advice on hifi speaker

[Ch3m]

Hi guys,

I fell in the white rabbit hole... after getting a new pair of headphone and a dac is time to replace the cheap system bought form currys so I need more advice from the experts. Currently my music is stored as flac in an old laptop which is connected to a Teac UD-H01 hat send the signal to a sandstorm stereo, the quality of the amplifier and speaker are rubbish. My dad has an old Marantz PM 45 in good condition that I can take to replace the sandstorm amplifier so I was looking for a pair of good speaker. Budgetwise I was thinking to stay around 300-350£. I saw these two candidates: Q Acoustics 2050i Gr and Cambridge Audio Aero 6. what are your thoughts?

 

[Leeps]

I used to have a Marantz PM45 - it's a lovely amp so will reward you when you attach some half-decent speakers to it.

First place to begin is to ask some questions:

1. What size / approximate shape is your room?

(As much as you mght like the look of a big set of floorstanders, in the wrong room, they can run your set-up completely, so this is the right question to start with).

2. What's your budget?

3. What kind of music genres do you like listening to?

Further to the above comment about floorstanders, although the PM45 is a good little amp, it may not have enough oomph to control their bass. Once you do get a short-list, it really would be worth taking your amp to a few dealers and seeing how the amp/speaker combination works for you.

 

[Ch3m]

1. What size / approximate shape is your room?

The room is L shaped. the part of the L where the speaker will be place is 397 cm in lenght and 270 wide. The other part of the L 480 in lenght and 206 wide.

What's your budget?

350£ at max

What kind of music genres do you like listening to?

Tricky.. amost everything from classical to rock and some blues/jazz.

I was also considering to get some standmounter like the monitor audio bronze 2

 

[stevee1966]

If you could increase your budget by £100, i've just put a pair of MA RX6's on a certain auction site.

Take a look.

 

[Al ears]

1. What size / approximate shape is your room?

The room is L shaped. the part of the L where the speaker will be place is 397 cm in lenght and 270 wide. The other part of the L 480 in lenght and 206 wide.

What's your budget?

350£ at max

What kind of music genres do you like listening to?

Tricky.. amost everything from classical to rock and some blues/jazz.

I was also considering to get some standmounter like the monitor audio bronze 2

The Aero 6's might be a bit big for that space.

 

[Ch3m]

Will the Monitor audio bronze be better?

Moreover what could be the threshold for standounting speakers interms of room size? Will they be suitable for 50 sqm rooms?

 

[hybridauth_Google_104649726313403990669]

Stand mounted speakers (with some large exceptions) will usually lack frequency response at the lower end regardless of room size and take as much room as floor standing speakers unless you tuck them away on a shelf. As passive speakers never go wrong you could buy some small speakers second hand for peanuts and then buy an brand new active subwoofer (with high gain inputs as your amp will not have sub out) for £160-£250 (Sony, Q Acustics, Roth Audio etc...)

 

[Ch3m]

Johan the used option was soimething I considered but I have no idea where to look at. The most famous second hand wesitye like ebay and gumtree sounds good but i don't think I will be able to try them before buying.

My main concern is not the apartment where I live now which is rented and sooner or later I will leave it. I am more worried about a future house where maybe stand mounting speaker willl not have enough osund to fill the room.

 

[hybridauth_Google_104649726313403990669]

I would go for the Q Acoustics as I own their sub and the quality and visual looks are good. I suspect even with the bass ports bunged up the 4 woofers will boom in a tiny apartment. Also if you are or get married Q Acoustics look prettier (I still would not be allowed them in my Shabby chic, rustic cottage looking lounge!).

I am also saying with a subwoofer you have the flexibility of turning the sub volume up for larger rooms and down for smaller rooms. You can also increase the crossover frequencies into the mids in a larger room.

 

[Ch3m]

The optional small speaker and subwoofer later if needed is appealing.

I am not to wooried about how they looks if they sound great. And my girlfriend is quite forgiving about this matter since she like music as well.