Floorstanders, Bookshelf or Headphones - POLL

[wgb113]

Dynaudio BM5A MKII Active Monitors. They go down solidly to @ 45Hz and roll off from there but everything above that sounds great. For music I'm a sucker for a good bookshelf/standmount speaker.

For TV/Movies/Gaming I've got a Paradigm Monitor Series v6 5.1 setup in the family room with an SVS sub.

Bill

[mudd]

I love my Living Voice Auditorium MkIIs.

[frenchmon]

Canton Vento 830.2..mains

Canton 403's

Nola Mini's

[matthew8744]

Kef Q75, Exc. sound. Genesis Genre, great high's. Polk monitor 5's. Dahlquist dqm-9, great all around sound. Weigh a ton.

[Dadimo]

Yo speaker seekers:

Focal also makes excellent, but very expensive raw drivers that are available in U. S. from Zalytron in Mineola, New York. They make an excellent MTM kit using Focal drivers that comes in about $2,000 by the time you are through. It's way over my head, but...

http://www.zalytron.com/

I have not used Focal drivers, but I hear they are in a similar class with Dynaudio drivers like mine, so I expect that the finished speaker systems will also be very good.

And good luck from that cheap old box builder,

Joe Z.

The thing I really like about the Focal Chorus is they deliver nice clear highs, but without the listening fatigue associated with brighter sounding speakers. Now, when I go back and listen to my B&W series II Matrix II, they sound a bit "dark" by comparison ( even though they are still nice speakers too!)

[spiceyokooko]

Epos ES14's on dedicated Epos stands.

http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/566/index.html

[redldr]

As a complete novice in the audio field and with a lousy music ear I couldn't resist adding my bit to this subject.
I have two Sony (with horns) bookshelf speakers hooked up with a Technics turntable and a Technics receiver, all in my small office/den. I think I have great sound from old records both stereo and mono - big bands sound like they should (to me) with lots of blaring brass and sweet saxes. So is the audio purely subjective? if you like what you hear stick with it.
As a by-the-way all my records have been picked up at flea markets for pennies, my T/T came from my son, the receiver was purchased on Ebay and the speakers came from the Red Cross store for six bucks - all told I've spent about a hundred bucks and love what I've got.

[Jonzo`]

Would you call L-100's bookshelf or floorstander? Mine fly. Crookedly, but they fly nonetheless.

[davidsss]

As a complete novice in the audio field and with a lousy music ear I couldn't resist adding my bit to this subject.
I have two Sony (with horns) bookshelf speakers hooked up with a Technics turntable and a Technics receiver, all in my small office/den. I think I have great sound from old records both stereo and mono - big bands sound like they should (to me) with lots of blaring brass and sweet saxes. So is the audio purely subjective? if you like what you hear stick with it.
As a by-the-way all my records have been picked up at flea markets for pennies, my T/T came from my son, the receiver was purchased on Ebay and the speakers came from the Red Cross store for six bucks - all told I've spent about a hundred bucks and love what I've got.

Subjective, Objective? A lot of both. There are clear benefits from moving up the food chain, some gear does just sound better and unfortunately there is a price you pay for this. Of course there is a law of diminishing returns, I doubt my speakers are 500 times better than yours! At the end of the day it's all about enjoying music. If I had little money to spend on a HiFi I'd buy cheap second hand like you have, in fact I started by buying second hand gear and it served me well for many years until I could afford to upgrade. I suspect a lot of us started out that way and got a hell of lot of enjoyment out of cheap systems.

If you enjoy the music coming from your system then that overrides just about anything else. The biggest problem arises when you hear some really great equipment which is expensive, then there's no hope. Up the slippery slope you go.

DS

[spiceyokooko]

If I had little money to spend on a HiFi I'd buy cheap second hand like you have, in fact I started by buying second hand gear and it served me well for many years until I could afford to upgrade. I suspect a lot of us started out that way and got a hell of lot of enjoyment out of cheap systems.

Exactly how I started and I'm sure, as you rightly say, many of us started.

If you enjoy the music coming from your system then that overrides just about anything else. The biggest problem arises when you hear some really great equipment which is expensive, then there's no hope. Up the slippery slope you go.

Again exactly what I did. I listened, learned and upgraded to a system I was happy with, which has given me many years (25 odd years probably) of enjoyment without wanting to fiddle with it or change it. I was just happy with the sound I got from it and had no desire to upgrade to anything else.

You've also raised an important point. It's very difficult to communicate how much better a quality audio system can be without actually being able to listen to it. It's only when you listen to something of a better quality than you have do you realise the weakness of your own setup and how much better it could be.

I see so many people on here who seem quite content with what on paper must represent a very ordinary audio system. The reason they're content with it, is because they either don't know of or haven't heard anything better. Once they do of course they suddenly realise with crystal clarity just how ordinary or average their system really is.

Communicating that is tricky and you've done so far more eloquently that I've been able to!

[satanfriendly]

The reason they're content with it, is because they either don't know of or haven't heard anything better.

That is a little heavy handed as a statement and rather presumptuous. May be people are content because their interest in vinyl/music lies not in the system, but actually in playing music. Or possibly for one of many other possibities. Cost and cash availability springs to mind as one.

It's too big a world to make a summary of 'content' in two statements

I have a Croatian friend onboard this ship who simply loves vinyl. He does not really care about wanting to own some 'better system', because it would do nothing for him. He enjoys his music on his mediocre set-up, end of story. Hiend does nothing for him, but he extracts a lot of pleasure from where he sits.

Just remember there are plenty out there in to the serious end who'd consider an LP12 as being on the bottom rung of the ladder whereas to many it sits a perch the top.

We are all in to this for our own reasons and for whatever sense of enjoyment. Aiming for 'better' is not neccessarily the target.

Having fun and enjoyment should be.

Otherwise my floor standing B&W 802D's and MA RX6's stay. I'm content

[kerst1s]

Dynaudio xcite X32.... I love them!!!

[pchap]

Tom Evans FR1, lovely sound from the JX92 drivers and very light weight polystyrene boxes.

[redldr]

Having read a lot of the comments/posts here I would like to add one further comment. As I said earlier (8/27) my setup is minimal but most enjoyable and when I compare it to my other music source which is a Sony 200 disc CD player hooked up to a Bose 3-way system there is a vast difference (even to my untrained ear); The Bose speakers seem to do a pretty good job - they also handle TV audio - but there is very little depth or color to the music. Needless to say vinyl gets the most attention. You guys have also made me curious with your remarks about listening to a really high grade source and then wanting to upgrade - so I'm looking for a real afficiando in the Venice, Florida area where I might play some of my own disks and discover how right you guys are.