Your favorite small/bookshelf size speaker for rock?

Poee7R

I'm feeling the need to try some new speakers. Hoping to get some opinions on bookshelf speakers that sound good with rock. I listen to alot of different music, but for the most part it falls back to rock. From Seger to Alice to Gwar back to the beatles, Floyd etc etc.

So im gonna focus on speakers that excel in rock performance, if there is such a thing. Not to sure about budget, but will definately be looking for used. Will be powered by a hybrid intergrated. In my office elevated to about ear level, sitting. Good ic's and speaker cable's. Working on a better source also, but speaker's first.

Ive listened/owned B&W 603/600i, Polk RTi 4/6, Paradigm Mini-mon's and various older "70's" type's. And so far for rock i keep leaning towards the Paradigm's. Very potent little bookshelf speaker.

I see alot of people refer to CV and the like for rock, but there has got to be better so spill it.


Dave

dkg999

I had Kiss cranked up on my Paradigm Reference 20v3's the other morning and it sounded real good!

lightman1

A little large for bookies, but my moni 5's do the trick for me. 100wpc carver pushing them.

markmarc

Mini Monitors are a personal favorite. The best I've heard include the Era D5's, LSi7's, and the Totem Mites. I also in a vote for the P-dimes Ref Studio 20's.

VR3

Ive been very impressed with my Taylos for rock....

And they can pull off everything else...

But I'm pretty much 70% rock in my listening...

I listen to Breaking Benjamin, Korn, Disturbed, whole nin yards

Dennis Gardner

Your bookshelf Taylos? You must have huge books...........;)

zombie boy 2000

GWAR is reference. Diana Krall is not. Chewy Gobstopers rule. You drool.

VR3

I dont have Bookshelf Taylos

But they definitely have bookshelf Taylos available

And those Excel midbasses have bass response like you won't believe - so they will definitely fill in those lower octaves....

dorokusai

I LOVE bookshelf loudspeakers. You might entertain NHT for a modestly priced, solid low end bookend. The SB series is very nice.

cmy330go

I'd recommend giving the Energy RC-10's a listen. AMAZING speaker for both size and price.

engtaz

Monitor 5's

engtaz

shack

dorokusai wrote:

I LOVE bookshelf loudspeakers. You might entertain NHT for a modestly priced, solid low end bookend. The SB series is very nice.

I concur. Even though it isn't made anymore the NHT SB3 was a very nice bookshelf speaker. You could probably find it used or see whatever NHT makes now that took it's place.

Yashu

For rock you want something that does not have hyper extended detail, and you don't want something so refined that you are going to hear the ineptitude of garage rock recording engineers.

I would say.... Try some JBLs, now they make a great rock speaker. They used to have an L series 3-way bookshelf speaker that was supposed to be pretty good. I would also suggest a set of PSB Stratus Minis, these would have to be used as well, but I hear they are a wonderful rock speaker.

TroyD

JBL's?

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

And you think Polk's are bright? The Northridge (or whatever series it was) was listenable but with the exception of some vintage JBL, it's standard Best Buy dreck.

New or used??

Used, I'd look at something like a Boston Acoustics A70. If you liked the B&W 600 series, consider going a little farther up the B&W food chain.

BDT

halo

Vintage AR's. AR 2-ax (4-xa in a pinch).

Poee7R

Lots of replies, awesome. I've been thinking about the older monitor series, the 5/7's. But with as many Polk's as i have and have owned im thinking about something a bit different. The Audio Note's are interesting, im just wondering how they will stand up to the abuse, one of the great things about rock is it sounds best cranked up. Not to be offensive, but i cant recall a JBL for home audio that ive actually liked.

Now for the NHT's, ive been eyeballing the SB3's since they were in production, lots of great review's, so maybe it is time to secure a pair. The Taylo's im sure are a great speaker, but maybe a bit too pricey and pretty for me. The Energy's have always been an interest also, with the way Canada supports audio I would definately give them a try. The PSB's also, i have listened to a set of the PSB gold tower's, and while i did like them they were huge, maybe i will look and see which smaller offerings are around.

I do like the B&W's i have, but not so much for rock. Female voices and smoother jazz/blues tunes sound great on them. But give em some recorded distortion and they seem to fall apart a bit. Now onto the older AR's, the thing that bothers me about them is availability, tweeters take the brunt of rock, and finding a replacement would be crazy, not to mention the surrounds on the woofer's, if i can find a pair in the right condition then i may grab em up.

Also please no one take offense to my musings here, i do appreciate all the suggestions.


Dave

dkg999

I still think the Polk Monitor 10 is one of the best "crank-it-up" rock&roll speakers, but you better have a big bookshelf

Some of the Paradigm Monitor series I have heard also do loud rock&roll pretty well. If you really want to crank it up consistently and crank it up to you means concert levels, then I would seriously consider professional series speakers that are built to take the abuse.

mhardy6647

I like my Monitor 7As, and I also like my ads L-710s.

Yashu

TroyD, not all JBLs have horns and bright tweeters. There is one older model that was probably one of the best "sleeper" buys in a long time, a 3-way from the L series, that is all I can remember... it was before the age of the "supertweeter". It was just an all-round good rock speaker.

I also have a set of JBL control 1s, 2500s, and PROIIIs (with upgraded woofers, for control monitoring), aside from the PROIIIs, they all have a sweeter top end than my PSBs, and the PSBs were considered "dark", so that goes to show you that you can't judge a book by it's cover. As far as BB dreck, if I am not mistaken, Polk LSi is sold at Fry's, Polk is also sold at Circuit City, and Martin Logan is sold at BB, and I wouldn't call Electrostats "dreck" by any means.

Poee7r,

There is a good chance that most of the rock music you plan to listen to was mastered on JBLs, so don't go bashing them so quickly... they are in many studios still, and used to be in EVERY studio, that is why I picked them...

Boston Acoustics does make a good bookie that is sold at some circuit cities, so it may not be hard to find... it comes in 4", 5 1/4", and 6" woofer sizes for the bookshelf models.

There is no rule that says good speakers have to cost a fortune, and a lot of rock music just doesn't need a super refined speaker. JBL, or BA may not be the best in the world, but it doesn't mean they can't rock out. (interestingly, this goes back to the old argument between the east coast and west coast sounds... You know, Stereophile did a recent review of the vintage Smaller Advents... but they reviewed them as if they were a NEW speaker... so compared them to modern offerings. They held up well...) Enough of that, it's no big deal if you don't like JBLs. Many speakers have a "house" sound that some people just don't like. JBL, they make speakers of all kinds... and they really did make some geat ones in the past, though not impressed by their modern consumer models (pro is another story, they have a great set of powered nearfield monitors, as does NHT, but the Control 1s are probably the best passive minis you could ever get for under 100 bucks, but make sure you get the original 1s and not the brighter 1xtremes, great little nearfield monitors, just don't expect a lot of bass. Ebay sometimes comes up with some Control 1pluses that come with a better woofer, but now I am just rambling about pro stuff.)

I am not sure what sort of rock you are into more (you named quite a range), but it matters, maybe you want a vintage sound, there is always vintage polk, maybe you want the west coast sound, maybe you like east coast cool, maybe you are a lofi indie fan... oddly, if it is the latter, look for a good canadian speaker, they have the best bang for the buck these days. Modern indie rock needs a better speaker than the rock of the old days... just my experience, though. I would just get some PSBs, Paradigms, or Energys, they have everything needed to rock out, and are refined enough, incase you decide to play something a little more mellow, and depending on what you get, you will have saved some money to buy some music.

Poee7R

Heh i think i may of stepped on some toes, for that i apologize, not my intent. The Audio Notes may be an awesome speaker for my needs but they "look" to be a bit more refined than i expected, and not being familiar with their sound its my first instinct to go by the esthetics. Perhaps bad judgement, but i will look into them further if you believe them to be more hardy.

As far as the JBL's, well im thirty years old and i used to sell audio/video equipment when i was in my earlier twenties. One of the lines we carried were JBL, the northridge series etc. I could just never warm up to the sound, always sounded thick if you would, kind of the old blanket over em statement. I didnt mean to bash, only to convey my dislike of the ones i was familiar with. And yes I do know they are used in professional applications all over the world, but I would guess that is because they are durable and dependable and not so much for their sound. But this is just a guess.

I do have a background in live sound and electronic manipulation (homebrew DJ) so i can absolutely say i do not want a professional/commercial sounding speaker. Just something that sounds good, that I am confident will handle the harder passes in music that somehow use mind control over me, to make me edge that volume up just that little bit more. I want to make sure I dont have to worry that a drum solo is going to destroy a driver cause i was into the music. No guarantee's, i know that. Just trying to cover it as much as possible.


Dave

schwarcw

Forget the book shelves and replace the entire bookcase with some Altec A-7's.:eek: You'll have the entire neighborhood rocking.

sucks2beme

The old JBL L100's were known to be the rock speaker. By no means
accurate. As George Grand described it "They all just sound like guitars".
Yet during the 70's that was the sound everyone was looking for.
The L100 were called bookshelf speakers, but were way too big by today's
standards. Most of the modern JBLs I've heard don't do anything well.

I think a better modern speaker like the Paradigms still does rock well, but does
a reasonable job with all music. PSB comes to mind, too. I don't know
if any current lines of Boston Accoustics sound good or not.
Either way, could you spec out your amp to us, so that we could maybe
know how efficient the speakers need to be? And don't forget vintage Polk.
There could be some good finds there too. Check the flea market here at
club Polk.

mhardy6647

I think a couple of Altec A-5 or A-7s in lieu of bookshelves would indeed rawk just fine.
You will need a subwoofer though, for best results.

Music Joe

You mentioned NHT which is having some kind of shake-up and Audio Advisor has some pretty good deals on some odd color (I like the color in the pictures)

NHT sale look at the 2 and 3 way center channels
10" powered sub andclassic model 2

I don't know if they rawk :eek: but the prices are tempting.

Yashu

I probably enjoy my PSBs the most with electronic music, moreso than any of my others, including JBLs... I make music, and yes I use JBLs for control monitoring, and I do understand that they CAN be harsh, depends on what model. Anyway, enough of JBL, I am going to say go for the PSBs... Those speakers can handle just about anything... even the Alphas. I don't know if you know who Autechre is, they are an IDM band, but I have never heard them sound better and more textured than on PSBs. I use their albums as part of my test collection. They have the ability to play very loud, and have quite the bass output for such a small size... but they don't break up, it's amazing actually. I have tried many others, including polks, and although you said rock music, your comment about electronic music made the PSBs stand out in my mind. Their tweeters are not too bright either, so very little listener fatigue. Paul Barton really did a good job making a neutral speaker that can deliver when they need to. Hell, I have accidently sent all kinds of trash signals to mine (long story... when you swap enough cables and play with enough test tones, you eventually forget that you had the volume turned all the way up to test channel crosstalk, for example), and the only thing that has ever come close to dying on me was my amp.

The Alpha B makes a good value rock speaker... but I really would get the Stratus Minis if I was buying a set today. Ever since they replaced the stratus line with the two new ones, you are finding such good deals all over audiogon and ebay for Stratus. I would avoid the Image line, only because there isn't much of an improvement over Alpha as far as bookshelves go.

reeltrouble1

Polk speaker RT55i, awesome rock speaker, you can thank me later.

RT1

strider

reeltrouble1 wrote: »

Polk speaker RT55i, awesome rock speaker, you can thank me later.

RT1

Agreed, I've really been enjoying mine paired with a sub here lately.

MKZ

NHT SB3, Paradigm Reference 20v3, LSi7, LSi9 which is the best with Adcom 5500? confused

ND13

Monitor 5s, Mon 7As and let's not forget the Smaller Advents.

sucks2beme

You've got enough juice to run any of them with authority!
Time to go listen to a couple. LSI9 if you've got the budget is good
overall. NO ONE ever buys them and says, "these suck".
The Paradigms are also nice. Comes down to personal taste and budget.
Totem Rainmakers are also good in comparision to the LSI9.

jakelm

ND13 wrote: »

Monitor 5s, Mon 7As and let's not forget the Smaller Advents.

Actually, if you talking small, my 4's do an awsome job. But I do have my 7's on duty, always and forever.