Help - I need awesome HT speakers...for under $1000 (already got the sub) - Page 2

I agree with the Energy Take 5 suggestion. I think Atlanta also makes (or used to make?) a kit in your price range.

And, you know, I have to do this because I'm a fan of the speakers I got--NHT are one of the better deals in home theater speakers. If you're auditioning PSB, you should also be auditioning NHT--they're almost like sister companies. You could argue which is better like people do the DT931 vs the HD600 in these forums, but both are worth your attention.

For me NHTs entire line is a little more full bodied while the PSBs have a little bit sweeter highs. The older NHTs used paper cones which I honestly recommend for home theater--spoken voice sounds much better to me on paper cones than on kevlar or any of the other materials they use these days.

IMHO, the demands of home theater are very different than for music. I don't AT ALL think you were mistaken to spend more on the amp than the speakers. Imaging matters a lot less for home theater--in fact, Lucasfilm's philosophy was pretty much "give me a boring diffuse speaker with a fairly flat response." It's not such a bad philosophy in a multi-channel system for watching movies--just remember to match all five channels so that the pans don't sound like ass and make sure they can do the full frequency range if you're using them in Dolby Digital.

And one final piece of advice. Do not compromise your music system for your home theater. Do not compromise your home theater system for music. Anyone who claims to have a good system for both is very delusional.

Kelly

Actually, i do find the treble on the axioms a bit bright; before burn in they were harsh and shrill... After 100 hours (!) of burn in the treble is still a bit bright but also very smooth; I think it is revealing the crappy upstream componants. It also depends a lot on recordings, so many recordings are compressed/bright to sound better on dark equipment that they end up sounding quite bright on the axioms.

i've seen a few people mention that the treble is too forward, and others feel that it is perfectly balanced, so it probably depends a lot on your sources/ tastes/music... While i do find it a bit bright, i feel the treble is one of the strengths of the speaker, it is very detailed, accurate, and smooth...

Anyways, the Energy take 5.1s and especially the take 5.2's are much brighter than the axioms, and harsher as well.

If anything the Axioms are the AKG501's, no deep bass, but everything else is very balanced with slightly forward highs.

Cheap home theatre.com has reviewed the axioms and Norh 4.0, giving both the same score:

http://www.cheaphometheater.com/Axio...dio%20m3ti.htm


If you were building an expensive system, your advise definately makes sense, but for under $1000, there is no way you can build two seperate systems. And a neutral speaker that isn'y coloured to enhance movies or music will be able to do a good job with both. It won't outperform a good optimized system, but for many people it isn't feasible to build two high-end systems

Welcome to headphones.

Kelly

I missed this post earlier -- I hope it's not too late to convince you to at least audition the Paradigm Atoms. They have a metal/ceramic tweeter, but they're very balanced throughout the frequency range. The treble is just right -- not too bright. I think you'd be very surprised at the kind of sound you get out of such an inexpensive speaker.

Blending, and imaging

The front baffle width of both the 4.5s, and the 6.5s are exactly the same, so imagining should be similiar. Usually, the biggest downfall of wider speakers is lack of pinpoint accurate imagining. If it was my money I would go with the 6.5s simply, because they will blend much better with a subwoofer. I know for a fact that lowering the crossover on a subwoofer does wonders in eliminating distortion. Good luck!

yep, sounds good...

I haven't heard any of the centre channels myself, so i can't comment on the sound... The VP150 looks like it is identical to the VP100, with the addition of an extra midrange...

I'm guessing that they would sound about the same, with the VP150 being more sensitive and able to play louder... Here's a comment by the president of Axiom, but obviously take it with a grain of salt...

The M22 front and M3 rears sounds like a good idea, but there could be problems with "timbre matching" from front to rear- the m22's have a very flat response, while the m3's have a mid-bass hump, which could cause problems, especially with pans...

But i guess that is the only way to try both of them...

for around $1000 ( a little more), A speaker i used to own, are the ACI Saphire IIIs. You might be able to find these for less used. They are an excellent monitor. They are up there with B&W nautilus 805s, and some prefer them.

Also a Mr. Ed Frias makes a pair of high end monitors which cost $890 (b-15s) and are (supposedly) even better.

I will be buying those (or different model) someday. I only sold my saphies to get the le version (in the future when listening to speakers is more practical...)or mr Frias's monitors.

Go look at reviews for either of these speakers (more so on the saphire) on audioreview.com or harmonicdiscord.com.

Im very confident you will enjoy either of these monitors, as they are THE best at that price point.

k.s.