[legcramp]

Hey guys, decided to replace my z-5500's with some regular speaker system. Does not need 5.1 or anything fancy.

Budget is 300 bucks.

Need a receiver, and two full-sized towers. This is for music ONLY. The towers must not need any extra subwoofers or anything to make up for thier lack of bass.... they must provide the bass too.. thank you.

 

[fjf]

I am looking for something like this myself. For that kind of money you can get self-amped monitors like the behringer 2031:
http://www.behringer.com/B2031A/index.cfm?lang=ENG

or the m-audio bx8a:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...BX8a-main.html

I've read good (and not so good) things about both, but I haven't heard any of them.

 

[jjcapurro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjf I am looking for something like this myself. For that kind of money you can get self-amped monitors like the behringer 2031: http://www.behringer.com/B2031A/index.cfm?lang=ENG or the m-audio bx8a: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...BX8a-main.html I've read good (and not so good) things about both, but I haven't heard any of them.

Since you are looking for full size towers so I don't think the behringer monitors are quite the match. However, with a budget of only $300 you are really backing yourself into a corner. To be honest, the SQ of floorstanders in that price range with the amount of dynamic range you are looking for do not sound good at all. You may have the bass range you want but have it be extremely loose and flabby bass. And the rest of the range may or may not be listenable.

If you are serious about buying floorstanders, I'd recomend saving a bit more and buying used from audiogon.

For around $400-600 you can put yourself into a nice used speaker pair that will fit your needs, and a quality stereo receiver at the low end should set you back around $200-300 used.

If all you want are speakers and dont care about SQ, then your best buy special will suffice... But then if you didn't care about SQ you wouldn't have posted here.

 

[jjcapurro]

Forgot to mention brands to look for. Good inexpensive used speakers can be had from brands like:

Energy (Conneseur line), Monitor Audio (Bronze line), B&W (600 series), Magnepan (MMG or maybe if you really look hard the 1.2), Onix (av123.com), and Definitive Technology (models without built in powered subs).

 

[jjcapurro]

You might also look into the brands: NHT, QEF and Wharfdale for speakers.

And for receivers I'd look for an integrated amp rather than a receiver from the likes of: NAD, Cambridge Audio (not to be confused with 'Cambridge Sound Works' which is a cheap computer speaker company), or parasound.

 

[nabwong]

300 bucks is extremely hard, especially since you wanna get floor standing ones. The only thing i can think of that'll fit in your budget is the JBL e60 on ebay and then almost nothing for amp. IMO, i think it's better to save up more and get a better 1st system.

The athena F2.2 is available from audioadvisor for $399 shipped. You could get a used Nad c320bee for about $250-ish. Factor in cables and interconnects too, maybe $50. Like you, i started with a really small budget but i couldn't find anything close to decent sounding. Headphones really spoiled me.

Maybe you could find a used Paradigm Atom and Nad c320bee for about $450. I think you can count out the Maggies cos they need a LOT of power.

Happy new year!
Najib

 

[legcramp]

yah seems hopeless... so I ma save up for a better one.. thanks anyways you guys... I'll just siwtch my front sats on my z-5500's with some polks.... R15's..or M10's.... I tried it with my yamaha bookshelfs which are like 10 years old... who knows.. but the SQ increase was UNBELIEVABLE. So I'll grab some bookshelfs for now.... toss that into the z-5500's then start on the amp/sub later .

 

[mlhm5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aZn_plyR Hey guys, decided to replace my z-5500's with some regular speaker system. Does not need 5.1 or anything fancy. Budget is 300 bucks. Need a receiver, and two full-sized towers. This is for music ONLY. The towers must not need any extra subwoofers or anything to make up for thier lack of bass.... they must provide the bass too.. thank you.

OK, for speakers, you can get Polk Monitor 10's (Matthew's favorite) off ebay for say $130 + $65 shipping. Great bass and an excellent older speaker.

Receiver. Here is a Sansui 8080 restored for $180
http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=52573

Good luck

 

[geforcewong]

$300 budget for B&W floorstanders...nice joke

. Anyways, I wouldn't recommend spending another $195 on old and used Polk Audio M10s if your going to upgrade to something better in the near future. Seems like a total waste of money to me. You'd be surprised at how powerful some bookshelf speakers can be when amped properly (even without a sub). Just depends on whether your a basshead or not. By the way, what size room do you plan on doing most of your music listening in? Since your using logitech 5.1s, I'm assuming your using them for a computer system, and in a room not sufficient for floorstanders. I also don't recommend connecting speakers to the logitech sub, cause the quality of the sub is just loud and distorted, not articulate and accurate. I once bought a logitech 5.1 system and returned them as soon as I had time to. They sucked that much.

P.S. Avoid paper cone speakers.

 

[ooheadsoo]

Paper cones are great. Fancy cones require real crossover work, something speaker companies are usually bad at.

 

[nabwong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by geforcewong P.S. Avoid paper cone speakers.

Why?

 

[geforcewong]

Paper cones arent as sturdy and don't sound as clean. I've listened to some old reference speakers using paper cones and it just didn't sound as good as some of today's polypropylene/aluminum/kevlar speakers. I don't think the sound is as clear and transparent since paper material isn't as rigid and stiff. This is just my opinion of course, and I probably just find paper too warm for my taste. I shouldn't of attacked paper cone speakers without reasoning earlier, and for that, I apologize

.

 

[jjcapurro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by geforcewong $300 budget for B&W floorstanders...nice joke ...You'd be surprised at how powerful some bookshelf speakers can be when amped properly (even without a sub). P.S. Avoid paper cone speakers.

If you had actually read my post you would have seen that the B&W recomendation was for saving for a double budget on speakers alone with an additional 200-300 for a used integrated. You can find the lower end floorstanders in the 600 series used for $600ish.

I agree that some bookshelf speakers are quite surprising... In fact a friend has an old pair of Sonus Faber's that sound fantastic!

Cheers,
Jeremy

 

[geforcewong]

Sonus Fabers are definately expensive

.

 

[BlindTiger]

Aren't most paper cones coated with something, nowadays?
I don't know if the poster stated $300 for a complete system or just speakers.
The only way you're going to find towers at $100 is used and at the pawn/consignment shop.
That's where I found a pr of Polk RT3's for 90$. Happens the guy selling it on consignment was in the store, and we struck a bargain.
Check out college town pawn shops. Other than that, I don't know what to tell ya.