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.
You’ve got a problem: Changing out speakers for reasons other than failure of the system.
Going from towers to shelf (to say NOTHING of in-wall)is ITSELF going to create a big difference is sound.
Were the towers de-coupled from the floor or what ever they stood on (by you or the manufacturer)? Were they near a wall, in a corner? You were not only listening to the polks you were listening to the room. Even in a cost is no object situation these factors can violently change the perception of sound. You could spend big dough on great speakers and have them all futzed by the shelf/wall, placement etc. Sound can becom harsh, muddy etc.
You can go consumer playback, which tend to have a “sound” built in to them or studio refrence which try to be un-colored and flat. If I were you I’d try to find forums that have people who know the Polks and upgraded from them. Try posting your question on www.gearslutz.com in the high end section. Tell them what kind of room they’ll be used in, ie; “treated” listening room, living room etc. A lot of those guys have been there and done that.
Ruthless! ;-)
A favorite scene of mine, btw., having been in hi-fi sales myself back in the day when one could make a good living doing it.
There are literally hundreds of choices ranging from $100 to thousands.
If you have a reputable audio dealer in your area, listen and buy from them and insist on a return policy.
The speakers will not sound the same in your room as they did in the store.
It is also good to fiddle with speaker placement.
Small adjustments can radically alter the sound.
P.S. You can aso search the forums on GEARSLUTZ, your question has been brought up many times.
And then he sees his pregnant wife, and totally changes his tune, great scene.
As you can tell by the responses here, we all have opinions but we don't necessarily always have good reading comprehension skills. :-)
Trains and thunder...MFSL The Power and the Glory...it’s great.
Check out http://www.northcreekmusic.com/ he makes a new Fibonaci Ribbon- about 5ft and full range. His name is George Short and he makes the best. You can call him as well.
The only people in that movie that are NOT ruthless are the kidnappers.
A bit of trivia to demonstrate just how PC we have become:
Remember the scene where he is soapboxing about how ruthless they need to be, all the time being very careful to pick up a spider and take it outside without harming it? Well, in the movie, he sets it on the porch as he finished his speech, suddenly got clarity about what he had just communcated, and squishes the spider.
In the version broadcast on television, the spider squishing part was removed. I noticed because it was one of the funniest parts of the movie.
You nailed it! FWIW, I've got a Zoom H4n that I've used to record trains and thunder (complete with buzzing and chirping hummingbirds) and actually gotten much better results than that album. Technology marches on. ;-)
Sandy Gross started this company in Baltmore after he left Polk Audio. Sandy and Matt started Polk Audio back in the 1970s. Definitive Technology is now one of the best speaker companies on the market. Their subwoofers will shake your home.
—And all this time I thought we were in a recession.—
What? You’re not a banker?
Recently, we had our home remodeled. As a part of that project, I wanted to make my music easier to access. I had a particular challenge. I have a 800 CD classical music collection but I have a home and a cabin. The CDs are stored on two 400 disc Sony players. If I moved the CD players back and forth to the two places, some would become dislodged and I would have to open the enclosures and reseat them. So, I looked into a music server for my home and planned to use and leave the CD players at the cabin.
I had no idea how to approach the server idea so I went to the local high end stereo vendor. He suggested I do some A/B comparison listening with particular emphasis on digital compression formats. I listened to as many as I could and found that comparing MP3 to the actual CDs showed MP3 to be unlistenable for me. It was primarily the dynamic range of the compressed files that was the problem. I auditioned a number of others on my own equipment and found that FLAC-lossless was a format that, for me, was indistinguishable from the original source. So I purchased a server that would record in that format. In my opinion, if I had been looking for speakers at that point, listening to my music on MP3 could not have been significantly enhanced. It was the MP3 (and other compression formats) that were the weak link in the chain.
That said, my music listening speakers are KEF Reference 105/3s which I purchased in 1990 or so for $3500/pair. Don't even consider spending anything near this for your listening habits and sources. My speakers have lost a little of their brightness over the years but I have them in a uncarpeted large room with a lot of hard surfaces and glass and they work very well in there. The other speakers that I use are at the cabin and I have one other set of the same at home for my wife who watches movies, TV, etc. with them as her listening source. They are Paradigm Studio 80s but I can't recall the purchase price. I have been quite happy with these speakers also and they were substantially less expensive than the KEFs.
It used to be a rule of thumb that you should spend about 50% of the cost of your system on speakers. I think if you decide to upgrade your speakers, you should LISTEN to a variety of speakers using some of your own music that you bring with you from place to place to be able to make fair comparisons. Even this will not tell you how the speakers will sound in your home, however. Before I purchased the KEFs, the dealer let me take them home for what ended up to be 2 months. This is one of the reasons to have a relationship with a reputable dealer in your home town. You will not be able to do this in a "big box" store.
There are a lot of reputable speaker manufacturers out there. My suggestions to you would be to not spend a fortune and to listen to as many types as you can and pick the ones you like the best.
—And all this time I thought we were in a recession.—
How about a $50,000 turntable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZM8iNTZruY
For the past 30+ years I’ve owned only Polks . Great company !
and AVS forum..
www.avsforum.com/
much better site than gearslutz in my opinion.. I do also like the audio karma forum, as someone mentioned above.
we audiofiles like our vinyl. I have of course the standard dedicated drive for my FLAX and MP3 files, but you can’t beat LPs for analog heaven.
I have Polk in-wall speakers, I don’t remember the model number. I am not an audiophile, but they sound fine to me. Not a whole lot of low end, but the room is not large, and they get the job done.
Klipsch will get you there. Try the Klipsch reference series. Here is a link to the architectural (i.e. in the wall) series. They start about $350 a pop for the small ones.
http://www.klipsch.com/architectural-speakers
That will get you started. If they are for music I wouldn’t put them in the wall because the speakers are not going to be as good as free standing models however, I understand the space needs so not judging you...
If price is truly not a concern consider going up to Krell or Bowers & Wilkins.
http://www.krellonline.com/modulari_ion.html
http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Speakers/Home_Audio/CM_Series/CM9.html
As far as price if you have to ask you can’t afford it. I CAN’T afford it by the way... but I have heard them. I run Klipsch and they are good enough for me.
The other thing to consider is your music source. If you are running MP3’s then I wouldn’t consider anything above the Klipsch anyway. You will not be outputting anything the Klipsch can’t handle and the anything above that without converting to FLAC is just buying so you can say you have them... Just my unpaid opinion...
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