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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I thought about a used pair of Klipsch Hersey's but I keep reading comments that they are too outdated compared to advances in audio over the last few decades.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
soix
9,404 posts
 

Some tower speakers can be filled with sand/lead shot that not only improves sound but would make it virtually impossible for a young child to tip over.  Not sure if the Joseph Audio RM25s I recommended earlier can do this, but this might solve your problem if you can find a speaker you like with this feature. 

twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,315 posts
 

Oversized bolt-on outriggers can make any speaker very stable.

https://www.parts-express.com/search?keywords=outrigger&order=relevance:desc

gorquin OP
45 posts
 

I have an inexpensive pair of speakers in the BR that have AMT tweeters. The speakers aren't great but the top end is smooth so.....

Any opinions on the Elac Carina BS243.4 which also have AMT tweeters and, on paper, a pretty good frequency range? Not sure I can listen to a pair locally but I did find a dealer who sells the Goldenear AON 2, and AON 3 speakers also with an AMT tweeter.

holmz's avatar
holmz
2,328 posts
 

I appreciate the suggestions here even more because no one has anything to gain by offering an opinion.

most people recommend what they own, so there are all sorts of psychological influences that may not be as nefarious as a saleman looking for a commission… but it does not make the suggestions here automatically better.

moonwatcher
418 posts
 

OK, you have a fairly large room. But the main part of that equation is where will you be sitting when you are doing your listening? How far away will you be from the speakers?

Small bookshelf speakers can play loud but they’ll never sound "large" or "scale" (in general - I know there are some exceptions). But if you want scale, you should probably go with floorstanders, and even then, at $1000 for two speakers your choices will be limited.

Even in a large room if you are sitting no more than 10 feet or so away, you might get by with bookshelf speakers, and later add a subwoofer.

I note that the Polk R700 are on "sale" now as of 5-16-2022 for $899 each. Yeah, that is nearly double your budget, but in the long run you might be happier with larger speakers in that room if you can stretch your budget, plus you might not need a sub (at an extra expense) down the road.

Good luck. Oh, I looked up the Adcom GFA-545 at hifiengine. I could only find it specified to output 100W/channel at 8Ω.  Make sure it will be happy driving lower impedance speakers.  6Ω might be OK, but 4Ω (unless it is OK with that) might be harder, and many 4Ω can dip even lower at certain frequencies.

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