Best satellite system for $300

On 16 Oct 2001 23:13:18 -0400, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

Scott: I heard the NHT Super One's. Youi were right. Those are very nice
speakers. Now that I've heard them, I'm going to buy them from

shopping.yahoo.com

I found a pair of NHT Super Ones for less than $300 on that website. I was
thinking they were going to cost atleast $500 a pair. So now I hve an extra
$200. Got any suggestions for loud headphones with good isolation and deep
bass I could get (now that my Pioneers got stolen)?

Alex

If it HAS to be against a wall, I suggest an indoor-outdoor speaker.
The best sounding one that I've heard is from Mirage. Indoor/Outdoor
speakers are usually front-ported or fully sealed, so placement near walls
is not as critical.

I would place them at the top edge of a china cabinet or simmilar and
get them 6-12 inches from the wall so that you can use *any* speaker.
This gives you ten times the options.

This should be more important. You need a real speaker for this.
There are a few budget gems out there, though, so don't loose hope.

Fine - this is exactly what my recommendation below is for. Most classical
music and vocal/ethnic music has little bass below 50hz. You don't really
need a sub - but a you do need a tiny "full-range" speaker as opposed to
one that is made to be sold as part of a home-entertainment system as these
are built cheaply and to *require* a sub.(most don't go much below 100hz)

Speakers I recommend:
Tannoy MX-2 - excellent sound and great price. Very clean vocals.
This is my first recommendation for price - they sound
amazing for their price.
Tannoy R-1 - essentially the same as the MX-2 but a *bit* cleaner.
I it worth the extra $200 in cost? I personally don't
think so, but you may fall in love with it.
Best sound tiny speaker I've heard.
Tannoy has a fantastic sound for your type of listening - very clean
and lacking in the high-end shrillness you find in many budget speakers.
#

Mirage - they make several fine tiny speakers - their sound is also
very good - I'd rate them a close second to Tannoy's Mx and R series.
FRx-Three is superb at $350 a pair. 47hz-22Khz and great clarity.
#

AAD - these guys make excellent speakers. Better quality, IMO, than
Mirage. $350(retail) will get you a pair of C200s - and they sound
great. You can likely find them for a bit less than that.
#

Norh Speakers - A personal favorite.
#
Norh - odd design. Great sound for the price. Design amplifies in-phase
refelections and cancels the rest - very nice bass response.
They have a great set of technical pages in very clear language.
While some of it is marketing, most of it is solid science.

Like Tannoy, they are very conservative with their ratings(or more
realistic and not lying if you prefer), so don't be scared off.

The 4.0 is $400 a pair, but that includes shipping and there is no tax.
Ceramic should sound much better, but the wood is beautiful.

PART TWO:
About Bose(small well-deserved rant plus specs)
#
Extremely interesting to read this page as it compares Bose and shows some
of their *real* specs versus the misinformation Bose and most others market.
(It does not say Bose, but no other manufacturer has a system with a
"bass module with 2 5 1/2 inch woofers" at that price-range)

Bose is known for sending huge legal wads of paper and lawyers your way
if you dare say anything bad about them, so he does not mention them
by name, even though it is pretty clear what he's talking about.

Notice the Frequency response of 280Hz-13.3Khz +/- 10db for the sats
and 46Hz to 202 Hz +/- 2.3 db for the bass unit(actually not so bad)
and the glaring *hole* from 203-279hz! When they say "No midrange"
about Bose, they mean it.

#
There's the URL for the article he's talking about. Notice how the
corporate suckup reviewer glows on and on about it, yet the specs
page rightfully exposes it as the junk it is.

This is one of the few reviews for Bose that actually has specs and
they are very revealing. Specs on Bose are almost never printed,
but there you go. All their satellite systems use the same basic
speakers.(Lifestyle, etc)


This is fairly common for micro-satellite and sub systems.
#
Cambridge soundworks also suffers from bad response and specs.

#
Energy and Klipsch are well-respected budget lines, though you can
see how the manufacturers clearly fudge their specs to look good:

Klipsch SB-1:(mains for the system 6)
92 db on paper - 88 tested. That's an awfully large difference.
8 Ohms on paper - 3.7-16 ohms(ouch!) tested. 16 ohms? Wow.
60Hz-20Khz +/- 3db on paper - 91Hz-14.2Khz +/- 3.5db tested.

Notice under Bass Limits, they go lower, but at 10% distortion - they are
using the cabinet's resonance to artificially produce bass. Ick.
The Sub is from 32-134hz and that leaves only 43hz overlap in the
system. Still, it is not a huge gap like the other two.

While the reviews are garbage, these guys actually test their speakers
and the tests are very revealing.

Companies like Tannoy and Norh may not look impressive on paper,
but they test extremely close to to what their listed specs are.

Have you actually gone and listened to this stuff?

Again, have you listened to this stuff? You need to listen to it.

Go and listen to the NHT Super One. A bit more low end than the Super Zero,
although a sub helps it a lot. Go out to stores and start listening to
real speakers instead of listening to opinions from guys on the web. They
all sound different, and in the bargain basement range they sound even more
different. Get speakers that have the coloration _you_ can personally live
with.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Thanks, Scott!

Oh, I love that midrange. So Bose is out.

It is a surprise to me that a sub is not completely essential. Can you
make a suggestion? I still don't want to spend much more that $300 at
this time. I'll be able to splurge another $200 in about a year.

Thanks!

This is a very quick way to get bad sound. You're going to have to
pull anything away from the wall in order to get reasonable low end.

The sub makes it even more of a problem because when the sub adds
deep low end it becomes that much more obvious when your upper bass
is missing.

Please don't say Bose unless you want total elimination of midrange.

You might be able to get the NHT Super Zero system in that price range,
though. Or a used Triad set. How about getting something a bit fancier
without the sub, and buying the sub later on?
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."