Speaker Recommendations - - - $2800 to $3500 budget

[billy p]

As you look for brands to audition, look for an Era dealer. I listen to a lot of loud rock music on my D5's and they sound great. I'll pound out the likes of Rage Against the Machine, Sabbath, Metallica, etc. then put on Spyro Gyra or George Benson the next day, my wife will crank out her disco and it all sounds great, even when I put on some Mozart or other classical stuff of SACD.

Unlike 3db, I can't claim to be the biggest fanboy on the site for Era because I'm probably the only Era fanboy on the site. But they are certainly worth an audition. A full set in that price range would go:

D10 towers - $1700
D4 LCR - $500
D4 surrounds - $600/pr

Since you already have good subs, using D5's up front is also a solid option instead of towers.

Dave I tried to locate a Dealer but they are far and few. I now that you live close to the border, did you audition them locally or stateside? I have used the signalpath search engine but nothing appears in my area code.

 

[Davemcc]

I have a local dealer in Windsor, Audio2. I don't think their site is really up to date for Canadian info. You might want to shoot them an e-mail to see if they have a dealer that's local to you.

 

[rnatalli]

As people have said, get out and audition some speakers with your own music. That said, I'd think Axiom, Klipsch, DefTech, and RBH are up your alley.

 

[trnqk7]

I would vouch for the Dali Ikon series (see sig-will have them in about 2 weeks) and also the RBH TK series is very nice (with their 8" side firing woofers, I would think they would blend well with the subs you have if you needed subs at all with them). Both of these speakers can be played loud and the RBH would come under budget while the Dali Ikon's would probably come in towards the top middle or a little higher for your budget and 7.1.

 

[gus6464]

I would vouch for the Dali Ikon series (see sig-will have them in about 2 weeks) and also the RBH TK series is very nice (with their 8" side firing woofers, I would think they would blend well with the subs you have if you needed subs at all with them). Both of these speakers can be played loud and the RBH would come under budget while the Dali Ikon's would probably come in towards the top middle or a little higher for your budget and 7.1.

Let us know how your Dali turn out. Just yesterday I bought a pair of Ikon 2 to replace my Epos in my 2ch system and will be here on tuesday. I hear from a lot of people that the Dali centers are amazing as well. There is a guy on AVS who raves about his mentor Vokal.

 

[gus6464]

Monitor Audio RS6 with matching center and surrounds would work nicely. I find them very well balanced and an excellent choice for HT. Even though I wasn't impressed that much with music I would seriously consider them for a 100% HT setup.

 

[trnqk7]

Let us know how your Dali turn out. Just yesterday I bought a pair of Ikon 2 to replace my Epos in my 2ch system and will be here on tuesday. I hear from a lot of people that the Dali centers are amazing as well. There is a guy on AVS who raves about his mentor Vokal.

I'm sure I will, I am ordering them on 2/22 and the dealer said they would take about 3-5 days to ship, so hopefully I will be able to give some impressions before too long! Very excited about them.

 

[EJ1]

Unlike 3db, I can't claim to be the biggest fanboy on the site for Era because I'm probably the only Era fanboy on the site. But they are certainly worth an audition. A full set in that price range would go:

D10 towers - $1700
D4 LCR - $500
D4 surrounds - $600/pr

How much more are the D14's than the D10's?

 

[rnatalli]

Monitor Audio RS6 with matching center and surrounds would work nicely. I find them very well balanced and an excellent choice for HT. Even though I wasn't impressed that much with music I would seriously consider them for a 100% HT setup.

Although I love my Monitor Audio speakers because they're well-balanced, they're a bit on the light side making them a bit weak (I don't mean loudness here) when listening to rock or hard music. All the MA lines might be too refined for that type of music. They sound excellent for classical, jazz, and opera. This is of course my opinion to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[20Glove]

Axiom M80 v2

Ok,

I looked around on the many sites and I really liked the look of the Axiom and really loved the reviews on the axiom's, I found a dealer that I can probably go to next weekend... it is about 2 hours away...

My question... the M80 v2 towers are 4ohm. Can my Denon 3808 or Onkyo 805 run this at 4ohm. And if it can... will this be making the receiver work too hard? Will this make the Onkyo run even hotter?

I know this sounds like a dumb question but I am new at this.

Thank you!

 

[20Glove]

Ok,
I found a dealer that I can probably go to next weekend... it is about 2 hours away...

Sorry not a dealer but someone that has the old version of these speakers the M80ti I think he said he had. The person who has these are a coworkers uncle and he told me it is the older version of the M80 v2.

Should I bring my own Receiver? He told me the speakers are being driven by Adcom receiver and amp, I think he said... and I believe that is pretty high end. So should I bring my own out?

 

[cbraver]

Ok,

I looked around on the many sites and I really liked the look of the Axiom and really loved the reviews on the axiom's, I found a dealer that I can probably go to next weekend... it is about 2 hours away...

My question... the M80 v2 towers are 4ohm. Can my Denon 3808 or Onkyo 805 run this at 4ohm. And if it can... will this be making the receiver work too hard? Will this make the Onkyo run even hotter?

I know this sounds like a dumb question but I am new at this.

Thank you!

It's not a dumb question at all, it's a good one. 4-ohm loads are harder to drive than 8-ohms, but the sensitivity of those speakers is 91, which isn't bad. More important is the minimum impedence spec of the speaker, which maybe someone on here knows or you could call Axiom. I'm sure your 3808 will be fine, I have no idea about the Onkyo. You would probably benefit from amps, but, a don't think it will be a problem for your receivers to drive those.

Should I bring my own Receiver? He told me the speakers are being driven by Adcom receiver and amp, I think he said... and I believe that is pretty high end. So should I bring my own out?

Yeah, bring the receiver.

 

[20Glove]

Axiom m80 v2 another ??

One more question, I know this is billed as an audiophile speaker but does that mean that it will not sound good in Home Theatre? I feel the speakers right below the m80 v2 are the ones being billed for HT??

If I were to go with the M80 v2 I would go with the top of line center and the top of the line rears.... all of which are 200 watts max as compared to the m80 v2 of 400 watts... would those speakers just overpower the center and surrounds?

thanks!

 

[cbraver]

One more question, I know this is billed as an audiophile speaker but does that mean that it will not sound good in Home Theatre? I feel the speakers right below the m80 v2 are the ones being billed for HT??

If I were to go with the M80 v2 I would go with the top of line center and the top of the line rears.... all of which are 200 watts max as compared to the m80 v2 of 400 watts... would those speakers just overpower the center and surrounds?

thanks!

You'll hear about musical speakers and musical subwoofers ... but the truth is that a speaker that sounds good with music will sound good for home theater and vice versa. A good speaker is a good speaker, regardless of what it is reproducing.

The top of the line center and rears all have a max power rating of 400watts.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Ok,

I looked around on the many sites and I really liked the look of the Axiom and really loved the reviews on the axiom's, I found a dealer that I can probably go to next weekend... it is about 2 hours away...

My question... the M80 v2 towers are 4ohm. Can my Denon 3808 or Onkyo 805 run this at 4ohm. And if it can... will this be making the receiver work too hard? Will this make the Onkyo run even hotter?

I know this sounds like a dumb question but I am new at this.

Thank you!

Yeah, I believe the 4 ohms speakers will definitely make your amp work harder and probably produce more heat.

Like my amp is 200 watts into 8 ohms, but turns into 300 watts into 4 ohms. The lower the ohms, the harder it is for your amp to drive, and the harder it has to work, and thus produce more heat.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

One more question, I know this is billed as an audiophile speaker but does that mean that it will not sound good in Home Theatre? I feel the speakers right below the m80 v2 are the ones being billed for HT??

If I were to go with the M80 v2 I would go with the top of line center and the top of the line rears.... all of which are 200 watts max as compared to the m80 v2 of 400 watts... would those speakers just overpower the center and surrounds?

thanks!

In matching your speakers, the rule of thumb is to match the driver size.

For example, 1" tweeters and 6.5" woofers on all speakers, etc.

One thing I like about powered speakers is that you won't need that much amp to drive them. Why? Because these powered speakers already have an internal amp to drive the lowest frequency (subwoofer), which is the hardest on your receiver. The midrange and tweeter don't require much power at all.

Some speakers like Aperions & AV123 Rockets & Stratas are examples of powered speakers.

 

[DD66000]

Since you mentioned JBL Studio L right at the top, they are hard to beat at their list prices and next to impossible at internet prices. For rock music and movies they're better than any other mentioned here.
Get a pair of L890s, LC2 center and L820s for the surrounds. They will play anything you throw at them. To get better, you'd have to pay a whole lot more.

 

[the grunt]

One more question, I know this is billed as an audiophile speaker but does that mean that it will not sound good in Home Theatre? I feel the speakers right below the m80 v2 are the ones being billed for HT??

If I were to go with the M80 v2 I would go with the top of line center and the top of the line rears.... all of which are 200 watts max as compared to the m80 v2 of 400 watts... would those speakers just overpower the center and surrounds?

thanks!

My M80s sound great for home theater. Some people think they sound better for HT than music but I think this is a function of the quality of the recording because as already stated above, a good speaker will sound good in either role.

Most tower speakers should easily overpower a smaller center speaker which is one reason it‘s generally considered ideal to have the same three speakers across the front. Barring that, one should try to make sure that they are as closely matched sonically as possible as mentioned above. So It’s important to calibrate your system so at least the front speakers produce comparable sound pressure levels and most people suggest setting the crossover levels of all the speakers to 80Hz so that they are more closely match sonically.

However, that said it is my opinion that the M80s sound so good and so outclass my VP150 that I usually run the M80s using a phantom center and only use the VP150 when I need to boost the center channel when that track is recorded to low to hear well. I have never heard movie soundtracks and 5.1 audio sound so good as when all the front channels are going through my M80s. Eventually when I have a bigger room I will replace the VP150 with another M80.

I guess my thought here is why take a speaker that has the frequency and dynamic range of the M80s and try to get it to sound more like a smaller non-ported center speaker. For many people a dedicated center channel speaker that doesn’t match there mains is necessary and using a phantom center isn’t an option. However, for my situation it’s ideal. Some Axiom owners use one or two M22s as centers and think they blend better with the M80s. There are a couple of threads about this at the Axiom forum. Also, the M22 gets better reviews than the VP150 and I believe cost less.

My QS8 surrounds have no problem keeping up with and blending with the M80s I think this is mainly because the surround tracks are there more to complement the front tracks and don’t compete with the M80 mains in the same way the dedicated center channel speaker does

 

[3db]

One more question, I know this is billed as an audiophile speaker but does that mean that it will not sound good in Home Theatre? I feel the speakers right below the m80 v2 are the ones being billed for HT??

If I were to go with the M80 v2 I would go with the top of line center and the top of the line rears.... all of which are 200 watts max as compared to the m80 v2 of 400 watts... would those speakers just overpower the center and surrounds?

thanks!

Your mixing up termininology. Speakers consume power and convert it into sound waves. So when you see a speaker rating of 200Watts max, its implied that the speaker can handle 200 watts of power for a short duration, short bursts (instantaneous power) . The speakers with the higher pwoer ratings will be able to lay louder than the speakers with the lower power rating in this given series of speaker. Even though this is the case, there is nothing to worry about. When you setup your home theater ssystem, you will try and level match ( same volume/loudness played thru each speaker ) all your speakers using a sound pressure level (SPL) meter. This means at any given volume setting on the receiver, each speaker will be able to play to the same loudness level as the other speakers with no one speaker dominating the sound. Don't forget however that DVD soundtracks don't always play all the channels at the same level. It varies withthe soundtrack depending on what the producer wants to establish with the sound field. I hope this helps.

What speakers have you auditioned? Its important that you do so you'll discover what sounds good or bad for you. Have you tried the PSB's yet?

 

[Davemcc]

How much more are the D14's than the D10's?

The D14 retail for $2200 USD.