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Gregn
07-10-2004, 09:05 AM
I currently have an old Yamaha receiver and a couple of big old and ugly Kenwood speakers that my wife says have to go because they don’t match our decor. This system seemed to crank pretty good to me. Our room is about 15 x 25 with windows on the long side. She would prefer small speakers that don’t take up much space. We listen mostly to rock music but do enjoy home theatre as well. We went out and bought a Sony home theatre in a box, set it up at home and were not happy at all so we packed it up and took it back. We agreed that we will not down grade. We started auditioning speakers at the local dealers here in Vancouver BC and were kind of leaning Towards the Energy Encore’s for $1250 in Black (Preferred Color to Match Our Decor) or maple for $1000.
We then auditioned some paradigm speakers and were told that if we want room filling sound for stereo music we should go with floor Speakers. The shop I went to has some 7 month old Paradigm’s Taken in on trade they consist of studio 100s v3, cc570, and matching ADP for $2600 Canadian in black to math our decor The wife says if we need floor speakers these are acceptable as they do look very sleek we also seen some Studio 100s v2 for $1600 but she did not like the look of them, they sounded very nice.
We have been leaning toward a black receiver as well, do you think a black receiver
Will have enough power for these speakers? All kidding aside we have been looking at the Yamaha RX-V650 or 750 with YPAO or an Onkyo or Denon in the same price range
Without YPAO? If we do go with the paradigm speakers will these mentioned receivers power them ok. This is a good $1000 more than we wanted to spend and we still don’t have a DVD player I would. Do we need to spend this much to fill this room with good sound? Another option may be to just buy main speakers and a good receiver for music and get the surround speakers later. I asked the dealer that has the used paradigm speakers if he would sell them separately and he said no, he didn’t want to break up the family.
Thanks in advance for your help and I hope this isn’t to long winded.

Greg

Bryan
07-12-2004, 07:54 AM
For music, towers can be preferable. However, a bookshelf/sub combination can work very well too. As you live in Canada, look towards Energy, Axiom, Paradigm, and PSB. You should be able to get a discount on a Paradigm PW-2200 or 2100 subwoofer. If you enjoy both the sound and look of the 100s v3 then they are probably the speakers for you. A Denon AVR-2805 or Yamaha RX-V650 (would take it over the 750 as there doesn't seem to be much difference) should be more than enough to power them.

Another possibility could be the Rocket (http://www.av123.com) ELT bundle package though you may have to wait a while for black to become available. I would upgrade the receiver to the 2805 (includes the 1804) and the sub to the UFW-10. Downside would be shipping. Ask around the AV123 forum and see if anyone lives near you and is willing to let you audition them.

Gregn
07-16-2004, 08:37 AM
I stopped at a local dealer yesterday and they had some Athena S3C speakers with P3C powered subs for 1250.00 Cdn, What do you guys think of these speakers? They seem like a pretty cool system with the detachable sub. They also have last years model Onkyo 701 receiver 125 watts per channel for $699.00 Cdn They are much cheaper than the studio 100’s, do you think they are as good.

Thanks
Greg

sy_lu
07-16-2004, 09:10 AM
I would say Paradigm would be a better choice over Energy. Have not listened the Athena to make comment on it.