Recommend big full-range speakers?

[djoye]

I'm curious about full-range speakers and by that I mean speakers that will fill in when a subwoofer isn't present; something with at least a 10" woofer in it that will vibrate the floor and not just make a bass sound.

Back in the late-80's, early-90's, we had Cerwin-Vega AT-12's and they were quite good. Cerwin-Vega has VE 12F's that I guess are the modern equivalent and can be had for $279 each. Not bad but what other options are there?

I'm no audiophile so I'll accept something inexpensive. I have a Dayton 12" sub that I paid $150 for and I think it's pretty good if that gives you any idea of what I'll accept. I'm just looking for some speakers that'll push some air and shake the floor; I'm not going to be listening to vinyl and nitpicking audio quality.

 

[counterpoint]

I'm curious about full-range speakers and by that I mean speakers that will fill in when a subwoofer isn't present; something with at least a 10" woofer in it that will vibrate the floor and not just make a bass sound.

Back in the late-80's, early-90's, we had Cerwin-Vega AT-12's and they were quite good. Cerwin-Vega has VE 12F's that I guess are the modern equivalent and can be had for $279 each. Not bad but what other options are there?

I'm no audiophile so I'll accept something inexpensive. I have a Dayton 12" sub that I paid $150 for and I think it's pretty good if that gives you any idea of what I'll accept. I'm just looking for some speakers that'll push some air and shake the floor; I'm not going to be listening to vinyl and nitpicking audio quality.

There are full range floor standing speakers that have integrated subwoofers in them but those tend to be more expensive than I think is necessary.


What's your budget? These comes to mind...


Polk Audio Monitor70 Series II: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290208

The one in cherry is on sale right now.

In fact, I have a pair in black still new in the box unopened sitting in the garage if you want to buy them, along with a pair of monitor40s and a center channel. It was meant for my brother but his house rennovations are going to take a lot longer than expected. lol


BIC Venturi DV64: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=303-420

More reviews. This one gets recommended more than the DV84.

BIC Venturi DV84: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=303-454

Reviews

 

[djoye]

Honestly, I'm not sure of my budget but probably around $200/speaker which I think is going to be difficult for what I want. I'm very wary or 6.5" speakers and even 8" speakers. I have a pair of Polk Monitor 50's on my TV and, while they're fairly good at relaying bass, they don't shake anything; I'm not convinced that adding more small drivers will accomplish what I want (SPL?).

My current computer speakers are Sony SS-MB300H driven by an Onkyo TX-SR605 and, while lower frequencies are audible, I can't feel them. I'm thinking I'm going to need ported speakers with a 10" or 12" woofer on them.

I wouldn't mind building speakers but those kits seem more expensive than just buying manufactured speakers.

Imagine a speaker that would give you the same effect of a subwoofer; that's what I'm looking for.

 

[spaceman]

Polk old school vintage SDA and Monitor series.
http://www.polksda.com/list.shtml
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?34-For-Sale-(FS)-Classifieds

I have had SDA-2As and a pair of Monitor 10s, they go really low my friend. Think "wall of sound".

 

[Impulse]

Why can't you just get a subwoofer? I'm justcurious... Obviously you can't defy physics, so you're looking for pretty massive speakers.

 

[atarione]

i think you could probably get something good for your stated budget going vintage


I just got (not what you are after..but for example) JBL L1 speakers for $40 for the pair... these don't shake the place but they are pretty good for being bookshelf speakers

their bigger brothers L5 /L7 should probably have you rocking out pretty nicely.

right about $200 (slightly more) a speaker right here on the L5s

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JBL-L5-Spea...09?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item1c2b26db65


of course there are many awesome vintage speakers out there....


if you have the room for them ... sadly i don't the L1s I got are litterally about as big as I can go right now.

so blah blah blah... if it was me... either add sub (as previously suggested) or i would start looking at CL / estate sales whatever ..then head over to audiokarma (or just google) stuff you see

if you have patience / luck you probably could find something killer... of course there are downsides you'd have to make sure stuff was working (possible recapping ..re-foaming required whatever...)

but if you want full range house shakers for the budget you describe i think you may well need to go vintage??

 

[counterpoint]

Out of curiosity, what amplifier are you using?

 

[NoxTek]

I totally feel the OP's pain.

In my opinion for general music listening or 2-channel stereo nothing beats a 'classic' full range speaker setup. And I'm not talking about the dinky 'floorstanding' speakers you can get now that consist of two or more 6.5" drivers (which would have been considered a 'midrange' before subwoofers became all the rage). I'm talking about good 3-way floor shakers that were available and mainstream up until the mid 1990's.

I'd kill to have a set of the Pioneers that I had in the mid 1990's... 16" woofers that would literally rattle the windows and sounded sooooo much better for music than any 5.1/7.1 setup.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAIRS-PIONE...pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item3f1a7dc4e4

Ebay prices are outrageous, but you can find these babies on Craigslist pretty cheap and at yard sales if you look hard enough. Fantastic sound...


Now for what it's worth if you want to buy something 'new' and don't mind buying 'value' end speakers that some audiophiles with a gold plated banana plug shoved up their ass would instantly scoff at, you can get some pretty good sounding floor standing speakers from the likes of Sony and Pioneer. I personally love the Sony SS-F7000 and SS-F6000. They are nicely priced and put out impressive full range sound for the low price. Here in the bedroom I use a pair of SS-F6000 and they will definitely rock the house with good tight sound.

Pioneer has some good value end floorstanding speakers too in their SF-51 model, although I think the bass is a bit lacking thanks to their smaller woofers. Plus they are sooo totally ass ugly.

 

[mannyman]

I totally feel the OP's pain.

In my opinion for general music listening or 2-channel stereo nothing beats a 'classic' full range speaker setup. And I'm not talking about the dinky 'floorstanding' speakers you can get now that consist of two or more 6.5" drivers (which would have been considered a 'midrange' before subwoofers became all the rage). I'm talking about good 3-way floor shakers that were available and mainstream up until the mid 1990's.

I'd kill to have a set of the Pioneers that I had in the mid 1990's... 16" woofers that would literally rattle the windows and sounded sooooo much better for music than any 5.1/7.1 setup.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAIRS-PIONE...pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item3f1a7dc4e4

Ebay prices are outrageous, but you can find these babies on Craigslist pretty cheap and at yard sales if you look hard enough. Fantastic sound...


Now for what it's worth if you want to buy something 'new' and don't mind buying 'value' end speakers that some audiophiles with a gold plated banana plug shoved up their ass would instantly scoff at, you can get some pretty good sounding floor standing speakers from the likes of Sony and Pioneer. I personally love the Sony SS-F7000 and SS-F6000. They are nicely priced and put out impressive full range sound for the low price. Here in the bedroom I use a pair of SS-F6000 and they will definitely rock the house with good tight sound.

Pioneer has some good value end floorstanding speakers too in their SF-51 model, although I think the bass is a bit lacking thanks to their smaller woofers. Plus they are sooo totally ass ugly.

Yeah the sony towers are cheap and good. My "home theater" uses older fisher 3 ways with a 15" woofer for the fronts and the rears are Technics with 12" woofers. These older speakers manage a very high sensitivity and get very loud. You don't get that out of modern towers.

 

[counterpoint]

I like old school and vintage gear but I'm out of the loop in that area.

If you're willing to spend much more, you can take a look at Polk's RTiA line. I may be tempted to pick up a pair of A9s and see how they compare to my Rocket RS850s, but I think these Polk are really nice for the price.

Polk RTi A7: http://www.polkaudio.com/products/rtia7

Frequency Response 20Hz-27kHz

Polk RTi A9: http://www.polkaudio.com/products/rtia9

Frequency Response 18Hz-27kHz

 

[Sycraft]

Imagine a speaker that would give you the same effect of a subwoofer; that's what I'm looking for.

You can't have that for your price range. For a speaker that can go low and loud like a sub, you have to spend a ton of money. The problem is that you design a woofer (and its enclosure) different for higher frequencies than for really low ones. So it is difficult to make one that'll go all the way from 16-20Hz up to 400+ where is needs to cross to the mid.

So while you can find tower speakers that have more range, that will get low enough for most things, they won't go all the way down, and they won't be able to produce the heavy SPLs. For that you either need a sub, or you need to get some very expensive tower speakers.

You also end up needing a bigass amp. Bass frequencies take a lot of power, for various reasons. So whereas a 100 watt per channel amp is probably more than fine for everything else, if you want big shaking bass it can need to be 10 times that.

Is there a particular reason you do not wish to have a subwoofer?

 

[Syndicated_Death]

As someone with monitor 50s I would just say find a sub. unless you simply have no room for one. beings as you're looking for towers though I imagine you have space to spare. Personally I've used my monitor 50s with my onkyo tx-ds595 since I got it. I also got my velodyne sub at the same time. I'm still completely satisfied.

 

[Sycraft]

Now I will say if you are dead set on trying to get as close to full range speakers as possible, for a very low budget, then the thing to do is not look at home speakers, but pro speakers. Stage speakers sacrifice quality for output. For example Cerwin-Vega INT-152 V2 or JBL JRX115. They'll get very loud and quite low. Comes at the cost of quality though.

Also be careful when looking at speaker specs, they are often BS'd up.

One other thing to not with regards to woofer size is that there's no reason to have one large woofer. If you have multiple small woofers, you add their area and it is equal to one large woofer of the same area.

Also area is not everything with regards to output. Power handling, excursion, material, and enclosure matter. As a simple example a 13" SVS PC-13 Ultra will go louder, and lower, than any of those pro speakers I listed despite being only 13". The reason is as a dedicated sub it has a driver and enclosure designed to go low (at the cost of not being able to go high) and it has a 1000 watt amp just for it.

 

[spaceman]

Polk old school vintage SDA and Monitor series.
http://www.polksda.com/list.shtml
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?34-For-Sale-(FS)-Classifieds

I have had SDA-2As and a pair of Monitor 10s, they go really low my friend. Think "wall of sound".

X2

I was looking for the same speaker type in the same price range a few years back and what I just listed are the only speakers that will give you near sub impact in your price range. You can look for those or Paradigm Monitor series with the 8" drivers. Those hit hard as hell too.

 

[djoye]

This is looking about as difficult as I imagined. I think the vintage speakers are a little bulky for me (what did I expect!? ) and given what you guys have said about sacrificing quality for loudness; looks like if I want something modern and loud that I'll have to spend considerably more.

Out of curiosity, what amplifier are you using?

An Onkyo TX-SR605 that says it does 90 watts per channel. I wouldn't be able to bi-amp front speakers because I'm using all channels on the receiver.

 

[450]

X2

I was looking for the same speaker type in the same price range a few years back and what I just listed are the only speakers that will give you near sub impact in your price range. You can look for those or Paradigm Monitor series with the 8" drivers. Those hit hard as hell too.

Did you just agree with yourself?

 

[spaceman]

Did you just agree with yourself?

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do do to get the point across.,

So yeah, you understand. The old full range-ish speakers are huge. The SDA-2 is as wide as a refrigerator and almost as tall.

 

[counterpoint]

An Onkyo TX-SR605 that says it does 90 watts per channel. I wouldn't be able to bi-amp front speakers because I'm using all channels on the receiver.

That's fine. That Onkyo's amp should have quite a bit of heft to it seeing as it weighs 40lbs. I wouldn't be surprised if that 90 watt/chan rating is valid for all channels driven or close to it.

 

[matteos]

I see so many old speakers at thrift stores near me with 10-12 inch bass drivers, super cheap to, like $50 for both.

I bet they sound great but damn they are ugly.

 

[grandfatman]

KRK Rokit Series? More of an "audio engineer" thing, flat sound, very rich low end, nice mids and highs, relativley inexpensive for what they are. (They are powered too so dont need an amplifier)

https://www.google.com/search?q=krk...cp.r_qf.&fp=1adebc27929d9699&biw=1440&bih=743

Although i do recommend getting at least the Rokit 6's if the Rokit 8's are too out of budget.

Plus depending on your sound card / audio interface....(they take 1/4 jacks usually) i may have gone totally off topic here!

 

[neokeelo]

I have these. I got them used for about $1450 for the pair. I love them. http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/paradigm_reference_studio_60_v5_loudspeaker

 

[Kil4Thril]

I have an older model of those (different looking cabinets). Those will leave my possession only after I am dead. I LOVE my Paradigms.

I am looking at some Definitive Technologies http://www.definitivetech.com/products/bp7000sc

to use in my basement "suite". These will be assisted by additional subwoofers if necessary, but I doubt that will be a problem.

 

[450]

I have these. I got them used for about $1450 for the pair. I love them. http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/paradigm_reference_studio_60_v5_loudspeaker

I have the V.2 100 and I like 'em.

 

[Ruoh]

If you can find a pair of Boston Acoustics VR2s... that'll fit the bill. Sound wise, and money wise.

 

[djoye]

You guys are crazy. Maybe I need to drive to the wealthy side of TN to listen to some of these $2000 speakers because I just can't believe it. I could imagine $500 speakers (each) being quite good but for $2000 they better beam that music directly into my brain at 0.00000000000001 THD.

 

[Ruoh]

I have an older model of those (different looking cabinets). Those will leave my possession only after I am dead. I LOVE my Paradigms.

I am looking at some Definitive Technologies http://www.definitivetech.com/products/bp7000sc

to use in my basement "suite". These will be assisted by additional subwoofers if necessary, but I doubt that will be a problem.

If you aren't satisfied with the Def Techs (Deaf Tech as my buddies call them) you're crazy. Of course, Martin Logans have their place as well.