Looking for 3 or 4 speaker company recomendations to listen to (1 Viewer)

[razingkane]

Greetings.......I'm a newbie to the home theater world so I've been lurking in this forum for a couple of weeks. I have a Panasonic 50" Plasma TV and I use a Dish Network ViP 612 DVR. My room size is 15 by 14 with the TV setup in a corner. Unfortunately, that leaves the area behind me open to another room. I'll probably go with one of the usual mid range AV receivers i.e. Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo. My HT budget for an A/V receiver, speakers, and cabling is $2000.

Could you please point me towards 3 or 4 speaker companies I should try and give a listen to. I don't want the big floor standing speakers and my wife likes the really small speakers. I'll probably have to make some trips to Denver to hear the speakers.
For whatever reason I keep getting pushed by sales people to Klipsch. Yeah, they sound nice but I have nothing really to compare them to. I did have a chance to compare the Klipsch to some Definitive Technology 5.1 package for $500.00. The Definitive Technology speakers sounded a lot better to me than the Klipsch. I'm a big fan of Boston Acoustics. I have BA car speakers but never owned BA home speakers.

I've also looked and listened to some Yamaha and JVC HTiB. Locally, I've got Best Buy which appears to be mostly low end stuff and HTiB. There's an Ultimate Electronics store with more mid range and a smattering of high range equipment. There's a high end and extreme shop here too but they are in my lotto wining category. To bad, because they sell NAD. In 1980 I bought some NAD audio equipment and I still have them. I'd love to be a high roller and buy some new NAD HT separates.

 

[gene c]

Edit: Forgot to mention that you should spend about $1250-1400 on the speakers/sub, $500-600 on the receiver and $100 or less on cables/wires. Even more on the speakers and less on the receiver if possible.

The best value in speakers, particularly in your price range, are internet direct speaker companies. SVS, AperionAudio, AxiomAudio, ElementalDesigns, AscendAcoustics, and HSU are among the most recommended. Get your sub woofer from HSU, SVS or Elemental if at all possible. Klipsch, Polk, JBL and others, even Infinity, make subs but but not nearly as good as the others I've ( we've) mentioned.

If you really want to buy locally then the usual suspects are Polk, Klipsch, Infinity (my pick) Energy, Boston and JBL.

Cables and wires should come from MonoPrice or BlueJeansCables. Don't get caught up in the expensive cable rhetoric.

I'd go with at least a small bookshelve over the tiny satellites. Let your wife buy yet another pair of shoes or something .

 

[David Willow]

I agree with the bookshelf recommendation, but if you HAVE to go with tiny satellites, check out Orb Audio.

 

[JohnRice]

Rick, where are you located? I'm in Ft. Collins and might be able to direct you to some places for auditioning.

 

[Al.Anderson]

In general I also recommend bookshelves over satellites if you're going to use the system for music and theater. If you're just using it for theater, then satellites aren't bad at all. If you go bookshelf, I really love my Axioms, which I use for my stereo. But if you wind up going with satellites, I've really enjoyed my Harman/Kardon's. My theater room is about 14x22 and I have no problem with audio.

 

[razingkane]

Originally Posted by JohnRice

Rick, where are you located? I'm in Ft. Collins and might be able to direct you to some places for auditioning.

I'm in Colorado Springs.

 

[Robert_J]

Isn't Ron from SVS in Colorado Springs? I know he has offered auditions in the past.

 

[JohnRice]

Yes, Ron lives in Colorado Springs.