I'm looking for some good floor speakers with a price range around £600-1200

Sound quality is the only important thing. Looks and size does not matter at all.

Will amplifier strength matter?


I will be going to China soon. Would any of you happen to know if prices are any lower there?

Alas, I'm looking for the same thing, my only other doubt is if a 5.1 or 7.1 system will sound better than just 2 speakers.

A good tip are speakers from Nubert. They're not well known outside Germany, but they make speakers with an amazing price/quality ratio. They only sell the speakers via their website or their own stores (direct marketing).

The best thing is: You have 4 weeks to test the speakers with your system at home. If you don't like them, you can send them back for free (EU-wide, also for UK) and you'll get your money back. They act this confident because they rarely get the speakers back; most people love them. I have a pair of their smallest speakers and what can i say, they sound great.

So, if you're not afraid of all the german text (or if you know how to use Babelfish), you may wanna take a look at the Nubert shop.



What do you mean with "strength"? Sure, the amp plays a part in how it all sounds, but a much smaller one than the speakers.



5.1 or 7.1 is a completely different deal than a stereo setup. I would only get 5.1 if you're into movies. For stereo music listening it has no benefit at all, on the contrary. 5.1 amps are built with 5.1 speakers in mind, the amp components for each channel take space and are often a bit small and feeble. Stereo amps can provide better quality with stereo speakers.

If you are looking for stereo speakers I am a big fan of used speakers. Some people let the most amazing speakers go at the greatest prices. For example recently I scored a set of pristine ar lstII and a denon amp for $50. Deal of the century they are sweet.
http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/ar/clas...st/AR-LST01.Jpg

That being said I would look for some AR-9's, original DCM timewindows, ADS L-810's, Altecs or Quad ESL57's

@BC - being an old audio junkie, the link you provided is dangerous to me. Woohoo; there is a new hole in my wallet. I could get revved over getting a set of Magnepans even though I already have a great set of electrostatics. This stuff is very dangerous to me. Thanks for the info, I guess.

Infinity homepage
Infinity Primus series

Tell me about it. my house is full of vintage audio stuff, almost all my spare $ goes to audio. I have at least 8 receivers, 5 amps, 4 tuners, 8 sets of speakers and a boatload of cdp's. My faves are my heavily moded 307esd -->Fisher 500B and my LST's. For tuners I love my Pioneer AFT-14.

My computer uses a chaintech 710 --> Pioneer sa9800 and Dynaco A25's
http://www.classic-audio.com/pioneer/pics/sa9800.jpg
http://www.t-linespeakers.org/classics/dynaco.html

I am really new to mp3's though -- thats why I am here . Just purchased my first mp3 player last night -- a rio karma from overstock.com I started ripping my cd's about a month ago got 45 GB so far (DAMN)

I loooove my Kef 104/2 speakers... sorta old but very musical.

Nostalgia time: I, too, run 104/2's. They are great speakers and can soak up 4500 watts of power each! I have two mono-bridged halfer 500's which pump out ~1200 watts each. They will overheat trying to drive the KEF's to full volume. The Brits know how to build good speakers. I have had these 20+ years. I also have a pair of Sound Lab Pristines, one of which is dead and has to be fixed. halfer tuner and pre-amp; ReVox CD player and a Technics radial arm turntable for the odd LP.

I am currencly just running the KEF's from a SONY DVD amp, tuner setup with ~400 watts a channel. It works. I have to straighten up and get the good set hooked up and running. One of these days.

MP3's: I scoffed at the concept years ago in an AUDIO article. I am amazed by the quality. I would guess they are as good as better than LP's which have so many faults.

It's completely subjective. The only thing you can do go and listen at a decent HiFi shop with the music that you intend to play on them. The best speakers are usually hand built by smallish companies so are unlikely to be any cheaper in China.

I have a pair of Ruark Prelude which are at the bottom end of your ballpark figure
http://www.stoneaudio.co.uk/stoneaudio/pro...DE2&product=772

Raw power doesn't matter much with HiFi amplification but the quality of the amplifier does. If you are going to spend £600+ on speakers then you will need to spend £300+ on amplification to get the best out of them. For example a possible amp to go with those Ruarks would be an Arcam A65+

http://www.hifibitz.co.uk/product.asp?id=2392

As I say it's all entirely subjective and it's possible to spend tens of thousands and end up with something that sounds worse than a few hundred pounds shrewedly spent.

The best thing to do is to listen to things in a shop without looking at the prices so you don't get the "it costs more so it must be better" effect.

I don't know if you can get them in the UK, but I'm in love with my Magnepan's.

http://www.magnepan.com/_mg16.php

FYI: They have a pair, the MMG for $550 USD, that'll blow away many higher priced units.

Golden Rule: You have to listen to whatever you buy, not us. Buy what you like the sound of and ignore recommendations from others (no offence to other posters).

You *must* go and listen or you risk being very disappointed. British-made speakers have an excellent reputation and Japanese probably the worst but those are generalisations so try and listen to a cross-section.

Amplifier "strength", by which I take it you mean power, will matter to an extent. Speakers vary considerably in efficiency and an amp that is somewhere between 50-100% of their power rating is sensible. It's not wise to use any amp over 100% or speaker rating, for obvious reasons but there are theories about tweeters being blown by low-power amps when overdriven. Your ears ought to be able to guide you when an amp is overdriven though.

Prices are quite probably lower in China but you get what you pay for. You're unlikely to pick up a high-quality speaker at a low price.

In that price range, I like Infinity and Klipsch.

I, too, am looking to buy new speakers in that price range. Would Audiovector M3 Signature MkII for £750 used be a good bet?

That doesn't set you apart very much. I think you'll find that quite a few manufacturers of speakers in that range have "sound quality" in mind. Unless you know the particular quality or qualities you want you won't be able to make a good choice.

I'm a big fan of the B&W 700 series...I would probably go with those.

If you want to check out stuff while you're in China their Amoi/Amoisonic (夏新电子) brand is supposed to be one of the better domestic brands.

But I haven't compared any of their stuff to international brands here, so I'm not really sure how good they are -- just know that they're considered a good brand there.

(spelling edited)

Acoustic Research AR 2ax.