Forget about how a speaker sounds at Best Buy. You need to try (borrow from stores or friends) a speaker to hear in your own listening environment, which as you describe, sounds like a challenge. The room is the biggest variable. Figure out where the speakers are going to go. Do they need to go up against a wall? Certain speakers, like Larsen's, are ideal for wall placement. Most speakers benefit from being out in the room and the room you describe, btw, does not sound like a good candidate for home theater, so can definitely save money by sticking to 2-channel which is adequate for most video and ideal for music. Indeed you should start "backwards": buy a speaker that will drive your room, then an amp that will drive your speakers and with whatever money is left buy the best front end components you can. There are definitely differences between front end components but nothing like the differences between speakers in real life rooms. I've owned quite a few great speakers that just didn't work in my room. Don't make a mistake like that!
confused and don't know what to do
We would like to buy a nice audio system and also have this double as a surround sound but listening to music is the priority. We have listened to many speakers but have settled on the B&W 804's. Now the challenge is to select a receiver and all the other accompaniments we require. We have a little challenge in that our home is a condo and the outside wall is all glass. The space is combined kitchen, living room, and dining room all open with hardwood floors and hard tile on the walls of the kitchen and a lot of granite counter tops. It seems that every where we go, the recommendations are different depending on what the store is selling and of course, the sales people would like us to buy the most expensive. What would give great sound without going crazy. We are thinking about 2 tribe sub woofers and space is limited and an in wall center B&W speaker but we don't know what we are doing and don't want to throw our money away. Help! Too many choices and we don't have enough knowledge. Thank you so much.
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- 135 posts total
- 135 posts total