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Looking for a pair of bookshelf speaks less than $100 (1 Viewer)

Shawn Shultzaberger

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Dec 2, 2000
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705
My wife is really wanting a TV in the bedroom so I've hooked up a spare Pioneer receiver, spare Panasonic DVD player and spare Klipsch sub. The current bookshelf type speakers are some little Bose I have had for many years. I think the paper driver is about 3" and is in a small vented, wedge shaped plastic enclosure. The enclosure vibrates at moderate volume levels and is annoying. These will be dedicated to my garage one of these years.

Anyway, I'm looking for some "best bang for the buck" bookshelf speakers for less than $100.00. I've been a Klipsch user for years so I want to try something different this time. More warm sounding I guess. Also they need to be as thin as possible (maybe less than 7" in width). I will note that these speakers will be using the passive crossover in this Klipsch sub (about 80Hz). I also like speakers that can hold their own without a subwoofer attached.

I went out to Ebay and they have a lot to offer since everyone is bidding on Bose stuff. Good for me, bad for them.

Can anyone offer up some suggestions? Doing it DIY wouldn't be out of the question I just wouldn't know what brand woofers and tweets to pick.

Thanks!! :D
 

ShaunLB

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Apr 17, 2003
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141
Hmmm....$100 eh? Well, you could try Circuit City and see if you can find a pair of Polk RT10/15/25/or 28's on sale (new series coming out). On the new side, you could try Tivoli (HiFi Buys and Tweeter seem to have these). Heck, a few years ago I even bagged a pair of KLH 900B's for under a $100, not bad at all...probably the best speaker from them in many years. Look around, don't be afraid to look in pawn shops and clearance sections, just try to get at least some kind of safe purchase (warranty, return policy, something). Happy hunting.
 

Cagri

Second Unit
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Dec 18, 2002
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415
Look for Mission m71/m71i s if they are in sale. They are recently dropped to 49.95 pounds in th UK, which makes around $85. Great speakers incredible price.
 

Chris A H

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May 10, 2002
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172
Been trying to find out where I can get Missions in the US for a year now. They have no distribution whatsoever. Emails to their supposed US operatives go into a black hole. UK sites do not ship to the US.

Disappointing....
 

Shawn Shultzaberger

Supporting Actor
Joined
Dec 2, 2000
Messages
705
I want to thank everyone for the replies. I've decided to do a DIY MTM config. After measuring the space I have on each side of the TV inside the armoire I definitely have to do a DIY set of speakers. They will end up being tall and skinny plus I want to keep with the color of the stain of the wood.

Thanks again. Now off to the DIY section. :D
 

Jon Torres

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 30, 2001
Messages
288
Here's a DIY kit you might be interested in:
http://speakerpage.com/K05B11.htm

You probably should email the site admin to see if you can change the baffle's width since you said you wanted 7".

Another DIY kit you might look at is on Dan's site:
http://www.knology.net/~wesnor/blue.html

I built the Adire Pops and am using them for surrounds. I'm fairly happy with them. I'm sure Dan's design is probably a little better. Dan has other designs on his site you might look at. Good luck.
 

ShaunLB

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Apr 17, 2003
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141
If they still use the same drivers as the ol' 900B's thats one hell of a deal, I've heard some newer KLH's with 8's and was very dissapointed (they had newer drivers). Take a listen and see if they sound good to you, if they don't soond good (almost instantly apparent) they are probably the new designs...why they changed a good thing I dont know...
 

Shawn Shultzaberger

Supporting Actor
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Dec 2, 2000
Messages
705
I went by Best Buy to check those out (KLH's) and unfortunately I must report that they sounded very muffled. I thought it might be that one speaker or the receiver but it wasn't. Good price though.

I did check out some Sony SSMB150H 5 1/4" bookshelf speakers and they sounded really good. Price was $59.98 for the pair. I was impressed for the price.

But alas my wife put a kybosh on the whole speaker deal since Christmas is coming up. *sigh* :D
 

ShaunLB

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Apr 17, 2003
Messages
141
yeah, the new KLH's (usually have a curve at the bottom of the front grill) are very muffled, the 900B and others that used the golden colored 1" tweeter are a lot clearer...oh well, glad to hear you are getting a chance to shop around some.
 

LanceJ

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Joined
Oct 26, 2002
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3,168
Get'em while you can: these little guys were designed when RadShak was selling their own line of audio equipment comparable to Pioneer, Kenwood, etc.:

Heavy as heck aluminum Mighty Mouse speaker

And just about two years ago they cost around 60 bucks apiece--I think they are clearing them out now.

Any other geesers out there remember their humongo 120watt/channel receiver with that giant toroidal power transformer they made during the Receiver Power Wars? With the groovy power button that faded from red to green when the speaker protection relay finally clicked over?

These have been around for years, I think I first saw them in 1979 :eek:. Nope, no hi-tech stuff here, just a good basic speaker with a 50watt RMS rating (RMS = Root Mean Square--IIRC it roughly means their continous power rating). And RCA's name got slapped on it because.......??? They used to be an acoustic suspension design but then they stuck a port on it (mid 90s??). Didn't seem to help them IMO. Many other companies copied their looks too. Visonik and a/d/s also sold speakers with similar acoustic designs that were also inefficient but had great bass for such tiny speakers.

I use their big brothers with a 5.25" woofer for my rears right now (am looking for used Boston CR9s to match my fronts). I tried to hang them on the wall but they just pulled the hanger out of the sheetrock--cheesy apartment stuff!.

I think Radio Shack still sells that gutsy little woofer separately--it's built like a tank and has a very long cone excursion.

LJ
 

Danny Tse

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2000
Messages
3,185
You mean the Radio Shack Minimus 7? I still have a pair in mint condition. Used it as surround speakers when I had my AudioSource SS-1 Dolby Surround processor in the early 90s. Very power hungry, but then mine were the ones with the acoustic suspension design. If you run a search on "Minimus 7" at google.com you will find that many professional recording studios use them monitoring.

Have you check out the Omage AV21 bookshelf speakers? They have been raved on audioasylum.com and head-fi.org. Check them out here. They are under US$100.00/pair shipped.

 

Shawn Shultzaberger

Supporting Actor
Joined
Dec 2, 2000
Messages
705
Danny,

Bingo! Those are perfect. Lots of raves about them. This is the pair I will be buying (in oak).

My wife was "jammin'" out to some Christmas music last night (way to early for that kind of music for me) and she called me at work to say "OK honey, we need new speakers". Woohoo! I guess the bad rattle in the left speaker was getting to her. :D
 

Rory Buszka

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 5, 2002
Messages
784
Look on eBay for cheap Cambridge Soundworks stuff. I really quite like my Ensemble IVs that I picked up off of there. They are like a properly-executed Bose Acoustimass 3 in that they actually provide midbass without a frequency hole, and the bass has to be getting down to at least 50 Hz. But they will replace decent bookshelves with something smaller and quite wife-friendly. The sub has a lot of midbass in it and it is a little muddy but when you place the sub so the port tube is firing along either the front or rear wall, the midbass blends with the midrange and surprisingly extended highs quite well. Even more impressive when it is a 5.25" driver in the woofer module and three-inch cones in the rest. However, you might be better off looking for Ensemble II or III speakers, which feature discrete 4" midbasses and 1.5" cone tweeters.
 

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