Speakers

[Topsy]

So I've decided that I definately need some speakers for my room.

What I'd like is clear sound (at high levels too, obviously) and a massive bass.

- I've got no Idea where to start.

- Not much knownledge about speakers

Room is about 18 squaremeters, and I'd really like to have good sound everywhere.

Friend of mine bought the Logitech Z623, which are great in his room (it's a bit smaller) But I don't really want to buy exactly the same ones as he did..

I'd use them mainly with my Ipod/laptop.

So yeah, suggestions under ~450£ welcome (not sure how much speakers are in the uk)

Thanks a lot!

Edited August 8, 2011 by Hopping_Topsy

[Krisboats]

So I've decided that I definately need some speakers for my room.

What I'd like is clear sound (at high levels too, obviously) and a massive bass.

- I've got no Idea where to start.

- Not much knownledge about speakers

Room is about 18 squaremeters, and I'd really like to have good sound everywhere.

Friend of mine bought the Logitech Z623, which are great in his room (it's a bit smaller) But I don't really want to buy exactly the same ones as he did..

I'd use them mainly with my Ipod/laptop.

So yeah, suggestions under ~450£ welcome (not sure how much speakers are in the uk)

Thanks a lot!

For a budget of £450 scrap anything made by logitech. It's be pants by comparison to the other stuff you could get. With your size room i'd be looking at a separate amp and speaker set.

Bookshelves and amp

http://www.richersounds.com/product/bookshelf-speakers/mordaunt-short/aviano-1xr/mord-aviano-1xr-blk

http://www.richersounds.com/product/amplifiers-receivers/cambridge-audio/topaz-am10/camb-am10-blk

If you REALLY want to fill the room you could spend a bit more on the speakers and get some floorstanders and a bit less on the amp.

http://www.richersounds.com/product/floorstanders/wharfedale/diamond-10.4/whar-10.4-blk

http://www.richersounds.com/product/amplifiers-receivers/cambridge-audio/topaz-am5/camb-topaz-am5-blk

What you realistically want to do is go into your local hi-fi shop and listen to a few different brands. Some speakers sound more bassy, some sound clearer but lacking in bass so you're always better to go in and see what you like the most. Then when you pick a pair you like go online and see if you can get them cheaper.

[Floydian]

Similar amp to mine, with eltax floor standers I wouldn't go back from these now, I used to just have my audio coming through a pair or logitech speakers, never realised how terrible they were until I got these. You will also need speaker cable which if you buy decent stuff will set you back a bit again. Though cheap stuff will get you by.

So I agree on getting floorstanding speakers, crisp and perfect sound.

[Luke Dunstan]

Save up and buy Bose. I had just an ipod dock, and it could easily fill the downstairs of my house with rich sounds.

They do whole sound systems, but they cost loads.

[Muel]

Save up and buy Bose. I had just an ipod dock, and it could easily fill the downstairs of my house with rich sounds.

They do whole sound systems, but they cost loads.

Pffft, overpriced and not that impressive IMO. My Grandad has a £500 Bose ipod dock, was alright sound quality wise, but the volume was pretty laughable. I'd pay £200 for it, but not £500.

I have some Teufel Concept B 200s. £185 inc postage from Germany and they're loud enough for me. The big advantage though is you don't need to fanny around with setup or tweaking stuff, it comes as a complete kit and takes a USB input. They do higher end versions as well if you really want to spend more.

[Luke Rainbird]

You'll probably be wanting to update your audio library to decent quality before you go dropping some dollars on speakers and amps and shit.

If you don't you'll have loud audio for sure, but it won't be clear, quality audio if you're playing it from an ipod.

[eskimo]

I dunno about Bose being laughable, both of my products are the best i've bought. I've not heard anything recreate sound and voices as well as Bose does. Volume and bass isn't what Bose is about, specially seeing as they only put out true bass and equalisers make them sound worse. My dock can fill our local skatepark with music in an open area.

So yeah don't buy Bose if you want stupid amounts of thud.

And go buy your music in lossless. I love my CD collection

[Krisboats]

Save up and buy Bose. I had just an ipod dock, and it could easily fill the downstairs of my house with rich sounds.

They do whole sound systems, but they cost loads.

Get out, we're trying to give the guy advice on decent speakers. Bose stuff is only just better than jvc and sony, nowhere near as good as stuff from other manufacturers (KEF, Bowers & wilkins, Klipsch, Marantz, pioneer etc.) yet costs the same price as the better brands.

[tomturd]

Get out, we're trying to give the guy advice on decent speakers. Bose stuff is only just better than jvc and sony, nowhere near as good as stuff from other manufacturers (KEF, Bowers & wilkins, Klipsch, Marantz, pioneer etc.) yet costs the same price as the better brands.

This.

I'm really unsure of (some of the things made by) Bose, I'm wary of anything thats advertised on QVC and in the back of magazines. Sure, it sounds good and 'rich' but you could say the same about a £100 set of logitech speakers. I have however been in a bar somewhere that had bose speakers dotted around the place which sounded amazing.

I'm a big fan of my bowers & wilkins 602's, which reminds me, I should really set up my amp.

For £450 I would buy a decent amp and some bookshelf speakers.

[Luke Dunstan]

Get out, we're trying to give the guy advice on decent speakers. Bose stuff is only just better than jvc and sony, nowhere near as good as stuff from other manufacturers (KEF, Bowers & wilkins, Klipsch, Marantz, pioneer etc.) yet costs the same price as the better brands.

Depending on which Bose set up you have, they are amazing. You get out.

[MadManMike]

Depending on which Bose set up you have, they are amazing. You get out.

Some of the very high end stuff sounds amazing, but you could get something equally as good for half the price.

Try and pick up a set of Dali Ikon speakers, they are beautiful sounding.

[Sam Jones]

Personally i would wait till i had some more money and buy myself some genelec's. Use them at uni and they are absolutely f***ing amazing! your looking at about £170 per speaker and £370 for a sub, but if you want good music experience, this is what i would go for!

Speaker

sub

[Krisboats]

I dunno about Bose being laughable, both of my products are the best i've bought. I've not heard anything recreate sound and voices as well as Bose does. Volume and bass isn't what Bose is about, specially seeing as they only put out true bass and equalisers make them sound worse. My dock can fill our local skatepark with music in an open area.

So yeah don't buy Bose if you want stupid amounts of thud.

And go buy your music in lossless. I love my CD collection

Why settle for clarity at the expense of volume and bass? There are plenty of other speakers that can manage all three quite happily, usually for cheaper prices too. The pioneer speakers are great value for money, as are manufacturers such as Monitor audio and wharfedale.

Given that he stated he wanted something similar to the logitechs i don't understand why people are even talking about sound-docks.

Budget sub

http://www.hifix.co.uk/sub-woofers/wharfedale/diamond-10.sx.html

Ridiculously nice sub

http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers/Gemini.htm

Nice speakers

http://www.hifix.co.uk/Bookshelf-Speakers/wharfedale/diamond-10.1.html

http://www.hifix.co.uk/Bookshelf-Speakers/pioneer/cs5070.html

Slightly over budget speakers

http://www.hifix.co.uk/Bookshelf-Speakers/monitor-audio/bronze-bx1.html

Amp

My lhttp://www.hifix.co.uk/Hi-Fi-Amps-and-Receivers/pioneer/a209.html

Slightly over budget amp

http://www.hifix.co.uk/Hi-Fi-Amps-and-Receivers/marantz/pm5004.html

That lot will cost between £400-£550 depending on what is chosen/where you buy and will absolutely blow any sound dock or logitech system off the planet. If it were me i'd probably go with the gemini and pioneer speakers/amp. The gemini sub is well regarded as being the best sub in and above it's price range.

I still reccomend that you visit a hifi shop and try a few things out to get a feel for what you like. Everyones ears are different after all.

Depending on which Bose set up you have, they are amazing. You get out.

As is regurgatated by the brainwashed public by effective marketing. Go to a proper hifi shop, bose kit is never on demo near other demo kit. There is a reason for this

Besides, he asked about speakers and you suggested a sound-dock.

[Luke Dunstan]

As is regurgatated by the brainwashed public by effective marketing. Go to a proper hifi shop, bose kit is never on demo near other demo kit. There is a reason for this

Besides, he asked about speakers and you suggested a sound-dock.

I said that I had owned one, Therefore I recommended Bose. I also use there over ear headphones and have visited the shop in Bicester a few times.

I've never seen a marketing campaign by Bose, I'm going by personal experience. Not from what people have told me or because of the layout of a hi-fi store.

[Krisboats]

I said that I had owned one, Therefore I recommended Bose. I also use there over ear headphones and have visited the shop in Bicester a few times.

I've never seen a marketing campaign by Bose, I'm going by personal experience. Not from what people have told me or because of the layout of a hi-fi store.

So you've visited the bose shop and never seen a marketing campaign by them, did you go round the shop with your eyes closed?

At the end of the day you've already admitted to having limited experience with these kind of things. There have been some fantastic speakers named in this thread and some of the most useful advice the guy could get, which is to go listen to a variety of brands for himself. Your advice was limited, biased and misinforming. There's no need to get so defensive, I'm glad your happy with your dock, I really am. I just don't think it's fair to this guy for you to recommend an inferior and expensive product.

New speakers always sound great because your ears are usually unaccusomted to hearing better. The only way you learn to differentiate between them is to get your ears used to hearing really amazing speakers (reference level things at several thousand a pair) and then going back to poorer speakers. Your ears are much better at spotting flaws than spotting qualities and you need to educate your ears first.

Personally i would wait till i had some more money and buy myself some genelec's. Use them at uni and they are absolutely f***ing amazing! your looking at about £170 per speaker and £370 for a sub, but if you want good music experience, this is what i would go for!

Speaker

sub

Just to point out as the guy may not realise this but studio monitors are very specific speakers. They're designed for an entirely accruate frequency response (how each note is played in volume and clarity to the next note) so may sound dull or boring to inexperienced ears. To achieve this sound you need to sit at a single point in front of them, so they aren't speakers you can just plonk in a corner to fill the room with sound.

[Luke Dunstan]

So you've visited the bose shop and never seen a marketing campaign by them, did you go round the shop with your eyes closed?

At the eve already admitted to having limited experience with these kind of things. There have been some fantastic speakers named in this thread and some of the most useful advice the guy could get, which is to go listen to a variety of brands for himself. Your advice was limited, biased and misinforming. There's no need to get so defensive, I'm glad your happy with your dock, I really am. I just don't think it's fair to this guy for you to recommend an inferior and expensive product.

New speakers always sound great because your ears are usually unaccusomted to hearing better. The only way you learn to differentiate between them is to get your ears used to hearing really amazing speakers (reference level things at several thousand a pair) and then going back to poorer speakers. Your ears are much better at spotting flaws than spotting qualities and you need to educate your ears first.

Just to point out as the guy may not realise this but studio monitors are very specific speakers. They're designed for an entirely accruate frequency response (how each note is played in volume and clarity to the next note) so may sound dull or boring to inexperienced ears. To achieve this sound you need to sit at a single point in front of them, so they aren't speakers you can just plonk in a corner to fill the room with sound.

You know very well what I meant. I gave my opinion on a certain product, helpful or not that's what the chap asked for.

Try winding your neck in once I a while, how somebody so confrontational became a mod is beyond me.

[Krisboats]

You know very well what I meant. I gave my opinion on a certain product, helpful or not that's what the chap asked for.

Try winding your neck in once I a while, how somebody so confrontational became a mod is beyond me.

The guy actually asked for speakers with massive bass, which is something every ipod dock will lack as it doesn't have a dedicated subwoofer component to it. Bose speakers on the whole tend to be more orientated towards midbass and treble, which is why they were a bad suggestion. You gave bad advice, and i called it.

I'm awesome, that's why i'm a mod

[MadManMike]

You know very well what I meant. I gave my opinion on a certain product, helpful or not that's what the chap asked for.

Try winding your neck in once I a while, how somebody so confrontational became a mod is beyond me.

I think it's you that needs to wind the neck in and it's you that's being confrontational.

Old Mr Boats here obviously knows what he's on about so there's really no need to keep trying to argue about it.

[Luke Dunstan]

The guy actually asked for speakers with massive bass, which is something every ipod dock will lack as it doesn't have a dedicated subwoofer component to it. Bose speakers on the whole tend to be more orientated towards midbass and treble, which is why they were a bad suggestion. You gave bad advice, and i called it.

I'm awesome, that's why i'm a mod

I gave good advice, Bose are awesome and if set up correctly can produce a lot of bass.

Granted, anyone who can pull off a hulk costume is a little bit awesome.

[Krisboats]

I gave good advice, Bose are awesome and if set up correctly can produce a lot of bass.

Granted, anyone who can pull off a hulk costume is a little bit awesome.

Have a read through this, if you think i'm being hostile i apoligise as it's not my intent. It just gets tiring telling people the same things all the time.

http://zhome.com/ZCMnL/PICS/stereo/bosefaq.htm

In the proper hifi world, bose speakers don't do bass. You need cone surface area to really throw bass around and bose speakers are generally quite compact. Most people in the hifi world regard an 8" cone as being the starting size for decent bass. I know a homeboy on AVforums though who does bass very, very well. If slightly excessively.

[MonsieurMonkey]

Those lamps must be glued down...

[GaZaa]

Until about 3 weeks ago I worked for an independent have retailer specialising mainly on selling expensive/high quality stuff cheap. Well that's what they used to force down everyone who came in the stores throat anyway. From a very narrow product range they had available I would agree that the KEF range is superb, the clarity from the drivers is like nothing else (KEF call it the UniQ) and it's basically designed to give the best vocal quality without losing everything around it, if that makes any sense at all. We had a £1200 set of Q900s on permanent display which in fairness you'd have to have a huge space to make the most of them, we also had Q700 and Q500 set up.

Kef Q100s are the smaller bookshelf version in this range and still come with the UniQ Driver so clarity and quality should be phenomenal. Some retailers are also offering a 5 year warranty with these. That paired with an amp like the Yamaha AS-500 should be an awesome system. All Yamaha kit comes with a 2 year warranty.

That's purely going from experience of setting up and using these systems on a daily basis and there are possibly alternative, better value products out there. I've heard good things about Acoustic Energy speakers too but mainly products from about 5+ years ago. Some good deals come up on eBay quite regularly.

The company stopped selling Bose products as the price didn't really meet the quality.

Anyway this is only my opinion and as other people have said it's definitely worth going somewhere to get a proper demo.

[Krisboats]

Until about 3 weeks ago I worked for an independent have retailer specialising mainly on selling expensive/high quality stuff cheap. Well that's what they used to force down everyone who came in the stores throat anyway. From a very narrow product range they had available I would agree that the KEF range is superb, the clarity from the drivers is like nothing else (KEF call it the UniQ) and it's basically designed to give the best vocal quality without losing everything around it, if that makes any sense at all. We had a £1200 set of Q900s on permanent display which in fairness you'd have to have a huge space to make the most of them, we also had Q700 and Q500 set up.

Kef Q100s are the smaller bookshelf version in this range and still come with the UniQ Driver so clarity and quality should be phenomenal. Some retailers are also offering a 5 year warranty with these. That paired with an amp like the Yamaha AS-500 should be an awesome system. All Yamaha kit comes with a 2 year warranty.

That's purely going from experience of setting up and using these systems on a daily basis and there are possibly alternative, better value products out there. I've heard good things about Acoustic Energy speakers too but mainly products from about 5+ years ago. Some good deals come up on eBay quite regularly.

The company stopped selling Bose products as the price didn't really meet the quality.

Anyway this is only my opinion and as other people have said it's definitely worth going somewhere to get a proper demo.

I love KEF stuff, they sound great with most music types but get a song with an accoustic guitar and nice vocals and it'll make your eyes water. I'd love to jump onto the new q*00 range bandwagon but am left overly uninspired by the cabinets for them. The technology behind the new range is truly phenominal and you can see where the money goes to. I guess i'll be holding out for them to put the same technology into the more fancy enclosures before i pick up something from them. I did ask Ron about this but he was unsure as to when it would be happening.

Guess i'll just have to "put up with" my XQ and iq gear for now

[eskimo]

Why settle for clarity at the expense of volume and bass? There are plenty of other speakers that can manage all three quite happily, usually for cheaper prices too. The pioneer speakers are great value for money, as are manufacturers such as Monitor audio and wharfedale.

Given that he stated he wanted something similar to the logitechs i don't understand why people are even talking about sound-docks.

Because i can take it around with me in a bag and now i actually prefer listening to the correct sounds and voices. I did jump in because somebody said Bose was laughable. If there was something better for the money which i was aware of i would of bought it. I still haven't heard anything that sounds as good speaker or earphone wise.

As for Bose marketing i'd never even heard of the company before looking into docks. Though if anyone in this thread owns an ipod then they should gtfo.

[eskimo]

Just read that FAQ and quite surprised. By the effort someone put in or the points made, i don't know. Either way i think when it comes to a big system definitely will look into other brands. But for the time being, my Bose rocks