Audition Nightmare (1 Viewer)

[JoeyR]

Well went to my local Best Buy to listen to the JBL's, their setup has some kind of electrical interference, the subwoofer sounded like it was in the trunk of a 78 Cutlass and the speakers I wanted to listen to(E30s)wouldnt even play, when I asked the attendent about listening to them, he said oh, they sound comparable to the others-what big help. The Klipsch sounded good, of course they were the only setup working right in the store.

Left and went to Circuit City, wanted to hear the Infinity speakers, guy there couldnt get their panel to work with them either, then I inquired about some pioneers and he said the panel on the floor doesnt work either.

Unfortunately these are the only places to have a listen to the speakers I was wanting locally

 

[Nick Laho]

Same thing happened to me at both of those places, except, not only did the speakers not work, but the guy in CC was an asshole. I really wouldn't judge a speaker from an audition at at these places. I think an out of area drive might be worth it.

 

[Matt_Smi]

Yeah BB and CC are pretty much the worst places to “demo” equipment. I find CC a bit better because at least it has a dedicated room, where at BB everything is out in the open. Still your options are very limited at these places; at BB it’s either JBL, Klipsch or Athena (they have a few others KLH, the B brand and Sony from example) but I would personally not consider those. And at CC its pretty much Polk or Infinity, al least they have Velodyne subs though. Anyway sorry to hear those are your only local options, I agree a drive to a good B&M shop may be worth it.

 

[JoeyR]

Unfortunately the closest town that would carry something is an hour away and still theres a chance CC and BB are the only places there

 

[Nick Laho]

Honestly, if you can't go out and audition you might want to buy internet direct. Any internet direct speaker will sound just as good or better than JBL or Klipsch and they all have 30 day trial periods. (refund minus shipping) You can get some really great deals this way and audition in your OWN room, not in a store room. Brands:Ascend Acoustics, Rockets, Swan, Axiom, etc..) Search on the forum or Google for more info.

 

[Matt_Smi]

Yeah I was just going to say you might want to look into internet brands, Nick listed the most popular of them. I am most likely going to be going with internet direct speakers, either Ascend or Axiom, the savings are great and I have heard excellent things about both of them. I am personally probably going to order a set of speakers from both Ascend and Axiom and decide which I like better and then return the set I liked the least.

 

[Mike^S]

You can buy speakers and then return them at Best Buy or Circuit City if you don't like them.


Hey Matt, which Axiom and Ascends are you looking at? I have the Axiom m2i and I've been wondering if the CBM-170s are much better. What kind of speakers do you have right now?

 

[Wayne Ernst]

I can fully agree with what was mentioned in regards to speaker shopping at the two indicated stores. In fact, it appears as if BB might be trying to get rid of JBL as the last few times I've been in there, it seems that they only have about 1/2 of the selection of that brand that they normally do. CC has been good - for the most part, but after they got rid of the Polk RTi speakers and only dabbled with the Infinity Beta line, most visits there have been not too eventful.

I can see where other retailers tend to do better when they are not a "big box" type of store. The gear at Tweeter is normally maintained quite well and you can get a good idea for what you are looking for due to a larger selection. I really like the locally owned shops. Usually lots of great gear, people who know the gear they are selling and the environment is great to shop in because people are not pushing around shopping carts with microwaves, blenders and DVD discs when you are trying to audition gear.

The only downside to buying from such shops is that they tend to price more of their gear towards MSRP and their gear tends to be more mid-to-high vs. low-to-mid. However, these are not really obstacles because you can get some better gear and such retailers do have some room for negotiating on their prices.

 

[Matt_Smi]

Hey Mike,

For Ascend I am looking at 340M’s for mains, 170’s for surrounds and a 340C for the center. As for Axioms its M22’s for fronts, QS4’s for surrounds and a VP150 for the center. I currently have old (early 80’s) Advents for fronts, cheap Sony surrounds no center and an HSU STF-2 sub. So pretty much the best speaker in my system is the sub and I don’t need to worry about upgrading that when I get my new speakers. From what I have heard the 170’s are more comparable to the M22’s, so they may be a better speakers than the M2, but a lot of it depends on your musical taste.

 

[Nick Bum]

Hey dont bash circuit city!!! I know from working at circiut city that its really hard to keep those damn displays working because people coustomers and store employies mess with them. People steal your cables or they mess with the shit and it takes you awhile to get it back in order. So dont complain it just comes with the big box store. But most of the time at least at my circuit city we kept it all in working order.

 

[eddieZEN]

I'm not sure that auditioning equipment in store, even if it's properly set up, can be all that accurate.

A couple of weeks ago I tried out the Onkyo 602 versus the Marantz 5400 in a small local audio shop, and couldn't hear any difference between them at all. Then a week later I came back and said what the hell, bought the Marantz. Took it home and lo and behold it blew away my Onkyo 601 (which is virtually identical to the 602)!

I'm also leaning towards Ascends, I hear slightly better things about them than the Axioms and I like their emphasis on mids and highs. Am thinking about ordering one pair of CBM-170s and one pair of CMT-340s, want to see how big of a difference there is between them since the 340s cost almost double. Also will experiment and see if there's much of a difference between usng the 340 versus the 170 for my center, or even keeping my current Wharfedale center with whichever Ascend pair I decide to keep.

My local dealer has already offered to let me take them into his shop and compare them to his Triangle and Monitor Audio speakers, so I will just out of curiousity. He claims that one of his customers did that with an Axiom setup and ended up returning the Axioms for the Triangles. Will see about that, I'm very curious...

 

[Scott Oliver]

Some friends of mine run an internet speaker company here in Austin and they are the best sounding internet direct speakers I have heard for the money. The only internet direct speakers I have heard that competes in the same leagues or maybe betters them by a little are the Onix Reference Ones.

And while I am a big fan of Audax drivers (my speakers use them) I would certainly take the Mirus Audio Debrios over either of the Ascend's, both in sound and especially looks.

Link Removed

Several local dealers have heard their products and wanted to carry Mirus speakers in their stores, but thus far they haven't come to agreeable terms on pricing so it hasn't happened, yet.

Another friend replaced his Polk RTi's with the Mirus Debrio's and they made his Polks look like some pranksters trying to play the role of loudspeakers in comparison. No contest.

 

[eddieZEN]

Scott,

Mirus looks to be about twice as expensive as Ascend, their bookshelves are $700 a pair versus Ascend's $328 a pair---so I would definitely hope/expect for significantly better sound quality. Do they have the same 30 day money-back guaranee?

Not that I'd ever spend $700 on bookshelves, that's more like the upper end of my budget for tower speakers. Ominously, Mirus doesn't list their pricing for their mini-towers nor full size towers...

 

[MikeLi]

Seems like the three major brands you hear the most about around here are the Onix refs/Rockets from av123.com Axiom and Ascend. Everyone has their own taste. I went around to all the usual stores even several upper end that carried some things in my price range such as paridigm, Klipsch and others. I decided to chance it on internet companies. I researched, I took hours going through all the forums and everything else I could find. I spoke via email to no less than probably 30 folks that had each brand. Even had one brand ship me a large piece of veener as looks in my family room made a huge difference. I also wanted to get down from two to one sub. I went with the Rocket 750,200,300 package and could not be more happier and an SVS PB12/+ for the sub. Retail the whole thing would have been way less than my NHT set up I bought many years ago and I was just ready for a change and boy I am sure glad I did and save some money on top of it. I like the sound better and there is no doubt the cabinets are better made. There are others that like Axiom or Ascend which are both good as well. It just a matter of taste. What alot of folks do is order a center from each company to try out and send the ones back you dont like to save on shipping then finish your system, all will give you the package price. Good luck and let us know how things go. Since I have purchase numerous electronics on the web and have yet to be disapointed.

 

[eddieZEN]

The Onix looks nice, unfortunately it's well out of my budget. Thanks for the center-speaker-only testing idea, that makes a lot of sense.

 

[Mitch_J]

JoeyR,
As has been suggested, You might want to try internet direct. Allow me to suggest www.aperionaudio.com

As most posters will agree that speakers should be heard in the home that they are going to be used in. Aperion gets good reviews ands offer free shipping (both ways) and 30 day trial. !0 year warrenty and a trade up program.

Also www.Magnepan.com has a HT system MMG W & MMG C. With a 60 day trial offer and trade up program I believe.