Speaker Recommendations ???

[GTucker]

I am upgrading from my old AR 3A's, with a dynaco pre amp, power amp to a 5.1 system.
I have a new av receiver, Onkyo TX-SR705. I am looking for some speaker recommendations. The room is 25 X 18 and it has two large 6 foot doors on one of the long sides.
I am looking to spend around $3,000.00 (+ or - $500). My interest is primarily music, but I am bowing to my family's desire to have a home theatre so both needs must be satisfied.
Thanx for any suggestions.

[Mr Peabody]

I'd recommend giving a listen to Paradigm, Polk or possibly B&W. The Onkyo could drive some Audience series Dynaudio but it would take your entire budget for sure. The Onkyo is a nice receiver but there's no reason to go over board on speakers, I mean I wouldn't buy beyond what your receiver is capable of making use of. On the flip side, don't go buying any of those packages where they put 3 1/2 or 4" drivers in the center speaker. Don't go with anything less than 5 1/4" drivers. Also, your room is pretty good size so stay with a speaker with a sensitivity above 88dB.

[swwdts]

You may also want to look into buying the Bose 6.1 systems.

[nightflier]

I think swwdts was joking about the Bose. And if he wasn't, shame on him.

As a former Onkyo owner, I can say that their amps tend to be on the dry & bright side of the spectrum, so you would be best off with a set of speakers that have more warmth and depth to compensate. In that respect, the Dynaudio Audience series is probably a good match, although they are hard to drive speakers. Although I haven't heard them, I've also heard that B&W's entry level speakers will fit your needs - if you go second hand, you could move up the B&W lines to something fancier, although I get the feeling from your post that you do want to buy new.

I am a big fan of Quad and Vienna speakers and I think these will work well with the Onkyo. The Quads, although rated at 6 ohms, are easily driven by an 8 ohm amp, especially one with the power ratings of the Onkyo. Vienna's Bach tower speakers are beautiful sounding speakers and the matching center (forgot the name) and Waltz speakers for the rears would make for a very nice system. Epos and KEF are other manufacturers you could consider as well.

Overall, look for speakers that present an easier load to drive for the amp: preferably 8 ohms and 89 dB of sensitivity. Then do some auditions and find the best full-sounding you like.

[Smitty 50]

I actually sell onkyo receivers the 705 seems to match up well with pinnacle bd 2500's the also sound really well with klipsch rf83's and kef 205/2's. the pinnacles are really warm and the most natural sounding of the three.

[drseid]

I am upgrading from my old AR 3A's, with a dynaco pre amp, power amp to a 5.1 system.
I have a new av receiver, Onkyo TX-SR705. I am looking for some speaker recommendations. The room is 25 X 18 and it has two large 6 foot doors on one of the long sides.
I am looking to spend around $3,000.00 (+ or - $500). My interest is primarily music, but I am bowing to my family's desire to have a home theatre so both needs must be satisfied.
Thanx for any suggestions.

My Dad used to own a pair of AR3s and he kept those guys for a VERY long time as he found their sound much better than a lot of the newer stuff out there. I had to end up building him a pair of towers to get him to switch...

With a top budget of $3500, there are a lot of choices out there... One possibility is a pair of these Tyler Acoustics Freedom F-3s at $1700/pr. for your Front L/R (perfect for music listening when the whole HT is not in use):http://www.tyleracoustics.com/Images/speakers/Freedom/F3LG.jpg

A matching Tyler Acoustics Freedom FC-2 Center for $600:http://www.tyleracoustics.com/Images/speakers/Freedom/FC2LG.jpg

A pair of Tyler Acoustics Freedom F-2 Mini-monitors for the rear L/R at $850/pr.:http://www.tyleracoustics.com/Images/speakers/Freedom/F2LG.jpg

And finally hide this "ugly" SVS Subwoofer Cylinder 23-31 PCi sub at $549 for HT use only behind some furniture:http://www.svsound.com/products/subs/pci-power-25-31/big1.htm

Link to SVS:http://www.svsound.com/products-sub-cyl-pcpow3.cfm

Link to Tyler's Freedom Line page:http://www.tyleracoustics.com/freedom.html

All this would put you a couple hundred over budget, but I am pretty sure Tyler Acoustics will negotiate (especially when you are talking multiple products like in this scenario). I am sure after a minute or two you could be back in-line with the top of your target overall spend.

Good luck...

---Dave

[Mr Peabody]

The Onkyo actually has one of the highest current amp sections of most any mass merchant receiver. It won't have the trouble that some receivers might driving a higher end speaker, including the Audience series. I just don't know if one would get the value of such a speaker using a receiver. There have been good suggestions, he will just have to do some listening. Hopefully, limiting the variables as much as possible. I would either try for in home auditions, of at least a pair of mains, or take some of these places up on the 30 day return policy. In your home is where your best evaluation will be.

[GTucker]

Thank you all. I appreciate your input. I have gone to listen to some systems. I have not liked the Polks I've heard, but all they had was very low end. I stopped at a higher end store that primarily had B&W and Martin Logan. I liked the B&W 700s but the 5.1 system priced out at $5500. There is no place nearby that has Paradigm, the one concern listed as a dealer was in reality a home theater designer/builder and no equipment on display, although he assured me he would competitively price a Paradigm system for me if I heard it somewhere else. It would be very helpful to know where I can find the Pinnacle 2500bds, the Klipsch RF83s, or the KEF 250/2s 5.1 speaker systems in the price range I indicated. I am certain the Quads and the Vienna Acoustics are nice, but I have not been successful in locating them anywhere near Southeast Michigan and no good pricing information. I wish I could go to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, but unfortunately I have a conflict for those dates. I will try to find another way to hear the Tylers. With their excellent 30day risk free trial, I may try the Aperion Intimus 633 Concert XD (with one subwoofer). I was also interested in the Axiom Epic 80/500 system and although they are located in Michigan, I have not been able to determine if they have a listening room. Thank you all again for your info.

[PeruvianSkies]

Thank you all. I appreciate your input. I have gone to listen to some systems. I have not liked the Polks I've heard, but all they had was very low end. I stopped at a higher end store that primarily had B&W and Martin Logan. I liked the B&W 700s but the 5.1 system priced out at $5500. There is no place nearby that has Paradigm, the one concern listed as a dealer was in reality a home theater designer/builder and no equipment on display, although he assured me he would competitively price a Paradigm system for me if I heard it somewhere else. It would be very helpful to know where I can find the Pinnacle 2500bds, the Klipsch RF83s, or the KEF 250/2s 5.1 speaker systems in the price range I indicated. I am certain the Quads and the Vienna Acoustics are nice, but I have not been successful in locating them anywhere near Southeast Michigan and no good pricing information. I wish I could go to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, but unfortunately I have a conflict for those dates. I will try to find another way to hear the Tylers. With their excellent 30day risk free trial, I may try the Aperion Intimus 633 Concert XD (with one subwoofer). I was also interested in the Axiom Epic 80/500 system and although they are located in Michigan, I have not been able to determine if they have a listening room. Thank you all again for your info.

Keep us posted on your progress.

[Mr Peabody]

I can't remember where this guy was at in Michigan but you might try to call Venus Hi Fi to see what he has access to.

I know they wouldn't work for you but did you listen at all to the ML's? If so, what did you think?

[GTucker]

He is up in Lansing. He handles Jean-Marie Reynaud speaker systems and System Audio (a scandinavian firm). I am not terribly familiar with either. The MLs in a range I could afford sounded thin. As if part of the fabric of the sound just was not there. The more expensive pair they had did not have that problem but the pair would have cost more than twice my entire budget for the speaker system. I believe they were ML Prodigies. I did think the base fell off a little early and that a really good sub to match the rest of the sound quality would be essential. In part the room may have been contributing to that.

[Mr Peabody]

I'm not familiar with those either. Does he still carry Audio Note?

What amps did they use to drive the ML's? Their models with an 8" woofer does seem to roll off some low frequencies. The larger models with a strong amp have ample bass. They have some amplified models that will operate from a preamp level which are nice but as you noticed, one set of mains would eat up your budget. Set up properly though the ML's can sound outstanding.

[GTucker]

I don't know, but he doesn't have them listed on his website.

They had four different rooms set up. The room with the most expensive speakers had a pre-amp feeding power amps on a rack and a switching board to select the speakers being used. I did not see a name. The two rooms that were HT's with a couple of sets each room had denon, yamaha, and marantz. The fourth room room which had pairs of speakers mostly intended for stereo or moderately priced fronts used an older marantz.

[GTucker]

Progress. I decided to order an Aperion System. After a great deal of research, they were alone in providing a zero risk trial (including shipping cost). The closest anyone else came that I could find, made that offer for a couple of speakers but not for all. Rightly or wrongly that shows a great deal of confidence in their product. I ordered 4 633T's, the 634 center and the S12 sub. Out of the box, they sound better than anything close to their price, before burn-in, before tuning /balancing the system; that I was able to listen to. After I have had more of a chance to listen, after I have had a chance to properly adjust, I will get back to you with whether they are good enough or I need to send them back and reach more deeply into my pocket. My initial impression is that they have the possibility of being good enough. The 1812 is an old favorite, I have actually heard cannon live and the S12 did a beautiful job with the cannon and lower register of the carillon.

[Mr Peabody]

Good deal, hope it works out for you and maybe your rec will bring them some more business.