Which House Speakers?

[bangers]

I'm looking to get new speakers for my lounge room. Which brands are good? I don't really want to go over $2000 - $3000. I just bought a $800 Onkyo amp and my mate reckons you should get all the same brand. I thought you were meant to mix and match to get the best sound. Is he right? I need to get a full surround set that sounds good with digital surround sound. I prefer to get front tower speakers as i think towers sound better then those little box type. And they look the business too. Are Klippsh(sp?) any good? Are Onkyo speakers good? What brand should i look into buying?

[AttaBoy]

Harmon Kardon is a good brand to consider. Sony aren't too bad either.

[Scooter79]

Have you set yourself a price limit? I remember seeing an ebay store selling brand new Accusound speakers for around $500 for a full set. Included 2 fronts, center, 2 rears and an active sub. Looked at retail and they were over $2000. For electronics, ebay may be worth considering.

[welly01]

i got a pair of jensons.. stand about 4' high ..realy stylish looking speakers with or without covers .. also got a pair of bose bookshelf speakers ..it really depends om what you want to do with them really ..music ..play movies or both ..which is where the mix an match comes in .. my advice is pay as much as you can for the best qaulity you can get ..and then add to them as you go .. dont go out and but surround sound crap ( no offence to anyone) because you basically pay top dollar for and average to poor quality system .. go to a stereo centre ..sit down ..take a copy of something you like with you and have a good listen through various speakers .. dont make up your mind after just one ! .. listen to them all.. and remember that the room will be different to what you have at home ..so ask the guy lots of questions .. make him earn his money!.. the jensons were selling for $1600 pair .. i got him down to $1000 no problem ..and try various shops also if they dont budge much on the asking price .. good luck !

[bezz]

my mates got a real nice set of floor standing B&W (Bowers & Wilkins) speakers that make me very jealous.

[crazyspoon05]

Don't dismiss or judge any particular brand of speakers because of the name or others opinions, best thing to do is to take a couple of your favourite DVD's and CD's to some specialist stores and road test a range of brands, you know the music and movies you're supplying so can tell what sounds good to your ears and then make a short list and try to get the best price possible for what you choose

Getting speakers that sound good for yourself and suit the acoustics of the room you are setting it up in is far more rewarding than buying speakers on the recommendations of others and not really getting the full enjoyment out of your system when you use it

[bangers]

Originally Posted by bezz

my mates got a real nice set of floor standing B&W (Bowers & Wilkins) speakers that make me very jealous.

what did they cost?

[commsirac]

A quality amp should drive most main stream speakers well. There can be some more challenging speakers that give some amps, even quality ones problems.....though with a budget of $1-2000, you probably arent going to end up with a speaker that presents a difficult load.
Best thing is to go to a hifi shop and get them to demonstrate what they can offer you for the money. Ive heard many $2000 speakers that leave me cold.....and dont represent better sound than some $500 speakers.
Also try stores that sell 2nd hand hifi. There are many speakers twenty years old or more that can be got for less than a $1000 that you'd need to spend five times as much on to get the equivalent sound in a new speaker. The cost of making quality speakers hasnt come down like other areas of home entertainment, Id say new quality speakers dont really start till you pay over $5000. I went through this all myself recently, when deciding to upgrade my IMF tranmission line monitors(1980s english speaker). I paid only $800 for them 2nd hand in the early 90s, but found there was nothing under $5000 grand that even came close. I actually purchased some apogees with ribbon tweeters for just a fraction of their new cost(be ~ $5000+ new in todays money).........still exciting to listen to three years later, and sold the IMFs for about $1000.....they were a great buy at that price.

Listen to some of the electrostatics,(though they can be difficult to keep working properly if they are 20 years+).

[bezz]

Originally Posted by bangers

what did they cost?

about a grand for a base model set. He paid $120 at a garage sale... score of the century

[juzo]

I've got canton in my lounge room, had them for 5 years and are very happy.Cost around the $2000 mark with sub when i purchased them.

[Starkey]

bose.................

[bezz]

Originally Posted by Starkey

bose.................

way overrated imo, so much better out there for the money. They seem to concentrate more on asthetics nowadays.

[Ripcell]

for decent quality, welling, jensen, wharfedale

for cheap ****, sony

just remember if your getting good quality stuff to get a good amp to drive it

[*VOLATILE*]

IS Boston Acoutics still around? They were the bomb a few years back. I thought they kicked butt on my old man's system.