Will / Should Tower speakers always outperform smaller cube type?
eggn
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I am looking into a HT set up and popped into a Tweeter today. The guy 1st played some music and some movie scenes from some small sat speakers (specifically the Omni Mirage through a Denon 1905). They sounded okay but really a little muted.. then he played the same on entry level Polk floor towers with two satellites and a center channel... huge difference. The floor towers had much fuller sound.. with noticebly crisper highs and still plenty of bass. Is this a case where the little speakers he demo'd just weren't all that good or will I always find the towers to have better sound?
If so, can anyone recommend a tower set up. I am looking to stay under $1000 for the speakers (5.1 set up).
um, ever heard of bookshelf speakers? There's a lot of middle ground between cube sats and towers.
High quality towers (they usually start at around $900 for one PAIR) sound great if you have a really strong amp behind them---I'd say something well above $1K.
Otherwise bookshelves with a good powered sub work better with budget receivers.
Satellite cubes are mainly for looks and WAF, though Orb Audio is said to make surprisingly good ones but they aren't cheap.
If $1000 is your max budget for 5.1 then I'd recommend getting 5 cheap bookshelves (Fluance SV-6, Athena B-1s, Infinity Primus 150, etc.) plus a good sub like the SVS PB-10 or Hsu STF-2.
Take the extra $300 and add it to your receiver budget---go to uBid.com and get a Marantz 8400 for just under $700 shipped with full 3 year warranty, that receiver normally lists for $1300. Huge thread about it in the Receivers section.