Simple: ~ $2000 for 5.1 speakers...Which ones? (1 Viewer)

[Shervin_Sabri]

Please post shootouts, comments, opinions, etc....I need advice ASAP...gotta buy it this weekend.

Here are some I'm looking at:

Infinity ALpha series (maybe 20's, maybe 40's)
Paradigm Monitor 5, 7's
Rocket RS150's
Axioms


as for subwoofers:

SVS
Paradigm PDRs


PLEASE reply asap

 

[Mitch_J]

how about Aperion?

 

[JasenJ]

Here's my $0.02.

1. Buy what you can listen to. Go to a store/shop and listen to the speakers with some well known music and/or movies - even better, take them home and listen to them in your room. Your ears and hearing will affect what speaker sounds good to you as much as anything.

2. Buy where you think you'll get the best service. e.g. Easy return/replacement if the speakers don't work out in your room or something breaks.

3. Buy what you like the looks of. At a certain level, things get pretty close together sonicly and unless you're A/Bing constantly you'll get used to whatever speaker you buy. Get something you can stare at for a LONG time to come.

4. Buy what lots of other people say is good. You should be able to quickly narrow your choices to 3 or 4 roughly equal candidates - which you seem to have done. After that, folks will come out offering their favorite as the one you should get (and a few other choices that are more expensive than what you want and/or that you don't have access to). But it is hard/impossible to know whether these people have actually listened to all the choices you've presented and what their hearing and taste is like.

Keeping all that in mind...
I've never listened to the Infinity speakers you've listed but I've always found Infinities to be way too bright for my taste.

I have an old pair of Paradigms (5se Mk II from '92) and have been very pleased with their performance. Paradigm wins lots of awards and praise from various reviewers. They have an excellent reputation of being excellent speakers for the money.

SVS seems to have a very loyal following on this site and has lots of good reviews. Unfortunately, as they are mail/web order only so you have shipping costs to consider. You might be able to get a "better" Paradigm (or other brand) sub locally.

- Jasen.

 

[Paul_Scott]

i had a $2K budget last yr for my speaker upgrade.
i was judging everything against a pair of Vienna Mozarts i had heard the year before and were the first speakers that really 'spoke' to me.

i looked at a lot of stuff in several dedicated audio shops ( traveled 50 miles for one of them), saw a lot of stuff i liked, some that i loved (magneplanars), but nothing ended up being right.
if the 1.6 magneplanars weren't so damned big, i may have gone for them. the smaller magnepans i can't accomodated for my set up).

eventually the speakers i found that i liked the best, clearly, were Ascend Acoustics cbm 170s.
they were on sale for $150 per speaker, so i got three up front, and then a couple smaller and cheaper htm 200s for the rear.
throwing in a Hsu sub, the total came to around $1100.

in the year and 1/2 since i had them, i haven't regretted the purchase one bit.
absolutely love them.

going with less expensive (but still high quality) speakers allowed me to put more money into the electronics so i think i ended up with a much more refined total system, than if i had just sunk all the money into speakers and short changed on the reciever.

BTW i had auditioned the Rocket 250s in my room, and while they were good, i found the ascends more satisfying overall (price, performance, etc).
the rockets are good speakers though.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

At that price point and since you seem to be comfortable with the internet direct route I would personaly go with Swan's Diva 5.2 mains, 2.1 surrounds, C3 center, and an SVS 25-31 PCi tuned to 22hz. It'll be a little over $2k ($2060 before shipping) but yuo can usually get the guys at www.theaudioinsider.com to work with you on the price enough to cover shipping, especially since you're buying a package like that. If it absolutely has to be under $2k i would go w/ the same speakers and an Adire Rava subwoofer ($400 + SH) or do DIY on the sub using an AV12 MKII and a Rythmik 380 watt amp.

 

[BryanZ]

First question is why must you buy this weekend? This purchase is $2K, not exactly chump change. That being said,
for HT I both like and have the following:

nOrh 4.0 video system - $850 delivered
SVS 20-39PCi (actually have CS/Samson combo) - $650 (should be less but $599 + shipping)

But what are the dimensions of the room the system will be housed in? If it is a large one the sub can eat half or more of the budget.