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Which Cheap speakers?

T

towert7

2[H]4U
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
2,930
I'm sure you have heard this a million times, so you must be pro's at it by now.

I have a computer with an audigy 2 zs platnium , so I can connect to an amp.
I'm just wondering what would be good sounding speakers for the price (below 160$us for a pair).
At the moment, I own 2 Altec Lansing 83's(not computer speakers, real bookshelfs), and 2 cheap 15$ sony speakers. I have used some cheap bose 141, and they are just a tad bit better then the cheap sonys I have. I like the Altec Lansing 83's.

When at Home, I can have 4 speakers, when at college I can only bring 2.

Here are some that I have found. The cerwin vega look cheap, but I have just included them because I know they "can" make good speakers.

Cerwin Vega V-5M 77$ a pair
Athena AS-B1 100$ a pair
KLH 9250B (look just like my dads Cerwin Vega SE250's) 136$ a pair
Fluance AV-F3 160$ a pair

I bet they are all better then the 15$ sony's I have, but are any better then the others?
I was "thinking" 2 KLH for the front and maybe 2 bookshelfs for the back?

I have not heard any of them yet because places around me don't carry them execpt for the KLH which I will try and see tommorw at best buy (even though best buy has them set up horribly).

As of right now, I have an old Pioneer VSX-403 receiver (15+ years old?) which I got as a hand-me-down. I'm not sure if I will get a new one with optical input.

~Thanks
 
Cerwin Vega V-5M = not to bad but a little overpriced.
Athena AS-B1, to bright and no crossover muddies up the high midrange to much
KHL 9250B = My sisters husband returned three sets before he got sick of the woofers puking and bought some Cerwin Vega that look just like them. :p
Fluance AV-F3= of the speakers you listed these would be my pick.
They could use a better tweeter (they have very flat frequency response) but otherwise they are good deal and they will compliment your existing bookshelf's pretty well.
If you are into the Ebay thing you can normally get them for about $100 (before shipping)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5788550849&category=14993&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Ah, I was worried about the KLH's having too much bass. I read a review that said he had to turn down the bass on his equalizer. 12" woofer, jeez... that's as large as our dedicated subwoofer.

And I'll be honest with you, I am not into over powering bass. I prefer audio to sound like my Sennheiser HD590 headphones. This is why im very impressed with the Old altec lansing 83's I have and my dads Cerwin Vega SE250's. I really like the Cerwin's, which sound somewhat similar to my headphones, although not as detailed.

Yea, im not sure if I'm up to used speakers, espeically without seeing them in person. I did find a pair of Cerwin Vega SE250, for starting big of 50$ and like, 100$ shipping costs. I was tempted, because I know I already liked them but someone paid the Buy it now price of 250$.
 
I was searching, and I also found this Cerwin Vega E705 83$ a pair.
The specs seem very similar to the V-5M, just with the old fashioned look.
 
Well, I went to a professional audio shop, and just wanted to see what they had.

Boy, I listened to a pair of B&W 603's, and they were amazing! It sounded like I was listening to my headphones.

So anyways, I have decided I'll just save up, and maybe get them in a while. 850$ for a pair, so about 425$ each.

It will take me a while, but I think in the long run, it will be worth it, especially if they last for 20+ years. And this way I can avoid having to upgrade cheaper speakers.

~Thanks for the help
 
hint hint... if you search on b&w in the fs/ft topic, you just might find a pair of 603's for sale... :)

don't think you'll get away without upgrading for 20 years tho... ;)
 
The V5M is not too bad, but I wouldn't pay more than $60 for a pair of them, ever. I got mine for $40 about a year ago.

Their best benefit is they get LOUD off of very low power equipment, and sound decent for their price....but once you get into $70+ it's just too much for what you get.
 
ccotenj said:
hint hint... if you search on b&w in the fs/ft topic, you just might find a pair of 603's for sale... :)

don't think you'll get away without upgrading for 20 years tho... ;)
Click to expand...
Oh boy would I like too, but at the moment I really don't have that much. At first I was in the 300$ price range max, and I don't have a job at the moment (I will when i return to school).

I don't know, im not really that type of a person who will lay down 500$ for a AC power cord...... I just cant afford it. If I ever did get these, it would be first for a 2.0 stereo setup, and latter when I get a teaching job and a house, ill perhaps move them to the back and get a good Surround setup.

But boy, these were the best speakers I've had the pleasure of listening to. (the guy there also let me hear the Paradigm Monitor 7's, and they sounded horrible compared to the 603's with my CD... way too boomy bass).
 
Don't worry about esoteric power cords...the old "black beauty" will serve you well.

Seriously, there's too much cable voodoo going around...buy cables up to a point for performance, after that point it's all jewlery. 10ga zip cord is fine for speakers...double shielded interconnects is fine for home applications, coax digital is better than optical due to less conversion operations, and power cords make little if any difference...if it does make a difference, then there is a design issue with the equipment it's hooked up to.
 
Yea, I know what you mean. Honestly, I will never have speakers, receivers, or what ever else, that I will be able to tell the diffrence between a $20 AR pro coaxial double sheilded cable, and one for 120$ by monster or what not. And like you said, even "IF" I could, I would'nt.

To me, im in Heaven with my Audigy 2 zs platinum and Sennheiser HD590's. And to think they make better headphones, blows my mind. I just don't really need anything above this performance point though, as im happy as is.

Mustang_Steve, what do you mean by 10 gage "Zip cord"? And while were on the subject of cables, just quickly. Does soldering the tips of the wires degrade sound quality? I've heard of people doing it to make it eaiser to conenct to the push type speakers.

~Thanks
 
Zip cord is the "side by side" style speaker wire that is so common anymore. The power cord for your lamp is a good example of zip cord. 10ga is 10 gague, which is a specific wire measurement. In general for longer runs you want a heavier gague wire.

Soldering actually hurts in that it adds resistance, but it also prevents corrosion, which copper oxide has a FAR higher resistance than the tinned end will. So in that respect, tinning is a good idea.

For picky-asses like me, I choose to run all my speaker cables as thick as the longest run, so I use 12ga all around. Given I do have fancy-ass cables, and I admit they are jewlery, but I also didn't spend much on them ($230 for a 5-channel cable set, all cloth sheathed and comes with all kinds of nice connectors to use with them...most "esoteric
brands cost far worse than that...basically I was jsut too lazy to sheath cables on my own). Note that cable set is 2 50ft runs, 2 12ft runs and a 6ft run. Once you realize all the cable, then factor in what it would cost and time for me tto build it myself, I figured just buying it was cheaper.

The thing is there is just all kinds of voodoo in audio, from isolating your equipment from the shelves (only matters on source materials, and was only truly worth the money for analog stuff), to elevating speaker cables off the carpet (pure and utter bullshizzle right there), and down to cryogenic freezing of cables (again WTF?)

For the most part none of it makes sense.

Just stick with what makes sense, and you are doin great. Thing is best gains for the buck are in loudspeakers, then electronics....cables so long as they are built by a competant person, using proper designs, should all perform the same. Given they don't, but that is a whole other rant. I say still just use some double shielded interconnects with the right impedance or impedance range for your application and you are all good.

Oh, and home theater is freaking sweet....once you get into it, it's like crack.

Oh well, we are moving off-topic...time to bring it back:

If you can go to $140 (150 for a shielded model) and can solder, parts express BR-1. Freaking MASSIVE, but very good sounding speakers.
 
Yea, someon showed me 50ft of 12ga bulk cable for a good price. And any cables I got would be double shielded for sure. That is one thing I would pay extra money for.

Thanks for the info steve, I have learned a lot.

Hm, put together your own speakers. I've never even thought of that. After reading the review, im intrigued. Maybe I would learn how a speaker is put together, and what type of parts go into making one.

I always liked playing with things, and taking apart things.

~Thanks
 
k&b, right mustang? i use the same ones... purty color... :) nice cable... not a whole helluva lot more expensive really than making your own...

and the multiple connectors and modularity is nice... when i reconfigured my ht room, all i had to do was order up a couple more cables and glue 'em together....

i pretty much heartily agree with the rest of the post...
 
yep, k&b. I've been bugging them about making some interconnects as well, maybe some varying colors too.

I think a tan colored cable would sell very well for those of us that live in apartments and have to live with the cookie-cutter tan carpeting. Tan would also semi-stealth nicely on lighter wood floors.
 
towert7 said:
Yea, someon showed me 50ft of 12ga bulk cable for a good price. And any cables I got would be double shielded for sure. That is one thing I would pay extra money for.

Thanks for the info steve, I have learned a lot.

Hm, put together your own speakers. I've never even thought of that. After reading the review, im intrigued. Maybe I would learn how a speaker is put together, and what type of parts go into making one.

I always liked playing with things, and taking apart things.

~Thanks
Click to expand...


No problemo man, always glad to help.

Speakerbuilding is pretty interesting really. The BR-1 has a very detailed manual that explains why everything is as it is in that kit, from why he used certain types of capacitors in his crossover, to the tweeters and woofers themselves. It's a great speaker for someone who's curious. As for the sound, good bass extension, overall tonal qualities are on the warm side , very slight midrange coloration (shows up on female voices mostly, but is rather minor). These speakers are somewhat difficult in terms of placement, but their overall sound is very nice).
 
Sorry to bring this thread back from the grave, but I think im left with just 2 speaker choices.

These will be running through my new Denon AVR685S receiver over digital coaxial from my computer audigy 2 ZS. They will be connected with dayton 14ga speaker cable with banana plugs on both ends.

Cerwin Vega E-78. Just seems like a well built basic speaker for 150$ a pair. With an 8" woofer, these bookshelfs are not the norm so it seems. I've mostly been seeing 5.25 to 6" drivers in this price range.
Athena AS-B1. A little "cheaper" looking speaker, but several people say its ok for the price of 100$ a pair.

Sadly, I do not have a chance to listen to these ahead of time, so I will be buying them based on reviews only. My expectations are not high, especially for the price, but if I have the change of getting the better one, I would prefer it.

PS, im leaning towards the cerwin vega E-78

~Thanks
 
I'd go with the athena just on basis of knowing what to expect from C-V.

hey make good stuff for the price, but they go for boosted bass and treble in most of their speakers.

Given the Athenas are somewhat bright as well, but I've head them and thought they were pretty good.


....still wondering why you aren't looking at the BR-1s...not too hard to assemble really, the soldering is the only tough part, and if you just use some heatsink clips, it's easy.
 
Did'nt want to make speakers at this point in my life. Time constraints and I have no confidence in my electrical skills and whatnot.

Well, I decided to just skip these "once good" name brand speakers and just see what the local stores had. When the offical website does'nt even list how much the speaker weighs............... horrible company takeovers.

As always, the polk audios sucked, especially for the price. tweeter had some speakers by sapphire which were even worse (yea, its possible). Went to another TV appliance store, and they had a JBL E30 for 210$ a pair which actually sounded nice......... then I went to my professional audio shop and was hooked by the B&W bookshelfs.

Ended up with a pair of B&W 601 S3's, and boy, for 400$ total, best speaker I have ever heard. Brought them home and they sounded even better ^_^. Now I just have to wait for my speaker cables to come in to hook it up to my computer.

~Thanks for the help guys.
 
the 601 s3's are nice speakers... i have a pair that i use for surrounds in my ht setup... i don't think you will be disappointed with them... and when you decide to upgrade (and you WILL decide to upgrade :) ), you'll be able to sell them for a decent price...
 
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