Speakers

So I find myself listening to a lot of tunes while browsing the internets, either through streaming radio (archive.org, grooveshark, etc) or foobar, all through my $11 logitech speakers, since I don't always feel like strapping on headphones. I'd like to upgrade my speakers, but not to anything too fancy. I'm looking at a few options: Audioengine 2's - just run straight from whatever DAC I am using, either using their own volume pot or using the DACs volume if I end up buying an XDA-1. Paradigm Atom - powered by my Beta22 once it gets all ship shape and up and running. My concern here is if the Beta has the juice to push the Atoms, which specify a minimum of 15 watt…

Hello all, It's been a while and I hope all of you are doing fine I am looking for some advice. The speaker amp broke down again and it's time for something more decent. The problem is we want to have a minimum of 2 (preferably) digital inputs to attach our sources to. It seems quite hard to find. Does anyone have an idea on where to look? Thanx in advance!

Though speakers are not in my immediate future, nor really in my remote future, but I have been listening to some very serious setups as of late and speakers offer some things headphones do not: 1) listening for 2+ 2) realistic bass 2) soundstaging/live feel With a new little one on the way, it would be great to be able to sit with him on the couch late at night while my wife tries to get some zzz's and my other son is sleeping upstairs. I could do this with headphones I suppose, but it would be safer all around to do this with speakers. I have a hankering for coincident victories and tube amp from CJ or VAC, but that is beyond my budget, even used. But if only t…

I'm looking into a NAD 325BEE, and I'd like to know if it can output enough power to my speakers. My speakers are some vintage AKAI's with 8 ohm impedence and 100Wpeak. I see here: NAD Electronics :: C325BEE Stereo Integrated Amplifier that the NAD 325BEE is rated for 110W power, but only 50W continuously? What does this mean?

I picked up the Alons a few weeks back and drove 7 hours round trip to pick them up. They are a dream speaker for me in the under $3000 used price range. They are probably only about 90db efficient but the woofer is 14ohms and the designer had 300b and up SET designs in mind when he put these out. The Signatures were made in very small runs and include AlNiCo magnet speakers all the way around. I had the standard Lotus SE speakers for the better part of a year and while great these are better in every respect. The standards are pretty amazing at $1000 to 1500 they go for used and should be more. Well After a bit of searching on our forum it looks like my amp of choice…

Interesting article on El Reg http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/02/feature_the_future_loudspeaker_design/ We need to talk about SPEAKERS: Soz, 'audiophiles', only IT will break the sound barrier Design, DSPs and the debunking of traditional hi-fi Covers a lot of ground, the importance of time domain accuracy, and the relationship to the human hearing system. Some of the ideas may be applicable to headphones (eh, Tyll?) Author seems to have the credentials. Sound opinions, or just clickbait? (the commentards seem to have bitten) Discuss

I'm planning a speaker rig for my room, but I don't know what to get. They'll be used on my desk from pretty close to me, and the rears will be near walls. I'm planning on buy an Almarro 318B. It's 18wpc, so I guess the speakers should be relatively efficient. I'm considering the Omega Comcact Hemps, Amphion Argon2, Almarro's M1A, whatever these are (because those PHY drivers are supposed to be great). But I really have no idea. I'm curious about the whole fullrange driver + SET thing that people rave about, but I don't know how to accomplish that with monitors. I want something I'll never want or need to replace. These also look interesting. Oh, I'll probably ad…

My Galantes are sold and I'm going to go for some smaller speakers. Right now I'm between this and Kef iQ3's. The KEF's are a little less with shipping, like $340. Do you guys have any other ideas? I'm trying to stay under $400 for speakers. Amp I'm not so sure, I was thinking of one of the Class D things like Kingrex, Winsome, or Nuforce Icon, or maybe that Glow Audio Amp One that is getting raves.

I have a pair of QUAD 12L Pro Active speakers on some rather chunky and expensive stands that have sat completely unused since I sold my Balanced Home 3 months ago, which was also serving as a digital preamp. I have nothing to drive them with, and am not really too excited to purchase something, but if I did, it would need to be a DAC/Preamp w/volume control all in one. Balanced outputs would be great, but not important. So, my question is, what can I buy to give them a nice signal, or should I just get rid of them alltogether? Problem is, they are only worth abut $500 resale, and these biamped active speakers sound thousands of dollars better than that... Edit: …

I've been curious about how a radial speaker works and what are its supposed advantages or disadvantages when compared to traditional, forward-firing box speakers. Something about the idea intrigues me, although I've never heard a radial speaker before. More specifically, I'm thinking of about this: http://www.decware.com/newsite/RL15.htm. Interested in this because of its reported synergy with the FirstWatt F1. I was first turned on to Decware through aerius, who posted a link to one of the articles on that site regarding room treatment.

i can get a pair for $200 shipped. just wondering if anyone knew of any places that sold them for cheaper. thanks.

so, if you had 3k to spend, which would you get? i've decided against going the hi-eff + set/jfet route... i'd like to stick with an AB amp >60w + tube pre. i know what i like when i hear it, but everything i like is too expensive ) fwiw, if money were no object, i'd get a pair of b&w 802d. if i go over budget and pickup a new pair of 804s's ($4500), my local dealer is willing to give me a generous trade-in (basically 99% of what i paid new) once i have enough for the 802d ($14000)... and i know that if i change my direction, i can get really good resale value on agon for any of the b&w line (speaking from experience, having sold 3 pairs of b&w's …

Hey everyone, quick question for the speaker guys: I assembled my speaker system around a pair of KEF XQ40s and later on upgraded to the Jamo R907s, but never got round to upgrading the integrated amp (Marantz PM11-S2), which wasn't really up to the task. However, a few weeks ago I managed to snatch a pair of Bel Canto REF1000s monoblocks and couldn't believe how much of an upgrade it was. Turns out I had never really heard those speakers. My first idea was to use the Marantz as a pre-amp, but when I set-up the GS-X there I realized that the Marantz wasn't really up there as a pre either. So now I'm wondering about what options I should entertain at around $2K, ma…

From another thread: How about speaker amps, are there any speaker amps that follow this design? How about preamps? Is there a corresponding solid state design? Perhaps with MOSFETs?

Powered speakers make a lot of sense to me, but they don't seem to be popular in Hi-Fi, so what's the deal? Are there some fundamental disadvantages to using powered speakers, or is it just custom and tradition?

Has anyone done this successfully? Bluetooth or wifi? This is not for an audiophile.

The wife and I have been in the process of re-doing our family room, which includes getting rid of these DJ/Club looking speaker stands (lol). If anyone has used or come across some nice wood speaker stands that I could use for my emotiva stealths, let me know! Thanks.

Bringing my pops back from the airport, and tomorrow is trash day. I'm driving down my street when I see some speakers, a large bunch of electronics rather, sitting on the side of the road. My house is like 8 houses down, so I decide to just go home grab the cargo van and drive back by and if they're even decent, I'll pick them up. So, what do I find? I'll let the crappy pics speak for themselves (GF has the camera, so I had to use my phone). They are: Marantz SP 2050 The Smaller Advent Loudspeaker Air Suspension Quadra Linear Horn System All the speakers are in MINT condition. Foam and everything is MINT. Hopefully the dew that was starting to build…

https://wyred4sound.com/products/pre-amps/mpre would love to hear anyone's thoughts on this. For the price it looks too good to be true. I've been eyeing on an upgrade on my emotiva dc1 for a while, more so as a preamp vs DAC (so far my DAC usage has been cable tv from the oppo and Apple TV optical for tv/movie purposes). Fully discrete dual differential balanced both on the input and output side, but the kicker for me is that it will take the rca in and perform the balanced output "correctly" to feed my stealth monitors. Below is from the designer commenting in a 6moons review. http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/wyred8/3.html

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/hifi-components/amps/a-s801/?mode=model USB DAC Supports DSD 100Wx2 ESS Technology 32-bit DAC (ES9010K2M) other shit awesome looks $999 ballin' on a budget, i dig it. I've always liked the way these Yamaha integrateds have looked the past few years.

so fucking happy right now even with the t amp at 15% they can fill up my office beautifully. was skeptical about the 1.8 watt decware amp but all reservations have been removed. yes i know the drivers are mounted sideways but theres a brace directly behind the driver and thats the only way the driver would go in without damage to driver posts. i did about 15% of the work in building them. rather happy with the outcome. the guys who built them did a beautiful job. pictures dont really shop the texture all that well.

What do you guys think about Zu's? Specifically the Druid mk IV? I'm thinking of picking-up a pair used for around $1600... I briefly heard them at a dealer and really liked what I heard, but they were being driven by a big solid state amp (even though they're very sensitive)... I plan on driving them with a 2 watt decware SET amp. Thanks, mjb

After years of only Headphone listening, I'm finally jumping on the speaker party. Coming from the headphone hi.end I must say it has been pretty disappointing on the performance side with speakers..Most need to get the volume up to lvls where it gets shouty or annoying to get some kinda engaging sound and most just sound thin.. specially if music is not perfect jazz records, some get crazy details but again, music is nowhere engaging. Enter the Zu's, I heard the Zu Omen Dirty Weekend II on the dealer(have never heard of them) and loved the sound, totally different from most known brands, this speakers can truly rock. They have such a dynamic and forward sound,…

I got an email from Zu Audio and while I'm not in the market for speakers at the moment, I know that some of you guys liked 'um at RMAF. Some of their speakers are close to 40% off! Home - Zu Audio