helps!

[hkhooj]

I know a lot about a little, and a little about a lot. Buying speakers falls into the latter.

I came back from college to spend the summer at home, and found out the parents were looking to buy new speakers for our living room. The only people who know less about speakers than i do are my parents.

If i dont find a better solution, my parents are going to drop 400$ on this.

This is a family that will not be using speakers for a rich-sounding home theatre (DVD/gaming, etc) system, but rather needs good sounding, value speakers for music. The main use of our stereo system is blasting ethic persian music at dinner parties. thats it, and for this i was telling them theres no need for 5.1-> etc, just a few speakers that wont clutter up their living room (complex speaker setups will ruin their decor).

I've been reading posts here for a while now, and i dont know if this really corresponds with the majority of the posts since this is definitely not a real enthusiasts setup, but still, i figure smart shopping is relevant at 100$+, not just at 1,000$+ .

Any tips on speakers? Value is key since i know they'll pay for stuff they wont need, focusing on brands rather than quality specs... and something not gaudy (new-age cheese is out).

Again, if i can offer a better solution, cheaper/better theyll go for it.. otherwise... theyll buy that :/ In fact i really dont see a reason to spend that much money on 2 speakers, or 2 sattelites and a woofer, since their main use is for music at high volumes.

My thanks, even if you dont respond with useful advice, i guess you read this far about a strangers trivial plight and thus get my gratitude all the same.

-H

 

[jaxvon]

Hmm...ethnic music...sounds interesting. Is the budget including a receiver of some sort, as well as a CD player? And what are the decor requirements? There are a lot of different speakers out there in your price range that you might find to fit the decor. As far as budget goes, I really like BIC. I have some of the DV62 bookshelves. They sound great, and can really crank out the volume. The bass on them is pretty good too. I think if you're going to be blasting music, especially if it has some bassy drums in it (I don't know a THING about persian music), then you're going to want a subwoofer to add that extra impact, and so you don't make the woofers explode on your mains. In your price catagory, I think you should check out:

1 pr DV62si Bookshelves for $121 shipped from Amazon
1 Cadence XSub $249 shipped from Ubid

This is well within your budget, and will play LOUD. If you want to get a decent receiver for them, then you might have to budget another couple hundred or so.

Be aware that the BIC speakers are bright (as in elevated treble frequencies). The only way to fix this would be to either use an equalizer on them, or have the crossover mod done by Ed Frias for $30.

Feel free to ask some more questions.

 

[Takeereasy]

Hi there hkhooj. I'm going to link you to a page that will give you some alternatives to that other setup. I'm assuming that you want tiny speakers in a very similar or even less costly bracket. On this page there are two systems worth your consideration. If very small size is a must then there is the Athena Micra system. A good review can be found on the Audioholics site in the reviews section. If you can go a little bigger for speakers but still need to be much smaller than the Bics then you could try out the .5 system. You will need to add a sub still if you go with the .5 set up, and considering the use you have in mind I'd suggest you consider the Cadence sub Jaxvon was talking about. It may be overkill for your situation, but it seems to be the best sub under $250 available right now. Here is a link to the sub. You are a good kid (kid can be of any age) for trying to help out the folks. Good luck with it all.