Help with speaker choice please....

[admin_exported]

Hi all

I'm just about to make my first 'proper' leap into home cinema, and I've been reading up on the advice provided by these forums. The Onkyo 606 is on pre-order, and I'm now in the process of looking for a set of speakers to partner it. I've got a Sharp 32" LCD with 2 HDMI inputs, a PS3 (which will be used for Blu-Ray / DVD playback), a Freeview box, and Apple TV (used to stream music and movies to the TV).

My budget for speakers is £350 max, and ideally that would include cables and preferably one set of stands for the rears. The speakers need to be "wife-friendly", so I'm looking for something reasonably small or at least nice to look at!

My preferred option at the moment is a set of Jamo A102's, which seem to be coming back into stock now. The relatively low cost would also allow me to get some stands from the outset, and leave me quite a bit under budget. Plus they seem to get really good reviews.

Another option is the Canton CD 102's, or possibly a second hand set of Kef 2005.2's.

I'm not a huge audiophile - the system will be used for Saturday night movies, and streaming my iTunes music through.

My question is will the Jamo's be ok with the 606? Should I be looking at the Cantons or Kefs instead? Apologies if this has been asked before - I've searched the forums but can't find an answer.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Mark.

 

[Andrew Everard]

The Jamos would be fine with the 605, though the receiver is capable of driving much better speakers. On your budget they're a sound buy, though...

As for what would be fine with the 606, no idea - we haven't tested the new receiver yet, so can't comment on its quality.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply, Andrew. Sounds like the Jamos will suit me fine as a starter / medium term speaker set. Judging from the forums, there's a bad case of upgrade-itus that seems to set in quite quickly when you first get into Home Cinema, so I'll no doubt be upgrading in 6 months!

Just one other thing - are speaker stands standard? I'll be looking for a pair of stands for the rears - will I need actual Jamo ones, or can I buy generic ones. Apologies for the dumb newbie questions...

Mark.