First of all, I'd like to thank all of you guys for providing me a wealth of information over the past few months (yeah I have been "researching" for months now
). Now for my post....
The system I'm looking to put together is going to be for my living room which is about 22'x16' with approx 11' high ceilings. I'll be using this primarily for movies but also for music. My budget is around $1500 for speakers/sub. Here is what I'm looking at:
Sapphire (
www.sapphireaudio.com)
Fronts: ST2
Surrounds: SS
Center: SC
Sub: No sub offered by Sapphire.
Total Cost: $845 (deal at local Tweeter, buy pair for the price of each).
My thoughts: I listened to the speakers at the local Tweeter store. I'll admit my non-audiophile ears where impressed. I asked the sales rep to play rock, classical and then the opening scene of The Matrix. My initial impression was that the movie sounded a tad better than the music. The highs were not too high (which I like) and when I asked the rep to crank up the volume the sounds were still crystal clear. The Sapphire system does not come with a sub but the rep paired it with a Polk sub with even more impressive results.
Boston Acoustics
Fronts: Boston VRC
Surrounds: Micro 120x
Center: CRC 7
Sub
V 500
Total Cost: $1461.00 (@ BestBuy)
My Thoughts: The classical music sounded really good. IMO better than the Sapphires. But then since I was comparing it in a different room and a different CD I maybe comparing apples to oranges. Nevertheless it sounded very good. The rep played the "Echo Game" chapter of the "House of Flying Daggers" movie. I could pretty much feel every beat of the drums. There was one scene (for those who have seen the movie - where the dude throws all the stones in the air) where I thought the it sounded very bright. Then again...maybe that's how its supposed to sound!
B&W
Fronts: DM602.5 S3
Surrounds: DM 601 S3
Center: LCR60 S3
MY thoughts: Unfortunately the place that I demo'ed the speakers didn't have the whole 5.1 channel setup. I could only listen to the two fronts. The rep played some classical and rock. The highs seemed a little to high for my liking with little to no bass (which is understandable coz I only heard the fronts). Since I didn't listen to the whole setup its difficult for me to comment any more. But I liked it enough to consider going to some other store to hear the 5.1 setup.
I also checked the Klipsch F3s (too bright for my liking) and the Polk Monitor 50s (not impressed at all) and the Energy's (way to muddy) for the fronts. I didnt write the model number for the Energy's but those fronts performed badly compared to the others.
Anyways those are my thoughts. I'll be going this weekend with my own CDs (another thing I learnt here
) to compare the speakers. As of now I have narrowed it down to either the Sapphires (I'll have to add a sub), the Boston Acoustics and the B&W.
What do you guys think about the three options for my room? BTW I'm considering Pioneer 1015TX as my receiver. It seems to have a lot of the features of a higher cost Denon 3805 for a much reasonable cost.
Thanks in advance for your comments!
