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Bummed - friggin' speakers busted.

#1
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1/5/08 at 9:51am
  • Joined: January 1999
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The Wharfedale tower speakers I have been using in my office busted. One of the tweeters is not working. Darn. Any recommendations on majorly cheap speakers? I could do bookshelf speakers or towers. These are towers and I've been happy with that configuration. No sub no "critical listening" though I do use these speakers as monitors for home recording so I don't want complete crap. I've been looking at Fluance.

Philip Hamm
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#2
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1/5/08 at 10:27am
  • Joined: December 2001
  • Location: Columbus, OH
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Re: Bummed - friggin' speakers busted.

What's your budget?

You mentioned Fluance, so AV123 x-ls (bookshelf) or x-sls (tower version of x-ls) should fit in the budget.


The man I loved - the man who vanished - he never came back at all. But maybe he's still out there, somewhere. Maybe some day, when Gotham no longer needs Batman, I'll see him again.
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#3
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1/5/08 at 11:46am
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Re: Bummed - friggin' speakers busted.

I'd like to keep it around $200. This is not for "Critical listening" I have my B&Ws in the HT for that. I am leaning heavily towards towers since I do like full bass and don't want to put a sub in the office.

I do however need some power handling. I jam with my bass guitar sometimes in my office and that can mean LOUDNESS from the speakers.

Philip Hamm
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#4
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1/5/08 at 12:08pm
  • Joined: May 2006
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Re: Bummed - friggin' speakers busted.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip Hamm
Any recommendations on majorly cheap speakers? I could do bookshelf speakers or towers.

how do you define majorly cheap?

athena as b1's @ $99/pair down to 60Hz+/-
athena as f2's @ $399/pair goes below 40Hz
psb alpha c's @ $230/pair from saturdayaudio.com
psb alpha b1's @ $280/pair
klipsch rf-15's @ $370/pair down mid 40Hz range from saturdayaudio.com
csw model 6's @$150/pair

i'd certainly call these all good values. the athena as-b1's and the csw model 6's i'd call majorly cheap.

good luck

HT: Marantz SR8000, PSB Alpha B fronts, Alpha C center, CSW Newton S200 surrounds, Martin Logan Dynamo Sub, Marantz DVD, Sony CRT TV

Stereos include vintage Sony receivers/amps into vintage AR and KEF speakers.

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#5
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1/5/08 at 5:46pm
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Re: Bummed - friggin' speakers busted.

Wow the alpha Ts at Saturday Audio are tempting though they're $300.

Philip Hamm
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#6
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1/6/08 at 9:40am
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Re: Bummed - friggin' speakers busted.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MaxL
how do you define majorly cheap?

athena as b1's @ $99/pair down to 60Hz+/-
There's my answer. I can put these in the rear in my main home theater system and move the old (very good) Mirage bookshelves I have down there into my office. Nice. thanks!

Update - two things happened. One, after ordering the AS B1s I thought since I'm moving my rears from the "theater" into my office and replacing my rears maybe I should have gotten some bipoles... After all, I almost never listen to multichannel music any more. I have always disliked the localization of conventional rears and been fascinated by bipole/dipole designs. Then what do you know Matt emails from AA to say that they had a web error and were out of stock on the ASB1s. So I ordered the AS-R1.2 bipole rears. I could have (probably should have) saved some $$ by ordering Fluance's (probably fine) dipole rears, but I know the Athenas will be nice. And Audio Advisor has some very nice stands on sale for $30!

So at the end of the day I'll end up with significantly upgraded sound in both the office (I prefer the sound of the Mirage bookshelves compared to the Wharfedale Modus 1.6 towers) and in the theater. And for not much change! Not bad ending from being bummed about my busted speakers.

Now how to dispose of two massive tower speakers - one of which has non-functioning tweeter. Think someone with the desire and time to fix them would be interested on craigslist? May as well turn them into $20, right?

Philip Hamm
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#7
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1/10/08 at 4:47pm
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Re: Bummed - friggin' speakers busted.

Follow-up, I got the new speakers in today, they're in the rear in the theater for surround sound. I'm not sure how they're going to sound, but I suspect that they will completely kick ass. I've been increasingly annoyed at the localization of the direct radiators in the back, and have been curious about bipolar and dipolar designs.

In other news - I replaced the Modus 1.6 towers in the office with my previous surround speakers, a pair of old Mirage 290iS bookshelves.

Oh. My. Goodness.

These speakers sound absolutely LOVELY. My office is SO much more musical now than it was before. I have to get used to not having the (overemphasized IMO) big powerful bass of the towers.

I'm listening to the DVD-A of Donald Fagan "The Nightfly" right now on the Technics DVD-A10 that I use for a CD player in the office. The stereo receiver is an early 90s Philips FR-930, a nice old analog prologic receiver run in stereo mode.

Also - a replacement tweeter can be had from Wharfedale for $50 or so. I'm handy with a soldiering iron - I'll probably fix the busted Modus tower and sell it. The Modus speakers are fine, they really kicked ass in my theater before I had my subwoofer built. Not my style though.

My goodness these Mirage speakers sound sooooo good. I had forgotten.

Thanks everyone, I'm happier than I could have imagined that this speaker broke!

Philip Hamm
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