I'm not an audiophile, but...

[alanp]

I need a new pair of hi-fi speakers, as the woofer in my left one has died. (I think it's some kind of scan-speak clone... they're sound dynamics R85's, IIRC.) They can still collectively out-bass my brother's system  good old Sunn O)))... Monoliths & Dimensions is great for exposing how responsive the bass is.

But.

Why do most of the speakers in the shops today have absolutely gutless midrange, and muddy doof-doof highly tuned bass? I don't want Star Trek looking speakers, so that rules out half the shop to begin with.

I hate to say this, but I might need to find a proper store that specializes in stereo equipment.

And I need to unclench my wallet. I hate spending more than I have to (ie, I'm keeping the Kenwood KA-5090R amplifier!)

[GrindCustoms]

Totally agree about your feeling about what is now offered in Hi-Fi equipement.

One of the company of who i can think that make affordable (large word here) and that have a flat response for what flat can be in Hi-Fi... is Paradigm. Otherwise.. i have no cue.

[pickdropper]

Totally agree about your feeling about what is now offered in Hi-Fi equipement.

One of the company of who i can think that make affordable (large word here) and that have a flat response for what flat can be in Hi-Fi... is Paradigm. Otherwise.. i have no cue.

That's your Canadian bias sneaking in.

Actually,  Paradigm does make nice stuff for decent money.  I've recommended their stuff for years, although I haven't listened to their most recent offerings.

[GrindCustoms]

Totally agree about your feeling about what is now offered in Hi-Fi equipement.

One of the company of who i can think that make affordable (large word here) and that have a flat response for what flat can be in Hi-Fi... is Paradigm. Otherwise.. i have no cue.

That's your Canadian bias sneaking in.

Actually,  Paradigm does make nice stuff for decent money.  I've recommended their stuff for years, although I haven't listened to their most recent offerings.

Everytime i can fit a Canuck made product, i'll do it!

Their newer stuff is up to what they where doing before, great bang for the buck, reliablity and legit sounding.

[davent]

Totally agree about your feeling about what is now offered in Hi-Fi equipement.

One of the company of who i can think that make affordable (large word here) and that have a flat response for what flat can be in Hi-Fi... is Paradigm. Otherwise.. i have no cue.

That's your Canadian bias sneaking in.

Actually,  Paradigm does make nice stuff for decent money.  I've recommended their stuff for years, although I haven't listened to their most recent offerings.

Everytime i can fit a Canuck made product, i'll do it!

Their newer stuff is up to what they where doing before, great bang for the buck, reliablity and legit sounding.

From what i can gather Sound Dynamics was/is Canadian as well. My daughters stereo is using my old pair of Paradigms, sound very good!

Alan do you know enough about the woofer that you could just replace the two woofers with the same Scan Speak model?

[miter53]

I can highly recommend the speakers from Ascend Acoustics http://www.ascendacoustics.com. I have the Sierra-2s which I upgraded from the Sierra-1. They are very natural sounding, with great mids, and excellent bass for a small box. Incredible value for the money, both sound-wise and construction. The bamboo boxes are well built and I think very handsome, not the least bit Star Trek. They only sell direct, which helps to keep the price down. A really good company to do business with, both honorable and honest, with great products. They even went to great lengths to make it possible for all the components in the new Sierra-2 to be retrofitted into the Sierra-1 cabs. There is also a friendly and informative forum associated with Ascend, not unlike here. Check with them for international shipping.

[selfdestroyer]

I don't want Star Trek looking speakers, so that rules out half the shop to begin with.

Haha, Always been my problem also.. I hate most of the designs of "hi-fi" cabinets or the lack of cabinets.

Cody

[cooder]

That thread title reminded me about a classic line I read scribbled on the bag of a pickup truck in Ozzie...: "I'm not a gynocologist, but I'll have a look anyway...."

No other advice available to help the actual topic, sorry; I built my speakers many years ago from a dynaudio kit and they still rock and go...

[junkemail86]

Look into Fluance speakers, exceptional value, I've been very happy with my set

[lars]

It's pretty tough to beat any vintage JBL stuff when it comes to Hi-Fi speakers IMHO. I used to have a set of JBL 4311's that would put just about anything in current stores to shame. The white 2213 12" woofers used in those are the best I've ever heard. They had ridiculous specs even by todays standards, 3" voice coils and about a 2.5 inch excursion rating. You basically would have to purposely do something stupid to them to damage them. If you can find these woofers at a reasonable price, I would highly recommend them as replacements.

[alanp]

From what i can gather Sound Dynamics was/is Canadian as well. My daughters stereo is using my old pair of Paradigms, sound very good!

Alan do you know enough about the woofer that you could just replace the two woofers with the same Scan Speak model?

It's just the one woofer that is blown, I'll pull it and see if I can find a replacement on ebay, that's a great idea

Glad to hear that SOMEONE else has heard of Sound Dynamics, I was starting to think they were a better type of Asian speaker. They've served me well!

[lincolnic]

+1 for Paradigm. We actually use their monitors in my studio.

But yeah, just replace the woofer. You'll be a lot happier, and most likely so will your wallet!

[alanp]

The other thing that sounds interesting on the web is Voight Pipes, the floor standing triangle-ish ones. Simple as hell, and apparently not bad.

[juansolo]

I went to a hi-fi show recently (used to be very much into it) and here were my thoughts from the day:

HiFi show report.

- Jazz and music that sounds good rather than is good is still prevalent
- As are pretentious tosspieces
- CDs are now quaint and have seemingly gone the way of the LP
- The bloke from Wilson Benesch really doesn't like you talking in his dem room. First time I've ever been asked to leave a room at a HiFi show, and nailed on that I'd never consider one of their products. Shades of old Caterham style customer service there!
- Musical Fidelity stuff still sounds awesome, head and shoulders above everything there. Makes me regret selling the amp I had and has me musing very bad things again...
- Got some replacement pads for my 20 odd year old Grado headphones (originals had gone green...), making the whole experience worthwhile.
- Everything now streams audio to it from your phone and sounds bland. I will be buying an Apple thingumy though because it's still kinda cool.
- Flying fish emit a sub bass thuuuum as they do their leaping thing.
- The 100+ inch plasma in the Pioneer demo room was beyond mere praise, it deserved worship. If it had been full of stars it wouldn't have surprised me. The single most impressive screen I've ever seen. Didn't ask about it, didn't want to know. Though I suspect if you had to ask, you probably couldn't afford it.
- Met Will again.
- Scrounged 10p from a passing lady for the car park then hoped she didn't see us step into a Porsche...

...and that was it really, even high end stuff has become about streaming. Because of the compression and because it seems no-one cares any more, it ALL sounded bland. There were exceptions, the PMC stuff still sounded good, as did Rega's offerings, Musical Fidelity stood out. But even the last bastions of craftsman made speakers, Ruark, now make glorified (wooden of course) iPod docks. It was a shame.

Personally my tastes run don't generally focus on accuracy, which seems odd for someone who likes HiFi. Chasing the nth degree of clarity doesn't really work for me considering how we mangle the signal with pedals before it even gets to an amplifier. What I like are systems that project the music in a listenable, enjoyable way. That used to be TDL who made transmission line floor standing speakers with an emphasis on rather excellent bass reproduction. Not like a nightclub you understand, they were capable of rocking hard with very deep, defined bass. Not made any more sadly. Kef References were the closest thing I found to them, but they take some serious driving and were uniformly enormous. Brilliant, but impractical.

I've oddly ended up with an almost anti-audiophile system considering I've had multi-box amps and the like. I have a £200 Yamaha HC amp of which I only use the rear amps to drive a pair of tiny passive Dynaudio speakers. On the front I snagged a set of Dynaudio BM5A active monitors for half price when they changed model. I used to run a frankly incredible REL subwoofer, but that's just gone too to be replaced by a tiny Dynaudio sub. Nowhere near the headroom or capability of the REL but it's a 3rd of the size.

So I suppose I've compromised also. Saying that it actually sounds really good and I'm even going to buy a CD player again rather than using the dirt cheap Blu-Ray player I have for everything. Mainly because I discovered listening to CDs again and how much better it sounds than listening to MP3s on the computer... I think we're going to lose this if things continue.

The irony being we keep getting higher and higher res TVs and keep going for lower and lower quality audio. It's an odd trend.

[alanp]

Dad still sings the praises of Pioneer systems.

Mind you, he still wants a ultra-fi STEREO (ie not Dolby 9000 speaker system, just specializing in two perfect audio speakers) system.