I’ve been looking for some good floor speakers and I have to admit I’m confused. Everywhere I go the salespeople try to push what they have in stock and bad mouth everything the other guys are selling (big shock, I know).
I’m considering Bang and Olufsen 6000’s or something from Vienna Audio, but at $5,000 - $7,000 for a set of 4, I want to be sure I’m getting my moneys worth.
I’d love to spend less if anyone has a specific recommendation.
So does anyone know of some good floor speakers for $1,000 - $2,000 a pair?
Planar/ribbon speakers that are phoenominal sounding for less-than outragous prices. I hear tell you can find em sometime on uBid.com for about $1200/pair, shipping included! These really are fantastic speakers.
My personal reccommendation is to spend less money. Unless you’re a recording engineer, or a DJ who needs near-absolute perfection of sound reproduction at VERY HIGH VOLUMES, you don’t need to spend anythng near this amount of money.
It’s very unlikely you will be able to tell the difference between a $300 pair of speakers, and a $3000 pair of speakers, at least in a volume range typical in home use. Premium prices give you speakers that will give better performance at the very edges of the performance envelop.
JVC makes excellent speakers. Bose sucks. Otherwise, trust your ears.
Your best bet for buying the best speakers for you is to bring a friend along. You want to go to a store where you can listen to the same piece of music through the same equipment, except being able to switch between several pairs of speakers. Have your friend switch the speakers, in a manner so you don’t know which pair are currently in use (blindfold, eyes closed, whatever it takes). Buy the pair that sounds best, and don’t worry of they aren’t terribly expensive.
I like B&W. the 600 series has some floor standers.
Tannoy is good
PSB makes a good bang for the buck speaker.
My current favorite speakers are KRK K-ROK studio monitors. I think they’ve been discontinued. They’re not that outstanding as studio monitors (or maybe it’s my room), but they’re great for just listening to music. I think I paid $500 for them.
At the shop you want to listen to speakers (or at least start) with a flat eq on the receiver/preamp. No bass or treble boost, no “loudness”, just see how it sounds all by itself. Bring your own music. Don’t let them sell you expensive speaker wire.
What you want is the Paradigm Reference Series. Pick the size that best matches the room, and you’ll have the best value in speakers in the world, and the best speakers you’re likely to hear for under $10,000. And a pair of them is under $2K. Read some of the reviews linked on that site.
Another vote for B&W 600 series. I’ve got some 603s and they are just lovely. They handle anything from Kind of Blue by Miles Davis to full on drum and bass without ever getting out of shape or losing detail. Their forte is classical music though, the separation of an orchestra is fantastic.
I’d debate not being able to tell between $300 and $3000 speakers. I might not be able to distinguish between $1500 and $3000 speakers, but with $300 and $3000, i’d take the pepsi challenge, at any volume level.
Don’t buy from anywhere that won’t let you sit down and listen to your own music for as long as you like on a range of speakers you might be buying. You might be able to buy cheaper over the net, or from stack 'em high sell 'em cheap retailers, but you might well end up with speakers you hate. speaker dynamics, and individual taste vary a great deal.
I’ve heard that Bang and Olufsen gear is overdesigned and overpriced, but i’ve never heard the kit you mention.
That last sentence would read much better as “some people say that Bang and Olufsen gear is overdesigned and overpriced, but i’ve never listened to the actual kit you mention”
And one more thing–I first heard it on the boards here and it still stands: audiophiles are insane–stereo salesmen are audiophiles that ALSO get a commission. Just get something that sounds good to you at a price you’re willing to pay and then leave it. Make sure it’s something reasonably reliable.
Personally, I have a pair of Infiniti’s and a pair of cheaper Polks as rear’s wired into my receiver and am deliriously happy with them. All four cost me much less than a $1000 and that works for me very well.
I have gone with Klipsch speakers and have been very satisfied. My current system is KLF-20s (L/R floor-standing), KLF C-7 (center), and RS-3s (L/R rear channel).
Klipsch speckers are very sensitive, meaning that you don’t need a 200 WPC amp to drive them. The horn tweeters are crystal clear, fantastic midrange, and the bass is solid.
The floor speakers retail for about $1500/pr. but look around. The smaller speakers are reasonably priced as well. Most audiophile stores will be willing to deal–when I bought an A/V receiver and the rear channel speakers, they threw in the center channel speaker for free.
My post from last night, here it is. A lot has already been covered, but what the hell.
Ah, the impossible question.
So any speakers, so many tastes. I’ll tell you one thing: for the money of the B&O’s, you can buy something a hell of a lot better. They just ook purty.
Vienna Audio is top class.
Ribbon speakers… can’t say I know a ot about them, so I’ll be quiet.
There’s tons of great speaker brands out there. I aways put in a pug for www.tannoy.com - excellent stuff for a great price.
But there’s no substitute for your own taste. Find a good, wel-sorted HiFi store, have them hook up a neutral amp and CD-player (Harman Kardonn or something, just something basic: or, your own stuff, if they carry it), and play a whoe bunch of your music. Bring CD’s! It’s amazing how much Slayer can suck on a set of speakers that brought a lump to your throat when playing The Lady in Red.
Keep in mind–there is no substitute for hearing a loudspeaker with your own ears (and preferably in your own system, should the dealer be a particularly accomodating one). Reviews will tell you very little, as will specs.
That having been said, there are several companies that make high-quality floorstanding loudspeakers in your price range, that you might not have heard of. They include, but are not limited to:
Meadowlark
Vandersteen
JM Reynaud
Triangle
Magnepan (planar/quasi-ribbon)
Rega
NHT
VMPS
JM Labs
Dynaudio
Epos
Spendor
Used loudspeakers in your price range would also include:
Dunlavy
Silverline
Von Schweikert
Alon
There are many others, but these should give you a good start. You might also check http://www.audiogon.com to see how much these and other speakers are going for.
Seeing as you are in Chicago, I would recommend you go to Audio Consultants up in Evanston. The people there are laid back and will discuss what your needs are instead of just selling you the most expensive thing they have. They also have a very very good used section ( I once got a pair of Klipsch speakers for $500)
There is an Audio Consultants in Chicago but the Ev location is better in terms of sales and selection.
Good luck!
Man, I wish I was in your shoes. I would love to have some money to spend on stereo equipment. Damn expensive wedding…
First suggestion (from left field): Build your own. If you want a fun project, are willing to learn and enjoy this sort of thing, you can get pretty amazing results building your own speakers. A lot cheaper, too. Plus you get a ton of cool audiophile geek points. But I can understand how this might not be for everyone.
Second… Really, the best thing is to buy a couple pairs, bring em home, listen to them on your system in your environment, and keep the ones you like best. There’s no substitution for listening on your own setup. Obviously, the dealer’s return policy becomes rather important when taking this approach.
Third… Since your in Chicago, you might also want to check out Saturday Audio Exchange. They do used and new stereo stuff and give good deals as their only open like 2 days a week. There’s a downtown and evanston location. I got a nice velodyne subwoofer from them on the cheap.
I promised you an update so here it is (sorry it’s so late).
Tannoy: Looked into them and they appear to be very good speakers. The problem was they are very difficult to locate in Chicago. After several e-mails with the local rep for the company I never even got the chance to listen to a pair.
B&W: Found a place near me that carried them (Sound Consultants in Clarendon Hills, IL, USA). Very nice people willing to spend time to go over the details of good speakers and let me listen to several brands and styles. Problem was they all sounded hollow, like there was some echo; could have been just me though.
Paradigm: Listened to them and fell in love. I got a pair of floor speakers, powered sub woofer and a very nice center channel for under $2500 which is what I was planning to spend on the B&O’s for just one pair.
So far I’ve ended up with:
Speakers – Paradigm Monitor 11’s with matching powered sub-woofer and center channel
Receiver - harmon/kardon AVR520
Connected to digital cable, PS2, and VCR
VERY happy with the results!
Thanks for all of the GREAT input and advice! Saturday I go to pick out the rear channel speakers – again Paradigm.
Sounds like you might not read this before you buy, so I’ll keep it brief.
The number one thing is to buy speakers that you’ve listened to in a competitive situation. Anything else, it’s just throwing money away. Go to a big city and listen at one of the audiophile showrooms. You’ll be glad you did.
If you like B&Ws you should definitely consider Vandersteen and Thiel. I own both, and probably will buy Thiel or B&W next time. (I’m not up on the latest speakers from the last 5 years, by the way, and I don’t know Paradigm, either.)
B&Ws, although I’ve only heard them in showrooms, do not sound hollow, so there was something wrong with the setup. B&W has made consistently excellent speakers for years.
