My first speakers... HELP!

[dunhillplanter]

Greetings, this is my first post here. I'm shopping for my first set of speakers and possibly some combination of receiver/amp.

I've been trying to get some feedback on used speakers that were available locally. Some are old... but not vintage old.

PARADIGM 7SE MKIII ($220)
PSB 800I ($300)
PSB CS180 ($250)
PSB LB1,T1,C ($350)

I am planning to experiment it in my room and the living room, so bookshelf or floorstanding doesn't really matter. My concern is their bang-for-buck-value. I think I'm a big fan of fast, transparent, and forward sounds. If you have any experience with these speakers, or have general advice for a newbie, please feel free to share your thoughts.

I'll also list some integrated amps that I'm looking at, but I'll do another post for them in the amp section:

Rotel RA-01 ($210)
Yamaha AX-500U ($140)
Yamaha DSP-A1000 ($80)
Arcam Alpha 8 Integrated & Arcam Alpha 8P Power Amp ($400~$450)

Thanks!

 

[zieglj01]

Arcam or Rotel is my choice for power. The Paradigm and PSB
speakers you have listed - did not have fast, transparent and
forward sounds. However, for the price they did sound nice.

 

[dunhillplanter]

Well, nothing interesting came up for sale during the past couple days, so I'm leaning towards the Arcam Alpha 8+8P combo connected to the PARADIGM 7SE MKIII speakers.

Will the 50 wpc Arcam amps drive the Paradigms well? The Paradigm specs are:

SUITABLE AMPLIFIER POWER RANGE:
15 - 175 watts
MAX INPUT POWER:
120 watts
NOMINAL/MIN IMPEDANCE:
6 ohms / 4 ohms

 

[zieglj01]

If you don't play them real loud. 75 watts would be nicer.

 

[dunhillplanter]

Volume will be at low most of the times.

So I guess I'll need one RCA-to-RCA for the Arcam combo, and 4 pairs of cables for the speakers? Would that be RCA-to-Banana/Spade?

 

[Seth=L]

Volume will be at low most of the times.

So I guess I'll need one RCA-to-RCA for the Arcam combo, and 4 pairs of cables for the speakers? Would that be RCA-to-Banana/Spade?

The PSB Centuri 800i and The CS180 are in a different class than the Alpha series PSBS, even if they are more than a decade older. The 800i and CS180 have a extraordinary power handling. As long as the power is unclipped these speakers are going to knock you down with their precision and attack. I had a pair of 600i (1" tweeter and 2 x 6.5" woofers) connected to a Carver AV-505 multichannel amplifier. Because of the amplifier's design it was able to deliver over 200 watts RMS per channel, and those PSBs did not flinch once with that power behind them. That was one of the must dynamically capable systems I've ever had, and I've played with a lot of gear. If there's not enough power (which depends on your listening habits, your audible issues will be limitations in dynamics and the tweeter gets pretty harsh.

 

[dunhillplanter]

So if I wanted to go for the PSB 800i, which are 10~200W, I would need more power than the Arcam amp combo?

 

[zieglj01]

So if I wanted to go for the PSB 800i, which are 10~200W, I would need more power than the Arcam amp combo?

I would reccomend more than the Arcam can give you.

 

[Seth=L]

So if I wanted to go for the PSB 800i, which are 10~200W, I would need more power than the Arcam amp combo?

Again, this depends heavily on your listening habits. It was on very rare occasions I called upon excessive output. Honestly, the Arcam would probably work fine. It probably has a decent amount of headroom, which is what you'll benefit from. Both those PSBs are more efficient than the 600i speakers I had (those were 87dB apposed to the 92 on the 800i, a big difference).

 

[dunhillplanter]

Yamaha C4 + M4 for $400~

Or I could try the Yamaha C4/M4 (pre/power) combo. I think the M4 has 120wpc at 8ohms.

I wouldn't need a recever though, would I?

 

[Seth=L]

I must not have been paying attention.

I'd get the DSP-A1000 at that price. The DSP-A1000 has an outstanding amplifier section inside of it. This is of course assuming it's clean and free from any audible defects. The DSP-A1000 has preamplifier outputs so you can use it with a larger power amplifier if necessary.

 

[dunhillplanter]

Well the 800i were sold.

I understand the Yamaha DSP-A1000 is a great product. Would it work out with the PSB CS-180 speakers? Wow the CS180s are:

Sensitivity:
89dB (anechoic)
91dB (typical listening room)

Impedance:
6 Ohms (nominal)
5 Ohms (minimum)

Input Power:
10 to 250 Watts (recommended)
150 Watts (Program)

Are KEF speakers worth a look? KEF C45 (100W) and C85 (150W)

 

[Seth=L]

Yes, the DSP-A1000 would work fine with those. They are pretty efficient, and shouldn't take much power to get going, and the DSP-A1000 will have the power when it's called upon.

I think the CS180s are a better choice anyway, they were a higher end speaker after all. They appear to have heavier cabinet bracing than the Centurys as well.

In your situation, that is exactly what I would get. Save up some more money and get a decent subwoofer too. When you decide you want to upgrade the amplification to a receiver or seperates the value of the DSP-A1000 will not have changed much and you could probably get out of it what you have in it.

 

[zieglj01]

Look at the CS180s

 

[dunhillplanter]

Hopefully I'll be picking up the CS180s tomorrow after work. And still trying to get a confirmation for the Yamaha amp.

Really appreciate the help I got from this one thread over the weekend. Some good advice to back up my online research is exactly what I needed. Thank you

 

[Seth=L]

Good luck man!

 

[dunhillplanter]

So..

The price was too good to be true for the DSP-A1000 I guess - The owner did not reply back.

I did buy the PSBs in September. And after a long search, I picked up a vintage Yamaha CR-2020 receiver only last week. It had some good reviews, and was on sale at a reasonable price.

I knew I needed some speaker cables and RCA interconnects as well... so while I was still searching for a receiver, I did some research on cables and interconnects. I ended up buying CAT5E and other little things online for a small DIY project.

And finally, after some hard work untwisting too many wires, finished hooking up both speakers last night - went to sleep at 3am But I did run one speaker for a whole week coz I had only made one pair of speaker cables lol It took some serious patience making them...

So my first speaker set up is done and I must say it sounds pretty nice. I'll have to grab a beer after dinner and take some pics.

 

[Seth=L]

I'm curious, are you using the CAT5E as speaker wire? Why?

 

[jnelson88]

I'm curious, are you using the CAT5E as speaker wire? Why?

I would hope not, that would be like trying to drain the Hoover dam with a garden hose.

 

[GranteedEV]

I would hope not, that would be like trying to drain the Hoover dam with a garden hose.

Well one cat 5 cable has eight 24awg wires on it IIRC, so if you Quad-Wired® you'd have plenty of copper surface area.












® Quad-wiring will tommorow become a registered trade mark of me because it will make me rich.