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[Tom Bourke]

I'm in the market to buy a new set of LCR speakers for my new home theater.  20 years ago Klipsch was the very top of my list for home audio, well out of my price range.  Since then they have gone from the best to the "better brand at BestBuy."    I have not really kept up with home audio or theater and was really disappointed.  They are still the best sounding in the store, just not that good.  Good imaging and detail, just fatiguing. Every thing else really sucked to me.  Too dull with flat dynamics and imaging.

For movies, clean and present voice, with out being harsh, is the most important.  Our music tastes are all over the place.  We rock out some times but not anything past 100 dB. Small living room.

If I had more space and money I would go for a Danly home theater.  A couple of years ago I heard a prototype Danly cabinet that was flat from 100 to 20K both phase and magnitude.  It was like the music or spoken word simply existed in my head. I have my doubts that I will ever experience a speaker system like that again.  It's just too much system for my small room.

It has been a few years since I have dealt with speakers in the size and configuration I am looking for.  What I want is relatively small, 100 Hz and up is OK.  I have plenty of sub to cover the lower 2 octaves.  Clear vocals for movies with out being TOO harsh.  The lower end Klipsch and JBL ice picks are out.  Little or no EQ is available in my receiver.

The EV evid 6.2 and Peavey pr10 are on my short list to try and listen to.  I used them years ago for installs and remember them sounding good.  I just can't remember if they were truly good or just good for the application at hand.  What else in the small and good sounding passive cabinets should I be looking for?  I am thinking under $400 each for 3 boxes.

Thank you.

[Keith Broughton]

Have you considered Tannoy?

[Jeffrey Knorr - JRKLabs.com]

Hi Tom,

My vote would be something small and co-axial like the (now discontinued) FBT Verve 8M.  They use a high quality 8" B&C driver.  I have a pair of the active versions of these and they're great for small gigs and fun in-home uses (with a sub).  If anyone knows of anything similar on the market now--please reply with the Make/Model.

On the large end of the spectrum, I've toyed with EAW CP621's in a LCR home config after Phil Graham found a deal on them.  The CP621's are insanely loud driven by a home theater receiver and have great fidelity too.  Although they're large in terms of width/height, they're fairly shallow so they can still be placed easily in a living room.  If WAF doesn't matter to you, they look pretty killer too.

Thank you,

Jeff

[Tom Bourke]

I have also considered building something around a B&C coax.  I would also need to build the crossovers.

The wife is pretty easy going on the sound system looks.  Size is more limited by space than WAF.  Also our listening position is less than 8ft.   

[Robert Healey]

If you have analog line outs on your receiver, the KRK Rokit 5 powered "studio monitors" sound pretty good for the price. They're hyped to make them sound better (less flat than a real monitor), especially in the low end, but would probably do well in a home stereo.

[Stephen Kirby]

Recently went to an audiophile show to see what's up.  Was very surprised to see a number of systems with coax drivers in open baffles.  The kind of coax that has the CD in the dust cap and uses the cone as a waveguide.  As long as you add suplemental VLF the cancellations of the open baffle aren't so bad.  The dipole pattern make for a nice sense of space in a home environment while the coax HF gives good localization.

I wouldn't use SR in a home environment as they are typically voiced for vocal articulation at some considerable distance.  Trying to use them in the nearfield would be un-naturally harsh.

[eric lenasbunt]

Just a tiny bit more budget and you can do Danley Nano's. They are phenomenal. I personally use JBL LSR308 active studio monitors. They sound great for about $200 or less each


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[Tom Bourke]

Recently went to an audiophile show to see what's up.  Was very surprised to see a number of systems with coax drivers in open baffles.  The kind of coax that has the CD in the dust cap and uses the cone as a waveguide.  As long as you add suplemental VLF the cancellations of the open baffle aren't so bad.  The dipole pattern make for a nice sense of space in a home environment while the coax HF gives good localization.

I wouldn't use SR in a home environment as they are typically voiced for vocal articulation at some considerable distance.  Trying to use them in the nearfield would be un-naturally harsh.

The open baffle coax sounds like something to try.  I may play around with that for my music only system. I remember the Phantom of the Opera tour did that with largish Tannoy's.  They also had Bagend subs.

As for pro cabinets in home use,  one of the things we wanted was a little extra vocal presence with out it being harsh. That was one of the reasons for looking at the smaller speakers.  I figure anything that was marketed as usable for a floor wedge may also sound good at about 6 ft.

I found some EV ZX1-90's at a local store.  The salesman let me spend some quality time with my sound check ipod (ripped wave files) on every speaker I wanted.  Wife happens to work down the street and also stopped in to listen.  She liked the ZX1 as well.  WAF checks out so I got them.

[Tom Bourke]

Just a tiny bit more budget and you can do Danley Nano's. They are phenomenal. I personally use JBL LSR308 active studio monitors. They sound great for about $200 or less each


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I heard some early Nano's.  I think they are good for the intended purpose.  It was the same demo I heard the "perfect speaker."  After that, every thing else was "less than perfect"

[Neale Watson]

I personally use JBL LSR308 active studio monitors. They sound great for about $200 or less each


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+1 for the LSR308s ... generally, for near-field applications, which is probably what you have, the solution will be self-powered studio monitors, available from a range of manufacturers.  You may be surprised - like I was - at the quality available for reasonable prices ... compared to PA speakers and high end passive "hifi" speakers.  PA speakers are generally not at their best near-field.

[ProSoundWeb Community]