New speakers.. need suggestions

[ronning]

My current setup:
4x Infinity Delta 60 3-way towers
Infinity Interlude 10" subwoofer
Infinity Delta Center
Yamaha 5760 receiver
Philips 5-disc sacd/dvd changer
Denon DP-45F Turntable

I love my setup. These old infinitys with their EMIT tweeters are a rare find and I love having 4 matching towers for home theater. *BUT*

I've moved into an apartment in Seattle and these things just take up *way* too much room. It's really out of control.

I've been thinking about new speakers anyway, and I'm looking for some good suggestions. I'd like to start by buying a stereo pair and then upgrade that later with matching speakers for home theater (so a set that has a center channel within the product range would be ideal).

I'm looking at slim towers, a la Definitive Mythos. I haven't heard them yet (going tomorrow) but like their style and the price for the Mythos 4's is about my budget. If I could I'd like to stay under $1000 for the pair.

Today I heard a pair of *new* Infinity Beta's (6-1/2" 3-ways) and a bunch of PolkAudios at Frys. I have to say I was not expecting the Polks to pretty much blow the Infinitys out of the water (at least to my taste). The Polk RTi12 were by far the best set there, but a tad on the big/expensive side for what I'm looking for.

If possible, I'd like slim without sacrificing bass - maybe some side-firing subwoofer towers? (DefTech or Boston?)

Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions so i can do a little research before talking to salespeople at Magnolia or Definitive Audio.

Thanks!


P.S. Anybody want some Infinity Deltas...?????

[killacam42015]

i dont kno if youve ever hered of the jamo brand but i have some floorstanding speakers they are the x550's and they are just two 6 and a half inch woofers in each and they bang.
the x 870 are basically the same but it has a side firing woofer and the price is 350$. i dont kno nuthin about them but i like mine. :)


here is a link to see them
http://jamo.com/Default.asp?ID=3825&M=Shop&PID=10705&ProductID=16694

[topspeed]

There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread. (http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=10906&page=1&pp=25) You might also consider some Maggie MMGW's that can hang on a wall. If you really want to stay slim line, NHT ST4's are worth a listen, or you might consider B&W FPM's. I'd stick with a standmounts personally, and the most dynamic I've heard is this Von Schweikert VR1 (http://vonschweikert.com/vr1.html) which is measured down to 40hz (the FR graph for each speaker is included). A lot of great options tho.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

[Duds]

As a proud new owner of Von Schweikert VR-1's, I have to agree with Topspeed. Although I just got them and they dont have even close to the recommended 100 hours of break in time on them, they sound awesome!! build quality is excellent as well


There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread. (http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=10906&page=1&pp=25) You might also consider some Maggie MMGW's that can hang on a wall. If you really want to stay slim line, NHT ST4's are worth a listen, or you might consider B&W FPM's. I'd stick with a standmounts personally, and the most dynamic I've heard is this Von Schweikert VR1 (http://vonschweikert.com/vr1.html) which is measured down to 40hz (the FR graph for each speaker is included). A lot of great options tho.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

[ronning]

Does anybody know anything about these Jamo speakers? They look a bit... "cheap" or "fake" to me.. (not to knock the guy who suggested them, but they just don't look very trustworthy, "bose-wise"...)

??

[ronning]

So I did a little auditioning today...

I finally found a store other than Frys or Best Buy.

Today I went to Magnolia HiFi...er... I mean Magnolia Audio|Video and took a look around. I narrowed my choices based on size/price/performance to the following models:

Boston Acoustics VR3 3-way tower speakers, $940/pair
sound: nice, wide, good clear and beautiful mid range, bright hi end with a little harshness, a little lacking in bass oomph.

Definitive Technology BP65 $520/pair
sound: nice, open (bipole) soundstage, impressive bass for small woofers, kind of lacking in midrange - good price, though!

Definitive Technology BP7006 $1199/pair
sound: mostly similar to the BP65's but with a lot more bass oomph - a little boomy (active sub built in and obviously the level set higher than it should be). A great home theater speaker, but really expensive for what they are (apparently you pay a lot for that active sub!)

Then I went over to Definitive Audio (*much* better!) and had a long discussion with the salesman. We narrowed the selection down to 2 speakers:

Paradigm Monitor 7 Tower $750/pair
sound: bright, clear, open, wide, low extension but not boomy, good clear midrange

Paradigm Studio 20 *BOOKSHELF* $800/pair
sound: a little warmer with a more powerful midrange, wide open sound, but most of all a much more defined soundstage. amazing soundstage in fact, rivaling some much higher end speakers. instruments and voices were accurately placed. the bass was boomy but without low extension (because they were literally sitting on a shelf and against the wall)

Conclusions thus far:

The Paradigms definitely beat everything I've heard up until now. The Bostons are close but too harsh in the treble. It was interesting to compare the two different Paradigm models. Obviously the best would be the $1700/pair Paradigm Studio TOWERS, but that's stretching the budget a bit. The bookshelfs sounded amazing, but just didn't have the bass extension

I'm still looking for more places to audition more...

Suggestions still welcome!

[RGA]

You're in Seattle try Soundhounds in Victoria BC as a place to audition that way you can hear some of these brands and others directly against eachother in the same room with the same gear.. http://www.soundhounds.com/

I would suggest with any speaker that you make sure the room and postitioning are fair to the speaker -- if it seems pretty impressive then spend sevreal hours with each. You want something you don;t want to upgrade in a year. the rest is up to you.

[Greekguy]

At any price point, Paradigm speakers are very hard to beat. If you don't want to waste too much time researching it, Paradigm is a choice you would be very happy with. You could maybe do a bit better at your price point if you really spent a lot of time looking into it, but I'm partial to Paradigms myself.... after all, they don't get all the great reviews for no reason. Their Studio v3 line is definitely worth the money, and they're pretty efficient too. As long as you've got 100w per channel driving them, you'll like them.

[Woochifer]

Since you were at Magnolia, I'm surprised you didn't try any of the Vienna Acoustics, Sonus Faber, or Martin Logan models. If you like the Paradigm Studio 20, you might want to give the Vienna and Sonus Faber standmounts a listen just for comparison.

Seems like you're looking for some extra bass extension on the Studio 20, does you local dealer have the Studio 40 available for demo? That speaker very well might meet your particular preferences (the previous version of the Paradigm Studio series is what I use in my 5.1 setup). It sacrifices a little bit of that pinpoint imaging and wonderfully wide and transparent soundstage that you get with the Studio 20, and adds lower extension and a little more punch in the midbass. I would strongly suggest that you try those two speaker models at home.

If your room at home is smaller than the dealer's demo room, then the Studio 20 at home will likely give you much stronger sounding bass because of the low end reinforcement that you get from the boundaries in small rooms. Conversely though, a small room is also likely to generate more uneven and potentially boomy sounding bass as well because of standing waves. The Studio 20 in a large room has very accurate bass all the way down to where it starts to drop off. Obviously, you want more, so you can either go with a larger Studio series model like the Studio 40 or 60, or consider adding a subwoofer.

There are plenty of audio dealers in and around Seattle. Make a weekend of it and visit as many of them as possible so you can see what else is out there. Just make sure that you bring your own CDs and DVDs, so that the comparisons are somewhat consistent (can't be totally consistent unless the speakers are all listened to in the same room, using the same front end rig). Also, if you're open to the idea of building a DIY speaker kit, Adire Audio is located out in Lynnwood. Check with them and see if they have anything setup in their office or warehouse that you can listen to.