How big is your room? Are there openings to other rooms?

parrotheads4

I'm just curious; I've never listened to NHTs. They are listed at 6 ohms. Does this require all speakers in the setup to be 6 ohms?

SoSpacey

i think that depends on the amp powering them. not positive though.

Spiky

No.

takingchase

http://www.yambekaaudio.com/

seriously get them. You will save a shitload of money and be extremely satisfied.

blued888

Nope, you can mix and match speaker impedance. The auto-calibration of your AVR will handle level matching or you can use a SPL meter to calibrate things.

The thing with speakers lower than 8-ohms is that they present a heavier load to your amplifier/AVR.

parrotheads4

Thank you for the knowledge.

shelland

I have the older version in my living room - only paid $165 for them. I am extremely happy with them for that price, and still would be for the new prices. There's a long thread about those at SatelliteGuys, which is where I heard about them. Customer Service is also very good - one of the speakers I received had a large crack in the cabinet, and I had a new one at my house 2 days later.

Although I have to admit if I was looking to spend in the $1,000 range, I'm not sure I would still go that route. You could always get them with a very nice sub and spend less than your budget, which is never a bad thing. The downside is that you can't listen to them ahead of time.

As Spiky said, the most important thing is what sounds good to you, not to any of us. If you listened to B&W and fell in love with them, then I would say by all means stretch your budget if you feel comfortable doing so. But if you're only thinking that they sound "OK", then don't be talked into spending more than you want.

When I was shopping for my system 7-8 years ago, I had listened to Polk and thought that was the direction I was going to go. After reading a lot about them, I decided to give Paradigm a listen. My mind was changed on the spot. I decided to spend more than I had planned because I absolutely loved them. But that was based on my opinion, not the salesman. What I got was about double your budget, but Paradigm does have several models lower than what I purchased. To get what I really wanted, I ended up buying a few pieces at a time. I didn't even have surround sound, so that was pure torture at the time, but it was heaven once complete.

Moral of the story - listen with your own ears, and stick with your budget unless you are blown away (and comfortable with increasing). A good salesman will listen to you and help find something to fit your needs, not try to talk you into something else. I had a great sales experience with my Paradigms - I was actually convinced to spend less than I had planned on my fronts.

Another note is that if you buy from a stereo shop, many have upgrade programs that would allow you to buy something at a lower price point, and then upgrade at a later time. I bought some Paradigm fronts, and then traded them in within a year toward a better pair - getting every penny of my original purchase price toward my trade. That can be very helpful when dealing with a budget.

parrotheads4

I just read a few reviews of the Yambeka's. A 7.0 setup for under $400? I have to hear these.

Edited to change from 7.1 to correct 7.0

Sdallnct

I didn't see that for $400 it included a sub...but anyway....

I'm actually thinking of changing out my Celestions in my media room. While I'm a KEF groupie, I'm thinking of going Nanosat's (around $350 for 5 of them) and adding a SVS or HSU sub ($300-$600 depending on which model I decide). I really shouldn't be doing it. But maybe...maybe not....LOL

SUPERMANROB

I agree with Shelland on this,use your on ears to determine what sounds good to you.
When I was shopping to upgrade, I auditioned many speakers over several months. I thought I had it down to Monitor Audio RS6's,they were very hard to beat for what you got for the money and they sounded great. Well I ended up listening to their Gold Series right next to them and it was a substantial difference and they were OUTSTANDING. We knew we would not be happy unless we went with the GS ones and we knew after listening to all the other speakers we would never upgrade again,so we stretched the budget and bought them.
Well what I'm getting at is go by what you hear and try to stay in your budget and if something just jumps out at you and you can afford them,then I say get them. hope this helps

Sdallnct

Monitor Audio

Spiky

Just about exactly $1000 right now. There is no comparison at this price.

Sdallnct

Have you actually heard those Spiky? I'm really curious. I'm pretty pleased with my speakers. I do know my weak link is my sub. I might mess with sub placement this weekend. I just watched Dark Knight at pretty good volume and not happy with sub. I know part of the problem is I have it sitting on my riser. And while my riser is solid, it is not rock solid. And I don't have it insulated or filled with sand or anything. I'm going to see if I can find a place on the main floor (carport over concrete slab) and see if that helps.

BTW, even tho I haven't heard the SVS speakers, I have them recommended on reputation and customer service alone.

Spiky

Not the speakers, yet. Trying to decide how to upgrade (read: where's the money), what to upgrade to. A tower version is due next month, which I'd be more interested in, I like my sub's high-pass set at 50Hz, so I want mains that go below that. I might have to start all over, go back to stereo in order to upgrade slowly, as I can afford it. The SVS M series looks interesting, Rocket 850s have caught my eye, Paradigm always a possibility......

But most don't understand just how important real bass is, thinking it's only .1 of the issue. It's more like half. I know what the subs sound like, I've owned 2. Maybe for your problem, there is a relatively cheap improvement:
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-Feed...8331110&sr=8-1

Sdallnct

Oh I totally agree. Bass is all that. Since I'm a KEF groupie most think I'm not into bass. But I am. I'm into quality, seamless, solid bass. My old KEF's did not get extremely low, but what they had were extremely tight and solid.

After watch Dark Knight last night, I watched some music. Dave Matthews in BD, A U2 and couple of others. My sub just doesn't seem to be working well in my system. Meaning, it is not seamless. When I hear it, it is boomy, directional and in your face. IMO, it should be seamless, almost unnoticeable other then the good solid bass you hear. It does have some settings I can play with.

I hear you about money to upgrade. And to me, that is the hard part "upgrade". Everything works....but. I really thought I "needed" new speakers. But I'm pretty pleased. Obviously I could upgrade, but not for the money I want to spend right now. I might be better off with a new sub and receiver.

Spiky

Try the BFD. Your problem sounds like exactly why it exists.

Sdallnct

Honstly, I haven't even heard of that....reading up on it now!

shelland

Here's the thread at SatelliteGuys: http://www.satelliteguys.us/v-receiv...peaker-ht.html

Keep in mind that thread started over 2 years ago with the first version. But that's the thread that turned me onto them, and I don't regret it a bit. I've had mine for about 2 years, and am very happy with them. I do have them in a living room, and don't drive them very hard. For hardcore home theater, we go to the family room with the Paradigm setup. Do they hold up to my Paradigms? No. But I spent $170 vs. $2200+, so keep it in perspective. I would gladly put them up against anything in a relative price range.