Help me choose - ~£1,500 budget - 5.0 System

[izools]

Hi All!

Just wanted a little advice on whether I'm looking at the correct speakers or whether I should look elsewhere.

Current Setup:

Onkyo TX-NR609 driving Tannoy F3 5.1 System - Mercury F3 fronts, Mercury Custom F1 rears, Mercury FC centre, Tannoy TS-10 Sub.

I've had no complaints about this set up and found it to be very capable - that is until I found a set of B&W DM602.5 S3 speakers at a crazy price at the local second hand shop - clearly they didn't know what they were.

I only bought them with the intention of tidying them up and selling them on but since I put them in place of my Tannoy F3 fronts to test, they've stayed there and the receiver has stayed firmly in "Stereo" mode.

This has really shown me just how poor the Tannoy speakers are for music.

So now I'm in the market for an entirely new setup.

I'll be selling the Tannoys and B&Ws of course, and given how much I like the sound of the B&Ws am looking at newer ones.

I have found myself rather disliking of a subwoofer, leaving the TS-10 powered off most if not all of the time, and it's not because it's a poor sub - at least WhatHiFi think it's very musical!

I'm therefore erring towards front floorstanders with plenty of presence as well as finesse to avoid having to get a sub.

I was considering the B&W 683s up front, HTM61 centre, and 686s rear, which should cost me £1,700.

I probably have a 70/30 split between music and movies on the system and listen to Classical, Jazz, Vocal, occasionally a bit of hard trance... but anything can reproduce that! Therefore, finesse and stereo soundstaging is important, less important (but still important) is presence for when I want to watch Sam Witwicky or John McClane do their thing...

And yeah, I know, a TX-NR609 isn't quite up to the challenge of driving the 683s or similar but for now I can bi-amp the fronts and upgrade the amp in Autumn

Thanks in advance!

 

[seemorebtts]

sounds like you already no what you want and for movies these speakers are amazing,iv had the same ones on my arcam avr400 and loved them.if i was you try bidding on ebay for a second hand ones as this will save you lots of money,i did but got the center new as i couldnt find one.i payed £350 for 684 and £160 for 686.theres plenty of bass on the 684 so no sub,but sub is better.sorry they not the same i read it wrong:doh:

 

[izools]

Thanks, seemorebtts.

I've spoken to a couple of local HiFi stores - Sevenoaks are trying to sway me away from the idea of B&Ws and towards KEFs, namely with the Q500s up front and Q300s in back etc.

Gulliford HiFi have suggested I avoid the B&Ws in favour of the Paradigm Series 7s.

I have an audition at Sevenoaks tomorrow with the KEFs unfortunately Gulliford don't have stock of much at present so might be waiting a while for an audition of something to compare the KEFs against.

If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on their recommendations, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!