I am shopping for a set of front speakers - a pair of towers for left and right front. I may get a matching center channel, or stick with a phantom center (if that's the right term for no center channel speaker). These are for roughly 60-40 HT vs. music. Other parts of the system are a NAD T775 receiver, and most source material comes through a PS3.
I am leaning toward a pair of quad 21L's which I thought were very nice (around $1400) for their clarity and imaging. I am willing to go up to $2000 for a pair.
I am interested in what suggestions people have, i.e., other speakers to try to shop for and listen to.
People in this forum are fabulous at pointing you in right direction. BUt some more info might be needed.
With a $2000 max budget, there are hundreds upon hundreds of valid options.
As Art would ask "what kind of presentation are you looking for?"
My personal suggestion is not to get to crazy with a 5.1 setup. Even if it is up to 60% of your listening.
But then again I am more of a 2 channel kind of guy.
If you are incorporating the two systems, which I have done, I recommend getting the best possible fronts and a separate 2 channel amplifier to drive them.
Then you can dedicate your NAD to driving the center and surrounds.
When buying the fronts it might not be a bad idea to check if the mfg makes a "matching" center, you could source at a later date.
I spent under $1500 on all 6 speakers for my 5.1 (Energy), and I am extremely pleased.
Of course you can spend less....
So how about this.... Get a decent 5.1 set-up for around a grand. Then get a nice set of fronts for the other grand.
Then add the 2 channel amp as funds permit.
Wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade your source as well.
Sorry, I thought I had given enough information. I will try to a little better.
My main focus right now is on the front speakers since they would be the only ones for 2-channel listening. I have two old speakers (from epi) which can serve for surround, and a subwoofer (rhythmik 12"). I may add a center channel at some point, but I just need the fronts to have a working home theater.
For movie sound, I am more concerned with the background music sounding good. I think that if I get that right, I will be happy enough with the rest of the sound reproduction. I am not all that big on sound effects anyway. When I shop, I don't like telling the salesmen that the speakers will be used for home theater since they then want to play a movie clip with lots of gun shots, or explosions, or revving cars, all with the volume turned up too high.
So, all around, I am more concerned with music than say sound effects. Correct me if I am wrong, but if a speaker can clearly reproduce the sound of fast picking on a guitar, I would think that it can do a reasonable job on movie sound effects.
As to buying two sets of speakers, can one really do better by dividing the budget and buying 2 sets of front speakers?
I am not sure what you mean by the question "what kind of presentation?". If you mean "warm" or "bright" or something like that, I suppose I would opt for neutral.
JJ, I have the Quad 22l's as my fronts, A quad center, and 12L's for rears. I leant towards the 22l's as I did not believe the 21l's offered as good lower end when I auditioned them - I don't like subs for 2 channel listening. I use the 22l's for stereo and as the mains for hi-res surround and HT. They are excellent value for money. Clean, crisp highs, a sweet mid range and deep, fast bass. But they do like a little power and placement (away from rear and side walls) is crucial for ideal presentation.
jj, i lean towards stereo as well rather than ht. and a stereo system does if for me for ht as well. true, you dont get sounds coming out from all over the room but you do get them from your fronts. i;ve got the jbl's L890s and they're neutral and excellent at the price. the other set that comes to my mind is the monitor audio rs6. both of these are in the 1000 dollar range. i wouldnt be able to suggest in the range you;re looking at though