Post Your Best Budget Speaker Finds Here

[KEW]

Okay - fine. I do and these are the only color I would have considered - white! So why do they belong in this thread? Well, they are not more than a few months old and I got them for roughly 40% of retail (60% off). They are in absolutely perfect condition and the fine gentleman that sold them to me claims they only had "20 hours" on them and "were not even broken in" (take that for the grain of salt that it is).

So, after a few songs I can say... uh, wow. These are totally amazing. When I had to sell my KEFs, I was sad, but knew I would be able to replace them. For my budget at that moment, I got the Focals and those are very... nice. That's not a negative comment - they really are. But that is how I would describe them to anyone: nice. Nice, airy (very airy) treble, nice mids and, hey, the bass is pretty nice as well. They earn my hearty recommendation for a really "nice", safe speaker that is not going to do anything wrong. If you are yawning, I don't blame you - I'm not really into "nice". Like I said four (now eight) songs in and the Elacs are not "nice". They are incisive, detailed, and even brutal. The Focals "present" the recording, the Elacs grab your freakin' ears and make you look into it. Sweet... Imma just have to do a real review of these. In the mean-time:
View attachment 35554View attachment 35555

Congrats on the great find!
Remind me!
Which Focals did you have?

 

[panteragstk]

It was $850 less than retail. I paid $650 for them. For some reason I kept thinking he sold them for $1,598. I edited my post and fixed it.

Still, I'm pretty tickled for what I got!

Very nice find. You had a chance to listen yet?

 

[Pogre]

Very nice find. You had a chance to listen yet?

Oh boy, yes. I posted my first impressions in my Craigslist thread. I'm pretty blown away, but at the same time I wasn't as disappointed with the Ultras as I thought I'd be when I switched back. Those Raal tweeters tho! And the bass these little books put out is pretty amazing.

Are These Finds Good Deals?

I just stumbled across a pair of Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2s with Raal ribbon tweeters in gloss black for $650... Umm... this looks like it could be a hell of a bargain? Anyone?

forums.audioholics.com

 

[John Parks]

Congrats on the great find!
Remind me!
Which Focals did you have?

Thanks! I have the Chora 806. For the price, they are excellent speakers and I have really enjoyed my time with them. I'm still interested in traveling up their line to at least the Kanta series, but these Elacs will keep me happy for a while. I notice that the prices for the Kantas on A4L keep going down - must have patience...

 

[KEW]

I was curious which Focal tweeter you had, the Focal Be tweeter is a marvel of high sound quality, but you may still find that the Focal doesn't have that aggressiveness you like in the Andante's!
I have never heard the aluminum tweeter that your Chora has, so cannot speculate on the differences.
However, I can relate to your comments about the speaker being aggressive - I think the JBL 530's are a good example. I don't know what to associate with it measurement-wise, it may have something to do with the FR or maybe dynamics but it is more engaging than many other speakers in the same price range that look pretty similar on paper!

 

[afterlife2]

Got these Polks recently. Good highs and not harsh. Bass is good too. My first pair in white and first Polk and gotta say they are darn good. No DCM, but quite good.
These look interesting. A moving tweeter now that is cool.

 

[Pogre]

Those speakers do look interesting!

 

[afterlife2]

They got pretty good reviews. Maybe one day I can hear them when things get better.

 

[zieglj01]

Ohm Cam $150

With the Ohm Cam that are about 31 years old, you may hear a boosted midrange and a somewhat resonant lively cabinet ... $150 seems too high

 

[KEW]

Since it is a sweet deal currently available, How about the Infinity Reference Tower R263 for $200/each

Infinity REFERENCE 263 | 6-1/2" 3-Way Floorstanding Speaker

Infinity's Reference R263 three way floorstanding home speaker offers detailed, spacious, room-filling sound that will bring your music and movies to life.

www.harmanaudio.com

It was thought (including by myself) that this series was being discontinued. This particular model has been absent for at least 3 years and I thought they had run out of parts or tooling was worn out. However, here they are again! What does it mean when a well respected speaker company sells their product direct with a 60% discount? It is hard to believe this speaker was reintroduced after 3+ years unless they decided to invest a chunk of money to bring it back. Not something you would do on a close-out!

 

[geniusmusicman]

It was thought (including by myself) that this series was being discontinued. This particular model has been absent for at least 3 years and I thought they had run out of parts or tooling was worn out. However, here they are again! What does it mean when a well respected speaker company sells their product direct with a 60% discount? It is hard to believe this speaker was reintroduced after 3+ years unless they decided to invest a chunk of money to bring it back. Not something you would do on a close-out!

I wonder if they even plan to close this out as they just keep bringing it back. I also wonder if Samsung is working on a new line of Infinity speakers.

 

[KenM10759]

I wonder if they even plan to close this out as they just keep bringing it back. I also wonder if Samsung is working on a new line of Infinity speakers.

Seems very similar to SVS magically coming up with more SB12NSD subs once or twice a year, some 4-6 years after replacing it with the SB2000 (and now SB200 Pro.)

I can't decide if either company got caught holding a hidden corner in a warehouse in China, or are they actually making more?

 

[KEW]

Seems very similar to SVS magically coming up with more SB12NSD subs once or twice a year, some 4-6 years after replacing it with the SB2000 (and now SB200 Pro.)

I can't decide if either company got caught holding a hidden corner in a warehouse in China, or are they actually making more?

My understanding is that SVS said the NSD are officially no more, so I don't expect them to show up again - that begs the question of "will they have another model fit that niche".
I did not follow the NSD that closely. Was it sold at a higher "MSRP" when it was not on sale (like the Infinity and JBL Studio 5 speakers) or was it only sold periodically, but always at discount prices?

 

[wje2]

Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Last weekend, I ended up selling my Magnepan LRS and .7 speakers - I was trying to decide which pair to keep and the buyer wanted both pair. I ended up springing for the Magnepan 1.7i with the Mye stands, but they won't arrive for nearly a week. Being "speakerless" I quickly scrounged Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. I found a pair of AV123 X-SLS *with* the Skiing Ninja crossover modifications for $100 (the pair) including the grills. The satin black cabinets have some marks on them, so I'm in the process of refinishing the cabinets. Back in 2008, these speakers cost $299 plus about $300 for the crossover mods from Sean of Skiing Ninja. Wow! I wish such a combo was available today for about $600 because the sound is just lovely. After hooking them up, I almost thought I'd want to back out of the Magnepan purchase because the sound of these speakers are truly amazing.

 

[lovinthehd]

Keep both, now you have spares Or for another room....

 

[SuperValue]

...I found a pair of AV123 X-SLS *with* the Skiing Ninja crossover modifications for $100 (the pair) including the grills. The satin black cabinets have some marks on them, so I'm in the process of refinishing the cabinets. Back in 2008, these speakers cost $299 plus about $300 for the crossover mods from Sean of Skiing Ninja. Wow! ...

Oh nice I'm jealous. The ahem... questionable leadership aside... they made great gear. I scored a pair of Onix Strata Minis years ago for $1000/pair roughly a year after their release date. Guy even drove them to my house (40 miles) for a few bucks in his big SUV.

I *still* have them to this day, my wife says I can't change speakers because they look so good. I won't fight her, I can't find anything that can touch em in their price range.

Also still have 2 pairs of RS150, ULW-10 with the 1 band EQ, and bought the original Emo stack from them. The pre/pro is long gone but the 70lb 6 channel LPA-1 isn't going anywhere. I miss the forum though, lots of great people there.

 

[wje2]

Oh nice I'm jealous. The ahem... questionable leadership aside... they made great gear. I scored a pair of Onix Strata Minis years ago for $1000/pair roughly a year after their release date. Guy even drove them to my house (40 miles) for a few bucks in his big SUV.

I *still* have them to this day, my wife says I can't change speakers because they look so good. I won't fight her, I can't find anything that can touch em in their price range.

Also still have 2 pairs of RS150, ULW-10 with the 1 band EQ, and bought the original Emo stack from them. The pre/pro is long gone but the 70lb 6 channel LPA-1 isn't going anywhere. I miss the forum though, lots of great people there.

A bit over 4 years ago, I bought a pair of the Strata Minis that were available locally for $350. The cabinets and drivers were in great shape. The built-in amps exhibited a bit of hum. I ended up installing Parts Express 300W BASH amplifiers instead. Some small modifications were required by having to make a small MDF panel to fit over the current amp opening and install the new BASH amps. I then sold them about a year later for about $400 - less than the price I originally paid for them along with nearly $300 in expenses to upgrade the amps. In reality, I should have kept the Strata Mini. My only reason for selling them was to move to the Focal Electra 1027BE, which was 10x the cost, but not 10x of an improvement.

 

[Hitchslapped]

I grabbed a pair of PB-3000’s in excellent shape for $1200 total....... been a few weeks and loving them. They didn’t have the port tube plugs, so I called SVS and they were in the mail same day. Awesome CS. Haven’t had the heart to plug them up yet.....

 

[afterlife2]

Cool not sure if these are good, but sure looks different. Tweeter titanium.

 

[ParleyW]

About 13 months ago I picked up a mint pair of Hafler 300 floor-standing speakers for $200.

They could probably use a refresh of the tweeter fluid and maybe recap, but still hold their own against some modern KEF I have. I wanted these when I bought Hafler 200 bookshelf in 1988 but couldn't afford the $800/pr price then. The 200's were only $349/pr, I still have the receipt and my niece still uses the speakers every day.

Picture from my son's house, he had given the oak finish a wipe with the correct Danish Oil.

I’ve also picked up a pair. This is an incredible speaker design. Wonderful to listen to. Their my daily listeners.