active hifi stereo speakers

builder22 · 22 May 2017 at 13:37

Looking in to getting some nice speakers for my living room, it's in a flat so want something that sounds good at low medium volumes

I was looking at amp/reciever/speakers but discovered active hifi speakers which I think would suit better (less stuff). Active speakers with bluetooth might be even better as most of my listening could be from bluetooth, then could get a reciever to connect tv etc if I wanted

My google skiils seem to be failing me tho...only decent ones in my price range I've found are the Yamaha NX-N500
have also seen JBL 305 but they dont have bluetooth
KEF ls50a look incredible but way too much
q acoustics bt3 seem good value @ £179 but a bit small for mainly music i think

maybe I'm limiting choice by looking for wireless/bluetooth speakers rather than just proper active stereos

any make/model suggestions to give me some choices to explore?

Psycho Sonny · 22 May 2017 at 15:53

https://www.avforums.com/article/best-buy-all-in-one-stereo-systems-of-2016.13207

https://www.avforums.com/article/best-buy-wireless-speakers-of-2016.13173

or kill 2 birds with 1 stone

https://www.avforums.com/article/best-buy-soundbars-of-2016.13172

i have 4 different setups within my home as far as speakers are concerned. i also have a few headphone setups.

e.g. living room 5.1 home cinema avr speaker setup. kitchen 2.0 roth oli powa's. bedroom - yamaha soundbar. games room - logitech z5500 5.1 system

hornetstinger · 22 May 2017 at 15:55

Blutooth means lower quality sound, so whatever you buy, crap in= crap out.

builder22 · 22 May 2017 at 16:15

cheers Sonny, the nx-n500's appear quite a lot in my searches..

hornets..all my (digital) music is either from itunes or amazon mp3, does bluetooth reduce the quality of those, or are they all considered poor q to start with too?

Psycho Sonny · 22 May 2017 at 16:37

hornetstinger said:
Blutooth means lower quality sound, so whatever you buy, crap in= crap out.

lol - i take it you haven't heard of apt-x?

it's been around for several years now

Psycho Sonny · 22 May 2017 at 16:38

builder22 said:
cheers Sonny, the nx-n500's appear quite a lot in my searches..

hornets..all my (digital) music is either from itunes or amazon mp3, does bluetooth reduce the quality of those, or are they all considered poor q to start with too?

if your phone and the device both support apt-x no need to worry about any loss of quality.

most likely if both are relatively new you will be fine. my speakers i bought 2 years ago are apt-x compatible.

builder22 · 22 May 2017 at 17:00

will look later, but froma quick google my £120 vodaphone smart ultra 6 has aptx, my ipad air2 doesnt

Psycho Sonny · 22 May 2017 at 17:14

builder22 said:
will look later, but froma quick google my £120 vodaphone smart ultra 6 has aptx, my ipad air2 doesnt

as long as it has a decent version of bluetooth you will be fine. 4.1 or 4.2, or newer. also people who use mp3's, etc the last thing they care about is pure audiophile quality. hornetstinger has a tendency to go in at the deep end. in another thread someone asked for people to spec them a soundbar. he came in all guns blazing telling them they need to buy an amp and a 5.1 seperates home cinema setup.

you will be fine with bluetooth. put it this way i own about £3-£4K worth of headphones and headphone DAC/AMP's and i use bluetooth to send audio from my phone to my soundbar and kitchen speakers. sound quality will be fine so long as you buy decent speakers and the source file is decent enough to begin with.

Psycho Sonny · 22 May 2017 at 17:26

these actually look exactly like my roth oli's however mine cost £250 iirc and roth is a well known audio name.

Steljes Audio NS3 – £129 – Best Buy

they look like clones of mine and i use them in my kitchen no probs.

"The NS3 counts as one of the true surprises of 2016. It simply sounds far better than it has any right to at the price. There is a scale and impact that you simply don't expect from a speaker of this size and the soundstage and imaging is also top notch. The way it handles voices and instruments is also deeply impressive. The Steljes Audio NS3 has a great Bluetooth implementation and represents an excellent option for people looking to build a system around a phone or tablet. "

I wouldn't bother spending £600. that sort of money would get you a proper 5.1 system if you add to it slightly. although there is speaker wire involved here whereas the yamaha uses zero speaker wire.

i can live with that if it means a spare £500 in my pocket

Safetytrousers · 22 May 2017 at 17:31

On my good bluetooth capable system bluetooth is clearly not as good as the direct connection. It's not bad, just not as good as the direct.
Perhaps not all bluetooth is made equal.

hornetstinger · 22 May 2017 at 20:15

Psycho Sonny said:
as long as it has a decent version of bluetooth you will be fine. 4.1 or 4.2, or newer. also people who use mp3's, etc the last thing they care about is pure audiophile quality. hornetstinger has a tendency to go in at the deep end. in another thread someone asked for people to spec them a soundbar. he came in all guns blazing telling them they need to buy an amp and a 5.1 seperates home cinema setup.

you will be fine with bluetooth. put it this way i own about £3-£4K worth of headphones and headphone DAC/AMP's and i use bluetooth to send audio from my phone to my soundbar and kitchen speakers. sound quality will be fine so long as you buy decent speakers and the source file is decent enough to begin with.

I would recommend Boulder monoblocs 3060 , three per speaker tri-amped, in a full Dolby Atmos speaker system, MINIMUM

builder22 · 23 May 2017 at 14:00

think I'm going to forget about the integrated wireless/bluetooth

from what I have read (not heard them) the JBL LSR305's look pretty hard to beat, maybe a matching sub

Psycho Sonny · 23 May 2017 at 14:46

Safetytrousers said:
On my good bluetooth capable system bluetooth is clearly not as good as the direct connection. It's not bad, just not as good as the direct.
Perhaps not all bluetooth is made equal.

it certainly isn't which is why i specifically mentioned aptx

i have 2 aptx bluetooth speakers and both sound great for the money

nicknack35 · 23 May 2017 at 23:12

builder22 said:
Looking in to getting some nice speakers for my living room, it's in a flat so want something that sounds good at low medium volumes

I was looking at amp/reciever/speakers but discovered active hifi speakers which I think would suit better (less stuff). Active speakers with bluetooth might be even better as most of my listening could be from bluetooth, then could get a reciever to connect tv etc if I wanted

My google skiils seem to be failing me tho...only decent ones in my price range I've found are the Yamaha NX-N500
have also seen JBL 305 but they dont have bluetooth
KEF ls50a look incredible but way too much
q acoustics bt3 seem good value @ £179 but a bit small for mainly music i think

maybe I'm limiting choice by looking for wireless/bluetooth speakers rather than just proper active stereos

any make/model suggestions to give me some choices to explore?

Ruark MR1 are excellent active speakers had mine 2 years and never dissapoint small pack a punch well made have bluetooth if you want to bluetooth with phone exc sound great and have a sub out option