I just finished my home office in an attic space, and decided it was a good excuse to buy some new speakers. In the meantime, I pulled my late-80s Boston Acoustics A60 series II's out of the basement, hooked them up, and they didn't sound too bad. Good enough, in fact, that I started wondering:
How much would it take to *substantially* upgrade from these speakers?
Back in 1986, when the A60 series II's were new, their list price was around $200 (and they were considered to be quite good at that price). In 2006 dollars, that would put them roughly in the $350 range. So I'd be curious to hear from anyone who's familiar with the A60s and has had an opportunity to compare them to more modern offerings of similar price: Has technology advanced enough that today's $350/pr bookshelves (from Ascend, Axiom, Energy, Epos, etc.) would "blow away" the older Boston Acoustics, or would I need to move to a higher price bracket before I'd get a noticeable and meaningful improvement?
I know the answer I'm most likely to get: "Only your ears can decide," but my opportunities to carefully audition new speakers are somewhat limited, and I'd frankly like to avoid investing too much time and emotion in the search unless I have a good sense that there WILL be a pay-off.
Any thoughts?
Oh, by way of background, the room is around 300 square feet, with sloping attic ceilings. I'll be using a Panny SA-XR55 in 2-channel mode. The system will be doing double duty playing: (1) jazz and classical (instrumental and vocal) at low volume while I work; and (2) more jazz and classical, plus pop, alternative, and more, at "room filling" volumes after hours.
Spenny, the 'pay-off' might just be an afternoon of listening to stuff you havn't heard in a while, a light lunch and a cocktail to consider your day's adventure.
Obviously personal preference in sound is going to go a long ways, but it wouldn't be hard to argue that a pair of Energy C-3s, which can be had around the 350 mark, would be superior in every single technical aspect of performance (FR, distortion, etc).
Nuck, you paint an appealing picture--why can't I get my real life turn out that way? Maybe it's the kids, that pesky job, etc. ;)
Interesting that the C-3's were mentioned, though. I don't have a place nearby to listen to them, but they (and Energy's newer, more expensive RC-10s) had caught my eye based on their specs, reviews, and appearance. Would these speakers' smaller woofers not involve a trade-off in bass quality? I guess it's a 5 1/2 or 6 1/2-incher (with a port) versus the A60's 8-incher in a sealed enclosure (which, to my ears, reproduces an upright bass pretty enjoyably).
Getting out to listen for an hour, even at (gulp) a box store might be interesting if you havn't been there for a while. Some small drivers can deliver some really good sounds.