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College student stuck w/ bad speakers: advise pls

The more suggestions the better. The used market is only so large, so many I won't be able to try, but thanks in advance for your consideration of me, I truly appreciate it.

First, I'm not a seasoned pro or anything, but I appreciate good audio, especially live and have heard exceptional PA systems from Radiohead live, other bands in Millennium Park, live Chicago symphony, a pretty incredible new sound system inside my wood church (essentially a cathedral), another new system in another new church, etc.

I need a bookshelf speaker for my office to replace the wretched Paradigm Atom V3s I bought. I have an HK3480 and Polk R50s at home. No, the Polks aren't great, but I never said they were. All right, unimpressive right? I set up a MA S2 / Teac stereo for a friend last year and it was pretty incredible sounding to me.

OKOK the Paradigms are decent, but don't image or present a wide soundstage enough. They're way too laid back and I need a forward sound. Should I splurge on the Linn Tukans? I don't care if it's used, but it has to be below $375 shipped. I'm considering Energy RC-10's. Will I be completely disappointed with those? I only have a 30 WPC Teac DR-L700 with some famous Class D amp or something. It's decent and I liked a Teac CRH-227 with Monitor Audio S2s. I really don't think the problem is the amp, the speakers aren't what I'm used to. I could goto Saturday Audio in Chicago some weekend easily, and check out the MA equipment. Please advise. Thank you!

P.S. The speakers need to be able to play Radiohead. Bass doesn't matter as much as realism, soundstage, and imaging.

P.P.S. I'm a little bit skeptical of the laid-back attitude of B&W. Klipsch, Bose, Polk are out of the question. Dynaudio is way out of budget. The rest I can't easily audition here. I may bid on some Linn Tukans or else the Energy RC-10 I can get for $300 with a strong return policy, thoughts?
ferrariguru

Showing 1 response by kbarkamian

kbarkamian
647 posts
 
Ferrariguru,

A lot of good suggestions have been posted, and I don't have much more to recommend. I too find the Tukans very engaging and a fun speaker. My point for posting...

Are your speakers properly set up/placed? Imaging has a lot to do with room acoustics and placement.

Here's an article if you're interested -
http://www.audiophysic.de/aufstellung/beispiel_e.html

Are your stands mass loadable? If they're loaded, have you tried them empty? If empty, partially filled or full?

Have you tried reversing the polarity on your speakers? Do this by switching the positive and negative on the speakers. Leave the receiver side alone (or just switch the receiver side and leave the speaker side alone, whichever is easier). Make sure you switch both channels so they aren't out of phase. It won't damage anything. A dealer showed me this trick when auditioning a pair of speakers that were too laid back. It brought the soundstage a lot closer. YMMV.

If you don't have a lot of cash, you should try out the free stuff first. It may be what you're looking for or be acceptable enough to buy you some time to save up more money. It may not work out at all. But at the end of the day, you tried.

JR
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