HiFi Speaker Advice

wolfman

Buy a copy of What Hifi from WH Smiths. Get an idea of a few well rated speaker sets, then head down to a Hifi shop. Richer Sounds is okish to go to (usually when you know what you want, and want it cheaper). I generally prefer to pop down to a hifi specialist shop where the set up will often be a little better.

Little_John

What HiFi is the bible then it comes to speakers. Have a read see what you think and like if they get a decent review go and find out if they sound ok to you. When I was buying mine rather than contact a single shop an dget them to set up 15 setups I phoned pretty much all of them in the area and got them to demo a few sets Empire were brilliant they went a little further and set up 6 different sets for me.

You also then look like your serious about buying them, and can phone arround once you have picked the ones you want to get them at the best price, I played empire and sound and vision off against each other saving about £300 on the speakers and getting some stupidly expensive speaker cable thrown in ohh and the dvd player multiregion chipped (remote codes were unheard of back then)

I now things improve but the only small speakers I would consider after all the ones I auditioned would be the bose cubes their performance was awesome but they had to be in use with a sub, and there was no negotiation in price at all. If money is tight buy the system in stages drop the sub for now just get the speakers.

I don't think your american freinds will find anything about Stage electronics, I don't think they ever existed other than in the mind of the ebay seller no serious company would have a website hosted on their design companies server especially one based in the UK if their market was over in the US.

SkipClick

Where can I get cinema systems wierless 5.1 surround sound from best buys?. Thank you.;)

fubar_2

I clean forgot about this post so i think I should give you an update.

I meet the seller in London and listened to the speakers and they did sound fine but I don't know how they would sound if pushed, but in all honesty for a smallish room and with thin walls between the neighbor and me the sound I heard was more than adequate for my needs and for £185.00 they were not a bad price, they may be cheap knock-offs made by someone else but the seller offered the opportunity for any buyer to visit him and listen to them before buying so they have the opportunity to walk away if they wanted to I also think the seller offered a return if not satisfied, so I think the seller has been more than fair than most other sellers on ebay, he was a very polite and helpful seller that I would purchase from again if I needed to, the only thing I would suggest is that he does not try to oversell the value of the items let the buyer decide if they are worth what he is asking for them.

In the end it is down to the end user whether he wants to part with his money for a set of speakers that look good and sound OK for as little as possible or do as LJ suggests and buy a known sound system a speaker at a time and build up the system you want.

Fact is there are many many people that just can't justify paying hundreds or even thousands for a speaker system that they will never use to its full potential so will be looking for alternative systems on ebay and other cheapo sites that they can afford.

Now for the downer side of things, since I purchased them I have not had them out of their boxes simply because I underestimated their size (they are just too frikkin big for my room ) also within days of buying them i attended a local auction and picked up a Harman/Kardon HKTS 8 6.1 system for around £65.00 these were brand new (sealed) in their box never been used did retail for between £400 - £500 (depending on where you shopped) they are a small satilite system and sound absolutely great in my lounge, I may try selling the larger system to recover some of my costs or keep them as a back-up.

I wont pretend that i have a clue about sound quality coming from any type of system speakers, but if they sound OK for me and only paid buttons for them then I'm a happy chapie.

Little_John

As long as your happy with the sound then that is all that matters.

The occasional use thing I doubt you will only use them occasionally, Mine when I got them were used daily for about 5 years, their use only reduced when I moved the DVD collection from downstairs to upstairs as it was taking over.

Lord_Gardener

I agree, sound is most important followed by Lady G's does it fit in the room requirement! We got some of these - in white - a few yaers back and gives a stonking sound for just a few pounds!!!

http://www.acoustic-energy.co.uk/E-Shop/index.asp?EnhanceA=PRODUCT%20DETAILS&RecordID=24