[Varcharz]

Sorry, I'm not sure where the best place to put this is, but here goes.

I need a new set of quality speakers. I mainly use my laptop (Apple MacBook) as my source, but I eventually plan to accumulate a turntable as well as a dedicated CD player. I currently do not own a receiver/amp of any kind other than a headamp.

What do I need to get up and running? Do I want to look into studio monitor speakers? I listen to a very broad range of music.

My budget is small, but I plan to add all the pieces of this system over time, so I'm willing to fork out a bit of dough for some quality pieces of equipment. I personally don't have any idea what to expect in the way of pricing, so you'll have to fill me in on what I can expect to spend, and I will adjust from there.

Basically I just need advice.

 

[unkle11]

you can get some nice speakers for about 300 bucks, brands to look for tannoy, wharfedale, usher... i have heard alot of good things about usher s520 i think they are.. check out audiogon for some good deals

i don't like studio monitors unless i am proactively looking out to "monitor" stuff..

currently my small apartment speaker gear is macbookpro > airtunes > beresford dac (from a forum member) > musical fidelity x-a2 amp (audiogon) > old acoustic energy bookshelf speakers that i got for about 300 bucks almost 10 years ago but are still flawlessly performing and u can prob get for about 100 bucks now if you can find it, i also have an old sony dvd player as a transport connected to the beresford for playing cds and they compare favorably to my all roksan + elac system back home

i guess what i'm saying is, for your purposes it is not a bad idea to buy some older gear at bargain prices and still get very very good sound

 

[bigshot]

My advice would be to save up as long as you can for speakers. The more you spend, the more you'll get. It's one of the only areas of home audio where that really holds true.

Go to a stereo store with as much money as you can muster and bring a few different sounding CDs with you. Listen to them on every speaker in the house and take notes of which ones you like with each CD. Then look at the price tags and see if you can afford any that you picked.

See ya
Steve

 

[Varcharz]

So what are some good brands of speakers to get my search started?

 

[jjcapurro]

some good speaker companies that have excellent entry level lines:

B&W - good across the board. Check the 6 series.
Totem Acoustic - Arros or their monitors
Magnepan - MMG is a great and cheap speaker
Monitor Audio - their bronze or silver lines

Also look into: REL, Tannoy, Silverline, Martin Logan, Quad, Definitive Technology, and mail order companies like AV123.com and Aperion Audio.

 

[Calihan]

I was looking to get some speakers as well. The ones I was looking at were the M-Audio BX5s for some monitors and then for a sub, the Yamaha YST SW325. I wanted to get a new soundcard for this set-up, and was considering the ever popular 0404 USB. Does anyone know if on its outputs, the main one (next to the left/right trs) can support a sub? The output I'm talking about is here, the middle picture, the output labeled "1 main". Sorry for the thread jack.

Can anyone comment on this set-up?

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Varcharz /img/forum/go_quote.gif So what are some good brands of speakers to get my search started?

I'm not going to be popular saying this, but I would recommend totally ignoring any and all advice you get regarding speakers on the internet.

Speakers are what make the sound for every component in your system. Your CD player is going to end up sounding like your speakers... and so is your turntable. This makes speakers the most important part of your system. No one can tell you what sounds good to you. And no brand is a guarantee of quality. I've heard crappy speakers with good reputations and good speakers with crappy reps.

I glossed over a few points before. I'll go back and give you a bit more info on how to choose speakers...

Go into the speaker listening room at your local stereo store and have the salesman show you how the switcher works. Once you understand it. Get rid of him. You don't need him.

Systematically play the same track on every speaker they have. Don't look at the brand names. Don't look at the prices. Write down the letter on the switcher on a sheet of paper and make notes of what sounds good and what sounds bad. When you get all the way through all the speakers, go back to the beginning and do it all again with a different kind of music. Try to listen to as many different kinds of sounds as possible... orchestras, rock bands, electronic instruments, chamber music, solo piano... write down your impressions on each sheet of paper for each letter on the switcher.

When you get all the way through (and this will take at least two to three hours), take your sheets of paper and write the model number and price of each speaker that corresponds to each letter on the switcher.

Now go through the papers and throw out the ones that sound bad to you. Bad sound is never a bargain at any price.

Now look at what you've got left. If all of the speakers you like are out of your price range, go home empty handed and save more money.

If there are some on the list you can afford, compare them to the really expensive ones and see if you think the difference is really worth the money. Now eliminate the sheets of the expensive ones that aren't different enough to be worth the added cost.

OK. You're getting close now. Take your CDs and listen to your final candidates again. Compare them directly to each other by switching back and forth. Whittle it down to two or three that all sound good to you.

Buy the cheapest speakers of those two or three.

This is a pain in the ass, and it kills the better part of a day to do thoroughly, but I guarantee you that if you do this, you will never regret your choice. You will have great sounding speakers for many years to come and all your components will sound better for it.

See ya
Steve

 

[bigshot]

One more thing... 5:1 setups are great for movies, but they're a royal pain in the ass for music. Trying to keep the proper balance between speakers to avoid dead spots in the frequency response or soundstage is much more work than it's worth. If you plan to just listen to stereo music, not DTS 5:1, go with a pair of full range cabinet speakers.

Those tiny satillite speaker systems ALWAYS have huge firebreaks in the response. Avoid them.

See ya
Steve

 

[Varcharz]

I already despise 5.1, so don't worry about that.

Thanks for the advice. It's odd that there aren't any clear-cut guaranteed quality brands, like there are with headphone companies.

Looks like I've got considerable work ahead of me.

What kind of receiver/amp would I need if I'm going to primarily be using an Apple MacBook (that has an optical out), but also want to get a turntable soon?

 

[bigshot]

Pick the speakers first, then think about the amp. Don't worry about getting a super fancy amp. Just make sure it has enough watts to run them. You can pick up used receivers really cheap on ebay. You might want to consider a used amp.

See ya
Steve

 

[LawnGnome]

Bigshot, that is a really good info for choosing speakers. Will help me out in a few months.

 

[gotchaforce]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm not going to be popular saying this, but I would recommend totally ignoring any and all advice you get regarding speakers on the internet. Speakers are what make the sound for every component in your system. Your CD player is going to end up sounding like your speakers... and so is your turntable. This makes speakers the most important part of your system. No one can tell you what sounds good to you. And no brand is a guarantee of quality. I've heard crappy speakers with good reputations and good speakers with crappy reps.

i dont think you can classify all information on speakers on the internet as useless.

Some speaker companies offer better valued speakers than other, its just a fact. You for sure pay a premium with companies like B&W, snell, mcintosh, etc., then you get into the minor premiums vienna acoustics, def tech, totem, sonus faber.

 

[bigshot]

Well, I don't know about you, but I can go online and read about a CD player and know pretty well if I'm going to like it. The same goes for an amplifier. But until I audition a speaker in person, I have no idea how it sounds.

It makes no sense to shop by brands when the sound is all that matters. A speaker is going to color every single component in your system. Don't pick it on the basis of some reviewer's opinion. Pick it based on how it sounds.

Last time I auditioned speakers, I was very adamant with the salespeople that I didn't need to know anything about the speakers I was auditioning. I didn't care if I could afford the particular models or not, and I didn't need to know who made them.

Once I had narrowed the group down to the ones that sounded the way I wanted them to sound, THEN I asked about brand names and prices. I found that in the brands I preferred, I had chosen both extremely high end speakers and more reasonable ones. I was able to get speakers that sounded very similar to ones that cost twice as much, and I didn't care that they weren't top of the line or a brand everyone says is good.

Boiling it down to just the ones that sounded good made selection a LOT easier. Searching online for other people's opinions wouldn't have helped in the least.

See ya
Steve

 

[manhattanproj]

bigshot, your advice on speaker shopping is nice. but i question the practicality of it. the freedom to let you listen, switch among the diff speakers and the time you'll take without a customer rep next to you, i would imagine those places are hard to find. you'll need a store with choices and the willingness to set it up for you.

most stores promote certain brands and have one setup per rm. and if you dont buy anything after spending all these times there, they'll probably tell not to come again. i would imagine.

 

[warpdriver]

I think bigshot has the right message in general.

Speakers are like headphones, in the sense that, there is absolute NO absolute CONCENSUS. For example I like B&W's but there are people that think they are overpriced and overrated. Just like the way I don't like Grados, there are tons of fans that swear by them. And it's ridiculous to generalize about a brand too, because every lineup sounds different from another, even among the same manufacturer. An Paradigm Monitor series a sounds different than their Studio series, and their Studio 20 sounds a lot different from their Studio 80

I think the key is to get out there with some of your favorite music and audition them.....compare them to other speakers they have in the same store, side by side. And then take your music to other places. This requires some legwork, but it's FUN too! They key is to audition audition audition. Only then can you find what you like, not by reading some vague descriptions on the Internet (can be said for headphones too) You can always order from an Internet Direct speaker company, they all have return policies. Get a pair into your house and compare them to another speaker if possible in your own house. The Internet Direct companies rely on the fact you have to buy it first, and that it will sound ok in your house and thus you are likely to keep it rather than sending it back, but having some other speaker to compare it to makes it easy to understand what it sounds like.