Stereo / amp question.

August 15, 2006 1:47 PM

Looking for advice on stereo speakers (and an amp setup).

I have a 5.1 setup that I'm pretty happy with, but I recently came into posession of a 15-plus year-old Yamaha R-30 "Natural Sound" receiver that I'd like to use just for music (anyone else have one of these older Yamaha receivers, have any thoughts on them?)

Question is: what can you recommend for a decent set of speakers to plug into it? They don't have to be that powerful - maybe some bookshelf speakers that have a good range? Or if you have a suggestion for some floor speakers that are a "great find." Let's say the price range is $200-300 but don't hold back.

Part 2: I also have an unpowered, 80-watt subwoofer. Left and right stereo wire inputs. Any recommendations for cheap-ish amp for it? The amp output has to be a single RCA.

posted by starman to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

For small bookshelf speakers, people used to be (~10 years ago) really excited about the NHT Super Zeros and the PSB Alphas. Updated versions of the NHT and PSB speakers exist and both are around $200. B&W and Epos also make slightly more expensive ($300) bookshelf speakers - I've heard speakers from both manufacturers and like both.

If you're serious about getting good speakers, however, you should really try and find a store where you can demo them before buying. Speakers vary tremendously in sound (particularly at the cheaper/smaller end, which entails more compromises) and it pays to find one you like the sound of.
posted by pombe at 8:32 PM on August 15, 2006

Sadly I have no current advice.

I would look for Sound Dynamics 300ti's on the used market. They shouldn't cost more than about $400, sometimes a lot less.

There are probably a couple of other speakers with similar performance for the money, but I'm not familiar with them. I really do mean a couple, that kind of price-performance is pretty rare..
posted by Chuckles at 9:16 PM on August 15, 2006

Last time I was out shopping for speakers, I ended up picking a used MTX amp on ebay, starting from this list:
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/t87095.html

and buying a sledging speaker kits from madisound.com
posted by gmarceau at 9:40 PM on August 15, 2006

Mission makes some great bookshelf speakers. They image extremely well, have a very natural midrange and produce an audiophile sound for very little money. These exact speakers may not be available new, but their new equivalents should be just as good if not better. Used is a good way to go if you want to save money.
posted by caddis at 11:47 PM on August 15, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for the replies so far. I'm going to see what I can find.
posted by starman at 2:59 PM on August 16, 2006