I might need to purchase a $3000+ BOSE HTIB!!! Someone please stop me!

[laztigger]

Being married is a beautiful thing. You find your soulmate, she cooks fantastic foods, and even does the laundrey. Everything is fine and dandy in the household, except... the "you are NOT putting those massive speakers in this family room."

Welcome to my delimma.

From what I read and do searches on the web and the forums, awesome sound quality cannot come from 2 inch cubes. However, our family room... to my wife's defense, cannot quite accomodate a 7.1 tower speaker system as much as I would want it to. And as much as I'd love to get an Aperion Audio 7.1 tower system... and blow clothes off of guests with my loudspeakers, this is a battle that I won't win, and from a 'cashing in chips' perspective, I'd rather save those for... say... a motorcycle, which is a whole other conversation in itself.

The Bose systems, with the Jewel Cubes, however, are 'petite' enough for my wife and her family room. They also produce decent sounds for their size, and we unfortunately do not have a house, nor neighbors, that allow for a 'blow off clothes' speaker system without having the police come knocking on our front door and having me go out on a date with a cellmate named 'Jimbo.' She likes the range when we listened to classical music, and I admit it did an 'ok' job in movie watching.

Let's put aside recommendations of getting myself a new wife. Aside from small differences in opinion on home theaters, we get along just fine.

I'd like your recommendations to help us come to a happy medium in picking out a home theater for ourselves. It doesn't have to be a HTIB.

The Big Compromise:

Here's what we're looking for:

1. The speakers need to be relatively small. She likes the Bose Jewel Cubes small. I imagine it doesn't need to be THAT small, but small-ish.
2. We don't need a speaker system that blows peoples clothes off. No shaking the paint off the walls, no dates with Jimbo please...
3. I still want a very very clean sound. Great range, clean sounding cymbals with non distortion bass.
4. A good A/V receiver that if one day, I convince my wife that we can upgrade our system to an Aperion or some such, it can accomodate them.
5. And i'm willing to pay for a $3000 system.


Otherwise... it's the Bose v35 system I go... and I get a sub-par system, for a massive price, but meets our space and look/feel needs of the wife. Please help me prevent such a travesty from happening...

Thanks you all...

 

[Seth=L]

You could take a look at Definitive Technology's offerings such as the Procinema 1000 or 800.

http://www.definitivetech.com/products/products.aspx?path=Home Theater Speaker Systems|On-Shelf Systems&productid=ProCinema 1000 &hometheater=1

Oddly enough most manufacturers offer some kind of subwoofer/satellite speaker system. Almost all of these systems cost less and sound better than Bose. I also happen to think they often look nicer than Bose while having much higher build quality as well. Klipsch, Energy, Paradigm, Bowers&Wilkins, Polk Audio and many others offer sub/sat packages that will have a far superior dollar/performance ratio over Bose's systems.

For receivers Denon and Onkyo seem to have great features balanced with great performance. Pioneer isn't bad either, but their lower models are not everyone's favorite. Marantz has a stronger focus on audio than features, but I still think they offer a good value.

 

[gonk]

There are lots of small speaker systems out there that compare well with Bose dimensionally without being as poor-performing and over-priced. The Orbs are just as small, for example, and the HSU Research Ventriloquist is comparable (at drastically less money). Seth's list also offers a bunch of good options. I'd suggest starting out by determine how small you need to go, since there are a wealth of good quality bookshelf speakers and reasonable sized wall-mount-friendly surrounds available that don't require you to fit some huge monoliths into your room.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Why do I get the feeling I seen this exact post before???
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64751
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64202

 

[its phillip]

Your wife would probably get along with an orb audio set

 

[Edmonton]

HSU speakers and one of his subs alond with a good receiver from Denon or Onkyo.

 

[flippo]

Check out mirage

Mirage os3 satellites and a sub will blow bose away

 

[dkane360]

I'll sell you my Klipsch Quintet SL's for 3,000 and I'll even hand deliver them!

Lol, but on a more serious and helpful note, i would definitely suggest the Mirage speakers. Not only do I think they are really cool, they also sound pretty good for their size. They are also owned by Klipsch, which provides excellent customer support.

http://www.miragespeakers.com

 

[sholling]

I have to agree with the idea of bookshelf speakers paired with a discreet subwoofer or two. Speaker selection is highly subjective and you'll have to get out and do your homework and see what you like best but I'll toss out some candidates for you to get out and audition. Each of these has a matched center and in some cases specialized surrounds available to round out a 5.1 system. Those that I would put on the the audition list are the Axiom M3 or M22, Energy RC10, Klipsch RB-15, and the Usher S-520 (for a small room). I'm sure I'm leaving out some great choices but these are small enough and attractive enough that you just might get away with them and their matched centers. Just remember all of them will require the help of a subwoofer. Also note that any rear ported speakers will need some space behind and around them.

You'll need to size the sub to the volume of the space. Not just the room but whatever opens into that room. Perhaps you can convince your SHMBO that a single cylinder sub at the back of the room would be ok. Or a single large front firing sub would make an attractive end table. Or perhaps you could hide a pair of small subs right behind the sofa.

The other option is a package deal. Both SVSound and Hsu Research offer speaker/subwoofer package deals.

Finally if she just won't allow you to go with any of the above then the final fallback is Klipsch's Quintet III system paired with a really good subwoofer or two. They are head and shoulders better than Bose but the problem is that they require a crossover point so high that you'll hear the sound shifting to and from the sub. You could mitigate that with two small subs up front but that kind of defeats the purpose.

For the receiver I'd look at Onkyo's new TX-SR608 or TX-NR708 depending on what speakers you wind up with and their needs. Or if 3D compatibility (HDMI 1.4) isn't an issue and you're in the US you can pick up last year's factory refurbished TX-SR607 for $300 or the TX-SR707 for $500 from Accessories For Less.

 

[cornelius]

Definitely check out the Orbs. I got them for a second system, and they come much closer to my main system than I expected. Since WAF is a priority, I suggest Orbs over a small monitor. The monitors still need stands and aren't going to disappear (sonically and visually) as well as the Orbs.

BTW, I recently A/B'd the Orbs to a pair of Gallo A'Divas, and my friend and I much preferred the Orbs...

 

[Haaspac]

I own EMP stuff and I am incredibly satisfied with what I have, so I would recommend them. They have a mini monitor system that is cheap enough to swap out when you get the room for a full blown tower system with 4 subs.

http://emptek.com/spring_eca.php My guess is that its comparable in sound to the bose, but more than likely noticeably better(especially the bass), for literally a fraction of the cost. It has aluminum cone speakers all around whereas bose uses bad cardboard and a "base module" which is, from personal experience in college when I didn't know any better and my dad gave me his bose system for free, three 5" (maybe smaller) bad cardboard cones reproducing some bass frequencies.

Spend 1000 bucks for the speakers and receiver and save yourself 2 G's. Buy your wife something nice with the money you saved, I hear women like diamond earrings.

If you really want to spend 3 grand on speakers and you can convince your wife to get away with a bookshelf system instead of a cube system, then shop around for those. Lots of companies make very very nice bookshelf systems.

 

[laztigger]

wow, thanks everyone. this is a frak load to go through so I'll be taking a look at all of these on my lunch break.

 

[highfigh]

Nobody needs to buy a Bose system.

 

[dem beats]

If good looks would help I really really really really really liked the NHT classic 3's when I auditioned them.

My wife also thought they looked good enough.

 

[Whitey80]

I use a Mirage UniTheater T1 in my bedroom, I used to have it and just a little 10" sub running as my only system. I really loved the way it sounded, and aesthetically they are quite pleasing with the big dome grill off, have you looked into that? oooooooh and by the way! I have a spare black one laying around!

 

[SJTrance]

Another vote for the Orb speakers, but try and see if you can spring for a different subwoofer that you can hide away in a corner. Heck, you might even end up with a nicer looking subwoofer.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I recommend the DefTech, NHT, and Aperion systems.

 

[GlocksRock]

don't forget about the SVS systems too, I hear those are real good for the money.

 

[newb]

What's wrong with Aperion

If you like the Aperion's, (and who wouldn't as the build and the wood is awesome, with good to great sound Q) what's wrong with bookshelves and stands. They will not take up much more room than Bose speakers with stands and the quality will be exponentially better. And they do have WAF, because who doesn't like real wood and a beautiful finish. Plus since they are more for music than HT (they still kick *** there too), the sound will be awesome. Maybe a 3.1 to start with. But then I love my blow your clothes off Aperions.

 

[darien87]

Being married is a beautiful thing. You find your soulmate, she cooks fantastic foods, and even does the laundrey. Everything is fine and dandy in the household, except... the "you are NOT putting those massive speakers in this family room."

Dude, just nut up and tell her, "Yes I am." A 5.1 system will do just fine so that saves you 2 speakers, and realistically, your fronts will be the largest speakers if you go with towers. Your surrounds and center can be relatively small. Be a man and put your foot down.