need help with speakers (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Gabriel]

I am looking to upgrade my speakers and wand to replace the front two first because i don't have enought money to do it all at once. I was looking at my local electronic store and saw some quest KT66 for pretty cheap. They sounded pretty good but i didn't have a chance to listen for very long. I would like to know what you think of there speakers and if they are worth getting. Would you recomend getting anouther set of speakers??????? If i could get them cheaper online i would do that. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Chu Gai]

What about backing up a bit Andrew and sharing what you've got in mind for a budget, room size, if you're looking at floorstanders or bookshelves, what you plan on driving them with, and all that. It'll give people an idea to suggest various speakers.

Don't rush this whole thing. Of all the components you've got, its the speakers that have the greatest effect on sound.

 

[Andrew Gabriel]

I have a Kenwood reciever which is 100x6 and my living room is 10x20. I don't care if i have floor standing speakers or book shelf i want what will sound the best. I was hoping to get a set of front speakers for $300 or less but i am flexable if i would be getting much better. Also i live in Canada. The speaker will be used for home theater but i also listen to alot of music so they must sound good for that as well. Any help in choosing speakers would be helpfull. Thanks

 

[Andrew Gabriel]

Is there anyone that can help me with choosing speakers?????????????

 

[bryan A]

Paradigm speakers to me are a great speaker for less try to find a pardigm authorized dealer through the paradigm web site. I currently have a pair of paradigm titans for my fronts and I think the do a great job I bought them for $249 us

 

[Andrew Gabriel]

Does anyone know a good place to get them online because i am not sure if you can get them where i live?????? Thanks for the help.

 

[BillGallagher]

Did you check the Paradigm website for dealer location?

http://www.paradigm.com/Website/Deal...t/Dealers.html

 

[MikeNg]

Um, what kind of speakers do you have now? Maybe the weak link isn't your speaker, but your receiver.

I think 'dimes are made in Canada, so they'd probably be your best bang/buck.

 

[Patrick++]

i also got a pair of paradigm titans for $250us and love them. since they'd be cheaper in CA you might be able to get some floor speakers like the phantoms which would give you a much fuller sound... or just save the leftover $$ toward speaker stands or cables or a new receiver or whatever.

i don't think they're sold online though. other brands that seem to be popular around here (in that general price range) are rocket, klipsch, jbl, and maybe athena. don't spend that much on speakers if you can't actually go to a store and demo them.

 

[Chu Gai]

Brands that you might consider, seeing as you're in Canada would be Paradigms, Energy, Dahlquists, Mirage and others which are also manufactured there. They probably give you your greatest bang per loonie. That is what they call Canadian dollars, isn't it?

It's a difficult thing to simply buy a set of speakers based on what people recommend Andrew and not hear them first although it seems that a fair percentage of people do just that. There's no real way to accurately convey how they sound. After all, our tastes are different, so are our rooms, and we all have various other preferences (appearance, size, other intangibles) that find a way of factoring into the whole buying process. For me anyways, its sort of a fun process.

The brand you mentioned I'm simply not familiar with and personally, you'd probably be better served by sticking with brands that have a greater longevity. In the search for maximizing your purchase, you may want to give serious thought to looking at demos, B-stock, and maybe the used market starting with doing an ebay search limited to Canada. This just might allow you to get a bit more, sometimes quite a bit more speaker for your money.

 

[Tim O...]

Andrew, in what city do you live? I'm guessing you saw the Quests at Future Shop. If your budget is small, also check out Athena Technologies at that store. I have 4 different models in the Audition line, and they're amazing for the price I paid (I got a gift from heaven and was able to buy AS-B1s for $129 Cdn. That's about $80 USD). They've also received glowing reviews in the truly budget speaker category; just go to the Athena site and you'll see.

If your budget is a bit larger, I'd check out Paradigm, as suggested above, and also Axiom. I live in Ottawa and you used to be able to buy Axiom in 1 or 2 brick and mortars here, but I think they're exclusively or almost exclusively online now. They've received even better reviews than the Athenas and are supposed to have a very clean and detailed sound and are closer to truly audiophile quality. I've heard the M22Tis and they were indeed very clean, although the listening conditions weren't ideal for a real demo.

 

[Tim O...]

I forgot to mention that if you live in a city with a Future Shop, I'd think you could find Paradigm in at least one electronics store there. I know of at least one Ottawa shop that has them.

Also, if I were you, and in fact if I had to do it all over again, I'd buy bookshelves all around and get a very good sub. Not sure if you run a sub now, but when I made the upgrade to a great sub, it made all the difference and I think I could do without my front towers now, which would have saved money, space, and would probably given me slightly better tonal matching across my theatre.

 

[Andrew Gabriel]

I found a dealer in my city that sells Paradigm speakers but the cheapest ones cost $650. I was reading before about a DIY setup where you buy the drivers and make the enclosure. If i went this way could i get a high quality system for a cheaper price??????????????

 

[jephdood]

Why so many ?????????????'s.

Axiom is also a Canadian company you might want to check out. http://www.axiomaudio.com/products.html

 

[bryan A]

What Paradigm speakers are $650? my local paradigm dealer does not stock every speaker if I need one I just have them order it for me. To me it sounds like for that price they are selling the paradigm monitor lines.

 

[Tim O...]

Andrew:

Do yourself a favour and buy a GOOD set of bookshelf speakers for your fronts, then save up for a few months (or as long as it takes) and buy a good subwoofer (suggest SVS, Hsu, Rocket). You'll have a full range system that will be very good for both HT and music. If your budget is tight now, seriously check out the online companies as you'll save $$$ and virtually all of them are very flexible vis-a-vis demoing them and then returning if not satisfied. This is without a doubt the cheapest way to get a full range, very good quality system. Do check out the Axioms. They're getting tremendous praise by music lovers as well. (See reviews at Audioreview.com).

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

I am surprised no one has mentioned Ascend Acoustics CBM-170's, probably one one the best reviewed products I have ever seen. They are $328 online direct from Ascend. (Check out the reviews on Audioreview.com)One guy there did an A-B test with the Ascneds CBM 170's against the Axiom M22's and send the Ascends were much better -granted I can't speak for the validity of the review and thats just one guy, but I think out of about 90 reviews the average is like 4.9 out of 5 or something like that.

I am personally looking into to getting them for fronts to replace my JBL S312's which are also great speakers, but I am thinking I want to go to a subwoofer setup. Looking at getting the HSU sub or an SVS sub to go with them.

 

[Andrew Gabriel]

I do believe that they were the paridigm monitor series. Do you think that bookshelf speakers with a good sub would sound just as good as floor standing speakers with a good sub. If i am spending hunderds of dollars i want something that will sound good.

 

[bryan A]

It depends on what you are using it for. Floorstanding speakers sound great but I think can be overkill in the movie department, but are great for music.

 

[Tim O...]

I agree. I don't think you need floorstanders for HT. For music they can be better, but if you get very good bookshelves and a very good sub, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference (there are recent posts on this forum on exactly this topic).

Now if you had a much larger budget or an unlimited budget, and the space in your room, I'd say get full range speakers all around, because nothing beats that. But with your limited $$$, I'd suggest what I recommended above.