New Speakers

[Mier]

I pretty much build my system one component at a time, but buying the best I could afford.

Personally, if I had only R10K to spend, I would buy only a very good set of fronts and later add the center, surrounds and sub. In fact, my current set up is only a set of fronts (B&W 602.5) and a center channel (B&W CC6). The B&W 600 that I have for surrounds, I'm now using in a multi-room set up on my patio. For most movies and especially music all you need is a good stereo set up.

 

[PostmanPot]

There is a slight difference - just not a night/day at the same price point.

Aha!

 

[Dolby]

.... maybe you need to amend your wording then

PS3 slaughters Xbox360
Plasma annihialtes LCD
Sony slams anything else.

As soon as someone mentions a landslide victory, I raise my eyebrows and instantly think they're not *too* sure of things

 

[PostmanPot]

Completely off topic. And besides, I still have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[noxibox]

I pretty much build my system one component at a time, but buying the best I could afford.

Personally, if I had only R10K to spend, I would buy only a very good set of fronts and later add the center, surrounds and sub.

That's great if someone can buy all five speakers in a relatively short time or like you don't care about surround sound.

I think that also very often depends on how people set up their speakers. They feel that if it isn't "booming" then it isn't working properly which of course isn't the case.

In this case I tested various makes in the same environment with the same amplifier and material which led me to believe that the ones with overwhelming bass were designed that way.

 

[greg_SA]

Greg - what full size speaker did you listen to after the life style which made the big difference?

If you take a price point (ie R10,000 for 5 plus sub) and compare a full set of lifestyle and floorstanders, there should be no difference.

I've already shown there's no such thing as a frequency hole in the lifestyle speakers and a decent set (such as what you're heard) sound fantastic

I listened to a large variety of speakers... when the demo changed from Sub/Sat to full range speakers, it changed from Monitor Audio Radius to Monitor Audio Bronze... they were similarly priced. I also listened to the M&W MT30, and 685( I think).

As I mentioned, the main improvement was listening to stereo music...

I demo'd these speakers at a few different shops, and took my own music with.... that's definitely important - for the first time I notices how crap some some music is produced/mastered It is not always easy to find a shop that had lots of brands

I built up my system over a year... first fronts, then rears, then center. I had a sub already.

Please don't take any of my comments as "the gospel"... I was just trying to advise people to demo as much as possible, even if they have something specific in mind. I wasn't going to consider any floorstanders until I heard them...

 

[Dolby]

Agreed.

One does need their own music and it's a must to take with if you're buying speakers.

I built up my system over a few years too - and as long as the model doesn't change, it's all good. I purchased my mains initially and by the time I was ready to buy my centre, the models has changed. Took me a while to track it down and eventually I got the full front stages. Rears I didn't manage though and subwoofer wasn't really a huge concern.

Your comments are very good - I was just interested in what the speakers were that made the difference. IMO a quality set of sub/sat should compare favorably with similarly priced floorstanders. You may even find they have better drivers - as the majority of the cost of a floorstander is the cabinet.

I've had 15cm high, 500g speakers through to 1 meter 20KG speakers - and in between as well. I've listened to a fair amount too .... bookshelves at R60,000.00 and floorstanders at R200,000.00. The difference IMO is pricing and not size or full range at all.

 

[greg_SA]

Hey Dolby - I agree 100% about making sure that the range is current if you build up a speaker set piece by piece! I also had a hard time getting my center channel speaker, as a new range was out... I just happened to buy near end of range.

 

[ponder]

... for the first time I notices how crap some some music is produced/mastered

I dunno if it's still the case but back in the day CDs produce in SA were crap compared to imports, there was a night & day difference between them.

 

[Dolby]

Yea - you kinda stop wanting to listen to CDs