Wow, thanks or the suggestions!
Wharfdale Diamond 9.1's, finally retiring mine as wife is not so forgiving
These look good, first Google hit got me them for £100. Amp only has L/R outputs though, will they work?
I quite like my Rega Ela MK2's - took me a few months trawling eBay and the like to find a pair come up though.
http://www.roydaudio.org/reviews/royd-apex-rega-ela-hifi-review/
I love the Blakes7 look of these things, but they seem to have flimsy feet. Surely a speaker needs anchored mass?
When you say 5m sq, I guess you mean 5m x 5m.
What are the qualities you want from a speaker.
1. Size
2. Weight
3. Loudness
4. Sound quality
what sort of music do you listen to?
It sounds like you want floor standing speakers rather than smaller speakers on stands right?
When you say "I just don't want to be listening to square waves" do you mean you want a nice detailed sound but with an analogue feel. i.e no sharp high frequencies?
If price is not an issue, then it would make sense to consider a new amp/system as well, rather than buying expensive speakers to go with cheap old amp. 40W @4ohms is pretty weedy. You need to match carefully to avoid blowing up the amp (and the speakers).
OK, in approximate order...
Yes, about 5m^2.
#1. I like it big.
#2. I like it heavy.
#3. I like it loud when needed, but I don't need to blow the roof off.
#4. My hearing is pretty good I think for an old fart. I'd rather have fidelity than volume for the sake of volume.
I am a bit embarassed to be too specific, but let's call it rock...?
Floor standing (possibly bolted down) is good. I'm into brick-poophouse bodgery.
Square waves - I can hear clipping, drives me nuts. Well, mildly annoys me anyway. I could write an essay here but hopefully you know what I mean... speaker doesn't have the grunt to accomodate the incoming signal, you get flat-topped noise instead of what the artist intended.
You're right, I could up the amp, but me and the wife like it and it has some sentimental value to her. Plus it's built like a Massey Fergusson.
Monitor Audio gold series, or, if you are truly serious about budget unlimited, the Platinum II's. Laws of diminishing returns applies with Hi Fi though. You'll need to look at your amplification, source and cabling to get the best out of any medium to high end speaker.
My most coherent opinion of these is, "oooh, oooh, oooh."
Seriously tempted. Very seriously.
what is the source material, cd vinyl streamed?
All of the above, but mostly high bitrate mp3 and flac files. The wife has a collection of vinyl but TBH they rarely get taken out of their sleeves.
http://www.wilsonaudio.com/products/alexandria-xlf
These are by no means weedy and you'd need to remortgage to buy them. You'd need 2 good quality mono blocks too -
http://jordanacoustics.co.uk/products/amplifiers/mc2kw-monoblocks/
*wholly unsuitable for your room of course.
Those things are so fekkin ugly I'm in love with them. I could stand beside one and look like a Greek god by comparison. Those monoblocks quite frankly turn me on, and that's not a picture you want in your head, apologies. I now
want these things.
Cabling is mostly snake oil. 2.55mm squared and anything more is pointless.
£35 for 30m off amazon
Agreed.
What I was thinking about was solid wood, oak or mahogany, good craftsmanship, durability.
So far the Monitor Audio Gold's are swaying me.
