Master Bedroom Stereo Speakers

[RGA]

OK, we tried Polk LS7i speakers (mounted sideways), Infinity Alpha's, and the Epos ELS-3's over the holidays. I didn't want to introduce too many variables so I avaoided the lesser known brands (sorry, that was not meant to question any of your suggestions, I just didn't want to confuse my uncle.) While he's trying to be nice, I can tell he's not very impressed. The high mounting location is probably a problem and just won't sound as good as a pair of towers.

I do hear what he is hearing, though. They sound a little hollow and boomy, with a bit of emptyness in the midrange. So I'm going to go out on a limb with my next question: what if I were to install a pair of good quality & large center channel speakers to use as the left & right? After all, they are designed to be mounted sideways and tend to excel in the midrange, right? Some companies even sell center speakers that are the same as their L & R speakers (Aperion and Martin Login come to mind).

Thanks for all the good information & suggestions. P.S. we've decided to forgo the turntable as he won't be able to change records as easily as we had hoped.

IMO the mistake is NOT looking into the smaller companies. Center channels are a compromise speaker and not particularly good in themselvs. They are more to FIT a position and sorta match the front left and right speakers. Some may Match better than others but for classical music - yikes.

[topspeed]

Audition the VR1's. I'm using this in my mbr which is very close in dimensions to your friends, albeit it's more rectangular. They can be used close to the wall and have the best dynamics of any standmount I've heard under $1K, especially for their size. Definitely try to audition them as it sounds like they're what your friend is looking for.

[gonefishin]

IMO the mistake is NOT looking into the smaller companies.

I agree completely...there's a good number of smaller companies that have an extremely high price to performance ratio. The lower priced Audio-Note speakers easily fall into the good buy category.

have fun,

dan