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Would like to balance my center and fronts, get something not too expensive that is OK, acceptable for the soundtrack music (and of course voices), etc. Strictly a DVD-watching system. This pretty much means getting 3 new speakers since all my others are in pairs, and I could better assign the good front ones to a music system. The dealer I like has Paradigm, also considering Totem and Energy, something built in Canada because of lower cost for me.If you use some of the lower/mid-priced Paradigms, what do you think? Are they OK for what I want, or really compromised and should I look elsewhere. Haven't listened to any HT-specific speakers lately, will plan my rounds based on comments... Thanks.
Follow Ups:
You don't talk about how much you can spend, but I would recommend the Totem Acoustic speakers.A Pair of Sttaf and a Mite-TC would make a nice system.
Charlie
Thanks for the rec...I do like the Totems, but it comes down to local price/availability, and Totem is trickier than Paradigm (they being a local manufacturer).Actually, I have a pair of Studio/40's (and CC) at home now to try, just did an early morning demo to verify what I heard yesterday. Connected to an A/V receiver, and with an ACI Titan II sub. Using a cheap DVDP as source (the RP56 doesn't have coax outs), modded DI/O as DAC. Doing things like this can be scary when the results are this good. It really makes you think. The sub is preventing the receiver's amps from being strained by having to produce bass. The sound is much better than I expected with music, and music wasn't even the intention. Now I'm confused as to what to do, I have visions of chucking my music system and getting a good receiver (a la petew)... Suffice to say the 40's are very decent.
I use them for all five channels. Mains are Ref 100s v.2, Ref CC, and surrounds are Ref 60s v.2. Originally I had the 60s for mains but when I upgraded I could not part with the 60s, especially if 40s are not much different. I use the mains in stereo and Pro-logic and sound great. Mostly watch old rock concerts and many loud action type movies as well as DTS CDs and plain old CDs.
All I ask is for a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Nice looking setup. Is that a giant lava lamp? Guess I'll need that too. And the stand under your center, what's that, I'll need one of them for sure, since my TV has the big speaker space underneath also, and center on top may be precarious. Actually, the 40's were what I was thinking of, wasn't planning on going better like yours since I don't use the system for specifically music listening. Thanks.
The big lava lamp is a vase. My mom worked at Kress & Co (like Macy's, Filenes) and got it on clearance back in the early 70s. I think 1971 to be exact.I use a Salamander Amp stand for the center channel.
All I ask is for a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Did you get wood veneer (rosewood?)? If so, what's it like, worth the considerable extra $$? Dealer didn't have any veneered models, or the Studio/40's (sold the demos, new ones tomorrow). He said the 40's sound pretty much like the 60's, which they did have. Thanks.
Yes I got the Rosenut Veeneer before the price increase in 2001. I disagree with that the 40 sounds like the 60. The 60 has a bit more bass to it since its enclouser is almost twice in height of the 40. I did compare the two and went with the 40.
All I ask is for a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
I meant the 60s.
All I ask is for a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Nowadays, 40's with veneer cost the same as 60's without veneer. They charge a lot for it, wish I was better at veneering...Just tried some speakers on stands instead of the floorstanders. Not bad at all, and the 40's should be superior, so good enough for me this time. You see, my HT system has a pathetic receiver and so bass from the fronts is not going to be much anyway. That's one of the reasons I wanted to get my good floorstanders out of there and put them to better use.
I have also run into some I guess what you'd call bass management issues, so will live with what the Titan sub can do for now, which is quite decent.
The plan is to move the 40's to the surrounds in the future, they're the same size as what I already use and should be a nice upgrade in quality. The 60's would be too tall/heavy for this future mounting situation.
Well, it kind of looked like a lava lamp with the light reflections on it. Now that I don't have to get that too, I guess I can go for the wood veneer with the extra $$.
The Center Channel is in effect a 40/60 so it is a perfect match. I do about 60/40 (music/ht). My daughter is more like 10/90. You really begin to appreciate Scooby Doo in surround sound. Some of the Disney stuff gives the amps and speakers a good workout. Neighbors complained (houses are rather close together) until they realized the free baby sitting. It capitavates all the young ones into the movie/show.Findining multichannel music that is mixed appropriately is hard. The DTS only discs availabe are limited and somewhat costly. Since I don't plan to purchase a DVD-A or SACD transport/player for a while or until they actually restore the bass management into future units, I don't consider DVD-A / SACD discs. Some of them do include a DTS or Digital Dolby track but like I stated earlier, the mix doesn't sound right sometimes. In doing comparisons with the same disc on two different formats (DTS vs PCM w/ProLogic) PCM using ProLogic was better, beleivable and more enjoyable.
Good luck on finding a good price for the speakers. Just a quick question: Have you look into VonSchweikert VR2s used? Look around some of the higher quality HIFI stores - They sound more transparent that the 60s or 100s.
All I ask is for a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
I have looked around for used good quality small speakers. I have run into a lot of BS so far, and done a lot of running around to no avail. Since the speakers aren't for music, I am not being as picky as usual, but the 60's sounded just fine to me, so hoping the 40's with similar drivers will be fine too.Besides getting the good music speakers out of this system for reassignment, the other (main) reason for changing the HT speakers is I want a matching sound-wise center (CC in this case). That has limited my used choices (i.e. need two pairs in effect) so dealing is tricky. I am a recent convert to the "center matches the fronts" thing, I do notice the difference/improvement very much compared to when the center is "mismatched". In fact, I think a mismatched center is worse than no center in some ways. This is at friends' houses who have cheap matching front/center speakers, sounds better than with my good fronts and mismatched center as far as a "sonic front" goes. I always intuitively knew this was the way to do it, and since I have invested a fair amount in this system already, it's time to do the speakers. BTW, though Paradigms have quite set prices, they are very reasonably priced in Canada compared to imports, possibly excepting Magnepan.
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