buying new speakers, advice requested.

[bobbyi]

I was expecting more from the mspaint living room pic.

[dlk9s]

Drive around town and look for a white van. Chances are, you will find a good deal inside.

[bwana devil]

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Drive around town and look for a white van. Chances are, you will find a good deal inside.

[/ QUOTE ]

i got approached last week. hadnt seen that in a long time. i was pumping gas and the guy at the pump across from me in a white SUV asked "hey, you interested in some speakers? ive got an extra set before i need to return to the warehouse." this guy was mid 30's. way too old to be running the bottom of the food chain scams.

i laughed and said "go scam somebody else." he paused and said "theyre not a scam...theyre speakers" and he jumped in his car and squealed the tires pulling away.

[gumpzilla]

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Drive around town and look for a white van. Chances are, you will find a good deal inside.

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn you, I opened the thread to offer this piece of wisdom.

My first year of grad school, my roommate and I were outside and he almost bought speakers from the van guy. I had to talk him down.

[z28dreams]

Bumping this because I'm interested in picking up a set of speakers for myself.

Anyone care to recommend any good brands that have at least 8" woofers in the fronts?

Looking to spend < $1000 for a pair.

Suggestion for a receiver/amp also encouraged.

[ToeHold]

Some people say they sound too "bright" (whatever that means) but I have been partial to Klipsch speakers for awhile.

Horns instead of tweeters. Most concert/theater/outdoor systems use speakers with horns. More efficient, I think.

[big D]

I think surround sound is over-rated in most circumstances. It's the result of electronics industry marketing so they can sell more gear and speakers. When you go to the movie theater there's a crapload of speakers behind the screen where most of the sound comes from, thats why in terms of the audio, all of the seats in the theater seem fine. Surround sound is a nice feature and it does have a bit of wow factor for certain features. Anyway, don't feel bad if you can't set up your system with 7 speakers or whatever.

In any case, my opinion is that if you're not going to properly set up a room for home theater, don't bother with a complicated setup. Having a TV in the corner of the room like that is not a good foundation for a home theater. Also, you don't have space behind your couch and chair in order for the rear speakers to project the sound from behind you. Adding surround speakers won't make the system sound better, and it will make the system much more expensive, and make your living room less attractive. In my opinion you can maximize your audio experience to $ ratio (from here on out referred to as $/AE) by getting matched stereo speakers and center channel, and a sub. While speakers are supposed to be the messengers of the audio signal, they do all have their own voice that they impart to the sound, so matching your speakers is important.

In terms of brands of speakers I'm a big fan of the JM Lab speakers, thats what I personally own. I don't really like anything you would get from the big box stores like best buy, mostly rip offs and not great quality. In your budget of up to $2K you can get great speakers for front stereo and center and still have cash to buy a good sub. For the same budget, if you get rear speakers, have them installed in the ceiling, or whatever you need to do, I think the audio experience will be much less satisfying than doing all of the frontal speakers right. I've sketched out my opinions as well...

[cbloom]

This is a bit off topic but my NAD amp just shorted out randomly so now I have to get it repaired or just buy a new amp. I'm pissed cuz it's supposed to be an old school bulletproof analog amp and it's gonna cost a fortune to repair. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[big D]

He he, you said NAD. But seriously, pop open the top and see if there's an obviously smoked capacitor or resistor. They're sometimes easy to spot, and if thats the case its an easy $5 - $10 repair of you have a soldering iron. If you can't see what went wrong you can use a multimeter and test for continuity along all the circuits and see what got fried. Those amps are designed to be repaired easily so I wouldn't give up on it too fast.

[CrazyEyez]

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I think surround sound is over-rated in most circumstances. It's the result of electronics industry marketing so they can sell more gear and speakers.

[/ QUOTE ]
Wow, couldn't disagree more. IMO 5.1 audio has as much appeal as hi-def video.