Years ago I owned a fairly high end system built around Vandersteen's and B&K components. Over the years I have drifted more to home theatre and away from pure music listening.
I am currently working on adding new fronts/center to a home theatre setup around my 60" Sony SXRD. I decided to go back to some of the brands I liked and came home dazed and confused.
Obviously it is very hard to choose speakers when visiting multiple stores with different acoustics and electronics. But here is my list, curious on your thoughts (and be brutally honest!)
B&W 683 - I was shocked that I wasn't thrilled with these. Listened to them with a Marantz intergrated amp. They sounded flat with too strong a midrange. I really thought I was going to buy these before listening to them
B&W CM7 - Very musical, more forward and richer than the 683. Nice presence. Marantz electronics also.
Paradigm Reference 60 - More laid back than the CM7, but also very musical. Very good at most everything but nothing stood out (Athen electronics).
Vandersteen 2ce - Shocked that I didn't like these. I thought they were too laid back. Nice imaging, but somewhat flat. (NAD electronics)
Linn Komponent Tower - Reminded me of the CM7 in sound, perhaps a bit more forward. Most expensive of the bunch but also very musical. (NAD electronics)
Definitive BP7001SC - Sounded like a home theatre speaker. Very forward but did OK with imaging. A little lacking in midrange. (Denon electronics)
Klipsch RF62 - I know, what are these doing in this roundup? Actually they weren't terrible and the horn tweeter was interesting. A little muddy sounding compared to the rest, but not bad for $400 each (Denon electronics)
Did I miss an obvious contender? My budget is around $2000 max for the fronts and up to $800 for a matching center.
Hi Jim, wow it is always great to have a new poster who has done so much leg/ear work. Just to be sure, are you working on the stereo presentarion, and what is the rest of your available gear?
My plan is to run an Onkyo receiver for now, something like the 805. HDMI switching is important to me, I watch a lot of BluRay and Dish HD. I have a Sony BluRay player (not the PS3).
My rear speakers are in the ceiling, high-end Paradigms. While I'd love to match everything, my wife won the ergonomic war, hence the Paradigms in the ceiling.
My main goal is more for home theatre (5.1) over stereo. That makes the center channel key.
Since my preference is a warmer presentation, I'm guessing I'll end up with an Arcam receiver at some point. The Onkyo's aren't terrible for now.
Maybe not but the Onkyo's aren't up to driving the Linns, Vandersteens or B&W's and it's tentative on the Paradigms. You get to buy what you like, JF, but most of us on this forum are firm believers in "garbage in = garbage out". The B&W's, Linn's and Vandersteens showed you what they sound like with NAD. They aren't likely to fair any better with the Onkyo in front of them and certainly not with the typical DVD player feeding them source material.
I agree with Jan. You are looking at speakers that you cannot get the best from with your electronics. Unfortunately some of the stores you visited didn't even know how, or they didn't care to listen to their own speakers properly driven.
I have Klpsch in wall speakers for L&R fronts, ceiling speakers for L&R Surrounds with the Center on a wall mounted shelf above my plasma, along with a Klipsch sub, augmented by my Paradigm 1000 sub. It is run off an older Denon surround receiver, AVR-1082. I would not run 2 channel stereo through it, I have a dedicated 2 channel set up for that. A Marantz DV8400 handles SACD and DVD for me. It works very well for movies and OK for SACDs or things like concert DVDs.
Otherwise you may want to check Audiogon or some local shops for used gear to get more power to drive some of the other speakers on your list, like the Vandys which I think would be really nice.
I am not a proponent of leaving the Paradigms as your surrounds unless you go with Paradigm across the front. That is why I was suggesting the Klipsch for now, you could afford all 6 with your budget and begin saving for a better amp.
If you wanted to use this system for 2 channel stereo as well I would offer up a whole different set of suggestions.
So if I started at electronics, where would you start? Note that HDMI switching is important to me. As noted, I am considering Arcam. I've owned B&K before and wasn't that impressed with it.
If switching is important to you, then you begin with what switches stuff. Outlaw is the value favorite. By the pre/processor, then the amplifiers and then the speakers. There's better but it will cost lots more.
What left you unimpressed with B&K's sound quality?
On HDMI video switching: best done by "TV" for best video performance instead of by the HT receiver. You'd need to run digital outs from sources to receiver for audio.
On speakers: Paradigms do very well as double duty HT/music speakers and would be my choice. Their performance go up as the signal feed gets better but they can be tolerant of lesser electronics.
Vandersteen 2Ce is an outstanding speaker but needs amplification better than B&K grade to realize their potential. I share the same puzzled reaction when I heard them with "mid-fi" stuff. I heard them with good tube amplification and finally understood what they were all about. You would have to be buddies with your hi-fi salesman so you can figure out how to get the best out of these. Like Porsches, don't just give it regular.
In order to take advantage of BluRay uncompressed audio, you have only two options:
1. Go HDMI to the AV receiver, decode the audio in there and passthrough the video.
2. Decode the audio in the Bluray machine and go direct HDMI to the TV for picture.
The latter is not very nice because now it means you need to have up to 7.1 analogue interconnects between the player and the AV receiver. Option 1 is the more elegant solution.
I agree with others here that the electronics used to demo the system leaves somewhat to be desired, but there are relatively few quality AV receivers that do the uncompressed audio.