Does Best Buy have decent enough speakers?
 

I have been looking for speakers for a while and had decided to save for PSB speakers. But I just got the 10% off coupon from Best Buy and thought maybe I could just buy some speakers from there. I have a Onkyo TX-SR600 that has been in the box for about 2 months now and I am getting really pumped to use it. I was going to spend about $1300 on the PSB but is there a decent speaker I could buy at BB that would be somewhat comparable? Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

IMHO the answer is NO.

The speakers are the most important part of the home theater (again imho). A giant screen will lose its luster if the sound is of poor quality and the sub bass is lacking.

Save your money and do this . . .

Go to Best?Buy and listen to speakers (if you can). Take notes. Go to Circuit City and listen to speakers, take note etc.

Visit some audio stores in your area and do the same. Trust your ears, take demo material that you are familiar with.

Dont rush! Good luck!

Heartily agree. Be patient and get the PSB's. I'd also recommend auditioning Paradigm's. You will thank yourself a thousand times over for being patient. The stuff at Best Buy is far inferior.

James

They carry the JBL Studio series which have received many great reviews. I own Studio series all around and in my opinion these speakers cannot be beat for the money. That being said, I would still avoid Best Buy because even with %10 off you can buy these speakers cheaper online from authorized dealers (J and R, etc.).

J

stereotypes ( :lol: ) and generalizations about brand are all to common but I can tell you there are diamonds to be found for someone that wants to do the work.

I have designed for dozens of companies some that are well respected some that are not. Do we design different for different brands? No, so the idea of an entire brand being good or bad is sometimes a bit off.

On the positive about the larger chains is they require lower margin, which means your money, buys more material content.

On the negative about the larger chains is they carry lower price point product and have bad listening environments.

Brand is more to do with pride of ownership then actual quality. The JBL's for example are very well engineered product that have had to go through many blind listening against the competition by trained and tested professional engineers before making it to the markets.

In the end you need to go listen and compare. One idea would be buy both and listen at home and return the ones that you like least.

I also have a set of JBL's from Best Buy that were bought separately (meaning I didn't buy an HT boxed package) and sound matched. They aren't the best I've ever heard, but they are very good speakers for the money. Remember, you could always do much worse too.

My speakers are about three years old, so I would imagine that the newer models are slightly better. I still think my 12" sub is better than their newer models though. They don't make that one any more.

I even have a couple of Yamaha bookshelf speakers that are used in a bed room. Even they aren't too bad. I'd stay away from the other brands that they sell though. i.e. Bose, CV, KLH, and Sony. I found all of them to be poorly constructed and poor sounding.

Page 22 of the latest Home Theater mag has a 2 page ad proclaiming that Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend only use the JBL Studio series.

From what I understand in the reviews I have read, these are (can be) pretty nice speakers for the money.

Of course, I think Pete Townsend is now legally deaf.

Harman sponsored the Who tour so I would look at the ads with that knowlege.

best buy's speakers stink. except for jbl speakers, all there speakers are crap. circuit city got nicer speakers, polks, infinitys.

are there better speakers out there? sure, but to make a sweeping generalization and say they all stink is just wrong. The Studio series JBL's are quite nice, The Cerwin Vegas are arguably the best speakers for the money, Yamaha speakers have beautiful Highs, but the bass isnt fantastic, but that can be corrected w/ a vega or JBL sub. They also have Bose speakers, but you'll hear different things about them.

Basically if you were looking @ 1300 you could get:

SUB
http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=...cat=15&scat=18

Center
http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=...cat=15&scat=19

Fronts
http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=...cat=15&scat=17

Rears
http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=...cat=15&scat=16

Only thing Bestbuy has is JBL and the Bose. I got the JBL's from Bestbuy since I wanted large speakers. However, I would go with the Goodguy's or Circuit City.

No.

If you must go to a Best Buy type of place to get speakers, go to Circuit City instead.

I have to agree, CC caries some very nice infinitys for the $ and have nicer listening rooms, at least around here..

is the decision to maybe buy at BB a result of the coupon? i am confident that an authorized PSB or Paradigm dealer would be able to give you 10-15% off list of those speakers, which would be much better for the money, IMHO

Okay here is the deal this is what a dealer of PSB speakers gave me I can get :

2 - 4t
2 - image 2Bs
1 - Image 8C
1 - Subsonic 5

All for $1300 is that a good deal? Beacuse now I am considering going with JBL of possibly Infinity. Thanks for all your responses it has made my decision more difficult but at least I am more informed.

Absolutely, if that is an authorized dealer. You may want to consider the Image 5T and the Image 9C so you have 6.5's all around, for a modest price increase. At that price range, I think PSB is the best you can get. Paradigm and B&W come close. I personally think that JBL and Infinity are a ways behind. I believe many people were recommending them because you seemed to want to purchase from a large chain store.

Teddydogg

If I were you I would go to your PSB dealer and see if you can take the stores front demos home over a weekend. Most high end stores will allow you to do this with a deposit on your cc. Usually from saturday afternoon till monday. Then buy a pair of the JBL fronts at a store with a liberal return policy. Spend sunday listening to both pairs, see how they sound with female vocals, movie soundtracks and most importantly the music you listen to. Listening to them in your home is the only way you will know for sure. If you don't like them don't feel guilty about returning the JBL's either. If the chain stores would have a decent listening room, and knowledgable salespeople, you would not have to go through this. I still recommend checking into Paradigm's as well. One thing to remember, try and make sure your fronts and center use the same tweeters, and mid-range drivers otherwise you can end up with some serious dialog problems. Remember too do not be deceived if one speaker sounds louder at the same volume level than the other. This does not make it better sounding just a bit more efficient, which you will usually find on lower end speakers. Good luck.

James

Funny, the B&W are very popular, but I have found that many have a laid back sound. I would not discount the JBL or the Infinity for PSB or Paradigm. They are all about the same in material content. The Harman brands have much better industrial design but I would listen all of these because each has its own character. Find a few tracks that you know well, try for something a little mellow so you can hear instruments clearly and have fun comparing.

I would disagree with that they have the same material content. Paradigm designs and builds all their own drivers. JBL and Infinity do not.

James

I am a big fan of B&W. I have owned several pairs of them. Although this is another can of worms like the cable debate, B&W speakers are best after being broken in. The also benefit from good high current clean power.

People should not be so general. Some BB speakers are great for the money. With that said, every person will like one speaker more than another, because everyone's hearing is different. Me, I like B&W, Magnepan, Mirage, and Martin Logan, but some people will not like my speakers. Listen to each one first, and choose what you like best that fits your BUDGET. It is all about taste, not stores. Now that being said, most people consider the BB speakers to be fairly low end, but that is just based on model and price, not listening.

KLH speakers
 

Could anyone give my any input on how good the KLH speakers are - I'm looking into getting the KLH AV5001....

http://www.bestbuy.com/imagePopup.as...pg&w=274&h=402

here's a pic on amazon w/o the cover (they seem to have a fairly good review of them) -

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...st=electronics

KLH are really not good speakers (at least IMO), for $200 you should be able to find a much higher quality pair.

rotfl

Um, funny I always wondered what those driver lines were making for the 11 years I worked there. I guess they were paperweights. ;)

They do out source some of the speakers drivers but all are designed in house. If the product is made in the US or Mexico plants then most of the drivers are theirs. If the product is made in China then the drivers were outsourced

BUT

The same goes for Paradign. I have seen their product being made in a factory in Shenzen, China. Now, not all of their stuff is made there but some is. Sorry to break the news :)

Maybe you do not understand material content. I am not biased by brand marketing. I have been designing speakers for 17 years for many brands and what I am talking about is not to do with the overhead of who makes the stuff. It is the cost of the actual materials used. The engineering is a totally different topic. Dont care how good the engineer is the budget for materials is always the limiting factor. We all try our hardest to get more room for materials. If that means building in China and then we can use bigger magnets, better diaphrams or thicker cabinets then is this better or worse?

You should know that Harman has the best design facility in the industry as many magazines pointed out last year after they did a press tour of the new engineering facility.

Also, Paradigm has offered nothing to the science of speaker design while the Harman has many patents and innovative designs. Also Harman engineers have many published papers with the Acoustical Engineering Society.

I not a big supporter for them- crap I quit after 11 years because of the politics and the impact it had on the product. But reality and marketing are two TOTALLY different topics.

Brian, strictly a personal impression from the few models which we have tested (all old stuff) and the 2 times I have listened to the new 801's. Clearly they are the market leader for a good reason and they have excellent engineers and product.

Re: KLH speakers
 

KLH are promotional models and should be looked at as aentry level. There is much better stuff to be found for just a fraction more.