Ok so I'm a long time lurker first time poster now just as title says I'm looking to upgrading my speakers on my system. What I'm looking for is something with great clarity, bass is not a huge issue since I'll be running two subwoofers which I will be upgrading in the future, but that is another discussion. So back to what I'm looking for, I'm using mostly for HT and music. I'm not expecting anything ground breaking but just good clarity for the money. So I have an older pioneer vsx 920 that I have had for a few years that I may upgrade down the road a bit because of no pre outs :/ These speakers need to be ran with no amp other than receiver. I have been reading on the Polk TSI series the Klipsch RF series, and some discontinued Def tech BP6's maybe a bit more than I want to spend, but might be worth the extra cash??? I also looked into Energy's cf's. Anyway the most I really want to spend is about 300 per speaker maybe a tad more if the right thing shows up...so any suggestions? It should be a matching set looking to do all five speakers. Around the 300 per speaker range, sadly I don't have a lot of places to find these type of speakers around to listen too but I usually am very happy with the klipsch sound but possibly too bright for my liking.
Oh, I have heard the Energy CF-50's and was very pleased but missed the huge sale they had on them :'( I have a very close friend that has the Def Tech BP 8040's which I love but just way too much $$$ hence where the BP6's come in, but I have no where to listen to them, anyone have experience with these? also what surround would someone run with these since I can't seem to locate the BP1.2's to go with them. Would the surrounds from the 8020's go with these?
If I understand you correctly, you're willing to spend $300 per speaker for a 5.1 system. So, that would be $1500 total or $1800 total?
But you're going to stay with your Pioneer receiver for now? That would be $1500 worth of speakers with a ... what? $500 receiver? What source players and so forth do you own and use? Have you invested in any decent cables? Have you tried to make the system sound better in any way before you decided you needed new speakers?
What speakers do you now own? What about the sound of your system with the Pioneer in place do you want to change? What about your present system makes you think new speakers will be the answer to what your system isn't doing right?
How big is the room where the system will go? What sort of movies and music do you listen to?
The room is fairly small (14x12) hence 5.1 I have some old pioneer satelillite speakers. I've had those for a while, and there is not really a lot of adjustments to be made there. I was wanting to upgrade to a Pioneer Elite, but that will be down the road a bit I was looking at the sc 55 or sc 57...but like I said thats down the road a bit. I have monster thx certified 16Gauge speaker wiring with all Thx optical/hdmi setup now. I'm trying to piece together a good system. I have an xbox 360, Wii, LG Blu-ray player. Other than that I use the regular tuner, and an ipod for music. So as far as money goes you can't really get a decent set of speakers for under 300 per. I mean I'm not looking for complete top of the line stuff, just something that's pretty good so I thought 300 per would be a good starting point? Just trying to be realistic unless you have some other suggestions.
Oh and far as what I listen too it's pretty much a mixture. Rock, alt, pop, folk, country. Lots of movies in DTS really anything from Thriller, Action, Comedy, Drama, Horror....seriously anything! As far as the sound goes everything is just sort of puny/small sounding I was hoping for something with a bit of presence /decent mids good highs, ok lows. I was thinking floor standing in front and bookshelves in the rear. I would love a pretty nice center speaker to hear dialog out of. My old satellites are so poor on center dialog it's not even funny!
If I had to put an order of importance to what I like would be having something that I can hear and make out any dialog for movies...that's the main. Second I want good highs that are bright but not overly done. Third would be a decent mid section but not overly muffled (this seems harder to find to me) and lastly bass anything that has a little low, but tight response would be fine to me. To me from what I have read up on the Polk TSI series would be a good match for what I find important. Again I have heard the Energy CF-50's, but are a bit pricey in stores around the 400-500 per range also maybe a bit more than what I need in my smaller room. I love the sound of Def tech's bp8040 setup(my friend has this complete setup in a similar room roughly the same size) but way too much $$$ so I'm looking for something that will satisfy my wants but not make me say I wish I didn't buy these.
I would first have to suggest the Klipsch when I look at what you say you want. What's your opinion of that? "Too Bright" is; first, subjective and, second, sometimes a function of the placement within the room. The horns are very directional and orienting the speaker in a manner that does not aim the horns right at your seating position might be enough to even the speaker's sound out in your room. However, rooms are what they are and speakers sound like the room they are in. If your room is most hard, reflective surfaces, then you will probably need more that just speaker placement to make a good sounding room.
Klipsch is typically a mass market retail item which should give you time to work with the speakers in your room. The Polks and DT's would not be my first choice for the Pioneer receiver. The Energy speakers would be my preference but only if you can afford them. You might listen to a set of Energy speakers with lesser surrounds to see if they can be fit into your price range.