Get these Advents or Start Over With? (1 Viewer)

Thanks for helping me out.

Now that I've got a better job and a few bucks, I get to upgrade a few things. Right now, I'm focused on speakers.

The room is 16 X 16. I currently have a Denon 1803 Receiver, with Denon 1805 DVD changer, Pioneer LD, Panasonic VCR, and HP EN5000 Digital Media Receiver. I plan on picking up a Denon 2200 DVD/SACD, some sort of SAT receiver, and build an HTPC.

Speaker wise, I have 4 Advent A1122 bookshelf-sized speakers, with an Advent A1096 center speaker. I want to add a subwoofer, and two more speakers to create a 7.1 system. The Advents sound great with movies, and seem to go pretty low, but with music, I think I'm missing my high end (especially in the center speaker--if I play any 5 channel music I can hear the speaker's limitations). It's probably 50/50 music vs. video, but I'm into music videos and concerts too. I've been looking at the Dayton Subwoofer, and recently the JBL E150, or E250, or lower end Velodynes. I like the high end to be "crisp" sounding, like a lot of bass also. I always crank up the bass and the treble.

So, I have too many choices, and I want to get the biggest bang for my buck. Some of the solutions rattling around my brain are:

1. Get a sub, probably the JBL E150, and go on eBay and get a pair of Advent towers (like the Advent AS2, anyone heard them), put the A1122 in the rears, and have an Advent system. This probably will cost me a little over $300.

2. Get a sub, probably the JBL, and new front and center speakers, put the A1122 in the back, and replace them at at later time. And have no idea what I want/need to spend.

3. Just get a sub, probably roast beef with provolone, and live with what I've got. This is only $5 or so.

Could someone point me in the right direction? It always amazes me how many different speaker systems you guys have listened too, and can comment on. How do you find the time to listen to them all?

Thanks again.

Bob

hey bob,
I'm a bass and treble guy too. i would recommend you get some larger floor speakers with a large woofer and a decent tweeter for your fronts and move the advents to the back. polk monitor 10s would be ideal for this if you can find them. they're only 200 used. they're from the mid to late 80s and still kick ass very hard. they have a dome tweeter that give you the crisp highs you're looking for and a radiator woofer to handle the sub frequencies.
i also recommend you buy things used if you're looking for bang for your buck. hit up craigslist and do a google search on whatever you find to see if it's what you're looking for, plus you can try out all sorts of things you will not find in a store

Since you mentioned "missing the high end", I'll throw out Axiom. I like them a lot across the board, but some reviews of them mention that they excel in the high and mid range (and lag in bass; although a good sub counters that). Their overall claim to fame is their accuracy. They are an internet company and you can audition them and send them back no questions for the price of the shipping. The M22s are the high end bookshelf, and the M80s are the flagship towers. (I have the M22s and the M3s.)


That said, Advents are pretty decent; so if I were in your shoes I would get a good sub, change the setting on the main speakers to small (which might boost the high/mid enough to make you happier), and get the roastbeef & provalone and see if that doesn't just about do it for me.