Front floorstanding $1000 to $1400 a pair, any recommendations? (1 Viewer)

[Nicko]

Hi,

Great forum, I've been reading up for a little while and decided to join.

I am looking to build up a system. It will be used pretty much equally for music and movies, probably more so for music though.

I was looking at the Infinity Interlude 500s (?) they have them at Ultimate Electronics for $699 each. They sound great to me, but after reading this forum and a few others it seems Paragidm or perhaps B&W have better speakers for less.

So, can anyone recommend any floorstanders for around 1000 -1400 a pair? Second hand or discountinued will be fine too.

 

[Jason.Soko]

I was not impressed by the midrange AT ALL on the B&W, at least not until you get into their very expensive end. The paradigms I demod were Eh. They seemed to lack separation of sound. Sounded mushy to me. In your price range I would highly suggest PSB's. Image and Stratus series both sound very nice.

 

[Michael R Price]

You could probably get someone to build you a tower using the Adire HE12 kit for a pretty lively sound, or a GR Research kit... well, I just want to remind you there are a ton of DIY/custom built options that could be a very good value.

As an example, I have Adire Kit281 towers, they cost $450 for me to build; they are offered in tower form for $1300 fully built in cherry veneer, and the performance has been compared to Paradigm Studio 100 ($2000), PSB Stratus Gold ($2300), and B&W Nautilus 804 ($3000). And these aren't even the cutting edge of DIY!

 

[Pablo Abularach]

Nicko,

Welcome to HTF,

This a great place to gather opinion and get you in the right direction, but the best advice that I can give you is to audition as much as possible, because many opinions or comments here are baised on personal opinions and prefences, some are very objective also. But at the end you are the only one that have to live with your setup.

With that said, here is my suggestion,

Jason made a good suggestion, PSB is a very good company, aswell as Paradigm or B&W, but I think some of the best floorstanding (around your budget) are

AXIOM M80Ti $1100
Rockets RS750 $1399

 

[keith jay]

listened to polk, b&w, psb, kef, canton cdm, def tech and monitor audio. ended up buying polk lsi15's along with center and surrounds. to me they had the cleanest sound with incredible tweeter. i got them at "the great indoors" only polk retailer in my area on close out for 1300 a pair. i beleive the list price is around 1900. also liked the psb silver series which you could get at dmc electronics (a forum sponser) for 1399 in gloss black or 1199 in cherry.

 

[David Preston]

Take a look at Link Removed check out their stuff.

 

[Bry_DD]

check out Axiom M60ti. sounds really clear and crisp on my setup.

 

[Mark Dickerson]

In your price range, I strongly recommend the Magnepan MG12s (around $1050/pr.) or the MG 1.6s, which I think are around your $1400 price point.

Magnepans image better, sound more realistic and and make everything you listen to much more exciting than anything already mentioned on this site. I chose Maggies after hearing them go head to head with Paradigm Monitor 9s (priced at $1400/pr.). As I said to the salesman, the Paradigms sounded like a wet blanket had been put over them when compared to the Maggies (MG12s). Don't get me wrong, the Paradigms are a very accurate and wonderful speaker, but I found them lifeless once I heard the Magnepans.

I used to own B+Ws, but they are collecting dust in my basement after I bought the Maggies.

Check them out. You won't believe it.

 

[Doug_E_P]

Well,

I've been VERY pleased with my recent purchase of NHT ST-4's as my mains. They retail for 1K for the pair, but call Kief's AV in Lawrence Kansas and they are authorized and offer great prices. I paired them with SB 2's for rears and the new sc2 center. VERY nice. Great for Audio and video. Great pricing also. Nice thing on the NHT super audio series is they all use the same tweeter (which is a great tweeter) so you can use various combos. The ST-4's also put out an amazing amount of tight bass if you can't go for a sub right away. I strongly urge you to take a look.

 

[Ryan_MF]

I have the Dynaudio Audience 122s and I've been VERY pleased. You'll find the 122s and several other Dyn models in that price range. They're also the perfect match with the 122C for HT use.

 

[Carlo_M]

Currently auditioning a pair of MBQuart QLS1030 towers, normal MSRP of $2K, but my dealer is clearancing them because they bought all the stock from MBQ (I think MBQ is readying a new line).

Check out this link for the complete line and the sale.

I can't fairly compare them to my Energy C6s yet as break in hasn't occured, usually 50 hours or so. After that I'll do a shoot out with some friends who are coming over and love music. One thing I can tell is that off-axis listening (especially from the other side of my living room off to a side, where my PC is) is much better on the MBQs than the Energy.

The 1030s are $1099, while the 830s are $899. Check out my thread about MB Quart for comments. I'll either update that page when I do the shootout or start a new thread.

Happy hunting!

 

[Josh_Fr]

Nicko,

I bought the Boston Acoustics VR-940's approximately 4 yrs ago and I have been very pleased. When combined with a SVS sub to fill the low end they sound great. Even without the sub they go surprisingly low. The only speakers that I would upgrade to are the high end B&W and I don't think that I could justify spending that kind of money on speakers. :frowning: I have auditioned many of other speakers used by people on the forum but I still like the Bostons.

Josh

 

[Michael R Price]

Well, I take it you've heard all about SVS subs? You could think of it this way: Rutledge Audio and Acoustic-Visions, the custom DIY folks, are kind of like SVS were when they started out, except they make normal speakers. (Prettier ones, I might add. )

 

[Nicko]

Wow, thanks for all the replies. It seems I have a lot of options and a ton of research ahead of me.

I never thought of DIY, I will definitely check that route and also check out all the other brands.

And yes I have heard of the SVS subs how could I not? I am looking to spend about $600 on an SVS sub.

Perhaps someone could help me decide on what reciever would be best. Should I go with 7.1 or 5.1? Some sales guy told me that there aren't any movies out with 7.1 yet, saying that Starwars is going to be the first?
I am just wondering if I should buy a better 5.1 reciever than a lesser 7.1?

 

[Lewis Besze]

I second the Polk LSI-15.
The Maggie 1.6QR is $1695.00 new.

Nicko,
the salesman is right,there is no 7.1 movies out there nor any format.The term is being misused all the time.
DTS ES Discrete is the only true 6.1 format,all others are 5.1 due to the matrix encoding being used on the likes of DD/THX EX,and DTS ES Matrix.
I would get a receiver at this time, that decodes those formats above.

 

[Leon O]

Nicko, in your price range the Dahlquist QX10 would be worth further investigation. The on-line dealer is

audioshop.on.ca

I believe Marc is out on Tuesdays, but he is very helpful.

My take on the QX10's is that they are an ideal blend of the B&W 604's and the Paradigm Studio 100's. Of course, I'm biased

Good Luck!

Leon

 

[Charles Scott]

Have you listened to anything by Meadowlark Audio? I am using the Kestrels for my fronts and a Petrel center. They sound awesome for music as well as home theater. I mated them with an RBH aluminum driver sub because my old sub wasn't fast enough when listening to just music. The RBH tightened up the muddy bass and seems to blend well with the Meadowlarks. The Kestrels are no longer available, they have been replaced by the Kestrel II's. I had a chance to hear the Kestrel II's recently and they sounded great too. I think they retail for around $1,400. If you have a chance to pick up a pair of used Kestrels (good luck as most people seem to keep them) you should really think about buying them or at least giving them a listen. All Meadowlarks Audio speakers are hand finished in real wood and look like fine furniture, no cheap vinyl veneers or plastic!

Good luck on your speaker hunt!

Charles

 

[Colin Dunn]

I second the Magnepan MG12 recommendation, but with a caveat: Maggies are very revealing, and you may soon be tempted to upgrade the rest of your system! They can sound bright with some electronics in front of them.

When I upgraded to Maggies, that sent me down a 3-year-long and very expensive upgrade cycle...

 

[Alex Prosak]

I second and third the Rocket 750 and Magnepan MG12 recommendations. I own both Rockets and Maggies and love them both. The Maggies have a wonderful presence that no other speaker I've heard will provide. You could easily find a used pair of 1.6s in your price range on Audiogon.

The Rocket 750's are a bit rolled of on the high end but still very detailed. They are extremely well balanced, very well built (much more so than any B&M speaker you will find in the price range), and drop dead gorgeous.

 

[FrankHW]

I'll second the recommendation of the Dahlquist QX10s. I really can't say enough great things about them. If you do a search on Dahlquist, I wrote a long personal review on them. They're also available in Piano Black for a great price from Audioshop.