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Best Towers Under $1500 for beginner system

Exactly as the title says, I am in the marketplace for my first set of decent tower speakers to set the front stage of my HT set-up. I am in my mid 20's and listen to all kinds of music with a heavier hand on electronic, rock, and motion picture sound tracks. Some examples being Paul Van Dyke, Armand Van Buren, Tiesto, or Paul Oakenfold. Rock examples would be Creed, 3 Days Grace, Metallica, Megadeath, Disturbed, Linkin Park. I think Motion Picture sound tracks are self explainitory, but I do prefer more orchestral or electronic types.

Now on to what I am buying,... I currently own a 7.1 Channel 110 watt x 7 Pioneer VSX series receiver. Have had it for about 5-6 years now, no HDMI switching or anything nifty like that, but it does have Optical In/Out which I am currently using. For a CD I use my PS3 for most everything. I have a new Sony 46" 3D LED TV anchoring my theater. My current speaker set-up is a HTIB made by Infinity called the HTS. Consists of an all bookshelf system with 4" midrange and 3/4" tweets in each enclosure that is ported. I have a small 8" 150 watt powered sub along with it.

This system has provided me a base appreciation for movies and music while in college and up until now. I recently got bit by the bug after buying my new TV and want something to provide truly impressive sound. My budget is very low and I understand that it is not easy shopping like that, but I will buy things one piece at a time.

My first purchase I am looking at is some front tower speakers. So far I have auditioned the B&W 603's, the Wharfedale Diamonds, and the Paradigm Monitor 11's. All of these were played through a $4000ea. SACD - Preamp - Amp combo that the home theater shop had in their demo room. From what I listened to I have a huge preference towards the Monitor 11's which are at the absolute peak of my price range for this purchase. I loved the sound, the speakers set a great sound stage, the music was very detailed, and I couldn't help but wait and listen for each coming note. The B&W's were also impressive but lacked the low end punch of the Paradigms. The Wharfedales I didn't like until I was cranking the power, and I don't want something that will require me to wake the neighbors to get decent sound.

I have been doing a great bit of research online, and love the look of the Axiom M60 and M80's. However the M80's are 4 Ohm Impedance and I don't think that my old Pioneer can push them. I looked in KEF iQ9's, Martin Logan Preface, Boston Acoustic VR 970/975's, Polk 500's, Monitor Audio, and a few others. I have read every scrap I can about them all, but have no way to audition any of them.

As mentioned previously the high end of my budget is $1500 on the pair, any money saved will go towards the next piece of the puzzle, most likely an amplifier or Sound Processor. I have a tendency to gravitate towards the speakers with better low end extension, and I don't like overly bright highs as I find them fatiguing. A more neutral sound is what I'm after. I will absolutely consider pre-owned equipment as well if I can get a better quality piece. I'm all about bang for the buck.
reaper60
reaper60 OP
5 posts
 
My only concern with those Zu's is that the 10" driver to me seems like it would get sloppy. The larger drivers have always been harder to keep tight and punchy. I look at the Axioms with the 6.5" drivers, or the Paradigm with the 7" and think, multiple smaller drivers must be better for precion an control. I know when I did SQ car audio stuff I always ran a 4 way set up because of this. I ran the tweets, a 3.5" midrange, and a 6'5" mid woofer with 12" subwoofers.

While I agree size is necessary to move large quantities of air and thus produce deep, booming bass. I think many smaller drivers making up similar surface area would have better control and clarity. Can somebody please correct me here? Also, I don't see a dedicated tweeter on the Zu's. I presume the tweeter is attached to the pole piece of the mid-bass driver? Would this not effect sound in a negative way as well? I guess I could be reading into this too far, but I see a speaker like the Axiom M80 with large quantities of drivers and think that somehow has to be better for musicality than the single 10" of the Zu. I also have similar concers for the Totems,... 1 mid-bass driver, 1 tweet. How can that possible keep up with these other towers?
phasecorrect's avatar
phasecorrect
2,013 posts
 
Have to ck out Athena f2 version one...Google reviews...these are well below budget but can easily compete with above suggestions...their bass production does embarrass more costly offerings
4hannons's avatar
4hannons
187 posts
 
Another vote for Monitor RS6, excellent for A/V or 2 channel, you can probably find it used for $600-700. There's no difference in sound whatsoever of the RS6 when I compared it to the newer RX6 (I've owned the RS6 for a while). I recently auditioned the RX6, Sonus Faber, B&W 802D, and Def Technology using a Primare i30. For the price, the RS/X6 is hard to beat and it held its own with both the SF and DT. Of course, the B&W was superior in sound to the rest, but it's several thousand more; what would you expect? Hope this helps!
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
Every speaker design is a compromise in some way. Having many drivers, each handling only a couple of octaves, can produce more linear frequency response and higher power handling, but the multiple crossovers are either going to be very expensive or will suck much of the life and dynamics out of the music. That's why 2-way mini-monitors are so engaging within their operating range.

The primary Zu driver keeps the crossovers out of the main listening frequency range. They use a whizzer cone and a phase plug to help keep frequency response and dispersion pattern more uniform over its whole operating range. For the high overtones it hands off to the supertweeter just below it.

All things being equal (which they never are), small diameter drivers generally have less cone breakup and wider dispersion than large drivers. But if the 10" cone is properly designed with a rigid material, the voice coil is big enough and the magnet is strong enough, you can get very clean linear response from a 10" cone, no problem.

Pretty much any review I've seen from any magazine is very enthusiastic about the sound of the Zu speakers and complimentary about the seamless sound and uniform dispersion of their nearly full-range 10" driver. I seriously doubt that it's a problem, and if it is, you have their 60-day return period to break 'em in, listen, and decide.
morganc
255 posts
 
That is what I wanted to say Johnnyb53, but I am not as clear nor as concise:).

I learned recently that for me, all the theories and all the ideas that I had and read about, are much less meaningful than bringing the speaker home, spending a good amount of time to set it up properly, finding synergy with matching components, and listening to music that I like. Just my .02$.

Best of luck in your search.
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