Adventures in Speakerland

[phredude]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to Mitch57, Mtrycrafts and Shinerman. I appreciate the input and have taken your wisdom along with me to the stereo store. I finally listened to the Paradigm monitor 7s and liked them a lot, but had one observation-some of my favorite old CDs didn't sound so hot on them. I usually use Thomas Dolby's Aliens Ate My Buick as a good measuring stick for the sound quality and range for a speaker, as well as Pink Floyd's the Wall, and they didn't blow me away. HOWEVER, when I slipped in more recent CDs like Barenaked Ladies, Allison Kraus, and Bobby McFerrin, they sounded awesome. Crisp and clear, really vibrant. The old CDs sounded a bit flat, which made me wonder if I need to replace some of my favorites with digitally re-mastered CDs? The guy at the shop said that a good speaker will reveal the limitations of a CD, or how it was recorded. This was not the case for and Steely Dan discs that I brought along, and he mentioned that any Steely recordings will sound good because the quality that went into it.

Finally, I went to BestBuy and looked at the Athena AS-F2s and had a hard time liking the store. It's hard to really check out the speakers adequately, they are out in the middle of the store and there is a ton of background noise. PLUS, and this I found hard to believe, you can't put your own music into the player that the speakers are hooked up to. Everything is behind a sealed cabinet, so you have no say as to what is playing. I left the store immediately.

I've read good things about the Athena AS-F2s, but I was not too taken by how they look. A bit large, if you ask me.

In the end, I may simply end up repairing the driver on my Boston Acoustics, then save my pennies and keep shopping around.

Thanks again for all your help, and I'll be in touch. Take care.

phred

 

[Shinerman]

Sounds like your going about it the right way. Try out as many speakers as possible.

Good point about Best Buy's listening conditions. I have often wondered what they are using to drive their speakers and what type of media they are using. I am assuming they use a CD but what kind? Is it a burned MP3 file on CD or an original CD or something else? I noticed when you choose Rock to listen to, the first song is usually a real crunchy guitar and heavy drum kind of song. I think recently I heard Audio Slave's "Gasoline" there. This kind of song cranked up on anything will sound pretty good, except for maybe bass. And how often is someone going to sit there that long and listen to the other song's forced on you one at a time. Anyway, sorry for the rant. It's a shame because the Athena's are good speakers.

Also, repairing the Boston's might be a good route. Driver repair is usually not that expensive and that way you get to keep the speakers you like. The older Boston's have a great sound that many speakers today do not have.

Keep us informed!

Shinerman. Is it Friday yet? This 4 day week is killing me!