Im trying to upgrade my front speakers in my room 12x12 bedroom. I dont have the room for floorstanding speakers so bookshelves seem to be the best choice. but i have a very limited budget to work on, seeing as how subways dont pay a whole lot and trying to pay off a first car and insurance. $400 dollars would be the top end of my price range, the speakers would be powered by an onkyo HT-R520 a few speakers you guys would reccomend in that price range would be great.
I would recommend checking out the BIC America DV-62SI speakers. They go for about $125 a pair and have been nothing but praised by many on the audio and video boards. I plan to get some myself. Are you doing 5.1? If so, should get the CLRS center that goes with them. So, less than $300 for the whole thing. You won't be sorry.
i listen to 95/5 music vs movies and i was kinda planning on just using these for music and keeping my current fronts for movies because they serve me very well for movies and not so well for music. the axiom m22ti's look promising but i want somthing i can listen to before i buy.
From an older thread, here are some to get you started in the $300-$400 range. My choice would be the Energy C-3s, but YMMV. Very neutral, excellent bass response for a bookshelf in this price range, and just a great overall speaker.
Now Hear This! (NHT) SB-2 -- 51Hz to 22kHz 86db 150 Watts
well i only found one store that was selling bookshelf speakers of decent quality, i got to listen to polk rti4,rti6, monitor 30 and 40 then the B&W DM600 the B&W sounded the best out of the ones i listened to.
I have the Axiom M22s and the Ascend 170s - I like them both. I couldn't hear any immediate difference between them and the Paradigm Studio 20s for $800. (The Paradigm 20s are kind of a holy grail of speakers under $1000 in my mind).
Probably the 20s are better but I couldn't hear much difference in my short listen to them on very good equipment, compared to my home budget system connected to the Axioms and the Ascends.
i LOVE my tiny NHT superzeros (discontinued, but cheap on the used market if you can find them i bet) as their tiny acoustic suspension cabinets are extremely free of resonances and they image like crazy.
despite the rave reviews, i don't care much for my [b]mission m71s[/b] which i thought would be a step up. they have flimsy cabinets that make a loud noise with the slightest knuckle rapping and they are too bright. i love their treble speed and extension more than my more polite zeros, but they have too much upper mids-lower treble... very fatiguing, especially with onkyo reciever.
right now, a really hot minimonitor has to be the $330 Epos ELS-3 which streophile rated class C ahead of speakers several times it's price.
still, i lust after $500 pr. Magnepan MMGs even if i'll need to get another amp or reciever that can handle their 4 ohm load.
maggies sound less like speakers than anything in their price range. MMGs have even more treble extension than other maggies that sell for up to $1200pr and probably image better as they're smaller. they'd only really suffer from less bass output.
i'd say PSB atoms $200 Epos ELS-3 $330 Magnepan MMGs $500 (provided you buy the right amplification eg. NAD)