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Speaker system for in home use?

S

slackerinabox

Lifer
Bluetooth, wifi - it doesn't matter, absolute best sound for the $$ is what matter (and does not need to be battery powered). Budget - sub $300 used

I have a small living room and am finding the bluetooth speakers that I have pretty hollow and tinny sounding. I'd love something that matches the wide sound stage, clear but not irritating highs, and gorgeous/warm mids of my old denon / mission mini system, but am not finding anything satisfying.

My list so far:
Sonos 1
Riva Turbo X
HK Onyx Studio

Any suggestions? I don't need something to throw in a bag, it will live in the family room 24/7
 
mdram said:
self driven?
what source?
stereo? surround?
bookshelf? floor?

these get good reviews
https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-SP-FS52-Designed-standing-Loudspeaker/dp/B008NCD2S4
Click to expand...

Even a good mono sound would be good, but stereo is ideal. I'd really love a table radio form factor - I have a tivoli model one that I love but would like something with bluetooth and with dynamic enough sound to serve as the only music source for the room. Right now I have a klipsch 2.1 hooked up to a bluetooth receiver which is super ghetto looking - something elegant, small but not portable small. Basically the modern equivalent of the bose wave radio, with bluetooth and without the tuner
 
I really like my new Edifiers, they have higher end models with bluetooth, remotes etc. Decent build quality for the price IMO.

As someone with a Google Home Speaker, I'd actually like to get a Home Max for my living room, but they're $400.
 
Umm,
best bang for the buck is gonna be a pair of decent speakers and a T-amp

At the cheap end, Dayton Audio B652-AIR speakers + Dayton Audio DTA-1 Amp for around $80

If you want "louder, then get more sensitive speakers
If you want good bass, then add a subwoofer to the mix. (though some speakers will do adequate bass on their own to some extent, look at frequency response graphs!)

For my wife for her laptop, tablets, or what not, I got her Dayton Audio B652-AIR speakers + Dayton Audio DTA-1 Amp
She already had a bluetooth adaptor that outputs an audio signal since she likes her legacy old ipod and wanted to use it with wireless speaker for outside.

For my PC, I'm using a Lepai T Amp and a pair of BIC America FH-65B bookshelf speakers, they are more sensitive (louder), and have better response range, though may be a bit "bright" compared to what some people prefer.

For the TV in the living room, I use an old reciever with a pair of Polk bookshelfs ...

In the basement Home Theater, we use a reciever with a pair of cheap BIC RTR1530s in the front and some PL66's in the back with a PL200 Sub.

The home theater system by far sounds the best at volume because mostly of the sub, but, the t-amp systems sound damn good IMO.
 
BurnItDwn said:
The home theater system by far sounds the best at volume because mostly of the sub, but, the t-amp systems sound damn good IMO.
Click to expand...

yep, a good avr with a sub is sooooo much better than a bt speaker.
but also costs more than the op wanted to spend
figure avr and 2.1 will run @ 700 or more
 
BurnItDwn said:
Umm,
best bang for the buck is gonna be a pair of decent speakers and a T-amp

At the cheap end, Dayton Audio B652-AIR speakers + Dayton Audio DTA-1 Amp for around $80

If you want "louder, then get more sensitive speakers
If you want good bass, then add a subwoofer to the mix. (though some speakers will do adequate bass on their own to some extent, look at frequency response graphs!)

For my wife for her laptop, tablets, or what not, I got her Dayton Audio B652-AIR speakers + Dayton Audio DTA-1 Amp
She already had a bluetooth adaptor that outputs an audio signal since she likes her legacy old ipod and wanted to use it with wireless speaker for outside.

For my PC, I'm using a Lepai T Amp and a pair of BIC America FH-65B bookshelf speakers, they are more sensitive (louder), and have better response range, though may be a bit "bright" compared to what some people prefer.

For the TV in the living room, I use an old reciever with a pair of Polk bookshelfs ...

In the basement Home Theater, we use a reciever with a pair of cheap BIC RTR1530s in the front and some PL66's in the back with a PL200 Sub.

The home theater system by far sounds the best at volume because mostly of the sub, but, the t-amp systems sound damn good IMO.
Click to expand...


Yep, when we had a bigger place the amp+bookshelf speakers worked very well for the money, but our new place is a coop that's tiny, so the smaller the better (and the sub has been retired to avoid knocking neighbors). Remember those JVC mini executive systems? Somoething like that would be idea, but with bluetooth since all of our sources will be wireless (and my current adapter solution introduces noise, I'd rather bluetooth just be built in)
 
The smallest ones I could find which still produced frequencies under like 100hz decently were the Dayton Audio B652-AIR speakers. They are a bit short on bass, but, they can get the job done, and of course mid and high range sounds great.

Dimensions: 11-13/16" x 7-1/16" W x 6-7/16" D

I have over the years bought the wife multiple little bluetooth wireless battery powered speaker boxes, but, they generally sound pretty bad.



 
BurnItDwn said:
The smallest ones I could find which still produced frequencies under like 100hz decently were the Dayton Audio B652-AIR speakers. They are a bit short on bass, but, they can get the job done, and of course mid and high range sounds great.

Dimensions: 11-13/16" x 7-1/16" W x 6-7/16" D

I have over the years bought the wife multiple little bluetooth wireless battery powered speaker boxes, but, they generally sound pretty bad.
Click to expand...
I've still been surprised at how decent my Urge Basics Soundbrick sounds. Much better than I'd expect given the price and form factor, and it's been going strong for five years.
 
nakedfrog said:
I've still been surprised at how decent my Urge Basics Soundbrick sounds. Much better than I'd expect given the price and form factor, and it's been going strong for five years.
Click to expand...
That is quite impressive indeed. Maybe I'll pick one up for the back deck or to play music if we go camping or whatever ...
 
Blackjack200 said:
Bose. Don't read any posts below this.

//...hides
Click to expand...

The funny thing is that the Bose Bluetooth speakers aren't all that bad. You lose some of the sound quality by streaming music via Bluetooth anyway, so the standard issue deficiencies of Bose speakers (No highs, no lows, must be Bose) aren't all that noticeable.
 
But in all seriousness I have a Sonos Play1 and like it. A bit over priced but its stupid easy to setup and use. If you want to get fancy you can do bluetooth or wireless through a raspberry pi and hook it up to pretty much anything you want speaker\receiver wise. I haven't done that yet but its on my list of things to play around with one of these days
 
I've been using the Panasonic STR-PT760 for over a decade now in my large bedroom and I still think its fantastic. It's DVD only, but It has great wireless rear speakers so you don't have to fuss with wires. It's worth it for the surround sound alone. The only change I made was to replace the center speaker with one of these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cerwin-Veg...345231?hash=item1ca9d4458f:g:1BgAAOSwC-Jasw6K

Unfortunately it looks like complete systems are no more.
 
I'm a Sonos user for almost 8 years now. Absolutely love them. The little Sonos 1 pounds pretty hard for single speaker. I also own the playbar which is very nice as a compromise device. They are reliable and get consistent updates. My only complaint is that the latest software releases have some pretty shitty UI. They are just unituitive and awkward nested menus to access things. But from a setup and use standpoint, they are excellent. You can grab the 1's in a two pack on sale from time to time to save some money on them.

I would not describe them to be "hollow" sounding at all. They provide a pretty rich sound experience for their size.
 
vi edit said:
I'm a Sonos user for almost 8 years now. Absolutely love them. The little Sonos 1 pounds pretty hard for single speaker. I also own the playbar which is very nice as a compromise device. They are reliable and get consistent updates. My only complaint is that the latest software releases have some pretty shitty UI. They are just unituitive and awkward nested menus to access things. But from a setup and use standpoint, they are excellent. You can grab the 1's in a two pack on sale from time to time to save some money on them.

I would not describe them to be "hollow" sounding at all. They provide a pretty rich sound experience for their size.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Sonos ordered. The bookshelf + small amp situation is something I'm trying to avoid, too many wires
 
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