Which speakers?

zerosk8er

I'm pretty new to all this hi tech audio stuff. Untill now i've had boomboxes and small mini systems, i got tired of the sound and decided to get my first component system! Its a Yamaha HTR-5730S A/V receiver, Yamaha CDC-585 cd player, Velodyne VX-10 subwoofer and Polk Audio R15's as the mains.
As you all may know the R15's are a little small, they do have great sound in my opinion but never the less they are small. I've decided to put them as surrounds and buy some floorstanding speakers as mains. I'm 15 years old and make about 20$ a week so my budget is really low and I was looking for some low priced speakers that are good quality for the price, all i've been able to find that satisfies me at the moment are the Sony SSMF550H Floor Speakers and the Yamaha NS-7390 Floor Speakers. If you guys can tell me if those are any good or if you can suggest any other speakers around the same price range(preferably no more than $500 Canadian) I would apreciate it very much. By the way I live in ottawa so if you can recomend a good store that caries them that would be cool too.

Thanx a bunch
-Alex

LuSh

Hey Bro, you're starting off with a great lil system, I can tell you have bought most or all of your gear from future shop. When I was your age I started out with Yamaha as well. The Yamaha cd player was a smart idea.

For speakers try and go to possibly a better dealer. PSB and Paradigm offer very good products at very reasonable prices. Last time I checked you could still get very good bookshelve speakers for $300. Always remember quality over quantity. If you pull the speakers a lil further from the wall (I'm assuming it's a bedroom so it might be hard) you'll get a bigger sound, you might not find the need for floorstanders. Then you can move the R15's to the rear.

For the money you have (which is more then enough to get quality) I'd recommend bookshelves, floorstanders are hard to do right even at $10,000. The compromises you'd be taking at $300-$500 for floorstanders would really set you back. Ottawa is known for having a great number of vendors. Look for PSB, Paradigm. Take a couple of your favorite discs in, don't be shy. If you listen to punk, alternative, hiphop, take in what you listen too. Then sit down and listen to it. (make sure there is no swearing of course)

Don't be afraid to ask question but by the same token don't be afraid to go on your first instinct. It's usually the right one. The hardest thing to overcome when starting out is trusting your ear. Most people say they do, but they don't. I see it happen all too often. They listen wondering if they will make the right decision, they don't want to look like a fool liking the wrong "sound". Don't worry about it. This isn't grade 9 math or accounting. It's subjective, and you're suppose to have fun.

I suggested PSB and Paradigm and Energy for that matter because they are Canadian, and because they are Canadian you usually get a lil more for the same priced speakers from Polk and others.

Take care, have fun.

okiepolkie

Welcome to the forum. My first speakers were polk bookshelves and a Yamaha receiver.

If you are looking to match you R15's, then you might try the R30's or R50's from outpost.com. I'm not sure if they ship to Canada though.

Willow

Hey hey neighbour......not sure where you are in Otown......to bad you didn't jump on the deal of r30s at FS for 150$........if ever you need help I know you are not to far.....good luck....if you were looking for bookshelves I might of had r10's for you....

zerosk8er

Thanx for the replies, I found that audiotronics has the Paradigm Titans for $288.88 but I cant find a psb or energy dealer you guys know any? I live on Southvale, by the way, beside Elmvale shopping center in case you were wondering Willow. and outpost.com does ship to Canada but are they reliable? cuz the speakers are a little underpriced.
Any further suggestions on speaker of any kind would be awesome. And one more thing is it worth gettin a center channel speaker? I'm not planning on hooking up a tv any time soon so is it still a good idea for plain ol cd's?
thanx
-Alex

okiepolkie

Yeah, Fryes(Outpost) is a reputable store in the US. I'm not sure why they keep putting them at that price, but they are a good deal if you want to get your feet wet with some towers.

Zach

LuSh

Hey Bro, just visit the Energy, Paradigm and PSB websites for a listing of dealers. Consider some of the Polk Audio models...don't use a center channel. I could start a war here but I think at this time I wouldn't even use one for Home Theatre the drawbacks are too many. For stereo its not even worth talkin about.

The Polk Audio R30's are a budget floorstanding speaker. Most bookshelve speakers within the same price range will image better and give up little in lower frequency performance.

zerosk8er

o ya I forgot about the dealers section. Mind giving me reasons why a center channel is bad or good?

Willow

almost down the street I'm at Conroy & Huntclub


Energy dealer audioshop on Bank St in the Glebe
http://audioshop.on.ca/

janmike

Welcome Alex. Great another Canadian. Here is a Canadian web site for audio equipment. I have never found anything there, but if you did find something there that interests you, make sure you ask a lot of questions, get pictures and ask for the history. If you end up buying a used car in a year from now (16 and ready to roll), you can use the same buying strategy.

Canuck Audio Mart

I spent a lot of time in Ottawa years ago and there are some fine audio shops downtown. At the time, I was looking to buy Proac speakers and found a number of shops if the Ottawa area that carried Proac. I just flipped through the Yellow Pages hunting for speaker shops. Good Luck.

zerosk8er

I did what you said and went to the yellow pages, I found a looooot of stores, way more than I thought Ottawa had, can u mabe suggest a few of the ones you went to when you were looking for speakers? And is Proac a company in my budget? Would you recomend them?
thanx
-Alex

janmike

Proac are a little out of your price range Alex. Proac is a brand name based out of the UK and are amazaing speakers. I was looking at a pair of bookshelf speakers and they were running $1200 for the pair and that was several years ago. That was their entry level offering. I do not remember any of the stores I visited in Ottawa. That was many years ago (10) when I would frequent Ottawa on business from time to time. I just did a lot of calling on Saturdays when I had time to kill. Stick with your budget. I remember many stores carrying used speakers and that would probably be a good place to get your audio thing going based on your budget. From there, it will get bigger & better. Ask these people in the stores questions, ask if they carry used speakers, ask if they carry Polk speakers and then ask people here some questions. I am not an audio expert, so I just keep asking more & more questions as well. Here is a link so you can dream as I sometimes do.

PROAC Link

zerosk8er

Unfortunately sticking to my budget isn't an option, I have other things i want and need to buy. But thanks for all the advice you guys, I'll call around and when I have an idea of prices and models I'll post more questions.
thanx
-Alex

zerosk8er

Should I also consider JBL or would you say Paradigm, PSB and Energy are substantially better?
thanx
-Alex

Tour2ma

Modern JBL's??? ummm.... no. Meanwhile back in the Polk vein....

The little Mon 50's in the current line up are worth a listen. I'd be a little concerned about the upper end being too bright (on some source material) with a Yammie driving them, but it's a combo worth a listen.

Don't have my currency calculator handy, but should fall just inside your price range.

zerosk8er

I havent heard any, but so far:
Energy connoisseur C-1 $299.99, C-3 $450.00
Dahlquist QX5A $399.99
Epos ELS-3 $499.99
PSB century 600i $375.00 used
Paradigm Atom $248.88, Titan 288.88, Mini Monitor 498.88

I will try to hear as many of them as possible on the weekend but tell me which ones you guys think I should hear first.

Willow

Well you have to keep in mind that you have an entry level receiver, I say this only as when shopping for the speakers you must be sure the receiver will drive them properly. I would hate to see you fall in love witha speaker that you receiver cannot push properly so that you will obtain the full potential of the speaker. As far as which speakers go, you mentioned you are on a budget, fine and well most of us are, just be aware if you are heading towards HT set up you will have to cough up later for a center, and surrounds of the same or very close quality to your mains you will buy. The most important thing is be sure you like the sound you hear, I did not like the energy speakers, I prefered the dahlquist. I have JBL I do not like them much..( not at all) this is why I am swapping in and out my JBL's with my r10's as rears, they both are not great but I'm trying to decide which I enjoy most.

chenj16

Originally posted by Willow
Hey hey neighbour......not sure where you are in Otown......to bad you didn't jump on the deal of r30s at FS for 150$........if ever you need help I know you are not to far.....good luck....if you were looking for bookshelves I might of had r10's for you....

The R30 deal at FS was so tempting I almost got myself a pair... Willow, what JBL model you have? I see people don't care about modern JBL much for mid/hi fi, I'm wondering how do they sound I never listened to one, and one of their studio line models S38 seems to get rave reviews...

zerosk8er

Originally posted by Willow
Well you have to keep in mind that you have an entry level receiver, I say this only as when shopping for the speakers you must be sure the receiver will drive them properly.

When you say drive them properly are you talking about power handling? ohms? Other stuff? If you don't already know my receiver has 100w/channel and can take 4-8 ohms but please specify what you mean so I can find something that sounds and works well for my setup.
By the way it's all in my smallish bedroom 12feet x 10.5feet.

Willow

Originally posted by chenj16
The R30 deal at FS was so tempting I almost got myself a pair... Willow, what JBL model you have? I see people don't care about modern JBL much for mid/hi fi, I'm wondering how do they sound I never listened to one, and one of their studio line models S38 seems to get rave reviews...

I havethe E20s not great I don't like the sound very much. They mey serve well at the cottage , I'll check it out this summer.

Willow

Originally posted by zerosk8er
When you say drive them properly are you talking about power handling? ohms? Other stuff? If you don't already know my receiver has 100w/channel and can take 4-8 ohms but please specify what you mean so I can find something that sounds and works well for my setup.
By the way it's all in my smallish bedroom 12feet x 10.5feet.

Though your receiver states 100wpc it isn't so. For example I have the rxv 540 and it's only 80wpc 8ohms (so they say) which is a couple models over yours, how can your receiver have more power than mine, I also beleive yours is rated at 100wpc @6ohms then being alot less at 8. Don't worry to much about it I just would hate to see you spend tons on great speakers and not have them play to full or half the potential

zerosk8er

I have exams coming up so I've minimized my list of speakers to:
Dahlquist QX5A $399.99
Paradigm Titan $288.88
PSB Alpha B $299.99
Mission MS31MB $398.88
Energy C-1 $299.99

I wont be buying anything this month, but hopefuly early next month will work. Would you consider these overkill, Willow, or are they something worth a look?
thanx
-Alex

gwh

I'm 15 years old and make about 20$ a week so my budget is really low and I was looking for some low priced speakers that are good quality for the price

Get the R50's.

G

Willow

Originally posted by zerosk8er

I wont be buying anything this month, but hopefuly early next month will work. Would you consider these overkill, Willow, or are they something worth a look?
thanx
-Alex

audio shop has that receiver but it's the rxv model go there as them to pull it out and hook it up to the speakers you want ( that they carry) if you like the sound buy em just keep the boxes incase you don't like the sound at home.

Willow

I don't know what the Qx-a sound like but they are on sale and they are bookshleves. I thought you wanted towers ? any way a decent book shelf witha decent sub will beat an ok tower. You may try athena as well sold at FS they usually have deals on them.

check these out as well (it's a sub sat system)
if you are going there give em a listen
http://audioshop.on.ca/orbit.htm

zerosk8er

Out of curiosity I contacted Yamaha and they told me the HTR-5730S had an output of about 85 watts per channel at 8 ohms. I did want floorstanders but you guys talked me into getting a bookshelf because the same price will get me better quality sound. As for the dahlquist sattelite system, i have a subwoofer that I am very happy with and I also feel I'd rather have speakers a little bigger, they are tempting tho I might get a friend or family member to get them for a home theater system. And I like that idea of getting the people at audioshop to pull out a receiver like mine and hooking up speakers, I never thought of that.
Anyways I'll be going to various places on the weekend and I'll post more when I have more of an idea.
thanx all
-Alex

zerosk8er

I know a couple of people that have a 3 channel setup for music using 2 bookshelves as a center channel and 2 mains but no surounds is this a good idea?
And I've foind a place that sells the Definitive Technology Studio Monitor 350 for $500, are they worth a look?
thanx
-Alex

Mjr7531

Originally posted by zerosk8er
I know a couple of people that have a 3 channel setup for music using 2 bookshelves as a center channel and 2 mains but no surounds is this a good idea?
And I've foind a place that sells the Definitive Technology Studio Monitor 350 for $500, are they worth a look?
thanx
-Alex

Sure they're worth a look, but they're better worth a listen, listen to as many as you can. A center and mains are fine, if you don't like it, buy more speakers and add them as surrounds, not too big of a deal,
Matt

michael_w

I got myself a pair of Athena AS-B1's along with a discontinued Athena Sub 8 free as a promotion at Future shop for $250 cdn..... for the price I was amazed at what the combo sounded like. I find they are somewhat bright but overall a very good low budget speaker that won't require lots of power. I'll probably get flamed nicely for this but when they are at low to mid/semi-high volumes and other than the brightness they sound similar to my LSI 7's..... (anticipating flaming....) This promotion was a few months ago but it might be worth it to keep your eyes out for another like this.

Welcome to the forum, good luck and happy speaker hunting.

O and if I were you since you don't plan on getting a tv soon I will assume that you won't be watching movies so it might be better to stick to two channel music. I find that using only the front speakers (and a sub) sounds the best for music and If I were to start over again I'd throw all my money into a 2 channel system instead of buying a 5.1 amp, center channel, surrounds etc.

zerosk8er

I finally got around to listening to the speakers and have narrowed down my choice to:
Dahlquist QX5A $399.99
Paradigm Titan $288.88
Energy C-1 $299.99
I noticed the Dahlquist ones are rated at 6 ohms nominal, would this be an advantage since it would be getting more power?
thanx
-Alex

Tour2ma

No advantage accompanies lower impedance speakers. They demand more current for the same SPL. Nominal 6-ohms aren't that taxing, as compared to 4-ohm, but they still demand more current than an 8-ohm speaker will.

Look at your choices' sensitivities/ efficencies to determine the easiest to drive. The higher the SPL for a 1 Watt input (2.83 V), the easier they are to drive...

Not that efficiency is an end all spec for choosing a speaker, but if all else is equal to your ear...