Which Speakers ? under $600

[G.Dyer]

At the risk of continually being a one note wonder - but what the hell I'm right most of the time then i would suggest the Audio Note AX Two which is $549.US and or the PQ Signiture version of the speaker for $999.00(I have not heard the latter though). The speaker can be used with SS amplification effectively, it is hand made in Denmark using Vifa drivers.

I listened side by side with the B&W 705 and EPOS and interestingly the Wharfedale (side by side I mean one after another) and I did find the Wharfedale's to be good value for money - but it's not exactly God's gift to the speaker world.

The AX Two is 90db easy to drive and unlike most speakers sounds very good at low volumes and doesn;t need to be turned up to make things out. Excellent bass response quality wise to ~50hz but tuneful and bodied for a smallish spekaer.

Dynaudio Audience 42 is my other pick but tough to drive - your amp might have trouble with the 4ohm load however so I would consider it if you can drive them to acceptable levels - very good in the price range. If you ever think to go tubes or SET the AX Two is the one to go for if not the AX Two is still the one to go for because it's cheaper Easy to drive.

Just kidding - AN is tough to find and you may not want to bother - Dynaudio is higher frequency - bigger and easier to find.

Where you are located may make a difference here as well - Some makers really jack the price up depending where you are. B&W 602S3 you may like - I do but I also see why some don't - in the end it's going to come down to auditioning. They build em in China to help compete - it does not mean the speakers are worse or that they are capitalizing on slave labour necessarily.

Has anybody heard the Mission V63? I'm looking at these or B&W 603 s3. I've heard them both through the Yamaha1500 and 2500 Reciever/Amps but not at the same place or time. I want to drive which ever I choose with the Yamaha 2500, 50/50 theatre / Rock, R&B,Blues. My room is 4*8 meters, Concrete roof & 3walls other wall is glass & wood floor. Surround speakers will be my old frounts,-Acoustic Research 308HO which should give me plenty of base at the back with its 10" side woofer.

[RGA]

Has anybody heard the Mission V63? I'm looking at these or B&W 603 s3. I've heard them both through the Yamaha1500 and 2500 Reciever/Amps but not at the same place or time. I want to drive which ever I choose with the Yamaha 2500, 50/50 theatre / Rock, R&B,Blues. My room is 4*8 meters, Concrete roof & 3walls other wall is glass & wood floor. Surround speakers will be my old frounts,-Acoustic Research 308HO which should give me plenty of base at the back with its 10" side woofer.

With the size of the room standmounts are going to have some trouble(well most of them) and it sounds like it could be a vey "live" room. I would probably not want to sit too far away from them - perhaps listen nearfield in which case I might consider PMC(but I would really want to try them at home first). I liked the older Mission line more than the newer V line - I think the new Missions are more geared to home theater - but since that's what you're going to be using them for a lot then that's not a bad thing necessarily. A lot of the speakers like Energy, Polk, Paradigm offer up a largely homogenous sound so it's more a matter of choosing based on price and build and looks than on sound.

For your room I would probably listen at home with spekaers that lean to the bright side (metal tweeters) and I would probably purchase a large area rug and some rugs to hang on all your walls(but that's more experiment.

For home theater try and listen to the whole H/T set-ups - they kinda have you in this regard because you can't do any credible A/B listening session to such systems because you'd have 5 speakers to replace and a subwoofer to adjust and you would have to adjust the time delays for home theater - all of which could take hours to properly do when switich out the B&W's for some other brand.

I think you just need to listen and work out a deal that if you don't like them you can return them.