For Swez or anyone here that has some home audio knowledge...
I recently bought a Harmon Kardon HK-3480 / 120 x 2 @ 8 ohm after hearing good things abou them for the price. (ebay)
Now im looking for some speakers that whould match up to this reciever.
This is going to be 100% music setup.
I listen to mostly hiphop and dance and a bit of rock.
Is there any bookshelfs or floor standers that whould be good enough bass wise to eliminate a subwoofer ?
My budget for a pair of speakers is $300-$400
Ive been recommended some internet brands before and have tried out the Alegria Audio Emmas http://www.us.alegriaaudio.com/Emma.htm which were pretty nice but i felt that i needed more bass response for my tastes.
speakers: Ascend CBM-170s, $340 shipped from ascendacoustics.com (you can get the STF-2 from them too, maybe with a slight savings bundled together)
That should be a promising 2.1 musical setup. What do you guys think.
Replies (6)
swez on 02/13/2007 12:34:43
There are so many good choices out there to pick from MO. The first thing you have to decide, do you want bookshelf size speakers or floor type towers?
Towers often give better bass response as they use larger sealed or ported enclosures and bigger woofers. You will often find towers that employ 3-way passive crossovers, a woofer, midrange and a wide dispersion tweeter.
The type of music you like, has a wide dynamic range. Hip Hop has a lot of extra low end bump and speakers with larger woofers and adequate power amping are keys to clean, accurate bass. Dance mixes vary a lot from cut to cut. Same with Rock music.
May I suggest you burn a CD of a few of your fav tunes, (That you know very well) and go out and demo what's out in your area. Granted, you'll find the best gear in expensive audio salons. But there are some good products at Best Buy and Circus City too.
Finally, the room acoutics you are working with, also have a lot to do with what a given speaker will sound like in that room. We look at hard surfaces like walls, windows and flooring. We also need to take into account, the dampening affects of carpeting, over-stuffed furniture and such.
Swez
PS I really like Polks. Have used a pair of 7a Bookshelf monitors for many years and love the natural sound they deliver. It uses a 6.5" woofer/midrange and a nice Peerless 1" silk dome tweeter. This is a sealed box and uses a 10" passive radiator for improved low bass performance.
These reproduce good, deep lows at low power, but with such a small woofer, it has it's limits. To get the most from them, I roll them off at 100 Hz and use an amped sub to fill in the deep lows. When new, these were rated very well by all the Hi-Fi sound magazines and listed out at ~$599.00 a pair. I got them for half that price as we bought 4 at one time. Have had them since 1978 and they sound just as good now as when new.
http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/index.php
MO on 02/13/2007 12:45:34
Im leaning towards bookshelves unless i can find a floorstander that will do justice for my type of music kind like my old school sony 3 way flloorstanders which had a 12" sub for bass rear ported off a sony reciever which i whould love to match. Man that thing sounded phenominal. Crystal Clear and punchy and dropped low for rap. This was made back in 1990 or so when sony made quality efficiant speakers and recievers. Miss that type of sound.
In fact i could try showing you a picture of them. Problem is that the subs are broken and sony no longer makes this unless you get super lucky on ebay and find a set of the flloorstanders im taking about.
A friend says :
" I feel for rock/hip hop/rap/techno/etc dynamics are extremely important, and this is something Klipsch has in spades."
"I would suggest taking a good long look at Klipsch Reference line products. Their efficiency will ensure that you get up to "party" volumes without killing your receiver. They also are very clear (to the point of being bright, which would be balanced by your receiver's warmth),and extremely dynamic (good for dance/rap). The bookshelf I would consider is the RB-61 (~450/pr). If you wanted floorstanders, the RF-82 rolls in at 1000."
That sounds out of my price range.
Im also considering Boston Acoustics CR bookshelfs like the CR85 but im just learning about what whould work best for me.
cplkittle on 02/13/2007 15:51:28
It should not be hard to find a home audio retailer with a fully functional home theater display room. I would say of the 30 or so car audio shops that were in the area here 3 years ago, 70% have converted completely to the home side. Car audio is almost dead here. Honestly there are only 5 or 6 car audio shops still in business in Chattanooga.
swez on 02/13/2007 17:19:03
If you still have the Sony towers and just need woofers for them, am sure you can find some woofers that match up well to the Sony woofers.
To match up well, we'd need to know the woofer enclosure size and if ported or not.
Swez
MO on 02/13/2007 20:55:05
That whould be a great idea if we could find the woofer to compliment the enclosure and other 2 drivers since its a 3 way.
I dont know the size of the enclosure and its not written anywhere.
The model of the 3 way tower is SS-U530
In fact here is a link of one that just ended on ebay. I just tried contacting this guy.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Pair-of-Sony-tower-speakers-SS-U530-circa-1989_W0QQitemZ330080134664QQihZ014QQcategoryZ14993QQcmdZViewItem
MO on 02/13/2007 21:23:44
The only other option whould be to pick up 2 bookshelf speakers and make a 2.1 setup with a sub that can play the lows and blend in really nicely.
or
Find somthing similar to the sony's i had pictured in the above link.
I recently bought a Harmon Kardon HK-3480 / 120 x 2 @ 8 ohm after hearing good things abou them for the price. (ebay)
Now im looking for some speakers that whould match up to this reciever.
This is going to be 100% music setup.
I listen to mostly hiphop and dance and a bit of rock.
Is there any bookshelfs or floor standers that whould be good enough bass wise to eliminate a subwoofer ?
My budget for a pair of speakers is $300-$400
Ive been recommended some internet brands before and have tried out the Alegria Audio Emmas http://www.us.alegriaaudio.com/Emma.htm which were pretty nice but i felt that i needed more bass response for my tastes.
speakers: Ascend CBM-170s, $340 shipped from ascendacoustics.com (you can get the STF-2 from them too, maybe with a slight savings bundled together)
That should be a promising 2.1 musical setup. What do you guys think.
Replies (6)
swez on 02/13/2007 12:34:43
There are so many good choices out there to pick from MO. The first thing you have to decide, do you want bookshelf size speakers or floor type towers?
Towers often give better bass response as they use larger sealed or ported enclosures and bigger woofers. You will often find towers that employ 3-way passive crossovers, a woofer, midrange and a wide dispersion tweeter.
The type of music you like, has a wide dynamic range. Hip Hop has a lot of extra low end bump and speakers with larger woofers and adequate power amping are keys to clean, accurate bass. Dance mixes vary a lot from cut to cut. Same with Rock music.
May I suggest you burn a CD of a few of your fav tunes, (That you know very well) and go out and demo what's out in your area. Granted, you'll find the best gear in expensive audio salons. But there are some good products at Best Buy and Circus City too.
Finally, the room acoutics you are working with, also have a lot to do with what a given speaker will sound like in that room. We look at hard surfaces like walls, windows and flooring. We also need to take into account, the dampening affects of carpeting, over-stuffed furniture and such.
Swez
PS I really like Polks. Have used a pair of 7a Bookshelf monitors for many years and love the natural sound they deliver. It uses a 6.5" woofer/midrange and a nice Peerless 1" silk dome tweeter. This is a sealed box and uses a 10" passive radiator for improved low bass performance.
These reproduce good, deep lows at low power, but with such a small woofer, it has it's limits. To get the most from them, I roll them off at 100 Hz and use an amped sub to fill in the deep lows. When new, these were rated very well by all the Hi-Fi sound magazines and listed out at ~$599.00 a pair. I got them for half that price as we bought 4 at one time. Have had them since 1978 and they sound just as good now as when new.
http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/index.php
MO on 02/13/2007 12:45:34
Im leaning towards bookshelves unless i can find a floorstander that will do justice for my type of music kind like my old school sony 3 way flloorstanders which had a 12" sub for bass rear ported off a sony reciever which i whould love to match. Man that thing sounded phenominal. Crystal Clear and punchy and dropped low for rap. This was made back in 1990 or so when sony made quality efficiant speakers and recievers. Miss that type of sound.
In fact i could try showing you a picture of them. Problem is that the subs are broken and sony no longer makes this unless you get super lucky on ebay and find a set of the flloorstanders im taking about.
A friend says :
" I feel for rock/hip hop/rap/techno/etc dynamics are extremely important, and this is something Klipsch has in spades."
"I would suggest taking a good long look at Klipsch Reference line products. Their efficiency will ensure that you get up to "party" volumes without killing your receiver. They also are very clear (to the point of being bright, which would be balanced by your receiver's warmth),and extremely dynamic (good for dance/rap). The bookshelf I would consider is the RB-61 (~450/pr). If you wanted floorstanders, the RF-82 rolls in at 1000."
That sounds out of my price range.
Im also considering Boston Acoustics CR bookshelfs like the CR85 but im just learning about what whould work best for me.
cplkittle on 02/13/2007 15:51:28
It should not be hard to find a home audio retailer with a fully functional home theater display room. I would say of the 30 or so car audio shops that were in the area here 3 years ago, 70% have converted completely to the home side. Car audio is almost dead here. Honestly there are only 5 or 6 car audio shops still in business in Chattanooga.
swez on 02/13/2007 17:19:03
If you still have the Sony towers and just need woofers for them, am sure you can find some woofers that match up well to the Sony woofers.
To match up well, we'd need to know the woofer enclosure size and if ported or not.
Swez
MO on 02/13/2007 20:55:05
That whould be a great idea if we could find the woofer to compliment the enclosure and other 2 drivers since its a 3 way.
I dont know the size of the enclosure and its not written anywhere.
The model of the 3 way tower is SS-U530
In fact here is a link of one that just ended on ebay. I just tried contacting this guy.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Pair-of-Sony-tower-speakers-SS-U530-circa-1989_W0QQitemZ330080134664QQihZ014QQcategoryZ14993QQcmdZViewItem
MO on 02/13/2007 21:23:44
The only other option whould be to pick up 2 bookshelf speakers and make a 2.1 setup with a sub that can play the lows and blend in really nicely.
or
Find somthing similar to the sony's i had pictured in the above link.
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