Need input on building a new HT/music system


Very difficuld to audition speaker in this town.
The only speakers I've heard so far are the Totem Forests which sounded very nice but altough they go low needs a sub which is fine by me considering that I just bought a JL f113 subwoofer yesterday I'm getting rid of my wonderful little Paradigm ref seismic110, I dont often change my components so I like to make an impact when I do, I'm looking to spend 2,500 or a little more for used floor standers I want to stay with a medium size speaker 34-40" high and does'nt weigh a ton.
A few days ago I posted on the speaker forum looking for speaker comparisons but today I found two more speaker brands that might work for me, I wanted to know what the HT forum had to say because that is what I'm putting together for now, I will also need center and surrounds.
In this size and price category I looked up these well reviewed speakers but I dont have a clue as to how they sound compared to the Totem Forest, hoping one of you has. Joseph audio RM22XL, Epos M22i, instead of Totem?
Next I'm ordering an Arcam avr600 I'm sure about that. The speakers are tough to nail down.
Thank you
Roger
tesseract86

Showing 1 response by meiwan

You might want to re-think the Arcam. They have a very poor reliability history.

As for speakers, you really have to listen for yourself. While all your choices are competent products, they will differ in tonal balance etc., so you need to pick one you like. No point asking others, since the electronics they are hooked up to will also make a difference (as will cables, rooms etc). All you will get is response from current owners of individual products.

My experience with HT speakers is finding a centre channel that works in my room. That's the really hard part. Then it's fairly easy to find the matching L/R mains. Totem have a few decent centre channels, how about RM and Epos? No point finding a nice set of mains you can't match (visually and sonically) with a centre.