What speakers are you using on your 'good' stereo system ? Options

[ChristianHJW]

Hi, i just wanted to know what kind of speakers you all have at home ... and you have your PC and soundcard connected to them somehow ?

As the poll will only give me 10 options and i normally needed about 20 to make a sensible categorization i'd like you to post a short reply with some comments also, especially if you have self made speakers and probably designed and constructed them by yourself, like what is your background here and what software and measurement equipment were you using, what tweeters/mid/woofers etc. .... thanks

[Tes]

I use four old floor standing speakers that used to belong to my parents.

I think they were purchased some time in the 70's. The brand name on them is Electrophonic (never heard of this company). They sound fairly decent, not too clear but they have a nice warm sound to them and they provide enough output to fill my apartment bedroom with music.

Edit: Forgot to mention how they are connected to my computer.
SPDIF out of SB Live to Denon AVR-1801 to my speakers.

[macdaddy]

ap 24/96 ->Denon PMA-920->pair of Klipsch Heresy II loudspeakers...

Interconnects and Monster Cable speaker wire

[tangent]

Not too many 'mad' people in this forum, it seems

[mithrandir]

Wow, looks like few have dwabbled in the high-end. I have a pair of NSM Model 50 floorstanding loudspeakers, costing about $1800/pr. Real cherry wood cabinets, sealed box design, bi-ampable, 2 6-1/2" drivers, 1" tweeter in a M-T-M array. NSM is a small company...my speakers have a serial number of #145.

But the audiosnobs would condemn my playback chain:

Sony XA-3ES CD player -> $15 RCA interconnects -> Onkyo TX-DS474 receiver -> Home Depot bulk speaker cable -> NSM Model 50s. No quality problrms with the cheap cables or the receiver.

My PC isn't hooked up to my stereo as of now...I plug my HD-600s into the sound card.

[brosselle]

Infinity OWS-1 wall mount speakers with a KLH sub in the family room.

Sony V6 currently plugged into a SB Live on my PC. Sometimes they are plugged into the main stereo.

Brett

[Delirium]

Perhaps I don't have the best ears, but I've never been able to distinguish a good $400-$500 set of speakers from a good $1500 set of speakers. In fact I'd guess the imperfect acoustics of my family room contribute more to degradation of the sound than the speakers do, so unless I'm going to move to a house specially designed for optimal acoustic properties...

[macdaddy]

Wow, looks like few have dwabbled in the high-end...

I didn't realize Denon and Klipsch loudspeakers were not considered "high end." Maybe not the Denon, but above middle-of-the-road, nonetheless...

[gdougherty]

B&W's $600 602S2 bookshelf speakers in a decent room, coupled with a decent amp and a good sub that's been properly tweaked(mine's a Velodyne FSX-12) will keep up with most higher end stuff. Of course, for Good stable stands I paid $150, and the Velo was $900 (it's discontinued and can be found for around $600 now) What you really get with the higher end speakers is less distortion, less coloration, quicker low-frequency response, better stereo imaging (I can actually picture the environment a good jazz or classical recording was done in based on auditory cues with the 602's), better spatial depth, etc. The 602S3's do an even better job for the same price, but you can probably find the S2's discounted a bit now too. The 602's actually sound as big as most floorstanders, but without a sub, you won't get a floorstander's low end response.

For the average home listener who never sits down and really listens to their music a good system is a waste. You have to enjoy listening enough to spend time in the speakers' "sweet spot" instead of just playing stuff in the background. For me, spending $1000 on the various cabling was worth the price, most people never take the time to hear the difference though, so it doesn't matter as much.

[gdougherty]

Originally posted by macdaddy
 

I didn't realize Denon and Klipsch loudspeakers were not considered "high end." Maybe not the Denon, but above middle-of-the-road, nonetheless...

Denon is decent, and in the broad range, would fall into the "middle of the road" category. Technics and the like sit at the bottom, Denon/Yamaha/Onkyo/Harmon Kardon sit in the middle and on the top end you have things like McIntosh, B&K, Classe, Proceed, Meridian and Mark Levinson.

Klipsch likewise sits in the middle, along with Infinity and other mass-produced big name manufacturers. The top end is reserved for things like Wilson, Genesis, Magneplaner, etc.

[feckn_eejit]

for mp3/monkey's audio, i use the horrific analog out of my soundblaster 5.1 digital (saving up for a better soundcard and DAC, but it's not a huge priority at the moment), into my nad 1155 preamp, into my hafler SE240 (120wpc@8ohm, 200wpc@4ohm) amp, then either into my Stax SR-Xmk3 headphones, or my Magnepan MG-IIIa speakers. The ribbon tweeter is relentless on MP3 artifacts and such. Unfortunately the ribbons are in Minnesota being rebuilt, and I've been maggie-less for a while now. Very depressing... ah well...

My normal CD player is an old Sony CDP-620ES. Laugh all you want, it sounds pretty good!

My equipment isn't up to par with my speakers, as I spend all my money on stuff for my bass guitar fetish

--jeff

[qristus]

Delta AP 2496 -> Behringer Eurorack 1602 -> old secondhand Philips amp -> JBL Control CM-52 speakers...

Quite happy with the speakers for my small room, though the amp is in need of an upgrade, or at the very least a good internal dusting off...

[Dacs_IV]

I used to know the model #'s but anyway, my best speakers are actually in my vehicle where I do most of my MPC listening. All 6 are top-tier Pioneer speakers with a sub. Top-of-the-midline Alpine EQ(without the gigantic graphic display) going to Alpine amps(now). The soundcard in the MPC'puter is a SB128. Good enough for me.

[sony666]

I use a pair of whoopass 20€ desktop speakers, connected to an audiophile ESS Solo PCI soundcard (35€).

Dunno if that is a "good stereo system", though

[Benjamin Lebsanf...]

Soundcard: Aureal Vortex 2 chipset (75$)
Speakers: Bosten Acoustics digital BA 735 (75$)

[sam]

Arcam Alpha 7 CD, Arcam Alpha 8 Amp, Mission 733i Speakers. SB1024 Live although I've never connected it up to my system, just use my PC speakers.

[ssamadhi97]

^^ nice. mmmh Arcam

<-- wants AudioPhysic's Medea speakers (eh, lemme dream)

Marantz CD67OSE > good (but cheap) shielded RCA interconnects* > Yamaha AX1090 > Oehlbach bulk 4mm² interconnects (bi-wired) > Infinity Kappa 8.2i (interesting four-way construction...)

* the el cheapo cables beat any other cables I've tried up to $200 (mainly out of curiosity )

the Kappas are a bit slow in the midrange when played at low volumes, and if I turn up the volume, the room (basically too small) limits the chain's performance

should've gone with JBL TI5000 and that one Rotel 9?? amp... sounded very nice at moderate levels

no connection to the computer, btw. (another stupid SBLive user. :mad: )

[kennedyb4]

Originally posted by gdougherty
B&W's 0 602S2 bookshelf speakers in a decent room, coupled with a decent amp and a good sub that's been properly tweaked(mine's a Velodyne FSX-12) will keep up with most higher end stuff

I am looking at buying a pair of these, but I have to drive 500 miles before I can listen to them. I dont think they would be too realistic without a subwoofer but I am covered for this.

Currently using a pair of Sony G-5's. Nice image but need some help to tone things down from 4 to 8 khz. They are 25 years old and can no longer be pushed and still sound tight.

[gdougherty]

Originally posted by kennedyb4


I am looking at buying a pair of these, but I have to drive 500 miles before I can listen to them. I dont think they would be too realistic without a subwoofer but I am covered for this.

Currently using a pair of Sony G-5's. Nice image but need some help to tone things down from 4 to 8 khz. They are 25 years old and can no longer be pushed and still sound tight.

Make sure you listen to the 602S3's. B&W seems to have done some slightly nicer things with the low end response between the S2 and S3's. If you're not looking for club level response, they actually sound decent and have a good amount of excursion for as small a driver as it is. My Velodyne (probably a little underpowered for the setup) will actually start distorting due to overextension before the B&W's will. When I compare with sub versus without, they certainly lack, but on their own if I walk up to them cold they usually do a pretty good job. Moral is, a sub is certainly something you can add later and I'd recommend a good sub over a cheapo sub since cheapo subs tend not to blend so well.

[kennedyb4]

Originally posted by gdougherty


Make sure you listen to the 602S3's

Nearest dealer is in Winnipeg Canada, so I will likely be listening to whatever theyhave in stock. I have a very musical Paradigm sub which is frequency and phase tuneable so I hope to be able to blend things adequately.

I have heard that these speakers image very well, and I am most sensitive to this.

I have heard that the nautilus tweeters can be somewhat sharp when coupled with a japanese negative feedback reliant amp. Do you have any experience with these speakers in such a situation?

[maciey]

anyone has any experience on Tannoy M1's ? 'cause im planing to sell my Jamo Studio 180's anf buy those - and in some future mauybe a subwoofer...

[gdougherty]

Originally posted by kennedyb4

I have heard that the nautilus tweeters can be somewhat sharp when coupled with a japanese negative feedback reliant amp. Do you have any experience with these speakers in such a situation?

Not entirely sure what you mean by that, but I'm powering them with a 100wpc Yamaha HTR-5460 and they sound good to me. I would say they're slightly more biased towards highs than the setup I listened to in the store with a stereo Denon amp. The 602S3's certainly emphasize highs less than the S2's though. I can't call myself an audiophile, but I was quite impressed with how good the S3's sounded to me after just listening to the Nautilus 800's hooked up to about $20K worth of amp and CD player. Consider that one setup was $1600 and the other was $36K, I found it very impressive.

I'd imagine your dealer has the S3's in stock by now, but if they don't, give the S2's a listen and if you like those, get the S3's from someplace else. I guarantee you won't regret it. It's the same sort of thing, but more refined. The S2's are the best $600 I've ever spent, and now I'm trying to figure out how I can upgrade to the S3's on my currently tight budget.

[Amadeus93]

ChristianHJW,

On the topic of the poll (as opposed to speakers themselves), it would be nice to have a new poll which scales a bit lower on the price scale, since > 65% of the people are in the sub-200 factory-built category...

[dawsoo2222]

Hi all audiomaniacs i listenning all sources from LUXMAN A384 Hi-Brid amp (tube pre & classic fast very open AB class Tranzistor END) home made hardcore big modification and super fast french speakers Vecteur Seconde.... My CD player is good light Mid-class like accuphase DP65 alternative Kenwood DP7090 (D.H.Mod-new power supply and filtering capacitors and replaced all OPAs Burr Brown).This CD player is very tweakable=including 8xDAC Burr Brown PCM 1702 like Accuphase and cost? = very interessant price.Soundcard is M-Audio Delta AUDIOPHILE 24/96.... My dream is Jadis Orchestra or various MacIntosh AMP and Speakers Leedh Nazca..................

[bladeraptor]

Running off what used to be audiolab pre and power combo (now MacClaren - they should have stuck to cars - grumble) outputting to a pair of old Mission 751's - this set up through SonicLink Grey cable seems to give the right clinical presentation of the music that i prefer - rather than the slightly warmer overall feel from say the Arcam set up - but this does have the advantage of showing up the nuances of 128 vs VBR 160 - 192 encodes on complex pieces as the top end on the 128 goes all to hell - the right combination of amp andd speakers seems important as if the components are not matched through some pretty thorough listening to a range of music - it can lead to an overly warm or 'bright' sound or alternatively a very compressed output - good cable and interconnects are also key

For top end speakers the likes of Mission / Castle / Monitor Audio have a good reputation

Bladeraptor