OT: Help a guy out - Audio Speakers

[jtakeda]

Subscribing to this thread.

While having nothing to add besides saying "wanna join me in the hunt for AR-3s?"

I'm curious what good bookshelf speakers are out there

[pjm]

The Magnapans are great but you need lots of quality amplification and a big room to get the most out of them. The Elacs have gotten rave reviews and are also designed by Andrew Jones. For more money check out Totem Acoustics. Exceptional build quality and sound.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p1hAxMVpFQ8

[oliver1850]

I would lean towards replacing the surrounds on your woofers if kits are available. Check with original manufacturer or with parts-express.com. Parts-express also has lots of options for replacement drivers.

[efuentes]

parts-express.com have some very nice deals on drivers if you wanna have some fun designing and soldering stuff, have not tried the ready made sets that they have, worth a look.

Saludos

[Bob Ross]

A real sleeper but quite possibly the best "sweet spot" in terms of performance-per-dollar, is the Monitor Audio Silver series.

Dynaudio Acoustics makes some lovely sounding bookshelf speakers in a wide range of pricepoints.

Not cheap, but the Vienna Acoustics Haydn Grand is possibly the best sounding bookshelf speaker under $5,000 I've ever heard.

And B&W just recently discontinued their CM1 S2 (replaced by the brand new 700 Series) so if you can find a dealer with the CM1 S2 in stock they might be looking to move them at a bargain. Fabulous sounding bookshelf speaker (though a bit deep front-to-back).

[19wisconsin64]

Good source material plus good amplification plus good speakers equal great sound. The good news for audiophiles and the rest of everyone who listens to music is that because of technology improvements all of these things have advanced dramatically in the past 30 years and dropped down in price.

Source material used to be reel-to-reel, and album, and cassette, and then MP3 digital files. Now, there are super high resolution audio files that will be able to fit on your smartphone. Currently these files are very large, but technology marches on and storage /high res audio players are dropping quickly in price. (you can get a FiiO lossless high-resolution audio player for a few hundred, or an inexpensive no-name player for under a hundred). You'll be astonished at all of the intimate detail you were missing all these years, and once you hear these details, it's hard to go back poor sounding material.

Good amplification has changed dramatically too, and the new digital Class D amplifiers are inexpensive, powerful, small, and sound amazing. The traditional type of amplifiers are still amazing, and now better than ever-you can look into (new or used half-price) Music Hall amplifiers such as the a15.3 ($550 new, $350 used, and sounds as good as the best of the best.)

It used to be you could buy $100,000 electrostatic speakers and then another $50,000 on amplifiers and sources to get great sound, but those heady days are gone. While those bits of equipment do have extra fancy names, veneers, and gold plated extruded bits, they just don't sound that much better most of the time.

These days you can also cheaply stream wireless audio to your system from your smartphone or computer by adding a tiny bluetooth receiver to your amplifier. The new 5.0 version version of Bluetooth has great range and sounds great.

Whatever you do get, speaker placement.....so important to good sound!

Enjoy the music

[mcteague]

Interested in building them yourself? Linkwitz speakers are some of the best in the world at nice prices, if you assemble the kit. I have the older Orion speakers. They do require a bit of space around them. Once heard, you will never go back to box speakers again.

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/

Tim

[blakcloud]

Best bookshelf speakers I ever heard where Harbeth PS3R. I liked them so much I bought them. I have since gone up the line, spent more money and the new speakers sound better but I got more enjoyment out of the small Harbeths.

If you don't go bookshelves, then you could repair your woofers with new surrounds and it is a do it yourself type of job. YouTube has lots of videos on repairing drivers.

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

A real sleeper but quite possibly the best "sweet spot" in terms of performance-per-dollar, is the Monitor Audio Silver series.

Dynaudio Acoustics makes some lovely sounding bookshelf speakers in a wide range of pricepoints.

Not cheap, but the Vienna Acoustics Haydn Grand is possibly the best sounding bookshelf speaker under $5,000 I've ever heard.

And B&W just recently discontinued their CM1 S2 (replaced by the brand new 700 Series) so if you can find a dealer with the CM1 S2 in stock they might be looking to move them at a bargain. Fabulous sounding bookshelf speaker (though a bit deep front-to-back).

+1 on the Dynaudios.

[parris]

I've got 2 pairs of PSB largish bookshelf speakers that have served well over the years. The first pair are the 2B model and the second are the update B25.

The good gear that's out today appears to give us more for our money though. Although I don't need anything some of the offerings by the likes of Andrew Jones is VERY tempting.

As a couple of others have mentioned you could also buy a re foam kit for not much money and keep what you know you like... Provided the "boss" wouldn't be to adverse

[54ny77]

[one60]

Usher makes a great sounding, well built, front ported bookshelf speaker available in beautiful finishes for under $500. They received great reviews when they were introduced about 10 years ago.


http://www.audiofast.com/pdfs/AV%20Guide%20-S520.pdf

[Ken Robb]

I have been fortunate over the years to have some excellent local audio dealers who let me borrow components to "demo" in my home. This was especially helpful for choosing speakers because, as others have stated, placement is very important and I can think of two examples when speakers I loved in the store were unusable in my living room. I have been very happy with my Vandersteens for almost 40 years. First I had Model 2 and now 2CE Signature. I recently added a Vandersteen subwoofer that really wasn't necessary but I was going to a surround system and though "why not?" It adds some extra punch for noisy movie explosions, jets, starships, etc. but is really superfluous for any music except pipe organ notes from the longest pipes.

[William]

Thank you for the suggestions folks!

Time to do some homework on your suggestions to then pass on to my CFO.







William

(Shhhh, regardless of what we end up getting I'm going to repair or revamp my current floor speakers. Parts-express has lots of goodies and since I built these cabinets when I was in college I'm going to keep them alive in the man-cave.)

[bob heinatz]

New or used? If used check out Audiogon for a wide selection.