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Decent speakers for mid-level AVR

Greetings, 

First time poster here.  I am looking to upgrade my home theater setup with a better set of speakers.  Been doing a lot of research, worried if the speakers i am looking at are going to be able to be driven with my AVR

 I have an Onkyo tx-rz50 that pushes 120 watts into two channels.  i omly have mains, a center channel and small surrounds.  Well, i do have this massive folded horn sub but it has its own amp. 

Been looking used in my area.  Listned to a set of paradigm premier 85f.  Nice, but a little  bright for my liking.  There is a local with a set of Focal aria 948.  I hear gppd things about them, but also hear they are power hungry. 

I dont really "rock out" much anymore, typical classic rock and 90s alternative rock se sensabilities.  and home theater of course.  

Any thoughts?  trying to stay under $4k for a pair.  i know that is pretty low end for auudiophile, but what can i say... i own 7 motorcycles and only one pair of speakers. 

 

thank you! 

pdxmonkeyboy
bassbuyer's avatar
bassbuyer
896 posts
 

The Ascends are a great choice.  Would also suggest checking out Philharmonic Audio.  They have 2 different sets of towers that are just over $4K for a pair but I think their sweet spot are the BMR monitors which are $2K for a pair depending on the finish you order.  3-way speakers that sound amazing without being bright.  

jonwolfpell
533 posts
 

Three brands that have models in that price range that I really enjoyed & had minimal if any listening fatigue are: the Relatively newer KLH models, Mofi & Elac. In that price range, of course there are trade offs but the one thing for myself that is not negotiable is whether after a short time, I’ve heard enough because something is too far off. This can happen to me even with very pricey systems too. 

deep_333
2,440 posts
 

very nice collection....

wife and i used to ride a lot more when we lived in cali with the nice weather...moved to the midwest, got old, miss the good ol' days.

@pdxmonkeyboy  wrote

oh yeah... motorcycles :) 

GSXR 600 full race bike 

2012 ducati multistrada

2023 ducati scrambler 

2021 Aprillia tuano factory team 

1974 canam MX 1 

2023 Ktm 300XC 

KDX 200 that I honestly can't remember what year. 

The 300xc and the Tuano are the two that get ridden most.  The tuano is like riding a rocket ship.  I had a cruiser for a bit, was a huge kawasaki vulcan.  Heavy and kind of fun to ride but not really my jam. 

larryincmh
113 posts
 

@pdxmonkeyboy I currently own Focal Aria 926 towers that I am using with an AVR and find it quite satisfying.  I am using a Yamaha Aventage A6A.  It puts out 140 watts a channel.  It provides plenty of power to the towers.

However, to up the game somewhat, I went and got a Marantz MM7025 2-channel power amp only to drive the front speakers.  That Marantz puts out the same 140 a channel but of course is dedicated to the towers and not sharing duties with other channels.  It made an audible difference in my system and I got the amp used on this site for half the retail pricing.

This setup works very well for me and is quite musical.  The 948's of course are a larger tower and may need more juice, but as I mentioned going to a separate power amp and letting the AVR just handle the preamp duties was a good move for me.  

hilde45's avatar
hilde45
6,007 posts
 

I’ve had good results with Ascend Acoustics towers. They’ve worked well for both music and home theater, are very well designed by a great engineer with a great company. 

Company Web site is here https://www.ascendacoustics.com/

and I did a long review here: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/review-of-ascend-acoustics-elx-tower-speakers-released-2022

Get the RAAL ribbon tweeter.

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