Speakers for a large room for around $1000


I am moving soon into a new house where the main room is about 12x14ft with a vaulted ceiling up to the second floor (maybe about 15-20 ft high).

I am looking for 2-channel stereo speakers exclusively for music. I don't really play my music that loud, but I do like the music to really fill up the room. I'm not a huge audiophile (meaning I'm not going to spend a lot of time analyzing or obsessing over my speakers)--- all I'm looking for are some good solid speakers that have a good frequency response (and might sound good with a tube amplifier).

My budget is about $1000. I could stretch that up to maybe $1300, but I'd have to be convinced the extra is really worth it. I'd also really prefer to have new speakers, mostly for the warranty. Though again, I could be convinced otherwise if it's worth it.

I've considered speakers from a whole bunch of manufacturers, i.e, Paradigm to B&W, Axiom, DefTech, Klipsch, Polk, etc, but due to my geographical location I'm really not able to demo many, so I'm stuck trying to make this decision based on online reviews. It's tough for me to separate audio speakers from home-theater speakers just by reading reviews.

Any and all help is really appreciated!
blnd2spll

Showing 9 responses by unsound

That room isn't that large that you need confine your speakers needs that much. Looks like a very friendly audio/speaker room to me. You might want to decide on your speaker first before constraining them to tube power, especially on your budget.
Blnd2spll, I did see the edit. I would imagine that most here would find a 20 X 14 room about average. Now, the vaulted ceiling does add to the room volume, but probably in a good way. It seems as though you running on a bit of tight budget and tube amps can get expensive faster than ss does. I've always subscribed to the idea of choosing your speakers first and then choosing the appropriate amp, not the other way around.
Blnd2spll, The Vandys are a brilliant value oriented recommendation, and can match beautifully with another super audio value; the McCormack power amps. While they have a different overall balance, the Thiels share many design parameters, and a similar sonic presentation as the Vandersteens, with IME a much higher WAF. The downside of the Thiels is that they can be pretty demanding of high quality amplification.
Rrog, there are many sealed box speakers. I not aware of this alleged problem being endemic to these designs. One particular brand of speakers that are reputed to being most sensitive to being over driven, are box-less ESL's. Perhaps, it would be fairer to say that any used speaker might be compromised by being abused/over-driven by the previous user?
IMHO, using speakers not specifically designed for such use, with increased volume outside for a party or BBQ, would qualify as abuse. That's a job for something like PA system.