Looking for speaker recommendations that I can purchase on Amazon.com

"hi im just curious why do you only want to buy off amazon and best buy"

Multiple reasons. It’s not just return policy.

I don’t want to get into the details because that will only detract from my question. The whole discussion will go off topic.

My question was not "where should I buy speakers?" I asked, "Looking for speaker recommendations that I can purchase on Amazon.com" and I would simply like to stick to that.

If things change in the future and I can shop at other places, I’ll post a new question. I appreciate everyone respecting the constraints built into my question. :-) "




I think it’s rather obvious  -  you work for, or are affiliated with, or are doing some market research for (such as a focus group) and that’s why you don’t want to look at Audio Advisor or the several other on line options that also offer excellent return policies (and probably have better sounding speakers as well), or broaden your horizons to other gear that is not on Amazon or Best Buy.

Please just come clean with why. We are a group of honest audiophiles, hobbyists, in the pursuit of enjoying music thru our audio systems and always looking for better sounding gear. As such, we want to educate others to find the best possible thing out there that will make them happy. Audio systems are about synergy between components. Obvious you’re trolling us for information, and some folks, myself included, have an aversion to that. You’ve been given some good information and suggestions here, best of luck to you.

With all due respect here, troll or not, your wasting everyone's time here, including your own and I'll explain why in just a moment.  I apologize in advance for the harsh way this must sound, but my comments are meant  in a positive way so that you re-think what you are doing here.

1.  You recently wrote, "With so many recommendations for the KEF LS50, it seems like I need to give these a try. I had my mind set on floorstanding speakers initially, but after reading all the recommendations for the LS50 here, I think I will give them a try first.

Even if I still end up buying floorstanding speakers for my music room, I can then put the LS50 in my smaller home theater room to replace my Polk RTi A3’s.

I will call a nearby BestBuy store before buying the LS50 on Amazon. "

So why not just buy them from Best Buy and support the local economy and the person whose time you just wasted?  Instead, you're going to waste the salesman's time listening to them at his store and then buy them on Amazon.  (and please don't insult my intelligence and tell me you said above that your just calling Best Buy and not going there to listen to them - then what's the point of calling them?  Of course you're going to go there and listen to them, so let's be honest)  

2.  In reading through this thread, it's apparent that you've spent a great deal of time researching, reading reviews, and listening to everyone else's opinions except your own.  Trust your own ears!  They are no better or worse than a reviewers.  A reviewer might say one thing that sounds very encouraging but when you hear it, you may not like it.  Listen more, read less.  

3.  And this should be #1 - Your using a frigging 500 wpc, 26 lb Yamaha amp that is designed for professional use in a night club, bar or gathering hall.  Why?  This website is primarily for home audio, not professional audio, and I'd bet 95% of us, myself included, know nothing about professional audio but can talk to you all day and night about home audio.  I'll bet my old B&K EX442 at 200 wpc into 8, 360 into 4 and 75 amps would smoke that Yamaha for breakfast, lunch and dinner any day of the week.  Why? Because I once heard it up against tube monoblocks from Paoli (a highly moded Dyna mkIII) and you virtually couldn't tell the difference.  

4.  23' x 21' is a nice sized room, but how loud do you listen that you need 500 wpc?  You would be really surprised to hear how loud 1 watt can sound with the right speakers.  Get rid of that Yamaha and look for a tube amp because once you hear the warmth and sweetness of tubes, you'll never be truly happy listening to solid state, IMHO.  

You'll need something of decent power in a tube amp, unless you go with a single ended amp and high efficiency speakers.  If you've never heard a low powered SET amp with hi efficiency speakers, you are in for a treat and your journey will end there.  I once heard a 3 wpc 2A3 amp with horn speakers completely fill up a 40' x 40' room that you were completely satisifed with the loudness of it.  

Otherwise a push pull tube amp using KT88's or 6550's, possibly EL34's will get you where you need to be but I much prefer the SET sound to PP.

Go get the KEF's and see how it mates with the Yamaha for now and then consider upgrading the Yamaha which to me is the weak link here.  Let us know what you think of the KEFs.  Thanks for listening.

Food for thought here:

You said: " The Yamaha AS2000 costs 3 times as much. I’m not sure it would give me a 3x better experience. And with a 30 day return policy, it would be hard to give it a 100 hr break-in and stay within that return window."

Reply: You leave the component on all the time, turn the speakers off, raise the volume a little and you have your 100 hour break in period done in just over 4 days.


You said: " My most challenging music, classical Indian music (such as sitar with a "drone" accompaniment instrument called a tanpura) sounds enjoyable. (It’s not as good a a live concert, but I don’t think I’ll get close to "live" until I can purchase some really high end speakers, a new subwoofer and optimize my listening room. Switching amps right now is not going to get me to "like live music", as I am sure everyone here will agree.)"

Reply: I disagree with your last sentence but whether you switch amps or not, the main point is to be open to suggestions, open to different gear and listening experiences. Yes, your room will make the biggest impact on the gear that you have and most people pay little attention to their listening room so that is very important. But if you’ve never heard tube gear than your last statement about "never going to like live music" is one based on inexperience and close mindedness. I’m assuming the Yamaha at 26 lbs is some kind of digital class D amp, and yes, they all sound pretty good; however, I have found that most of the digital amps are extremely clean sounding but can sound dry, that is why they are best mated up with a tube preamp. They need the added sweetness of tubes.

For lots of us, this is a journey and the fun of it is trying out different gear and getting different flavors of how things sound. And in all my years of this journey (35+ years), overwhelmingly, I have found that when I have tube gear, all is right in the world and when I have solid state gear, I always find myself wanting tube gear again. There is something just very right, very pleasing to my ears, the even order distortion that nothing but tube gear has that makes it just so right sounding. So I’m saying is just check it out, you might be very amazed with how different the experience is and how you have a preference for it as many people do. And if you do happen to listen to some tube gear, know that there are many different variations of tube gear as well. Each tube has a different sound and whether it’s Push pull, single ended triode, single ended pentode, or OTL all have a much different flavor as well. So many nuances, so many options - yes, but that’s where a forum like this helps.   With tube gear, there is an emotional content to what you are hearing that I have rarely, if ever have achieved listening to SS gear and as a result,  the guys producing good SS gear always try to make their stuff sound like tubes.  



You said:  "I am coming to realize that the biggest deficiency in my system is probably the subwoofer, which is too boomy. "

Reply: I doubt it highly, might be improper set up or placement. A lot of people listen with a subwoofer way too loud or for video enhancement. When set up correctly, you should not be able to detect where a subwoofer is placed and it just fills in the bottom end seamlessly without drawing attention to itself.

Best of luck on your journey and enjoy the music!

Willemj, per your message:

" lou_setriodes,
You are I think too fast in your scepticism about that Yamaha amplifier. Did you actually read the review of the Yamaha P3500S that I linked to, and the very detailed measurements that the reviewer published? These days I at least rarely see such factual detail in a review. It is a first rate amplifier and fully up to high hifi standards. I therefore bought the smaller P2500S for my son, and I can only confirm that amplifier’s sonic qualities."

No, I have not read the review and I’m not a meaurements guy whatsoever. I’ve heard things that measure horribly that sound amazing and vice versa. I’ve heard classic tube gear that measures horribly but is so sweet and euphonic that it was some of the best sounding gear I ever heard. Cut off in the lows and highs but that midrange was to die for and just so musical.

So I much prefer musicality over measurements. I’ve heard single ended gear that measures poorly but when you hear it, it just sounds so right. I’ll take that anyday over measurements on paper. It certainly is a benchmark to be looked at initially, but I let my ears decide.