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getting a little obsessed with my first purchase

alright, I've been into music for a while now, however my budget for audio equipment has always been in the sub 500$ range until now. My GF bless her heart, bought me a DE875 sony for christmas. I want to set up a home theater but my priority is music so I'm gonna start with two loudspeakers. I don't want to spend any more than 700-800$ and I'm looking squarely at used equipment (because I always want better than I can afford). I have been obsessing over the DefTech 2006tl's. However I haven't seen any of these for sale second hand anywhere on the net. I need advice from an old hand here. Is my choice a good one? Can I do better? Keep in mind the low end receiver/amp. Also I have a relatively small living room in an apartment. It's probably around 15-16 feet by 9-10. I have been stressing over this purchase for over a month now and I need to buy something fast for the sake of my girlfriend and my health.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Patrick
elchuppa
soix
9,805 posts
 
Forget the DefTechs. If you're gonna be using the Sony for at least a while I'd generally stay away from speakers with metal dome tweeters, at least in your price range(although the Triangle Zephyrs recommended above may be an exception). This is a recipe for bright/harsh sound.

Given the size of your room you may be better off with monitors than floorstanding speakers, and you'll tend to get more for your money. One suggestion that falls right in your price range used would be Soliloquy 5.0s with their cool and beefy matching stands. The 5.0s produce a good amount of bass for their size, huge soundstage, full midrange, great detail, disappear in the room and are very efficient so should be easy for your Sony to drive effectively. You can add a sub later if you want, but either way you're off to a good start on a great system. Best of luck.

Tim
frogman
7,478 posts
 
I second Audiokinesis' recommendation of the Snell's, IF your long term goal is to build a system around them. If that is in fact the case, I would happily live and put up with sub-optimum amplification until you can afford it. The Snell's are great speakers, and when you can afford to feed them a good source amplified by good electronics, you will have a great, and I mean GREAT system.

I still remember the first time I heard them. Powered by VTL 300's with an Audio Research pre and Oracle/Koetsu combo. To this day, for my tastes, some of the best sound that I have ever heard, bar none. $600 ???, if you can handle their size (they ARE kinda big), a steal if I ever heard of one!!! By the way, at the dealer showroom where I heard them, they were situated very close to if not right up against the back wall; and as I recall, the room itself was not particularly large. Good luck.
rcprince
3,077 posts
 
I would join Frogman and Audiokenesis in recommending the Snell type As--they were among the finest speakers of their time, and hold up very well to modern competition. I auditioned them, Apogee Divas and Duntech Princesses as my finalists before deciding on the latter about 14 years ago, and have always been impressed with their sound. Frogman's observation about where they were located is actually where they are supposed to be placed, virtually up against the wall, which makes them unique among the best high end speakers.
bishopwill
369 posts
 
Agree that the old Snells would be a good choice if you have the room. They won't do HT, though.

Listen long to those DefTechs before you buy. They do OK for HT (though even there you can do better for the money) but they will burn your ears out on music. A recording of the Bach Double Concerto for Violin that sings on my JM Labs music system, and sounds at least acceptable on my Paradigm HT system sounds like two dental drills having jungle sex when played on my neighbor's DefTechs.
elchuppa OP
7 posts
 
thank you all for your responses.
I apologize for not responding, I've been away for a few days.
I think I have to rule out the snell's due to size concerns.
I'm looking at a set of B&W's on ebay that have 602's as the two mains, however they are series one. Is there a big quality difference between the first and second series?
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