# opinions on speaker choice



## yelis300 (Nov 9, 2010)

So im thinking about getting some new HT speakers to replace my old paradigm's. right now i have a pair of paradigm legend v.3 towers and the matching cc-270 center. Great speakers in my opinion but those being my first and only set of ht speakers kind of leaves me in the dark, as thats all i've heard. I have been told by my local paradigm dealer that even if i upgrade to a better set of speakers, i probably wont hear much of a difference. ive been told speaker technology is very slow moving in that even in 10+ years u wont "hear" much of a difference unless u upgrade 2x to 3x the money spent on previous speakers. i dont really have the cash to spend to go 2x 3x the price of the paradigms i have right now. I think i got the towers (10+ years ago) for like 800 for the pair and maybe 200-300 for the center. the paradigm towers i have right now have 3 5 1/2 " drivers and 1 1"tweeter. the cabinet is set up as driver-port-driver on the lower half of the tower and the upper half as driver-tweeter. the center is set up as driver-tweeter-driver also 5 1/2" drivers and 1" tweeter.

i've been looking at four different speaker manufacturers and the one's that caught my eye the most were Emptek, Emotiva, Psb and Aperion audio.

more specifically from Emptek is the E55Ti towers and matching center
from Emotiva the 8.3 reference towers and matching center
from aperion audio the verus grand towers and matching center
from PSB audio the platinum T6 or T8 towers and matching center

i guess i could tell u my budget is 2k for towers and 500-600 for a matching center. dont get me wrong, i love music, but this is mostly for movie watching.

i already have 4 in-ceiling surrounds (the model # escapes me) from paradigm. the surrounds were purchased recently in the last year. Paradigm dealer told me the surrounds would most closely match the drivers in my paradigm towers for timbre matching.

any thoughts, suggestions would be appreciated


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## yelis300 (Nov 9, 2010)

I forgot to add that i do have a sub already, a velodyne dls-4000r 12"sub for LFE. Its good but after some reading im thinking about getting 2 12" subs for the front. no such thing as too much bass right 

i also have budget for an additional amp for the mains and center, been looking at the emotiva xpa-3 hardcore. it looks sexy in my opinion, so much power and at such a great price. i'll use my htr for the surrounds, i feel its capable as its a integra dtr-7.8.


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

Hello,
I am a huge fan of PSB and if choosing between the two would definitely go PSB. They really have been on a roll lately garnering stellar reviews. I fear it is a result of now building their Speakers in China rather than Canada, but they use excellent drive units (tweeters, woofers) and seem to be using the savings in Labor by building even better speakers. The Bench Tests have been fantastic for their latest speakers.
Cheers,
JJ


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## yelis300 (Nov 9, 2010)

Jungle Jack said:


> Hello,
> I am a huge fan of PSB and if choosing between the two would definitely go PSB. They really have been on a roll lately garnering stellar reviews. I fear it is a result of now building their Speakers in China rather than Canada, but they use excellent drive units (tweeters, woofers) and seem to be using the savings in Labor by building even better speakers. The Bench Tests have been fantastic for their latest speakers.
> Cheers,
> JJ


have u auditioned any of the psb line or is this just from reviews u read?
between which two?

right now im really leaning toward the Emotiva's. Although the reviews on their speakers are scarce, i've seen many reviews on their amps and what not and leads me to believe that i cant go wrong with any product from the emotiva line. everybody just seems to love them for the product/price they bring to the table.

cheers, yelis300


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## Ares (Nov 23, 2009)

I'm in agreement with JJ on this one....of course I'm a little bias:R. I haven't had the chance to listen to T6 or T8 but I have heard a few from their other lines my personal favorites are Synchrony One's, Imagine T and the Image T6.


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

Why are you looking to upgrade? Just looking for something new? As your dealer noted, and I agree, I don't know how much of a sonic difference the speakers you are looking at will present.

I didn't see where you noted your AVR. If you don't have an AVR that processes Dolby THD/DTS MA, I'd say your money would be spent best there, along with a blu-ray player and a Netflix Subscription.

A second sub would also help with bass impact in movies, but if you're going to go with 2 subs, using identical sub isthe best way to go (much easier to set up). If you're not entirely satisfied with your Velo, you might consider selling that and buying 2 new ones.


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

yelis300 said:


> have u auditioned any of the psb line or is this just from reviews u read?
> between which two?
> 
> right now im really leaning toward the Emotiva's. Although the reviews on their speakers are scarce, i've seen many reviews on their amps and what not and leads me to believe that i cant go wrong with any product from the emotiva line. everybody just seems to love them for the product/price they bring to the table.
> ...


Hello,
I have listened to all of the current line all the way up to the Synchrony Series and really have been astounded at just how good all of the current line sounds. I used to run PSB Stratus Silver i, Stratus CC, and Stratus Bronze i for my Home Theater Speakers and loved them.

This was in my early 20's when I was constantly changing Speakers literally every 6 months to a year. That being said, I did regret selling them when I did. I have also helped many friends put together HT's with PSB Image, Imagine, and Alpha Series as well.

I truly believe that Paul Barton is one of the most gifted Speaker Designers out there. PSB stands for Paul and his Wife Sue Barton. Their Speakers are on a very short list of conventional Speakers that I would consider switching from Electrostatic Speakers for.
Cheers,
JJ


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## class a (Oct 22, 2010)

Vandersteen 2ce Sig $1995 & Vandy VCC-1 center $595. Or Revel Concerta F-12 $1500 & C-12 center $500. With your equipment you should run either easily.:sn::sn:


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## yelis300 (Nov 9, 2010)

my avr does hd audio processing, so i dont need that, and a also got a new blu-ray player a few months ago so im good there.

maybe i should pass on the speakers and get myself a nice big amplifier for the speakers. Im certain id have sonic improvement.

and i could sell the velodyne for a matching set of subs


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## Cory Phoenix (Nov 7, 2010)

It's funny how similar your research compares to the speakers I was also considering. I also considered Emotiva and Aperion. The 6.3 LCRs from Emotiva were also very attractive to me. I probably could have pushed the budget, but in the end, I found Emo and Aperion to be slightly outside my price range. (Would have loved to consider PSB, but I also assumed they'd be outside my price range as well).

You have the budget to consider all of these lines, and since I haven't heard the Emo, Aperion or PSB speakers, I would highly suggest you try any/all of these before you make a decision. You may find any of them to be better speakers than the EMPs.

I can speak on the EMPs, though and all that said, I feel quite confident that you'll not find better sounding speakers that look as beautifully as the EMP Impression line for their price. The E55Tis are phenominal for $800/pair. EMP is a sister company of RBH and coincidentally, one of the best sounding systems (not electrostatic) that I've ever heard was an RBH setup, so that had an obvious influence on my decision. EMP also offers a 30-day in home demo period (as does aperion), so I couldn't pass that offer up. They were such great speakers I decided to save the money and stick with them at the end of the 30 days. I got the entire Impression 5.1 system for less than the price of just a pair of Emo 8.3 towers and far less than the Grand Verus towers would have cost me.

Just some food for thought. I am not pushing the EMPs at all. I think you should buy the best speakers your money will buy. Honestly, they were my last choice of the speakers I was considering, but for the price, I still maintain they can't be beat.


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

yelis300 said:


> my avr does hd audio processing, so i dont need that, and a also got a new blu-ray player a few months ago so im good there.
> 
> maybe i should pass on the speakers and get myself a nice big amplifier for the speakers. Im certain id have sonic improvement.
> 
> and i could sell the velodyne for a matching set of subs


Hello,
You cannot go wrong adding an Amplifier to your HT. Truly an item that is technology resistant as opposed to AVR's with a new HDMI spec coming seemingly every other month.
Cheers,
JJ


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## IrishStout (Nov 12, 2010)

You might want to consider the SVS M-series as well. I have the little brothers the STS-02 and SCS-02 and they sound fantastic for the price and size. The clarity and the mid level performance make you feel like you are right there surrounded by aliens or at the concert... anyway just a thought?
I have heard the PSB and personally I would not buy anything under the T6.. I heard the T5's and they just couldn't compete with the T6, SVS STS-02, B&W 685's.. But again that is just my personal opinion.

Cheers and happy shopping..


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

Hello,
Speakers are a decidedly subjective arena. Often Speakers with textbook Frequency Response are not the ones that people prefer. 

This is why I am such a proponent of auditioning as many speakers as possible. Unfortunately, many areas are devoid of a great number of Speaker Companies and stores like Best Buy have become the only game in town.
Moreover, Speakers that boast fantastic Build Quality at amazing prices are only available Internet Direct.

SVS is a prime example of a Company that is able to use high grade materials at great prices thanks almost solely by selling direct. Thanks to Professional Reviews and a large contingent of satisfied customers, SVS is getting more and more recognition. In truth, there are a plethora of Speaker Manufacturers that use this Business Model to bring speakers with top notch Tweeters are Woofers at prices that mainstream Brands have a difficult time matching.

On the flip side, the customer loses the ability to audition the Speaker and in the event they do not like them have to pay for Shipping often quite heavy speakers. In addition, there are companies like B&W, Focal, Paradigm, and others that build their own speaker components and offer both the advantage of being able to be auditioned and the ability to custom design the tweeters and woofers for each model that they make.

Having the ability to custom design the given speaker driver for each driver is a major advantage. In addition, by building every part of the speaker helps to offset the pricing advantage Internet Direct Speaker Companies offer.

The number of choices of Speakers is mind numbing. Add to this all of the different types of making sound (Electrostatic, Planar, Horns, etc) beyond conventional speakers and it really underscores the need to audition as many speakers as possible in order to find the ones that best suit you.
Cheers,
JJ


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## yelis300 (Nov 9, 2010)

thank you everybody for your time and opinions/advice. ive decided to give myself some more time to research speakers and make a decision a few months down the road.

for now i decided to buy 3 emotiva xpa-3 amps and the umc-1 processor. aside from my paradigms, my avr is my oldest component in my system. i also always felt i needed to go with separates eventually so that in future upgrades i wont need to worry about amp power and can spend a larger chunk of money into the av processor.

all the power and headroom should make the paradigms sing, maybe even enough that i decide i wont need speakers.


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