Club CDFreaks - Knowledge is Power - View Single Post

*CDan* · 24-04-2008

You'll get as many opinions on this as there are CDF members. You're correct that you should start with speakers and work your way back through the chain of components, spending as much on them as possible. The good news is that $5k is plenty, so it's really a matter of what is available in your corner of Europe.

Personally, I am a rabid fan of JBL speakers. They are one of the most under-rated and under-marketed speakers there is, yet have been around longer than most and command a very loyal base of fans. JBL has a history of producing "transparent" speakers. That is to say that they impart no audio characteristics of their own to the sound. You hear a very clean, crisp and uncolored sound. For the money, the Studio L Series are amazing speakers. This is what I would be buying today if I wanted a complete new set.

L890: L-R
LC2: center
L8400P: sub
L820 or L830: surrounds

That setup will blow you away with the right AVR, and do it for far less money than most other brands with similar performance. I just priced a 7-ch set at Amazon for $3100. Add a second sub (recommended) for $3600 total. 2 subs may require an appropriate AVR to run them.

24-04-2008	#3 (permalink)
CDan CDFreaks Resident Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: USA Posts: 2,706	Re: What speakers to buy? You'll get as many opinions on this as there are CDF members. You're correct that you should start with speakers and work your way back through the chain of components, spending as much on them as possible. The good news is that $5k is plenty, so it's really a matter of what is available in your corner of Europe. Personally, I am a rabid fan of JBL speakers. They are one of the most under-rated and under-marketed speakers there is, yet have been around longer than most and command a very loyal base of fans. JBL has a history of producing "transparent" speakers. That is to say that they impart no audio characteristics of their own to the sound. You hear a very clean, crisp and uncolored sound. For the money, the Studio L Series are amazing speakers. This is what I would be buying today if I wanted a complete new set. L890: L-R LC2: center L8400P: sub L820 or L830: surrounds That setup will blow you away with the right AVR, and do it for far less money than most other brands with similar performance. I just priced a 7-ch set at Amazon for $3100. Add a second sub (recommended) for $3600 total. 2 subs may require an appropriate AVR to run them.