Best Bookshelfs for Under $300

[Tomorrow]

These Boston Acoustics are pretty nice and at close-out 1/2 price...$300/pair! The ad says 1 per customer...so I guess you either talk them into selling you two, or get a friend to order one, as well. (I can't imagine them trying to sell ONE speaker to a customer. )

Anyway...good price...decent loudspeaker.

http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=20794

EDIT: OOPS...PARDON...You are looking for bookshelf speakers. My bad. Just ignore this post.

 

[j_garcia]

Are you talking about Fanboys? Yeah, AVS is all about that...which is one of the reasons why I detest that forum.

SVS is actually really good about recommending products even if they are from another manufacturer, so bad taste or no, the products are still excellent and I have tried many of the various ID companies' products.

 

[Seth=L]

These Boston Acoustics are pretty nice and at close-out 1/2 price...$300/pair! The ad says 1 per customer...so I guess you either talk them into selling you two, or get a friend to order one, as well. (I can't imagine them trying to sell ONE speaker to a customer. )

Anyway...good price...decent loudspeaker.

http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=20794

EDIT: OOPS...PARDON...You are looking for bookshelf speakers. My bad. Just ignore this post.

AVAILABILITY:
In Stock - Limit 1 per Customer

They are sold each, WTF? That actually makes me angry.

 

[mike c]

there are three kinds of people on AVS ...

noobies. fanboys. trolls.

 

[Soundman]

I dislike the way they flood a lot of the forums with their somewhat viral marketing. Now mind you one thing is for you to actually make a good speaker when compared to others and that is fine by me. But if you do why do you need to go around saying that just because you are ID you offer better stuff than the rest. I first saw this with av123 when I first joined these forums and it's very rampant with Ascend on avs. While av123 has somewhat died down about this, it's mostly because their gear is always out of stock and most people want their stuff right now. Now curtis and ascend at avs is just a whole other fiasco. Which is funny because there was a big deal with AVS and SVS about this same exact thing and they pretty much shut it down but with ascend it still continues. While I am not as anti-av123 as I used to be at first, the whole thing still left a very sour taste in my mouth.

There's a reason AV123's products are always sold out!

 

[Haoleb]

In that price range, the Axiom M3s or the Infinity Beta 20s would likely be your best bets.

Agreed on the axioms. I finally sat down to give my M3's a proper listen a couple days ago and really dont think you can go wrong with them. I wrote a review of them thats in the "write your own review" area.

 

[Big_I]

Bs<$300

I may end up going with the PSB B25s since the x-ls encore could be awhile. They look pretty decent and are supposed to have good bass.

Do you think the Marantz can push these???

My reviever has:
RMS Power Per Channel: 30 (continuous)(8 ohm)
Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) 0.5%
Power Bandwidth 30 Hz to 20 kHz
Intermodulation Distortion (IM) 0.5%

The PSB spec is:
Impedence Nominal 6 Ohms
Minimum 4 Ohms
Input Power
RMS, Clipping < 10% of the Time
Recommended 10-100 Watts
Program 70 Watts

 

[mazersteven]

IMO I would stay with an 8ohm speaker with that old Marantz.

 

[Big_I]

8 ohms my.....

IMO I would stay with an 8ohm speaker with that old Marantz.

Damnnnnn... I thought I had that wrapped up.

 

[Big_I]

8ohm vs 4 ohm BS

The concern would be that the marantz would overheat and clip, correct? It doesn't really run hot as it is with 8 ohmers, so it doesn't seem like a 6 ohm speaker would be too much of a stretch, would it? Am I missing something?

 

[gus6464]

I really don't think that Marantz will have any trouble powering 4ohm speakers.

 

[Big_I]

I want my.... I want my...... PSBeeeeeeeeeees

I really don't think that Marantz will have any trouble powering 4ohm speakers.

They are actually 6ohm (nominal) 4ohm (min).
Thanks for the encouragment. After scanning other threads it seems like most people say "go for it" in my situation.

 

[mazersteven]

They are actually 6ohm (nominal) 4ohm (min).
Thanks for the encouragment. After scanning other threads it seems like most people say "go for it" in my situation.

As long as your listening at low to moderate levels.

What's the worst that could happen? You make a classic receiver catch fire? No big deal.

I really have no clue. I'm learning myself.

 

[gus6464]

Especially since the old school receivers from back in the day were built like tanks.

http://www.stereophile.com/budgetcomponents/507psb/index4.html

According to their measurements the lowest they drop is to 3.7 ohms.

http://www.stereophile.com/budgetcomponents/104epos/index4.html

That is also the measurements for the Epos and as you can see even though they are rated @ 4ohms they really stay at over 6ohms most of the time and drop to a minimum of 4.9ohms which actually make them easier to drive than the PSB. But as long as you don't blast the crap out of the PSB's your Marantz should handle it just fine.

 

[Sheep]

That was not meant to say that paper is THE most neutral specifically; I should have said is one of the most neutral sound wise. It is one thing to have flat response but is another to actually reproduce the sound without imparting coloration. I have owned speakers with a variety of materials of drivers and each tends to have a distinct sound, though what actually sounds good also depends greatly on the total speaker's design. In terms of what a driver does, clearly there are a lot of other factors in the driver's design that affect how it sounds ultimately, but material definitely has an influence in my experience. The crossover can have an influence as well; a poorly designed one can greatly affect how a given speaker sounds even with good drivers.

Check the AV123 forums as well, there may be some deals available in their classifieds.

You both need to read up on Fletcher Munson.

SheepStar

 

[WmAx]

Paper is actually the most neutral material for midrange drivers and trust me, these drivers do sound good. The speakers I own also use similar custom drivers (also designed by one of the guys behind the X series).

Most neutral by what parameter? Most paper(including high end) mid band drivers have substantial resonances in their passbands. Not all, but most. I can more easily pick a metal mid band driver (as an example) and get nuetral performance, as an example.

-Chris

 

[WmAx]

That was not meant to say that paper is THE most neutral specifically; I should have said is one of the most neutral sound wise. It is one thing to have flat response but is another to actually reproduce the sound without imparting coloration.

How is listening to different speaker systems with different materials going to give you an accurate indicator of any type of general performance of such a narrow parameter? There are too many variables present in such comparisons for one to make such an assumption based on these conditions. For example, you could take a perfectly transparent driver 'X' and place it in a cabinet with specific resonance behaviour, and the driver's transparency would be lost. This would be a function of the cabinet. The same can be said of the crossover, if not designed optimally. Or the same can be said if a driver is used in a non optimal pass band, where it starts to become severely directional, causing off axis non linearities that contaminate the room ambiance sound vs. on axis direct sound. Or what about the driver motor? Perhaps one has very poor design, lending to very high distortion, and another does not, but one assumes the difference that is heard is due to some other factor(cone material?).
-Chris

 

[John Bailey]

I powered the PSB 2B (forerunner to the B25's) with a vintage NAD 3020 with 20 watts. It did beautiful job. If fact, if I wasn't so lazy and needed things like a remote, I'd still have that set-up.

If you liked the PSB B25's, I've read that the Monitor Audio 2B's are very similar - possibly a bit more detailed and, I believe they are 8 ohm.

John

 

[3db]

I may end up going with the PSB B25s since the x-ls encore could be awhile. They look pretty decent and are supposed to have good bass.

Do you think the Marantz can push these???

My reviever has:
RMS Power Per Channel: 30 (continuous)(8 ohm)
Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) 0.5%
Power Bandwidth 30 Hz to 20 kHz
Intermodulation Distortion (IM) 0.5%

The PSB spec is:
Impedence Nominal 6 Ohms
Minimum 4 Ohms
Input Power
RMS, Clipping < 10% of the Time
Recommended 10-100 Watts
Program 70 Watts

I have a complete PSB setup at home. T45s towers mains, Image8C center and Image 1BS and I'm driving all of them with a Technics A/V receiver with no problems in access of 85db without the receiver ever tripping off its protection circuits. My receiver IHO is no where's near as stout as yours. The PSBs are very efficient and it doesn't take much power to make them sing loudly. You're good to go. Your receiver will easily handle them.

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Trade-Off

The x-ls encore's are better looking then the CBM-170 SE's.

The grilles on those were an afterthought, and they look like an afterthought. The old ones, without grilles, looked better (IMO, of course.)