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I need some good budget speakers... (1 Viewer)

Jonny K

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
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375
Right now I have a frankenstein home theater. It's made up of a bunch of mis-matched speakers that I found here and there around the house. It kinda started with me buying a receiver to get a digital radio at home, and I thought "hey, why not play with it?". The sound really sucks, and one speaker is even damaged. :D

That being said, I need advice on some good budget speakers. I have a Nuance center speaker that seems decent (only bought speaker in the group), but I definatly need new front left/right speakers, and maybe surrounds. I have an awesome DIY Tempest sub, so I won't be needing a new one of those.

But I'm really not sure what to buy without breaking the bank. I'd say I need these for under 1,000 Canadian (about 650 US). Can you recommend anything? I don't need killer speakers right now, just something acceptable.


(I'd love to go all out, but my Dad is calling the show on this one)

Thanks.


Jonny K. :)
 

ernie.bin

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Dec 1, 2002
Messages
143
for $1000CAD, I think a paradigm setup of titans/atoms/cc-170 and a pdr-10 would be very close.

I paid around $1k for that setup without stands or cables or tax though.
 

FrantzM

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Feb 9, 2003
Messages
69
PSB from the same country. Competitive with Paradigm a lot of bang for the bucks. Alphas are very good you can get the Alphas LR and use an Alpha LCR for center for less than the budget and be quite satisfied if you room is small.

Frantz
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
 

Jonny K

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
375
Darn.

Never mind this post. Turns out we had another set of speakers from another stereo that seems to work decently to replace the broken set. :rolleyes:

Dad flipped when I told him I asked you guys about speakers for under 1,000. He declared that tomorrow we're going to buy some speakers to replace the ones we just put into the HT, and he expects to pay about 200 for them. :rolleyes:

It sucks being the only person with STANDARDS in this household, but what can I do...

Thanks anyway,


Jonny K.
 

MikeShea

Agent
Joined
Mar 1, 2003
Messages
28
If you want a small system, the Boston Acoustics System 8000 is 500 and the System 9000 is $1000.

If you want larger speakers, you might look at the Home Theater Direct Level 2 or 3 setup.

At $1000 you may also look at the highly rated Ascend Acoustics setups:

http://www.ascendacoustics.com/Main/HT/2000.asp

They look a little recording-studio, but they are very well regarded on audioreview.
 

Andrew Pratt

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 8, 1998
Messages
3,806
For that price range ($200 cdn) go and get a pair of Paradigm Atom's. They come in a variety of finishes and sound pretty decent for the cost. Do NOT buy nuance however as they are VERY low quality (sorry to say)
 

JimmyK

Second Unit
Joined
Jun 21, 2002
Messages
479
Real Name
Jim
I second the recommendation for PSB or Paradigm. The make excellent budget speakers.

JimmyK
 

Jonny K

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
375
Ok, dad has made his choice. He bought a pair of Panasonic floor standing speakers at Costco for $115 Canadian. :rolleyes:

Only a couple more years till I move out...


Jonny K. :)
 

Geoff L

Screenwriter
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Dec 9, 2000
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Geoff
If he is happy with the purchase, well that may be unfortuanant for you and your higher standards.;)
I feel your pain though. :frowning:

But something is better than nothing and in time as they say, grasshopper, you will be making the call...:emoji_thumbsup:

Try to make the best of it for now, and save your pennies for that day...!

Regards
Geoff
 

James Zos

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jan 7, 2002
Messages
725
Jonny - when you are the person deciding which speakers to buy, you might want to consider this advice: home theater can be a pretty addicting hobby, and I myself have found it is better to buy really decent speakers (within financial reason, of course) rather than trying to save money by buying something more affordable, like, say, Optimus speakers from Radio Shack, which is in fact how I started out. By buying the better speakers to start out with you may end up saving money in the long run by avoiding more upgrades...And believe me, if you're like many of us, you will eventually be upgrading. I think I would have saved a lot of money if I had avoided the cheaper speakers I bought before I finally went for Klipsch (which were still pretty cheap, but decent enough for me to keep until I strike it rich.) You may also want to buy better speakers one at a time, even if this results in a mis-matched setup, because that way you may be able to afford higher-end stuff, and eventually build up to a complete set - rather than starting out with a matched but generally inferior set, if that makes any sense. This is also what I eventually did, initially using the Optimus for my surrounds as I added better speakers to the front of my setup.

Good luck whatever you end up doing!
 

Jonny K

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
375
Yeah, I know the value of buying something good from the start. Problem is, my parents have no interest in home theater and they just don't understand it. My dad is a pan&scan, brightness and sharpness cranked, low sound quality kinda guy. He has no interest in picture quality or sound, and there's really nothing I can do about it (I've tried).

I've come to the conclusion that I'll just have to forget HT while living at home, and instead buy the good stuff once I move out. Only a couple more years...


Jonny K. :)
 

Andrew Pratt

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 8, 1998
Messages
3,806
Jonny you could start building your future HT with a small bedroom system. Just get those Atom's and a used receiver of some sort...you'd at least then have some nice sound in the bedroom.
 

Jonny K

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
375
Yeah, well I have a decent receiver. At least, it WAS a decent receiver when I bought it (Kenwood 1080VR). Doesn't do DTS though, which is annoying.

By the time I'm ready to build my HT, I may want to just buy a new one. But I'll probably still keep it for a while anyway.

An interesting thing I noticed. All the old speakers we have around the house are wide and short, with a standard rectangular shape. But all the new ones I saw are either tall and skinny or small and on a stand. You can't seem to get the fat ones anymore. (dad was rather annoyed).


Jonny K. :)
 

Danny Tse

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2000
Messages
3,185
Well, Jonny, that's the "in" style for floor standing speakers. It's possible that the current floor standing speakers actually takes up more floor space because they're deeper in size. The only speaker range currently produced that is still in that wide retangular shape that your dad likes is the JBL Studio (or S) range, which is highly regarded not only on this forum, but pretty much everywhere else. (If Phil reads this post, he can provide you with much more info about them :D ). If you are considering building a quality HT in a couple of years, definitely consider starting with a pair of the JBL S-26....excellent bookshelf speakers, not only for HT but for music as well, and possibly the best kept secret in audio/HT. In my opinion, this is a true audiophile speaker. And you can probably get them for about $200.00/pair new. Then add the S-series center. Before you know it, a full-blown high quality HT system, that will do full justice to music reproduction as well, for not a lot of $$$.
 

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