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New member Username: HgihkcinPost Number: 1 Registered: Sep-05 | im new to home audio and im wanting to buy a decent audio system and my budget its 700 dollars at max and i want a two channel system does anyone have any sugesstions on what i should get, are jbl and infinity good speakers, because i was thinking of getting a pair of one of those brands. |
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Silver Member Username: CheapskatePost Number: 364 Registered: Mar-04 | JBL and infinity (same company actually... harman international) aren't bad. but if you want better value, canadian speakers like axiom, energy, paradigm and i think PSB are often at the top of the bange for the buck category. if you want a really good minimonitor, stereophile rated the $350 epos els-3 a full "grade" ahead of the likes of infinity & polk. if you REALLY want the best sound and could just stretch your budget another $50-100... i'd suggest getting magnepan MMGs. i've lusted over them for a long time. they are so fast and natural sounding, it isn't even funny. vocals and drums sound super real on maggies. the BIGGEST drawback with maggies, is that they're amplifier fussy and power hungry at 4 ohms. enter panasonic... YES panasonic. they have a couple 100wpc class d SURROUND recievers that can work with maggies for just $230 or so delivered if you shop around. class d amps are getting rave reviews wherever they appear no matter what the price range is. $230 for 6 channels of class-d is sick! i ALREADY have a 5 channel system that's pretty darned good nht superzeros (4 + center) onkyo 55wpc surround reciever onkyo DVD player home modified 12" sealed sub paradigm electronic crossover that probably cost me $1000 or more when all is said and done, and i'm trying to scrap it and go the maggie/panny route as i've seen 2 other people very happy with their gear. i became a planar convert (20 year acoustic suspension minimonitor imaging freak) when $1000 maggies blew my mind. they sound better than $20,000 B&Ws on $40,000 more worth of gear! that's VALUE. MMGs sell for only $550 factory direct, and actually have better tweeters. if you don't like them, you can return them in 30 days. (might be 60) if you want to wait... buy my old system when i upgrade. LOL if you just stretch $100 more, you can have sound that will embarras $10,000 systems. read some magnepan reviews. there's several magnepan reviews here: https://www.ecoustics.com/editorial/reviews/magnepan MMG Ws are super cheap at just $300 a pair, but they don't have stands or tweeters. just read this review for regular MMGs http://www.goodsound.com/equipment/magnepan_mmg.htm you can't get more bang for your buck than these speakers. throw a $230 reciever that you can use for surround sound when you get to it and you'll be doing well. i was prepared to hate maggies and listened to them grudgingly, but walked away a convert. before you finalize your set... give this some thought. i'm getting rid of a nice sounding system to do this myself. i'm a total cheapskate... but promise you... MMGs are worth strecthing your budget to get several times better sound than just speakers that sell for $700 by themselves. if i had this gear myself already, i'd report on the combo, but i know of at least 2 people swearing by it. maggies do have some drawbacks... but sound isn't one of them. they just play whatever you throw at them and make traditional speakers sound just like the boxes they are. read up on them to see if can accept the compromises you'll need to make eg. "one listener sweet spots". if you don't have a DVD or CD player yet, you could just buy a cheap player and feed the panny a digital signal. players sell for as little as $25 if you find a cheap one on sale. just make sure to get one with a digital out so your panny does the D/A conversion with it's 24/96 converters. |
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Silver Member Username: Stu_pittNYC, NY Post Number: 579 Registered: May-05 | "MMGs sell for only $550 factory direct, and actually have better tweeters." What tweeters? They are electrostatic, which basically means the whole speaker is a tweeter. I'm not trying to be sarcastic here, but do the MMG's have a tweeter? I've seen hybrid electrostats that do - I think it was the entry level electrostat Martin Logan. |
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Silver Member Username: CheapskatePost Number: 370 Registered: Mar-04 | they don't have tradional tweeters, but yes, they have seperate tweeter panels crossed over at 1700Hz. you might be thinking of the MMG-Ws which are single driver units. there's actually ALOT of DIY centered around upgrading magnepan crossovers to REALLY get the most out of them. even more ambitious owners get electronic crossovers and biamp their maggies. raised vertical stands are another popular tweak, and bypassing the circuit breaker is considered "mandatory" for a maggie owner. the higher end magnepans have true ribbon tweeters. maggies might look like one driver units, but if you shine a bright enough light on them, you can see the narrow tweeter panels on one side. the recommended position is tweeters on the outside. that's funny though, because with mirror imaged box speakers, it's recommended that the tweeters go on the inside. oh well. magnepans aren't electrostatic speakers either. they're planars which operate on a different principle. there are electrostatic speakers that are single driver though. the ones that come to mind are quads. if you'd like to learn more check that goodsound MMG review out. i don't think you can find a better speaker for under $2000. i like $1000 maggies better than $20,000 B&Ws myself. i was reluctant to give maggies a chance after hearing electrostats (or maybe even other maggies) back around 1985 because they had a very slight "stretched tinfoil" sound. maybe they weren't broken in yet. the second time i heard maggies... $1000 MG12s, i was blown away at how they sounded so much more like music and not much like speakers. if you have a favorite female vocalist... check her out on planars. it'll really sound like she's there in the room. you might not be able to point a finger at her exact location like you can with imaging champ minimonitors, but she'll sound way more realistic. i almost put money down on the MG12s, until i found out how amp fussy maggies are. i guess if you want speakers that can really sing like they do, you have to put up with them being tempermental and demanding divas. LOL it's a good thing that panasonic has a "giant killer" reciever for just $230 delivered. i'm going to get the $300 one for the HDMI to get better sound out of SACD and eventually HD-DVD. i just read somewhere that MOST SACD & DVD-A players with digital outs only send 16/44 signals. panasonic gear will send 24/88 (why not full 96?) to the reciever's D/A converters which should sound alot better than coverting 24/96 to analog and then back to digital again. the 24/88 thing is probably an anti-piracy feature which was the stated reason for downconverting high res to 16/44. |