Tower speaker for music

[Jesse Switzer]

Looking for recommendations on a pair of tower speakers that would primarily be used for music. My girlfriend loves music and primarily listens to a lot of acoustic music. I am buying her a decent reciever and would like to get her some tower speakers that look decent on display, but more importantly sound great.

I have done some research and most people seem to be looking for a home theater system and this is not my situation. I was thinking about polks but after looking through the site it seems like they are not ideal. Most of my digging has been on amazon and I would like to spend about $300-350 on a set. Thanks guys for entertaining another recommendation question.

Below are what I have been looking at... no links due to new user

Polk 65T
Kilpsch KF-26
Philharmonic

 

[zieglj01]

Negative on Polk and Klipsch

For your budget the Philharmonic AA tower speaker
they will be good.
http://philharmonicaudio.com/aa.html

 

[afterlife2]

I second that emotion. Love mine.

 

[herbu]

a pair of tower speakers that would primarily be used for music... a lot of acoustic music... more importantly sound great... I would like to spend about $300-350 on a set.

Right... Right... Right... Uh Oh!
Your budget severely limits your choices to satisfy the other requirements. However, YOU'RE IN LUCK!!!
The Affordable Accuracy towers from Philharmonic Audio are $275/pair.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Or the Pioneer towers for $254/pr shipped.

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-SP-FS52-LR-Designed-standing-Loudspeaker/dp/B008NCD2S4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1417272916&sr=8-3&keywords=pioneer+speakers

Or the Infinity Primus P363 for $308/pr shipped.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0046A8R3M/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Right... Right... Right... Uh Oh!
Your budget severely limits your choices to satisfy the other requirements. However, YOU'RE IN LUCK!!!
The Affordable Accuracy towers from Philharmonic Audio are $275/pair.

How much is shipping on those Philharmonic AA towers? I assumed they are $275/pair + shipping?

 

[herbu]

How much is shipping on those Philharmonic AA towers? I assumed they are $275/pair + shipping?

I don't know, but shipping on a pair of Phil3s was ~$200, so I would guess the AAs are about half that and still in the OP's ballpark.

 

[Jesse Switzer]

This is all really good info. Ill pick something up this week. Thank you!

 

[afterlife2]

I know alot of people like the Primus, but I say these are better with a refined tweeter: http://philharmonicaudio.com/aa.html

 

[zieglj01]

This is all really good info. Ill pick something up this week. Thank you!

If you check into the Philharmonic Audio AA speakers [recommended] - then contact Dennis,
he will let you know about shipping cost.

 

[zieglj01]

I know alot of people like the Primus, but I say these are better with a refined tweeter: http://philharmonicaudio.com/aa.html

And, more than that.

 

[3db]

The Phillharmonics would be my choice out of that list. I think. The Pioneers mentioned in this thread would be my 2nd choice followed up by a pair of towers from Fluance

 

[walter duque]

For me it would only be one speaker I would even consider on that list and that would be the Philharmonics.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I know alot of people like the Primus, but I say these are better with a refined tweeter: http://philharmonicaudio.com/aa.html

Well, first the P363 measures very well objectively in terms of on-axis and off-axis.

Second, Harman has done double-blinded subjective comparison testing (of course, not without flaws) of the P360s vs other speakers using NON-employees in the SAME room and system. You can't say that about ANY OTHER speakers in the same class.

So everything else is based 100% on SUBJECTIVE opinions of people comparing speakers by mostly MEMORY and not even in the same system or room.

For example, a few years back when I had the P362 in my room, I compared them to the $2K+ PSB Imagine T2. But the PSB was at a store and the acoustic could have been amiss. And so based on memory and the 2 completely different rooms and systems, I thought the P362 sounded 100% better than the much more expensive PSB. It certainly didn't mean the P362 were truly better.



The Pioneer and it's Modified Philharmonic AA towers may have a slightly more "expensive" and "better" tweeter and/or crossover. But it doesn't guarantee that in a blinded test people would think they sound ANY better.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Out with klipsch and polk. They don't make anything decent anywhere near your budget. Aa towers are great but proper 2.1 would be even better.
A pair of wave crest hvl1 bookshelves and one good sub.
Sub depends heavy on room size. In small rooms hsu stf2 would be great choice

 

[KEW]

Second, Harman has done double-blinded subjective comparison testing (of course, not without flaws) of the P360s vs other speakers using NON-employees in the SAME room and system. You can't say that about ANY OTHER speakers in the same class.

Is there a link to these tests? I am curious what other speakers they compared them with and what music they used.
Harman is an impressive company and I trust their testing protocol to be rigorous. However, they are a "for profit" company and I think it is reasonable to expect that they did this experiment among themselves before bringing in non-employees. I would expect them to select the other speakers for comparison that would reflect best on their speakers.

The OP could do much worse than the Infinities, but they had a fair amount of cabinet resonance when played at decent volume, resulting in muddy bass. Comparisons between the Pioneers and the Infinities I have read consistently favored the Pioneers...and that is before Dennis adds his skills to the AA version.

So everything else is based 100% on SUBJECTIVE opinions of people comparing speakers by mostly MEMORY and not even in the same system or room.

By the way, I owned both of these speakers (Infinities and Pioneers) and listened to them for several days in the same room at the same time with the ability to instantly switch between them level matched. Here are my comments from that comparison:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/pioneer-andrew-jones-sp-pk52fs-review.81868/page-3#post-913866

When we are talking about speakers in the $100-150/each range available for convenient return to the local big box stores, I would bet many people have taken them home and A-B'ed them in their own room.
The OP should do this, but he cannot as easily with the AA's.

And just so you know I am not alone:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/pioneer-andrew-jones-sp-pk52fs-review.81868/page-4#post-913964

 

[Carl06c6]

Negative on Polk and Klipsch

For your budget the Philharmonic AA tower speaker
they will be good.
http://philharmonicaudio.com/aa.html

Good choice.... recommend sub for lower end... ????.. Seems sub would top them off great, even with music...

 

[Carl06c6]

The Phillharmonics would be my choice out of that list. I think. The Pioneers mentioned in this thread would be my 2nd choice followed up by a pair of towers from Fluance

I 100 % agree..

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Is there a link to these tests? I am curious what other speakers they compared them with and what music they used.
Harman is an impressive company and I trust their testing protocol to be rigorous. However, they are a "for profit" company and I think it is reasonable to expect that they did this experiment among themselves before bringing in non-employees. I would expect them to select the other speakers for comparison that would reflect best on their speakers.

The OP could do much worse than the Infinities, but they had a fair amount of cabinet resonance when played at decent volume, resulting in muddy bass. Comparisons between the Pioneers and the Infinities I have read consistently favored the Pioneers...and that is before Dennis adds his skills to the AA version.



By the way, I owned both of these speakers (Infinities and Pioneers) and listened to them for several days in the same room at the same time with the ability to instantly switch between them level matched. Here are my comments from that comparison:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/pioneer-andrew-jones-sp-pk52fs-review.81868/page-3#post-913866

When we are talking about speakers in the $100-150/each range available for convenient return to the local big box stores, I would bet many people have taken them home and A-B'ed them in their own room.
The OP should do this, but he cannot as easily with the AA's.

And just so you know I am not alone:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/pioneer-andrew-jones-sp-pk52fs-review.81868/page-4#post-913964

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B97zTRsdcJTfZmM1ZjhlN2MtMTQwZC00MzVmLWE1OTQtMWQzN2IzNGNiMjc0/edit?hl=en&pli=1

Looks like they compared the P362 vs Martin Logan Vista vs Klipsch RF35 vs Polk Rti10.

I've seen some guys say they hated the Pioneer speakers after they brought them home. What does that mean? It was their OPINIONS. Nothing more.

I've heard the Pioneer at Best Buy, so it wasn't a blinded comparison or anything ideal. But I heard NOTHING special from them. They sounded good, but not better than the Infinity IMO- they both sounded like $500 speakers.