Need Recommendations for a pair of Speakers around $1,000


Hey All !

Ok, so with wife is good with spending about $1K on a pair of speakers.

I'm not sure of the preamp yet but the amp will most likely be an Adcom GFA-545 not the 545II.

I now have an older pair of Dayton Wright LCM-1's which are more suited to a smaller room.

The new speakers will be in the living room connected to the Adcom and also a signal fed from the TV but I don't want a multi-speaker system. Stereo is fine and if they sound good to me with music the wife will be happy with the TV sound. She just wants them to look good and not have a lot of wires hanging around. We'll be listening to vinyl, CD's, Lossless, FM and possibly music fed through Apple or AT&T fiber optic TV setup.

The living room is 19' w X  29' d with a 12' ceiling, hardwood oak flooring and 4 - 6' tall windows on one wall. The other side wall is open to a long entrance way and 2/3 of the far side is open to the kitchen are.

I thought about a used pair of Klipsch Hersey's but I keep reading comments that they are too outdated compared to advances in audio over the last few decades.

So for around $1K what are some good choices. I'm OK with used.

Thank you !

 

gorquin

FYI,

the Klispch Hersey 2’s might be exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re a lover of bass, you might want to add a sub, but all in all for $1k they are a lot of speaker.

All the best.

JD

I will second the other poster's recommendation for the Wharfedale Linton 3 way standmount speakers. I own this speaker system, a warm , coherent sound and a fit and finish that belies it's cost.  It's a little above your price point, but they look like $3K speakers and no problem with the wife acceptance factor. Who wouldn't want a real oiled veneer finish with matching stands ?  Bonus : you can store vinyl records in the stands, I have about 60 albums stored down there. They could be my last speakers . 

As said above, those JBLs at 399 each. By most all accounts they are really good even at full price. 
 

Some Dynaudio Focus 160s on eBay for 1.1k with make offer. With stands. Those are really good! Play much bigger than their size would suggest. 
 

 

Couple notes about the Heresys:

-used prices have doubled in the last 10 years, due to Klipsch raising their prices and now everyone who has 30-40 year old speakers for sale thinks they’re sitting on a gold mine. They were a decent deal 10 years ago for $500 used.

-if they aren’t fairly new, they likely need re-capping and possibly other work.

 

-as floor speakers with tiny stand they work okay if you listen to music on the floor. On a regular chair or sofa, images are too short (midget symphony!) so you may need proper stands which are big, heavy and expensive if you want good ones. Perhaps Ikea Lack tables might work in a pinch temporarily if they put the speakers at the right height for realistic images. Raising the height will reduce bass. Even on the floor they don’t put out a lot of low bass. Factor in a sub or two.

 

The Polk Reserve R200 standmounts sounded remarkable for their price at the recent AXPONA.  You should be able to find floorstanding R500 at your price point.