Hello audioholics,
My name is Nick. I'll start with a little backstory about what I have had for awhile now. When I was in college I bought my first system it was JBL "mini towers" but they were probably only 10 inches tall or so and it came with a small passive subwoofer. Once I got my career going I bought a pair of polk audio studio 70 monitors with matching center and psw505 sub. I have had this setup now for about 13 years. I have often looked at different speakers but never been able to decide on anything so never got anything new.
So my new home now. I was going to do the living room and deck it out, but my wife doesnt really want speakers everywhere. We are doing front LCR with sub with NHT speakers that were given to us. I have not heard them yet but should be better than my polks.
I asked to instead deck out our 4th bedroom (hobby room) and she said she didnt mind so I'm pretty excited now. I'm also kind of flustered because I'm the type of person that likes to research things before buying. What annoys me is there is no clear winner unless you want to spend 10 of thousands and I'm not. (Then there still might not be a clear winner. So the room is 12 foot deep and 15 foot wide with 10 foot ceilings. I will be using a powered sub so bookshelves or towers are fine. I have read multiple threads about under 3k speakers and the one on AVS about the 3k bookshelves. So I'll post a list and thoughts on the different speakers and maybe yall can help me out. Atleast at first my room will not be treated.
Kef r3/r5 speakers. These look really sleek and nice the bookshelves got really good reviews from seems like just about everyone. I have also read that they can be a bit forward or bright. Not sure if i would need the small towers or if the bookshelves would be enough for this size room.
Ascend Sierra 2 ex - I have been reading about these speakers forever it seems, everytime I start reading about speakers they come up and people talk about their clarity. I like that there is a matching center that I can buy later to have the fronts all the same. Would they be big enough to fill the room with sound? I'd likely match with rymthic sub if I got these.
Kef LS50w - I understand that the wireless version is better for multiple reasons. Maybe an issue with these is what would I do for a center? buy a passive one later? would it match the others?
Focal 906/926. Same thing as the kef's honestly. I understand that they have a bit of a different sound that not everyone likes. I'm trying to find a dealer within a couple of hours to audition.
Monoprice Thx mini-towers - So I know these probably are not in the same league as the other speakers above and dont look quite as nice. Besides looks, what else am I going to get out of the above speakers that these would not offer (be blunt here please). Also would these be to much for my size room since they are rated for 3000 cubic foot rooms. Also I'm not sure about stands for these.
Sorry about the long thread. I have tried to put everything in one place to let everyone know where I'm at. Also I'm open to options. So please post other thoughs as well...Thanks everyone.
