Home stereo speakers... Looking to upgrade...

[dave-o]

I am an older guy...  We used to have these mystical places called stereo stores where you could go in and listen to speakers and equipment to pick out what you liked....  I have been wanting to upgrade my floor standing speakers for some time and keep researching on the internet....  Any of you guys have a go-to place on the internet for stereo equipment? 

[cookinwithgas]

Crutchfield if you are serious. They are not the cheapest but they are very knowledgeable. They are indispensable for car stereo stuff - they send you custom instructions for your vehicle, have good phone support and a good website, and they send you wiring harness adapters, speaker templates etc with your order.

 

[Mother Grabber]

Best Buy Magnolia has a lot of options for comparison testing, in a variety of price ranges.  Good place to start and get a baseline.  I have Paradigm, which you have to get from an AV store, most of which will have some brands in common with Best Buy for comparison.

Crutchfield is good for price shopping after you find the brand/model that sounds good to you.  They are very reliable, and competitive on pricing.

[NanuqoftheNorth]

1 hour ago, Mother Grabber said:

Best Buy Magnolia has a lot of options for comparison testing, in a variety of price ranges.  Good place to start and get a baseline.  I have Paradigm, which you have to get from an AV store, most of which will have some brands in common with Best Buy for comparison.

Crutchfield is good for price shopping after you find the brand/model that sounds good to you.  They are very reliable, and competitive on pricing.

The Paradigm Signature Series is among the best I've heard in their price range. 

[Mother Grabber]

1 hour ago, NanuqoftheNorth said:

The Paradigm Signature Series is among the best I've heard in their price range. 

Paradigm seems to continuously be lauded for having outstanding value at every price range.  A lot of the speaker reviews I've read use older Paradigm Monitor series, which is a mid level line, as their standard.

[dave-o]

Thanks for the input...  I grew up in Virginia near Crutchfield...  We used to go over to the store every now and then....  Great place....  I will look at Paradigm....

ETA...  Goodness...  Those Paradigm are not in my price range....  Would love hear them tho !

 

 

[Mother Grabber]

12 hours ago, dave-o said:

Thanks for the input...  I grew up in Virginia near Crutchfield...  We used to go over to the store every now and then....  Great place....  I will look at Paradigm....

ETA...  Goodness...  Those Paradigm are not in my price range....  Would love hear them tho !

 

 

the signature series is on the high end. the monitor series are quite reasonable, and also an extremely good value. 

[KSpan]

Are these used for home theater purposes as well or just music?  If home theater use, I personally like Definitive Technology as their entry-level speakers seem to be voiced well for both movies and music.

[dave-o]

I use them as front channel speakers for movies and listening to music....  I took down all my surround sound stuff...  I just didnt use it very often....

[NanuqoftheNorth]

11 hours ago, dave-o said:

I use them as front channel speakers for movies and listening to music....  I took down all my surround sound stuff...  I just didnt use it very often....

I can tolerate most speaker systems when it comes to TV and movies.

Accurate sound reproduction is much more important to me when it comes to music. 

Used to buy Stereo Review back in the day before it became Sound and Vision and still appreciate a good set of full range speakers.

When shopping I find it helpful to take along a sample of various music you enjoy.   The more intimately familiar with the music the better as you can then quickly recognize speakers that fail to reproduce the music faithfully.

Replaying short passages between the most promising speakers back to back/back and forth, will highlight which ones best meet your preferences.

Good luck as I usually end up paying more than I originally budgeted for, but in the long run I've never regretted it.

[captfluoro]

If you want really in depth talk about anything home stereo or home theater related go to avsforum.com.  They have forums on everything including stereo speakers.  Guys are extremely knowledgeable and you will get personal reviews for just about any speaker on the market.