Best pair of music speakers for under $500????

[beck and nirvana]

Hey, i need some help. I need a pair of speakers and am willing to pay up to $500. These speakers would be used exclusively for listening to music, almost entirely rock music. I do have an amp, BUT, it is a very old sony amp, model str-3800, here are the specs:

"F.M. Tuner Quieting is 17dB in stereo, 38dB in mono; Signal to Noise Ratio is 70dB stereo, 68dB mono; Frequency Response 30hz-15khz + - 2dB stereo & mono; Total Harmonic Distortion @ 1khz is 0.2% stereo, 0.5% mono; Channel Separation 35dB @ 1khz; Subcarrier Suppression 38dB; Capture Ratio 1.5dB; Selectivity 50dB. Amplifier specs are: 25 watts per channel(14 dBW) continuous from 20hz-20khz @ no more than 0.3% T.H.D.; Intermodulation Distortion is 0.3% @ 25 watts; Frequency Response is 10hz-30khz + - 1.75dB"

Id really rather not buy another amp as it would lower my overall budget for speakers (for everything i would still only be able to pay 500 in total) but if its not possible, please say so and recommend an amp to along with a pair of speakers, I dont really care about anything except how they sound, id use them in a medium/small room, please help.

thx

 

[Ticky]

A $500 budget could get you a pair of nice floorstanders that will yield sufficient bass response (aka "slam") for rock music.

The problem is that with 25 watts per channel (I assume at nominal impedence of 8 ohms), your amp probably does not have sufficient power to comfortably drive most floorstanders. Unless you plan to listen to music at a low to conservatively moderate volumes.

Boy... this is tough.

IMHO, it may be better to save up a bit more to get a new amp and a pair of speakers. Otherwise, you could get a pair of bookshelves right now. This way you could add a powered subwoofer later when your budget allows. (Unless your amp doesn't have a sub-woofer out or tape in/out loop.)

 

[zowie]

Athenas.

Or buy used.

 

[Uncle Erik]

If you can stretch your budget just another $50, try these:

http://www.magnepan.com/_mmg.php

The Magnepan MMGs are a steal at that price. They're terrific speakers.

If you've ever thought about building your own, take a look here:

http://www.geocities.com/diyproac25/comments.htm

Depending on your choice of crossover parts, you can bring these in under $500 if you keep your eyes open. I built a pair of these; they sound great.

 

[Sodacose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik If you can stretch your budget just another $50, try these: http://www.magnepan.com/_mmg.php The Magnepan MMGs are a steal at that price. They're terrific speakers. If you've ever thought about building your own, take a look here: http://www.geocities.com/diyproac25/comments.htm Depending on your choice of crossover parts, you can bring these in under $500 if you keep your eyes open. I built a pair of these; they sound great.

if you go with those maggies, you will definetly need a new amp. also, they are going to be focused in the mids and highs, which is great for detail but not 'bass slam' (something you might want with rock music). i would suggest taking a look at some paradigms, and some B&W's. both of those companies have great speakers that will fit in your price range and they are resonably easy to find and demo.

by your musical taste, i'd think the paradigms would be more pertinent. my roommate has the titans (~$200) and they are great, albeit tipped a bit towards the mid-bass region. i recently was shopping for new speakers and heard paradigm's monitor series as well: generally more refined highs than the titans and more bass detail at not too much of an increase in price.

B&W's 601-602's would be in your price range also. they are more detailed and balanced than paradigm's speakers but have less of the 'slam' and are a little less warm.

FWIW, i ended up getting some MB Quart bookshelves (QLC-204) which blow away either the B&W's or Paradigms (or anything else i'd heard) in frequency extension and soundstage, but they are nearly impossible to find anywhere. if you do come upon some, give them a listen.

some other brands that you might look into (but which i haven't personally heard) are wharfdale and mission. they seem to be easy to find online and i've seen them mentioned on the forums here quite a few times.

 

[NotJeffBuckley]

Fluance makes a great pair of ~$300 stereo speakers with a very full frequency response (they've got slam in droves down to around 40Hz without a subwoofer), and a pair of ~$400 ones with excellent transients from highly parallelized drivers (minimize total excursion = better transient response at the cost of potential phase problems, but these handle the second very adroitly) but less bass response. Fluance aren't competing with the big guys, and they know it, but they make speakers that sound like they cost about $400 more than they actually do. Check them out at www.fluance.com.

 

[F1GTR]

Vintage Klipsch Heresy's (off ebay ~ $350-500) and an Eico HF-81 once you can afford it.

 

[Joey_V]

The last 20 pairs of the Onix Reference $1800 Reference 1.5 speaker.

Oops... you said $500?

Ok ok.... I forgot to mention that it is 1100$ off!

At $699, you should UP your budget and get these awesome speakers.

http://www.av123.com/products_produc...s&product=72.1

They just posted this sale yesterday so they might actually be out by the time you read this post.