Bookshelf speakers around $200?

[Quadzilla]

Hi all,
looking to replace a pair of old Sony bookshelf speakers that recently died, not wanting to spend much more than $200 and came up with the speakers listed below mostly based on price . I've never actually listen to any of these, I have listened to some Klipsch speakers before and really liked the sound of them but never actually listen to those models I've listed. I have the Bluetooth speakers listed as I recently bought an Amazon Echo device but I'm not sure yet if I'm going to pair it with my receiver or to speakers. If you have any other suggestions, I'm all ears! Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.

Polk Audio Monitor 45B CHERRY Bookshelf Speakers NEW PAIR http://r.ebay.com/yMSpVB
Klipsch RB-51 II Black (Pr) 2-Way Bookshelf Speakers
Klipsch KB-15 Icon 5-1/4-Inch 2-Way Bookshelf Speakers
Klipsch R-15M Bookshelf Speaker
Fluance XL7S High Performance Two-way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers
Fluance Signature Series HiFi Two-way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers (HFSW)
Boston Acoustics Classic II CS26 2-Way 6-1/2-Inch Bookshelf Speaker , Black Walnut
Swans - M200MKII - Powered 2.0 Bookshelf Speakers - Wooden cabinet
Swans - T200C
ELAC B5 Debut Series 5.25" Bookshelf Speakers by Andrew Jones ($229)

 

[rojo]

Hi all,
looking to replace a pair of old Sony bookshelf speakers that recently died, not wanting to spend much more than $200 and came up with the speakers listed below mostly based on price . I've never actually listen to any of these, I have listened to some Klipsch speakers before and really liked the sound of them but never actually listen to those models I've listed. I have the Bluetooth speakers listed as I recently bought an Amazon Echo device but I'm not sure yet if I'm going to pair it with my receiver or to speakers. If you have any other suggestions, I'm all ears! Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.

Polk Audio Monitor 45B CHERRY Bookshelf Speakers NEW PAIR http://r.ebay.com/yMSpVB
Klipsch RB-51 II Black (Pr) 2-Way Bookshelf Speakers
Klipsch KB-15 Icon 5-1/4-Inch 2-Way Bookshelf Speakers
Klipsch R-15M Bookshelf Speaker
Fluance XL7S High Performance Two-way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers
Fluance Signature Series HiFi Two-way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers (HFSW)
Boston Acoustics Classic II CS26 2-Way 6-1/2-Inch Bookshelf Speaker , Black Walnut
Swans - M200MKII - Powered 2.0 Bookshelf Speakers - Wooden cabinet
Swans - T200C
ELAC B5 Debut Series 5.25" Bookshelf Speakers by Andrew Jones ($229)

That's easy. Most of the speakers in your list employ a cap and a coil for the crossover -- not much attention paid to tuning. When you're a large company trying to design a speaker within a target budget, the crossover is one of the first things to be sacrificed, because it's rarely ever seen.

Within your price range, Affordable Accuracy monitors > *. Dennis Murphy starts with a Dayton Audio bookshelf kit and upgrades the crossover using his legendary sorcery. To get an idea of how important the crossover really is, read Crossovers 101 (a blog post written by Dennis Murphy, the guy who offers these speakers). Don't worry, it's a very brief introduction.

Re: Affordable Accuracy vs. Elac B5, read this subjective comparison.

 

[zieglj01]

Cambridge Minx XL bookshelf speakers
http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/cambminxxlwhta/cambridge-audio-minx-xl-5.25-2-way-bookshelf-speakers-white-pair/1.html

Sony Core bookshelf
https://www.amazon.com/Sony-SSCS5-3-Driver-Bookshelf-Speaker/dp/B00O8YLMVA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500502896&sr=8-1&keywords=sony+core+bookshelf

 

[j_garcia]

Hi all,
looking to replace a pair of old Sony bookshelf speakers that recently died, not wanting to spend much more than $200 and came up with the speakers listed below mostly based on price . I've never actually listen to any of these, I have listened to some Klipsch speakers before and really liked the sound of them but never actually listen to those models I've listed. I have the Bluetooth speakers listed as I recently bought an Amazon Echo device but I'm not sure yet if I'm going to pair it with my receiver or to speakers. If you have any other suggestions, I'm all ears! Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.

Polk Audio Monitor 45B CHERRY Bookshelf Speakers NEW PAIR http://r.ebay.com/yMSpVB
Klipsch RB-51 II Black (Pr) 2-Way Bookshelf Speakers
Klipsch KB-15 Icon 5-1/4-Inch 2-Way Bookshelf Speakers
Klipsch R-15M Bookshelf Speaker
Fluance XL7S High Performance Two-way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers
Fluance Signature Series HiFi Two-way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers (HFSW)
Boston Acoustics Classic II CS26 2-Way 6-1/2-Inch Bookshelf Speaker , Black Walnut
Swans - M200MKII - Powered 2.0 Bookshelf Speakers - Wooden cabinet
Swans - T200C
ELAC B5 Debut Series 5.25" Bookshelf Speakers by Andrew Jones ($229)

IMO, the AAs mentioned by Rojo will best any of the ones on your list in the same price category.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

That's easy. Most of the speakers in your list employ a cap and a coil for the crossover -- not much attention paid to tuning. When you're a large company trying to design a speaker within a target budget, the crossover is one of the first things to be sacrificed, because it's rarely ever seen.

Within your price range, Affordable Accuracy monitors > *. Dennis Murphy starts with a Dayton Audio bookshelf kit and upgrades the crossover using his legendary sorcery. To get an idea of how important the crossover really is, read Crossovers 101 (a blog post written by Dennis Murphy, the guy who offers these speakers). Don't worry, it's a very brief introduction.

Re: Affordable Accuracy vs. Elac B5, read this subjective comparison.

what is a cap and a coil crossover?

 

[rojo]

what is a cap and a coil crossover?

A cap and a coil crossover is a crossover consisting of a capacitor (a cap) on the tweeter, and an inductor (a coil) on the mid driver. This results in a shallow rolloff of the drivers at 6dB / octave, plus whatever natural rolloff the drivers exhibit.

This is undesirable for a few reasons: it requires a higher crossover point to spare the tweeter from being fed bass frequencies, which in turn demands the mid driver to be crossed over too high to mask the resonant break up modes at the top of its range. Also, this design puts the mid driver and tweeter exactly out of phase, so they cancel each other out where their frequency ranges meet, causing a saddle-shaped dip in the response around the crossover point. Dennis Murphy illustrates this in his Crossovers 101 blog post.

The same mid driver and the same tweeter in the same cabinet given a proper 4th order (24dB / octave) crossover measures and sounds a lot better:

A speaker with ordinary drivers and an extraordinary crossover will sound better than extraordinary drivers mated to a so-so crossover just about every time.

 

[tyhjaarpa]

Another vote for Dennis Murphys AA Monitors.