Hi-fi recommendations for house parties and home listening

[Our_arch]

Hi,

I’m looking for suggestions on a set up for my living room, I play all genres across the board but mainly downtempo/house/techno/ minimal. I want something for max 800 and looking for something that is both accurate and warm for home listening but does have a punchy sub for a house party or after party spot. Potentially thinking about the vintage JBLs with a sub woofer or some floor standing. Want to be able to fill the room without necessarily railing it. This is my first hi-fi/set up have been using the technics SB3030s so far and okay for what they are worth but really want to take home listening and house party to an impressive standard. Only just been able to get a living room and what people to be impressed when they come over to play records whether that be to 4 people or 20. Like I said I’m clueless but if anyone has any recommendations would be much appreciated!

 

[Dom]

You could do worse than the Dynaudio Emit M30 speakers. 200 watts 4 Ohm speakers that go very loud without distortion.

You might be able to find them for around £800 but beware you need a meaty amplifier to power them.

 

[twinkletoes]

Mission 703/704 rare but for a reason, b&w 603s2 (watch for damaged tweeters on these). Mission m74, cerwin vega, jbl, klipsch heresy 1,2,3 (you will need a subwoofer with these)

These will rock your world and may find you don’t need a subwoofer with them. But there fantastic speakers for critical listening as well.

 

[gasolin]

active set

LD Systems Dave 8 XS​

pleanty of money left for a monitor controller, preamp or mixer

Passive speaker q acoustice 3050i low impedans and high sensitivity

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

If it's for house parties, I'd be thinking 'hard to damage' as a priority. They might end up being used as coasters, knocked over etc.

 

[Stuart83]

I enjoy music more on the exciting side of the dial and have blown a few speakers doing so over the years.
I get exponentially more joy out of music on louder as opposed to the same track on low.

I djay mostly for fun now but did for part time work at one point and started using all types of large speakers at home aswell as in function rooms but never found the type of hifi sound I craved with them hence I went to large floorstanders but have always had one type of speaker or other.

My choice of speakers have always been something that can play loud both comfortably and well.

I found the QA 3050i can rock on and are reviewed well for filling a large room easily.
I can confirm this having a pair that only ever go on loud as with all my music equipment.
The sound quality is what there various accolades point to and in my opinion one of the best floorstanders in that bracket and punch well above their weight after that.

Plenty of bass and not needing a sub woofer hence mine stays off, they open up lovely when played loud with space to breathe, being rear ported they need to be away from the wall a good few inches which is something to bare in mind.

But after blowing a pair of mission floorstanders and them becoming their replacements within another hifi I demoed my way to a pair of rather big fyne audio F502's for my main hifi which can play as loud and much much more composed than some of the speakers I've used in small clubs despite their rating.

Forget graphs and numbers they go as low as most subs and higher than your ears can handle.
I have a wharfdale SW subwoofer that can't compete with the levels of bass they throw out with some music.
I've had to calm them down a bit with Bellari EQ when playing djay decks and matching beats as the windows flex and things edject from the shelves.

I demoed through all the favourites to get to the fynes which to me were much more exciting and a level above.
They made the wharfdale Evo 4.4 I heard that day sound boring and flat.
I won't wax lyrical about the quality of sound they reproduce suffice to say speakers are a very personal thing but they sound very good and right up there.
They've become one of my favourites despite having a large number of speakers over the years from different price brackets these perform much better to my preferences than nearly all of them and have something instantly special about them.

I can't always put my finger on it and there's more plus points than I have fingers but they always they make me smile and egg me on to play loud.

Every track is a sizemmick event but I find it important to state I do live away from other houses in a semi detached bungalow with only one neighbour who is out when I turn up the volume.

You mention 20 people so I'm unsure what size room your talking but take the word " house party" to recommend floorstanders but if your wanting to go louder then a pair of Mackies can be found cheap and will go as loud as you want until the police turn up 😁

 

[tsaoandy]

I second JBL, I like especially the vintage stuff, 4344 etc those massive studio monitors. I can’t comment on the “vintage series” the current line up, as I have only heard them in hifi show. JBL or Klipsch sound so good on low volume, I imagine house party you don’t crank it up perhaps in the late stage of the party, after many topped up on the drinks. I would only do that if you live in the middle of nowhere or your neighbours are in the party too😂
And if you’re allowed to crank up then there’s so many options also.