Hi all, new member here asking for some suggestions/advice!
I am in search for a pair of moderately priced floorstanders to do double duty in home cinema and straight stereo. My wife and I listen to music about 60-70% of the time v.s movies.
We currently have a Yamaha DSP RXV 757 amp and we are looking to purhase floorstanders. Not bookshelves... she hates the stands dominating the living room . Our livingroom dimensions is 5.7mt X 4.3mt.
I have listened to a few nice speakers: Kef iQ5, Focal JMLab Chorus 714s and 716s.
In one price range, are the above three speakers, the 716s are on sale because the dealer has a large supply of the Calvados finish.
In a slightly higher price range (they are all on sale) are: Quad 21L Elac FS 207.2
What price range are those speakers in? In the sub $1000 range, paradigm monitor 9's are a really good set. I got a pair for $900 canadian. They are a excellent speaker. Ide also look at some of the speakers by Energy (The reference conasure line), the klipsch refrence line, and some athena and polk speakers as well. If you give us some more info, what music you listen to, what you want from speakers, and, waht your price range is (a number figure), than we can help some more.
The prices for the first group are about Euro 550 to 600. The second group are about Euro 700 to 800.
Types of music: a wide range from classical, opera, pop, rock, hard rock...
What do I want from my speakers... I don't really know how to put it into words.. something that has a wide soundstage, something that makes the music sound as if it is 'there'.. i.e a 3D image, something that can cope with the above musical tastes.
Some of the speakers you mention, such as Paradigm and Polk are harder to come across here in Holland. Energy I have not evenn heard of.
All things being equal I'd choose the Focals over the others, although I don't know the ELACs. The Focals are a touch more difficult to drive than the KEFs so if Dan is right and the Yamaha isn't particularly powerful, your choices would be more limited. That said, this is a 7-channel amp. If the channels can be used to biamp the fronts then I can't imagine you having drive issues.
The 716 is quite a bit bigger than the 714. This has benefits and disadvantages. The 716 has more presence and power, but because it's quite a big speaker it can overpower a room if you're not careful. It also needs to be further from room boundaries.
All that said, one wonders why you have a surround receiver when music is your main listening pleasure. A stereo amp for similar money (such as the excellent Rega Brio) would work far more magic in the musical sense.
Thank you all for your advice, it certainly gives food for thought.
Regarding 'brightness' of the Yamaha RXV 757 amp, I listend to both the Focals and the Kef iQ5 with the amp, and I did not notice excess 'brightness'compared to a pure stereo amp from the lower price range of NAD.
Power: the amp is rated at 100W @ 8 ohms and 150W @4 ohms, and as such falls into the upper 'limits' of all the speakers' ratings. The three speakers I tested with this amp did not struggle at neighbour annoying volumes. And as Frank Abela says, I could biamp the speakers if needed, but I did not see the need when listening to them. Also, the Focals have a pretty high sensitivity of about 90db, so it is pretty easy to drive. The one with the lowest sensitivity was the Quads.
Why not buy a separate stereo amp? Well, because of space, financial, and marital considerations..... I don't have extra space up front to store another piece of electronic gear. Plus, if I don't want to keep unplugging the speakers from the stereo amp to the surround amp, I will have to have another set of front speakers dedicated for movies.... something which my wife will not allow!
Given your location, you may want to try and listen to some speakers by Triangle ( French), Highland Audio ( also French), as well as Sonus Faber( Italian.) Dynaudio Contour series used might fit in your budget. I like them for music.
For music listening, I personally prefer Focal JM Labs over the Paradigm Signature series evn up into the s8 series. Two VERY different sounding speakers for sure.
Triangle speakers: hard to find and very expensive.. out of my budget. Sonus Faber: even more expensive.. but gorgeous finish and lovely sound. Dynaudio floorstanders also out of my budget
. Our livingroom dimensions is 5.7mt X 4.3mt.