I am told that the Yamaha HTR-5860 is a decent receiver for my budget (under $400 for the receiver). Even though it is a home theatre receiver, I am mainly getting it to listen to music. Please understand that I am not an audiophile or home theatre enthusiast. All I want to do is listen to my cds and pipe some of the Sirius music channels that I get through my Dish Network (satellite tv) receiver through a decent set of speakers. I mostly listen to hip hop and rock, so I don't have the same picky ears of a classical/jazz listener or a professional musician of any genre. At the same time, I want a decent pair of floorstanding or even bookshelf speakers that can fill a large family room - the kind with cathedral like ceilings. Simply put, I just need a decent set of audio speakers that match the same budget as my intended receiver. Any thoughts are appreciated!
$400 will get you a pair of Athena F2 towers from audioadvisor.com, shipping included.
The only question mark is just how much real power that Yammie actually puts out versus how much its paper specs claims it puts out, towers will require more current to sound their best.
You might be better off with a pair of the Athena AS-B2.2 bookshelves, I think the same website has them for $250 shipped and they are said to pack decent bass for a bookshelf.
Personally though I would stretch my budget to about $580 shipped and get the Ascend CMT-340SEs that are coming out in mid-January, these will really fill your room up with sound as well as pack decent bass. (ascendacoustics.com)
Or if you REALLY want pounding bass, I'd actually spend a lot on a good powered subwoofer like the Hsu STF-2 ($425 shipped from hsuresearch.com) and pair with a $100 pair of Athena B-1s from audioadvisor.com
I use a pair of AScend 170s for my XM tuner as well as records and occasional CDS. They will fill a large family room and are quite pleasing for the non-audiophile listener and audiophiles with reasonabkle expectations alike. They sell for a little over 300. I use an Onkyo Receiver I bought off of Ebay for 80 dollars to power them. The power is fine and so is the sound quality for my purposes in that room. The ceilings are 10 feet plus as well. The house is basically an open floor plan front to back. I'm about 25 feet from the speakers now and they are facing away from me. Volume isnt a problem. Good luck!
I doubt there is any need for you to start messin with subs based on what you describe.
AS a musician and audiophile- its my opinion that the 170s are more than fine for enjoyable casual listening to the rock and hiphop stations on XM radio. Chrome and Deep Tracks sound just fine.
Thanks for the input Eddie- certainly the forum's open to a wide variety of opinions and perspectives. Sorry the 170s aren't up to snuff for you.
I've been talking-up the Mission M32i from Amazon.com for $175. delivered. I don't think you will find a better pair of speakers under $300, let alone $200. I own a pair & I'm loving them.
yes Marc, no harm in differing opinions. I love the 170s just not as standalone speakers. Of course you know that I do like more bass than you, in fact some people around here have even called me a (gasp!) basshead! : )
However, it should be noted that David Fabrikant of Ascend said that when he designed the CBM-170 to be used with a sub, which is why its listed bass extension is only 70Hz. I think the idea was that if you try to squeeze as much bass as possible out of a little bookshelf, you end up sacrificing accuracy in the mids and highs. It'll be interesting to hear how the new 170SEs sound...you'll probably run into them at CES in January.