Floor standing speakers or book shelf with stand speakers?

Schizophonic

Schizophonic

Schizophonic

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Looking to upgrade my Jamo Graphics as they dont produce enough sound and my budget is about £150.

Anyone suggestion what to get to put along side my existing 5.1? These will upgrade my existing front left and right.
 
I think for that budget i'd go for stand mounts.

How do you mean your current speakers don't produce enough sound? Do you just mean they're not loud enough or that you feel theres something missing from it?

Are you willing to buy used? If you wanted something loud and bass full then you should be able to get some old used B&W 602's or something for that price
 
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Marvt74 said:
I think for that budget i'd go for stand mounts.

How do you mean your current speakers don't produce enough sound? Do you just mean they're not loud enough or that you feel theres something missing from it?

Are you willing to buy used? If you wanted something loud and bass full then you should be able to get some old used B&W 602's or something for that price
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I think they lack a bit of base and the ones I currently have are really designed to go on walls and not to be used for home cinema.

This is one of my pictures, the ones in next to the tv

speaker.jpg


I am happy to go along the 2nd hand route but postage is going to be a bit of a pain unless the seller happens to live at a good driving distance.
 
I also recommend finding yourself some B&W 602 S2 or 3. They have a 7" driver and produce plenty of punchy bass with a crisp treble. My friend has some and I love the sound they produce every time I hear them.
 
Nick1881 said:
I also recommend finding yourself some B&W 602 S2 or 3. They have a 7" driver and produce plenty of punchy bass with a crisp treble. My friend has some and I love the sound they produce every time I hear them.
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Thanks, checking a few on the bay - the 602 are the bookshelf and the 603 are floor standing?
 
Schizophonic said:
I think they lack a bit of base and the ones I currently have are really designed to go on walls and not to be used for home cinema.
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On the contrary, bass-lite designs are exactly suited for home cinema. Certainly more so than for use in music only systems!!

Home cinema rigs provide extra bass from the sub. So if the main speakers are bass-lite then it doesn't matter so much. This is the principle of all those sub-sat systems with small satellite speakers.

The conclusion must be that your home cinema amp is set up wrong for the speakers you have, or you are using the amp on the wrong setting for music given those particular speakers.

Your speaker set-up should be small for L&R, Centre, Surrounds.

Crossover point should be at least 80Hz, but 100Hz is probably a better choice with those Q-Acoustics rears.

You'll need to adjust the sub controls so it blends well with the fronts & centre. Put some music on, put the amp in a music mode other than direct - you want the sub working with the fronts. Try the phase control at 0 and 180 to see which gives deeper bass. Then adjust the bass level to avoid boom.


As for a speaker upgrade, I'd echo what others here have said: Good quality s/h standmounted speakers are a better use of your budget. New but cheap floor standers are a false economy. Your heart wants them, but unless you have really low standards the reality is there's not enough money to make the big rigid heavily-braced boxes required to make £150 floor standers sound okay.
 
lucid said:
On the contrary, bass-lite designs are exactly suited for home cinema. Certainly more so than for use in music only systems!!

Home cinema rigs provide extra bass from the sub. So if the main speakers are bass-lite then it doesn't matter so much. This is the principle of all those sub-sat systems with small satellite speakers.

The conclusion must be that your home cinema amp is set up wrong for the speakers you have, or you are using the amp on the wrong setting for music given those particular speakers.

Your speaker set-up should be small for L&R, Centre, Surrounds.

Crossover point should be at least 80Hz, but 100Hz is probably a better choice with those Q-Acoustics rears.

You'll need to adjust the sub controls so it blends well with the fronts & centre. Put some music on, put the amp in a music mode other than direct - you want the sub working with the fronts. Try the phase control at 0 and 180 to see which gives deeper bass. Then adjust the bass level to avoid boom.


As for a speaker upgrade, I'd echo what others here have said: Good quality s/h standmounted speakers are a better use of your budget. New but cheap floor standers are a false economy. Your heart wants them, but unless you have really low standards the reality is there's not enough money to make the big rigid heavily-braced boxes required to make £150 floor standers sound okay.
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Thanks for the info, I've done sound calibration with my Daemon amp and it has picked up my fronts as small L&R. However I tend not to switch on my sub on most visits when I watch TV or watch youtube videos on my HTPC.

When you mention that 'Good quality s/h standmounted speakers are a better use of your budget' are you saying Bookshelfs with quality stands are the better option to go for in my budget?
 
Schizophonic said:
When you mention that 'Good quality s/h standmounted speakers are a better use of your budget' are you saying Bookshelfs with quality stands are the better option to go for in my budget?
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Yes. It's simple economics. Call it the Law of You Can't Get Something for Nothing. :D

The two most expensive bits in speaker manufacture are usually the cabinet and the finish. It costs money to make well-braced non-resonant cabinets. Go to a hi-fi store and ask to feel the weight of a sub £100 bookshelf speaker compared to a £500 one. Most of the extra weight is because the construction is heavier and the cabinet is better braced.

Now think about the construction quality of £150 floorstanders. The cabinets are big and often feel and sound quite hollow when you knock on them. That's not good. It means there's very little bracing other than the minimum required to support the box.

IMO £400~£500 is a sensible minimum budget for new floorstanders. You'll get a decent cabinet and they'll sound like a deeper version of the bookshelf speakers. If you work on s/h being roughly 1/3rd of new price then you aren't far away from your £150 budget.

There will be a bigger choice of s/h standmounters to fit your budget. Stick with the known brands and look for a cross-section of reviews to gauge quality and pick up on any serious issues. Take out £20 for stands. That leaves you roughly £130 for speakers.
 
Might be worth checking out the bay, just seen some Q35s for £100, a great pair of floor standers and well within your budget, they'd definitely fill any gaps you might have when it comes to weight and depth!!!
 
Sorry forgot all about this thread as soon as I got home and realised my cd player was only outputtingon one channel...

yeah, Q35s and there are a couple of pairs for sale at the moment, they would do you very well indeed!!!

I have a pair as my front speakers paired with a KEF q95 centre and Q85 surrounds, all powered by a Marantz amp and it really does sound great for both films and music!!
 
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