Suggest a small/medium floorstanding speaker that is easy to listen to!

c_corie · February 2012

I will go over what I've owned/own, and hopefully you can all suggest a "best of" speaker for me.

Polk Monitor 11-(weak mid, decent high and tight bass)-no longer have
Polk Monitor 30 with Monitor 12? sub-(warm...too warm...and boxy sounding.)-no longer have
Bose 201-(nice, spacious, NO highs)-no longer have
Bose 901-(warm, loud, nice bass, muffled and vague sounding)-no longer have

Mirage Omni 350 towers-(nice, lacking a little bit of high/definition, wish they sounded a little "bigger")-still have
B&W 604 S3- (bright! clear, nice bass, slightly scooped mid, but too bight)-still have

I have heard and do not LOVE Paradigm Monitor/Studios so those are kinda out.

So are there other speakers that combine crisp but semi laid back highs with a big sound stage that don't sound hollow or muddy?

AsSiMiLaTeD · February 2012

I really like my PSBs. For me the Image series is the sweet spot for price to performance ratio. I've owned the Imagine and have spent alot of time with the Synchrony series. The Synchrony is a better speaker outright but is quite a bit more expensive and needs better gear.

The Imagine probably measures out to be a better speaker but I actually preferred the sound of the Image. This is likely because they needed better power than I have here, but whatever the reason I preferred the Image on my gear in my room. The Imagine are also more expensive than the Image, but not enough so that I wouldn't have purchased them had I preferred them.

The Imagine and Synchrony are both beautiful cosmetically as well.

I really like my Image bookshelves though, and the towers sound just as good but with more bass. The Image are good looking speakers but not quite as pretty as the others, I have the dark cherry finish and it actually matches our furniture better and they look more expensive than the price I paid.

I always preferred the LSi line to Polk's other speakers, but they were always just a tad too laid back for me, the PSB are the perfect mix for what I wanted.

If you look at the Image though make sure you get the current generation. There's a HUGE difference between the earlier Image series and the one in production now, the current gen uses alot of trickle down technology from the higher lines that just wasn't there in the Image line before. I would call the earlier Image models bright, mine are much more balanced.

reeltrouble1 · February 2012

I would try to get a listen to the Lsi15 or if you want to pop for some more dough the small LsiM floorstander will take you a long ways, just use some nice gear paired with them.

RT1