Musical in-wall speakers on a relative budget.

[EricPU]

Originally Posted by kennyt

WOW the misses caved easily! Nice win, how much did it cost between dinner, wine, possibly jewelry/flowers... Still got the same budget?!

First a transport requires a DAC, you want a CD player.

Second, separates are better, but will add components and cost more. We are still planning on a receiver for the HT plus second zone right? thats several more speakers and a receiver as well to cover... and the Krell 400 isn't a bad integrated, in fact I'd probably take that over Rotel separates, but that is my opinion....

I guess the first thing you need to do is start deciding what speakers you like, and will fit into your room. You then can pick how much power (what amp) you might need to power them... Then add the sub and a good CD player and you're done, with the one room....

Its been a long road but I had better get out and buy something before she changes her mind again. What am I saying, women never change their minds

I'm going to put the HT room on hold for now so I have the entire budget ($5K to $6K) for the stereo setup.

So start with speakers you say, THAT should only take me a bloody year of research knowing me. I need a cheat sheet otherwise I'll be wanting to audition every speaker ever made in my price range. I was thinking of spending up 2K on speakers, 2K on pre/amp and 1K on CD player. Does that sound ok, if I'm buying new?

[EricPU]

Originally Posted by EricPU

Its been a long road but I had better get out and buy something before she changes her mind again. What am I saying, women never change their minds

I'm going to put the HT room on hold for now so I have the entire budget ($5K to $6K) for the stereo setup.

So start with speakers you say, THAT should only take me a bloody year of research knowing me. I need a cheat sheet otherwise I'll be wanting to audition every speaker ever made in my price range. I was thinking of spending up 2K on speakers, 2K on pre/amp and 1K on CD player. Does that sound ok, if I'm buying new?

Sorry, forgot to mention 1K on sub, giving a total of 6K max.

I like warm laid back speakers, love vocals, everything from Joni Mitchell to Coldplay.

[kennyt]

I have some Canton Ventos and that is exactly how I describe them, also very accurate and refined. The 802's (now 820's) are $2K a pair, they will need a sub but you are already planning that.

[Dallas]

If you like to rock out every so often, you may consider Boston Acoustics VRI 793 in wall speakers. 93db sensitivity rating with larger voice coils on midrange and woofer components make for an easy to drive, loud and clear result. Famous "Boston" sound as well, which actually goes back to Henry Kloss who designed the legendary Advent loudspeakers in the 70s. Retail $1600 each

[graniterocks]

Eric,
I would agree with KennyT the Canton Vento 802s or the new 820s are a very musical two way speaker. I don't think that there is any thing in your price range that can come close to these speakers. They can take the abuse of playing loud, they have a lot of bass for a 2 way, they image extremely well and the cabinets are very well made and do not have a lot of resonance, which means they do not color the sound as much as many speakers in that price range.

I have become very good at reconizing cabinet resonance, because my reference speakers are made of granite and they virtually have no cabinet resonance. When you A/B against them, you instantly hear the colorations that other speakers impart. The 802's are one of the few speakers that I A/B'd with the Summits that did a really good job at not coloring the sound.


SIDE NOTE
FYI- if interested, below is a very biased review of my reference speakers, it's long but kind of entertaining.
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr...enflup&45&4#45



If you audition the Ventos, make sure they hook them up to some decent equipment. If you just hear them on a standard receiver (sony, pioneer, denon, marantz etc) they will sound good, but it won't be even close to what they can actually put out. The 802s or 820s are a speaker that you can grow into, they will resolve many upgrades in equipment. IMHO

KennyT
Here is a tweek for the Ventos that makes them 20% better. Put a set of 3 StillPoints under each speaker, between the speaker and the stand. You will be amazed at the difference.

In the 2K range for separates: If going new consider the Arcam receivers AVR280 or AVR350 they have a lot of power and sound very close to separates with out having to buy a bunch of extra cables. NAD and Rotel are also worth an audition.

Another idea is to get a decent reciever and then get a amp/pre amp combo with a HT pass through built into the preamp. Belles (Power Modules Inc) makes a sweet little amp/preamp combo for less than 2k. You could have that little rig run your fronts when you are playing two channel. For movies you hit the HT passthrough button on the preamp, turn on your less expensive receiver and you are watching movies or concert DVDs.

This senario is kind of the best of both worlds.

[kennyt]

If he's doing two systems in two rooms the HT pass through seems unnecessary.

I use the 802's for surrounds, I have the 809's for fronts, all of them are currently boxed up as I have been reviewing other speakers lately.....