Monitors matched with NAD

dharris1969

Hi All!
In the market for new speakers with a budget of 1200.00. I already have a great sub, so I won't need one. My room size is not all that big, but weirdly shaped (great room). I would consider the size medium. I could go with stand mounted or floor standing. I would like to concentrate the majority of the budget to the front three, and go with budget rears.
My speakers will be powered with my NAD T753 (70wpc). Thanks in advance,
Don

Zen Dragon

Are you looking for new only, or will you consider used? Although NAD makes nice equipment, at that output power level you want to stay away from some of the more power hungry Polks ie LSI line. They would sound good, but really need to be fed higher power to really shine.
Since you have a good sub, towers or bookshelves is a personal preference and depends a lot on if you want the look of a large footprint speaker up front.

dharris1969

Zen Dragon wrote:

Are you looking for new only, or will you consider used? Although NAD makes nice equipment, at that output power level you want to stay away from some of the more power hungry Polks ie LSI line. They would sound good, but really need to be fed higher power to really shine.
Since you have a good sub, towers or bookshelves is a personal preference and depends a lot on if you want the look of a large footprint speaker up front.

Thanks Zen!
Yes new only! I was looking at the monitor line (m60, Cs2 and M30). My amp is on the warm side and from what I have heard, should be matched up with a "brighter" speaker. Would you find the Monitor speakers be on the bright side???
I will go to Circuit City to have a listen when I get time. I live in Reno, NV now, so finding a good audio shop is hard.

Zen Dragon

I would not consider the NAD to be so warm as to overly color your sound. It is fairly natural with perhaps a slight bias towards warm. This plays into your what your preferences are. Many listeners, myself included prefer sound slightly on the warm side. Warm sound can still be quite clear and well defined.
That being said you may prefer a brighter sound. I think the monitor series would sound fine with your NAD amp, and it is a fairly efficient Polk speaker.
You may also want to listen to the Monitor 40's over the 30's. Give a couple of the RTi line a listen as well. The Rti6 is in your price range. If you wanted to go bigger the RTi 10's can frequently be had online and on EBAY with warranty remaining in your price range. The RTi-10's are a great speaker with an impressive footprint but may be a tad overkill for your amplification.
Try to avoid the vanilla "R" series as they are Polks lower end mass produced models and do not generally produce as good a sound as the higher end series.
Enjoy your listening.

michael_w

I run my LSi's off a nad integrated pushing about 80wpc and it bearly breaks a sweat, although I do have a smaller room so that might alter things some.

I'm not really sure what to recommend but I just wanted to say if you were looking at the LSi line I wouldn't hesitate to get them due to a possible lack of amplification. Would they sound better with a better amp or some more power? Probably, but so would any other speaker.

The Monitor and RTi lines are both brighter than the LSi's. I find the LSi's to be quite laid back and neutral running off nad gear. I've never heard the Monitors or RTi's off nad stuff so I can't really comment on that.

If you can I'd say try and demo the RTi 8's, 10's and 12's as well as the monitor's of the same class. Ideally you'd want to bring your receiver along to test them with so that you'd get the big picture of how it will sound off your gear but that might be difficult...

Good luck!

dharris1969

Thanks guys! My wife and I changed our minds to where our media room will be. The dimension of the room is 12'w x 20'D x 8't. This room seems to be the better choice for this application. How would you guys compare Polk's to say Paradigm monitor series?

Don

Nelson57

Paradigm's Monitor series are a step above Polk's Monitor series. It would be better to compare Paradigm's Monitor Series with Polk's RTi line, and let your ears make the choice. I happen to own and like both.

For my ears, I give a slight edge to the Polk Rti's. They have a slightly cleaner sound, in the mid to upper frequencies, especially in a predominately home theater environment. But either one would be a solid choice.