Speaker suggestions

Tsumi

Tsumi

[H]F Junkie
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Mar 18, 2010
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Anyone have any inputs as to who makes the best speakers overall?

I'm currently looking at several deals on my local craigslist, and I have Yamaha, Onkyo, Pioneer, and Sony.

Any input would be appreciated, thanks!
 
What kind of budget do you have, what kind of setup are you wanting, what kind of material will you be listening to (music/movies/games?), what kind of room will this be in? Do you prefer monitors, floorstanders, bookshelves? Are you considering 5.1 / 7.1 / 9.2? Do you have a receiver? What kind of output does it have?

There is no "best overall" speaker maker, listening needs are mostly subjective. If you're looking for good quality, none of the brands you listed will be considered audiophile grade.

Are you looking for bang for the buck, or high end equipment?
 
Best bang for buck. 5.1 or 7.1 setup. I have an older Denon 7.1 receiver I can use, I believe about 80-95 watts a channel.

It's going in a bedroom essentially, so it doesn't need to be anything powerful. I'm just looking at local $100-200 options. I made another thread in the computer audio subforum about the Onkyo HT-S9300THX system, with a non-responsive receiver and one broken speaker for $180, but everything else works. There's also a Yamaha 5.1 setup for $100, but I don't know the model number.

It would be used mainly for gaming and music, and occasional videos. I basically needed something with DTS decoding, and initially looked at the Logitech systems (Z-5500, Z-680, etc). But after looking around a bit, based on the general opinions, it would be cheaper and better to get my own home theater system with receiver rather than one of the Logitech systems.
 
Call up Onkyo and see what kind of charge they have for fixing that setup. If it doesn't cost much for the repair + $180 deal, you may not need to look elsewhere until your upgrade bug bites.
 
The Paradigm SE-1's are actually pretty darn good for the price, but they're over your budget by a little.
 
Thats going to be tough to get a 5.1 for that price. My advice is focus on your Center, Fronts, and sub.
 
Well, I'm just looking around on my local Craigslist for deals. I'm new to this home theater thing, and was really looking more towards tips and pointers as to what I should be looking for and/or what I should be avoiding.
 
Tsumi said:
Well, I'm just looking around on my local Craigslist for deals. I'm new to this home theater thing, and was really looking more towards tips and pointers as to what I should be looking for and/or what I should be avoiding.
Click to expand...

If you find something interesting, post the details here and get some feedback. There are plenty of smart cats here that can help.
 
Thanks... What about Kenwood systems? The model number is KS-707.
 
If you can swing an extra $100 this is new and pretty good. Pioneer is the only one you listed that I would like for speakers.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Pioneer...mprd164900050018&skuId=9999165100050018&st=bs pioneer&lp=5&cp=1

Save money for a sub later. I would wait till you had $300 for the sub.

I also say stick with 5.1 for now not enough content in 7.1 IMO especially if you are on a budget that small. More quality is going to kill the extra 2 speakers any day.

Listen to the guys above it is way better to have less higher quality speakers then more peices of shit. I would start with 2.0 if I had to. Especially since you have a decent reciever.
Other good value options are the Polk monitor line at newegg. Usually they are always on sale. Honestly I can not think of any good sony speakers that would be in any reasonable price range so I would say skip them on ebay, same with bose. Onkyo is just cheap too, they make recievers that are good nothing much to say about their speakers. Dont bother with most big name electronics giants like samsung.
 
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Thanks, but as I said, I'm looking to buy used, not new.

My current system is a X-540, and I consider it good enough for most uses. But I would like to do surround sound using my PS3, and for that, I would need something that has HDMI or optical inputs. Since sound cards don't decode DTS (damn you Creative!), I have to get a speaker system that does. My only choices would be a home theater setup, or a Logitech Z-680/Z-5500/Z-906. And for the price of one of those, after looking at opinions on the internet, I would be much better off getting a low-end HTIB. Either way, it would be an improvement over my X-540.
 
You better off getting a used 5.1 older reciever that does not have HDMI, but just optical outputs. I use an old old Kenwood 5.1 A/V reciever that came from HTIB. You don't need anything fancy if you are truely trying to stay on a budget.
 
Okay, got another deal available to me. The Onkyo HT-9100THX with everything perfectly working for $250. Think that's a better buy over the HT-9300THX?
 
$220 for the 9100THX, definitely going to bite, thanks!
 
That's a good deal, that onkyo package is one of the few HTIB systems I can actually recommend as its really separate components and decent quality. Its not going to perform great in LARGE rooms but for most rooms it will be more than adequate.
 
Well, my room is probably approximately 10-12 foot by 10-12 foot, in an apartment, I'm never going to get the chance to turn this thing up :p
 
Then I would jump all over it, originally I believe that package was well north of 500.
 
Well, I got it, set it up as 2.1 so far (need screws to mount the speakers on the walls, used tape to hold my x-540 speakers up, lol). I must say it sounds a lot better than my X-540 system already.
 
This is what I got. I don't have room for the large speakers at the moment, so right now I'm just running the four small surround speakers and the subwoofer.

Newegg link.
 
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