Best small, desktop speakers, $500 or under (new or used)
Thanks for the many additional ideas. I like the idea of a very efficient speaker, if only because I’d be curious to try driving it with a small tube amp someday rather than my Adcom. I agree about the Atoms. Dull. The JBL and that Vanatoos still sound interesting. There really is too much out there! These are too much, but the seem like a good, more expensive desktop option— Decware Trapeziums |
Assuming you are not looking for powered speakers such as AUDIOENGINE, the ELAC B 6.2 currently at $244 /pr. is pretty hard to beat.I just jumped on these yesterday on Music Direct, matter of fact. I had been looking at B stock units on Elac America for $209 but got sidelined by a small flooding issue here in mid-Michigan last week. When I got back around to pulling the trigger on them this week, they were sold out. A-stock was $349, then yesterday every carrier of the brand seemed to drop the price to $244. So I pulled. Looking forward to putting them in the office next week. |
The one question raised for me about speakers like the ELAC B 6.2 is whether they'd be much of an improvement over my old Pinnacle PN5+. Indeed, reading about them makes me wonder whether I've been wasting everyone's time here -- don't flame me for saying that! http://www.audioreview.com/product/speakers/floorstanding-speakers/pinnacle/pn5.html It's just that they're so old and perhaps mid-fi that I was thinking that maybe big advances had happened since, well, 1988, and I could easily best these things with even something well under $500. However, if you were to say to me -- "Dude, you've got no reason to be unhappy with those speakers" -- I would slink away and just move on! So...anyone care to shame me? I can take it! |
