Posted on 07/17/2012 6:44:42 AM PDT by beenaround
I would like some input on which in wall speakers to choose to replace the Polk ATi-A9 tower spkrs I have. I love the speakers but want to free up some space without sacrificing the sound quality I have
Price is not an issue. My listening preferences are mid 40's to mid 60;s and some 70's stuff all played at moderate to low level. I have a Parasound 2100 pre amp powered with Parasound 2250 2 channel amp (250 WPC). I also have a Cambridge DAC (DacMagic)
All my music is in WMA and MP3 (minimum 250 bps) form and stored on a hard drive as well as on thumb drives.
Any advice any of you can give me will be greatly appreciated as I have had no personal experience within wall speakers.
Try anything by Bose. You should be able to find a space saving alternative for your Polks.
Welcome to FR. You’ve come to the right place for an opinion. Everyone here has one.
well youve certainly come to the right place...
LOL, thanks (I think)
Hands down the best speakers if you can afford them are Klipsch. The technical specs for dynamic response, range and lack of harmonic distortion are second to none. I know a lot of people like the Bose label but if you put them to the test and actually look at the technical specs, they are only a second tier vendor. The Klipsch loaded horn design is simply the most efficient and best responding speakers money can buy.
Klipsch also has a wide range of of speakers. Everything from floor stands, to bookshelves to even their line of flat speakers (to go beside your flat screen). I highly recommend their products and use them myself in my surround sound system.
Since price is no object, I’m the wrong guy to ask except for one thing: Steer clear of Bose. I collect vintage hi-fi gear and sold the stuff in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Bose is a marketing company. They are the only major player that will not publish their specs.
A satellite system with subs that go as high into the audible range as their do can not be taken seriously by anyone serious about sound.
Polk is one of my favortes for the money, but I’ve not seen their more recent stuff.
Regarding Bose, here is everything you need to know:
http://liquidtheater.com/editorial_56.html
And this is funny, especially the single comment: http://beloved-brands.com/2011/10/17/is-bose-high-quality-or-low-quality-is-bose-a-beloved-or-hated-brand/
Bose.
Here is where you REALLY want to go on this issue:
Tapeheads.net
Audiokarma.org
If you own your home and can do the carpentry, you might consider in-wall speakers. Polk makes in-wall systems too.
Check out Madisound— they offer kits with excellent components. Google them, they’re online.
Opinions? I like a good “image” and sharp detail from speakers. I’ve not heard the Bose speakers lately, but back in the day they made their boxes with speakers loaded to reflect off of an adjacent wall, which muddied the sound.
They’ve done amazing things with small boxes, but the focus seems to be getting bass response from a smaller box, not better sound.
Final thought: many systems are designed for in-home multi-media—not music.
Check it out, my man. The flagship of the entire Dominator line. The MX-10. 30 inches of thigh-slappin', blood-pumpin' nuclear brain damage! So what if it's as big as a Subaru and costs as much! You'll never have to trade this in. This is gonna be with you for the rest of your life. And when you die, they can bury you in it!
Speakers generally are grouped by price, and generally the more you pay, the better sound you get. There is a point that paying more only increases the listening experience by a few percentage points. But I would look at very high end book shelf speakers, like Revel, Sonus Faber, B&W, I listened to the B*W recently, really like them, Paradigm Reference, I think spending $1500 to $2000 on a pair is really going to be hard to beat, I think its the Emporer’s clothes after that, but you could pay less than that if you bought on Audiogon.
You might want to check this out:
http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=CAT&srchCat=762
Madisound = white van speakers
IMO
Salk Songtowers... period.
http://www.salksound.com/songtower%20home.htm
routinely beats other speakers... i just got them , and WOW is all i can say...
No highs, no lows, must be Bose. Bose is not an audio company, it’s a marketing company.
Even when I sold the stuff, I was always a bit of a cheapskate. I used to bi-amp a pair of ESS AMT 1B monitors with a 400 wpc Hitachi amp for the woofers and a 100 WPC hitachi mos-fet amp for the heils. But I’m all over reasonably sized bookshelves with a sub now.
But once you start talking more than a couple hundred per speaker my eyes glaze over. I’ve hung around Difinitive audio and a few other places where amps cost tens of thousands, as do speakers. They DO sound better, but having been in live bands myself, and appreciating live music, if I want that kind of quality I go see the band live.
I used to be an audiophile until I realized that “audiophile” and “music lover” are two completely different things, though one can be both. The difference is, when playing a record or digital source:
-—A music lover listens to the music.
-—An audiophile listens to the equipment reproduce the music.
This is why I have a bunch of VERY WELL RECORDED AND PRESSED albums of crappy music from my audiophile days. It’s why I have a recording of trains and thunder. :-)
I am now a music lover with a latent audiophile gland still functioning, though very anemically. I do love the vintage equipment, though.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.