Topic: Help me help a friend...

[Tall Adam]

Hey guys,
I'm not the best with playback stuff but a friend was looking to me for advice, so I turned to the experts I knew best .
He is looking to upgrade his home playback. He lives in an apartment with a pretty small living room (diagram provided by him, below). He's looking to spend under $500 for everything he needs. I've advised that given the small size and low budget, he be better off spending the money on a decent stereo set up with a sub than a 5.1 system, but if you guys think otherwise please advise. He already has a reciever with a built in pre so he really just wants speakers and cables. Unfortunately he doesn't know the model number or anything so I can't give you that right now, but I'll try and get that info for you. He says it has component outputs, HDMI, and 5.1. Thoughts?
Thanks for the help!
-Adam

[bl6216@yahoo.com]

I just pick up a set of B&W 601 S3 for $450. I like them and to me they sound good. B&W also sale a sub and center in the 600 Series 3. (http://www.bwspeakers.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/products.ranges/Label/Range%20600%20Series%203) As far as 5.1 I don't think you can get any thing good for $500. But if you can let me know. I would like to hear them. You can get some good cables used for $50 on audiogon.com . I hope that was of some help.


-Brian

[BC]

paradigm speakers are a great value for the $$. Get the best he can afford in that price range. Peep out audiogon and ebay, lots of used models pop up. Since he has a receiver I say he should just get some decent floorstanders.

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1173552510

These are nice for the $$ too


http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1173133669

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1173132611

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1172461002

[cshepherd]

He is going to need stand mounts.  Floor standing speakers just don't work very well in rooms this small.  The bass becomes too much and the speakers never have a chance to open up.  If you pull the speakers away from the wall to reduce the bass, the treble becomes too aggressive because the tweeter is only five feet from your ears.  Visually, big speakers throw a small room's balance off.  They dominate your attention while in the room.  Speakers need to fit in when they are being used in the main sitting room.

My .O3,
Chris

[BC]

He is going to need stand mounts.  Floor standing speakers just don't work very well in rooms this small.  The bass becomes too much and the speakers never have a chance to open up.  If you pull the speakers away from the wall to reduce the bass, the treble becomes too aggressive because the tweeter is only five feet from your ears.  Visually, big speakers throw a small room's balance off.  They dominate your attention while in the room.  Speakers need to fit in when they are being used in the main sitting room.

My .O3,
Chris

good points. I didn't notice the room dimensions.


more paradigm fluffing   

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrmoni&1174412535

lots of choices for bookshelfs around the $5 bill mark:

http://buy0.audiogon.com/cgia/fsb.pl?spkrmoni&1&ctg&st1

[cshepherd]

Thanks, BC.  My main listening room is not much bigger.  I've gone round and round with every floor standing speaker we own, but I keep coming back to the little Neat Petites.  Their ability to perform 12" off the back wall allows an extra 2-3 feet of space between my head and the speakers.  Great sound can be a challenge in small rooms.  They need to be more acoustically dead than larger ones.

Chris