Moving into the highend floorstanders around $1K

[Sounds Good]

....there are just too many speakers available at this budget. And nobody has heard them all. That gets tough. I've been familiar with the different lines among Paradigm, but what gets me is all of the different "versions", V2, V3, V4, V5, etc etc etc. Hard to know what the different improvements are among them, or how close performance might be with the latest gen Studio vs the earliest Signature, etc.

exactly... its amazing... then to make things even tougher the big box stores are starting to get better quality stuff, then there is online only places and specialty stores too...

Ascends are also on my watch list, but i was concerned about the sound quality of the towers. it appears their "towers" are just their bookshelfs on a stand...

 

[Sounds Good]

(i am sure there are many threads about this) I am wondering for my listening style (sat radio, ipod, movies) what should i take with me to audition?

i dont feel a dvd-a would help me make a decision as i rarely listen to them, i guess maybe a movie with great sound, maybe a action and a drama, and also a comedy for a good dialog example..

as far as music goes i dont listen to the highest quality to begin with... not sure what bit rate sat radio is, i rip my music to ipod at 320kbps... would it be absurd to take my ipod and a headphone to rca cable?

as far as music goes, i listen to world, reggae, alternative, top40, what ever category jimmy buffet falls under...


another thought i had on auditioning...

do i just listen to the 2 mains and buy what sonically matches... or do i listen to everything as a set, or listen to mains and front...

i will be slowly buying my 5.1 setup over a years time i guess... so i wont have everything all at once... i might splurge and get mains and center together... then add sub then rears...


thanks for everyones help... this type of equipment cost a lot of money, and i just want to cover all the bases even before i start shopping to eliminate buying on impulse or by salesman pressure...

 

[bandphan]

Many have their own preferences, but I always recommend simple and less, as in a female vocalist with two accompaniments, ie bass and piano. I like the simple as it is easier for me to hear what I'm looking for.

 

[Sounds Good]

I like the simple as it is easier for me to hear what I'm looking for.

never having auditioned speakers i am not sure what i am looking for... and without hearing a track in a studio i am not sure what it SHOULD sound like...

i guess maybe as i start auditioning ill just buy what sounds the best and is sonically pleasing to me

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

i guess maybe as i start auditioning ill just buy what sounds the best and is sonically pleasing to me

That's what I do. I have songs that I listen to on a daily basis. When the same songs are played on different speakers, I can easily compare, especially if they sound very differently.

 

[3db]

If you're a fan of classical music, bring some. Classical music puts the the most demand on speakers of all music genres. A piano concerto and a violin concero would do nicely. Pianos are one of the hardest isntruments to get right tonally for a speaker. Violins are good acid tests for tweeters.

For vocals, I recommend listening to some blues as so much emphasis is placed on the singer to deliver the emotions. Try some Howlin Wolf "London Sessions" is an excellent recording.

 

[Sounds Good]

jazz is good...

maybe some best of chess records.. and even van morrison.


would it be ok to take these songs along with me on an ipod and also bring along a set of headphone to rca and also maybe the usb cable too... (depending on the stores source component, some now have usb )

 

[KEW]

jazz is good...

maybe some best of chess records.. and even van morrison.


would it be ok to take these songs along with me on an ipod and also bring along a set of headphone to rca and also maybe the usb cable too... (depending on the stores source component, some now have usb )

The iPod is a bad idea. Assuming that you have your music in an compressed format (such as MP3 - I forget what iTunes calls their standard format), the sound quality of the music is compromised. On poor speakers you don't notice so much. The better the speakers, the more obvious the problems of a poor source become. Thus, the speakers which actually are most accurate are liable to sound the worst.
Unless you have used a loss-less format on your iPod, bring CD's!

Also, bring some music that gets real busy (lots of instruments at once). I have listened to some very good sounding speakers which fell apart once the music got complex enough. I suspect that cabinet resonance was the source of the problem.

 

[allargon]

There are some great deals out there on used tower speakers. Seems like the vast majority of people prefer either buying new, or finding something that doesn't visually stand out. I frequently see used floor standing models from Klipsch and others that retailed for 2 - 3k selling around the 1k range used. For a thousand dollars you can get a really nice pair of new speakers but like the above poster noted in the used market that same amount of money could get you a killer set. Just something to consider. Good luck in your quest for audio nirvana!

There are great deals, but the issues with buying towers under $1k is that 10% of your budget goes to shipping.

 

[just listening]

The iPod is a bad idea. Assuming that you have your music in an compressed format (such as MP3 - I forget what iTunes calls their standard format), the sound quality of the music is compromised. On poor speakers you don't notice so much. The better the speakers, the more obvious the problems of a poor source become. Thus, the speakers which actually are most accurate are liable to sound the worst.
Unless you have used a loss-less format on your iPod, bring CD's!

Also, bring some music that gets real busy (lots of instruments at once). I have listened to some very good sounding speakers which fell apart once the music got complex enough. I suspect that cabinet resonance was the source of the problem.

I have a demo cd that I take with me on my rather frequent business trips. It contains 15 songs from a variety of genre's. Since I know each piece very well, it becomes easier to distinguish differences between speakers.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

There are great deals, but the issues with buying towers under $1k is that 10% of your budget goes to shipping.

Some places provide free shiping, like Aperion, NHT, Onecall, Crutchfield, and Amazon, etc.

 

[just listening]

There are great deals, but the issues with buying towers under $1k is that 10% of your budget goes to shipping.

That is another reason why Aperion is worthy of an audition, free shipping both ways.

 

[3db]

What have you auditioned so far? Have you taken any notes to keep things straight?

 

[Sounds Good]

The iPod is a bad idea. Assuming that you have your music in an compressed format (such as MP3

well shoot... i rip and encode at 256kbps...

will that effect how a cd sounds if i make one from my mp3s with itunes?

 

[its phillip]

rip to lossless if you want to bring some material to audition

 

[jostenmeat]

well shoot... i rip and encode at 256kbps...

will that effect how a cd sounds if i make one from my mp3s with itunes?

Well your compression could definitely be worse. If it's for jogging, in the car, don't worry about that at all. In fact, for 99% of pop/rock music, I doubt there is much difference at all, TBH. Classical music, that could be different. I believe you can use WAV on an Ipod, but double check that?

 

[Sounds Good]

I believe you can use WAV on an Ipod, but double check that?

wouldnt do me much good, i dont have the originals anymore...



maybe i can go to the library and get a few cds and make a compilation...