As I said in another post, im in the market to start upgrading my speakers. Right now, im using the Infinity system. While they sound good, they do have a tendancy to sound somewhat muffled, or dry. At times, I feel as if certain sounds are not heard, or are very dim.

I was at frys when I purchased these, and heard the polk speakers, TSX400's I believe they were. They sounded more vivid, a bit cleaner and brighter. I should have spent a little more and bought them, but, in the interest in saving money, I went with the Infinity.

Before purchasing them, I had done a bit of internet reading, and posting on other AV forums. My goal is to find out what other people think of different brands. Due to not having the ability to demo a lot of different speakers, it's hard to make a choice and one can only go on the reviews and opinions of other people.

The general stores that are anywhere near me (about 120 miles away), are frys, and best buy. We do have a Modina home theater store, and I need to look at them, but I have a feeling that anything they sell might be out of my price range.

Frys, and a Best Buy with a Magnolia home theater area are generally my best bet. BB will generally carry definitive, klipsch, martin logan, polk, and B&W. Frys will generally carry Infinity, JBL, Martin logan, Klipsch and Polk.

My curiosity, however, lies with the sales of speaker companies that do not generally have brick and mortar stores. Companies such as Axiom, BIC America, HTD, and Paradigm.

I've owned paradigm in the past and they are good, but are generally out of my price range and there are no stores around here that I know of that sell them.

I have had interest in BIC and HTD and Axiom, but, do not have a way of demoing those speakers. So, I was wondering if someone here might have some input on those brands, and if you could, compare them to the Infinity speakers I have now (P363), if you have experience with them. I've also owned a set of Klipsch quintet speakers, but never a full set of tower or bookshelf speakers. Ive been told that the horn tweeters in Klipsch speakers tend to be a bit bright. I like my highs to be clean and crisp, but not shrill or "tinny". I like my overall sound to be vivid and detailed, which, I know i'm not going to be able to achieve that sort of quality for the amount of money I can spend.

The only speakers that I can demo are the ones at frys or the local BB, but, listening to a speaker in a store will not show you how they would perform in your home, and I know that sound is subjective to each person and that one person may find a speaker to sound better than the other. I am hoping, however, that someone who has knowlege of the speaker brands I will list below and give me some insight as to what they feel the characteristics of those speakers are. What their opinion of sound quality and general performance are like:

Axiom
HTD
BIC

I'm currently leaning toward the Polk TSX line of speakers, since I have knowledge of those speakers and their sound, and will demo the klipsch, and martin logan speakers as well. One last question I have is, the TSX300's have 2 drivers and a tweeter, the TSX400's have 3 drivers and a tweeter. What is the difference between a speaker with 1 driver, 2 drivers, 3 drivers, etc.? Does the sound quality improve with the addition of each driver, or is it a matter of just having more volume output? Does the sound get more detailed or clearer or does it not change much at all?

Thanks for reading, and I apologize for the many questions. Just looking for some insight.

Thanks.

I have Aperion Verus Grand bookshelf speakers for my mains and I love them. I have them hidden behind some large speaker grills (from my previous speakers) and peoples jaws drop when I remove the grills and show them what's producing the sound. They DO, however, require a sub to prop up the bass. The Aperions come with a 30-day in-home trial and if you don't like them Aperion pays the return shipping.

I have always been a fan of Boston Acoustics, personally. I haven't had a chance to hear anything "new" from them in years, though. I am still using the 6.1 setup I made from their System 9000 over a decade ago and I've always used their speakers in my car audio.

I did have an opportunity six or seven years ago to hear a pair of the Axiom audio towers and they sounded pretty terrific. I enjoyed them enough to add them to my mental "someday I may upgrade" list. They have a 30 day in home demo period but you're on the hook for return freight charges. They provide approximate costs for that here.

Good luck on your search! Do be sure and let us know what you decide and how you feel about any auditions.

Off the beaten path you could consider a pair or two of the smaller Magnepan MMGs. They go for about $600 a pair and if you have the room and the power for them they sound awesome. Magnepan uses them as a loss leader to get you to check out the technology and then move up the ladder.

sb100,

Here is a completely different thought. I see way too many people that always want to go out and buy new speakers. Speakers are like cars, as soon as you get them off the show room floor they depreciate considerably. However, unlike cars speakers (assuming they are properly taken care of) do not degrade in performance (sound quality) over time. I have a set of Sonus Faber that are well over 25 years old and they sound great! The easiest way to get the most bang for your buck is to buy used speakers. I really like Audiogon.com for finding great deals. In fact there are two sets of Sonus Faber speakers up there right now that might be in your price range based on what I could deduce from your post. The first is a pair of Sonus Faber Electa speakers. I have a set of these and for bookshelf speakers they sound amazing! Very deep bass, smooth mids and precise clean uppers. For music you wouldn't even need a sub, however if you want to rattle the windows during a movie you might. They're listed at $1500 and they were about $3K new. The second pair is a set of Grand Piano Home speakers. These are 2.5 way tower speakers. I owned a set of these awhile ago and they were marvelous. If you room is larger than what a pair of bookshelf speakers can fill than these are the way to go. They are also about $1500 and were probably about $3.5K new. Now granted both of these speakers are older, probably about 20 years, which means they probably only have another 20 or 30 years of service left in them! BTW, there are some newer generation speakers listed as well, but they generally run more.

In case you haven't figured it out yet I'm a Sonus Faber fan. Over the years I have owned many different manufacturer's speakers, Boston Acoustic,B&W, Martin Logan, Magnepan, and several others, but I always preferred my SF so the others were all short lived in my environment. I can promise you for the same money none of the other manufacturers listed in this thread have anything that even comes close to the two I recommended.

And even if you don't go with the SF check out audiogon.com you may find something you like. I guess what I'm saying is don't be afraid to buy higher quality used speakers.

Good Luck!

mdr, ive heard that about used speakers before. Ive read other people who say not to be afraid of used speakers. I just always worry that whoever owned them before me didnt treat them right. That they might have over driven them alot, or that their kids might have stuffed things down the port holes, or poked pins, pens and other objects into the cones.

i'll check out audiogon.com and see what they have available. Thanks.

i'm curious. I got an email today from outlaw audio about a sale on their B stock items. One of the items that caught my eye was the..7725 7x125/ch amplifier. I run the Yamaha Rx-V871, which is 100W/ch (i believe), at 2 channels driven. The amplifer being offered is 125 w/ch, all channels driven.

I run the Infinity P363 full tower speakers for my mains, the P163 for my surrounds and the PC351 for my center. When I was asking about these speakers on another forum, one of the replies was "these speakers love good power". I'm wondering if, perhaps, maybe getting this amplifer might dramatically improve the performance of these speakers?

Ive never used seperates before, always just had an AVR. I know the yamaha has pre-outs, so I could use that as my pre/pro I assume. I wouldnt need to buy one, correct?

So, do you think going from the AVR amps to a dedicated amplifier would make much difference? I know the power output per channel is not much difference, 100W/ch vs. 125w/ch, but, with the amplifer, that would be all channels driven. Would moving to a dedicated amplifer make much difference with the speakers I have?

It is likely to be a little more power than waht the surrounds need since the 7125 actually outputs more than 125 WPC. It also is for all channels driven at the same time. It is rated pretty conservatively and will drive almost any speaker out there very well. Since you have a 5 channel setup you could even bi-amp your mains and still drive the rest of the speakers. You could also just get two 2200 monoblocks and upgrade the power to just your mains. Either way the amps are going to way outperform the AVRs power

I'm liking this possible avenue. Question: is a pre/pro generally more or less expensive than an avr? What I'm thinking here is, start buying several of those 2200's, two at first for my mains, then eventually for the rest of the speakers. Once I have individual power amps for each of my speakers, I won't need to buy an avr anymore. If I want to upgrade in the future, it will be just a matter of getting a new pre/pro.

However, at this point, I'm wondering if the weak point is my speakers, and that if I put money into amps but the speakers are not good enough quality, that I'll end up disappointed because I should have upgraded my speakers first. Does anyone here have any experience with infinity, and know first hand if more power makes them better?

Thanks for the replies. I'm liking the idea of 200 wpc

Believe me that 200 wpc is way more than your surrounds will ever use. Much of the material going to the surrounds is only minor compared to the mains and doesn't draw nearly as much power unless you are in 5 channel stereo and then the volume tends to get the best of most of us. Your AVR is more than capable of driving the surrounds to high volumes. Remember that doubling the power to your speakers onLY increases the SPL by 3 db. the difference between 64 watts and 256 watts is 6 db. I will bet that your AVR puts out at least 64 watts especially if only driving 3 channels. Depending on your speakers the 6 db could be in the efficiency of your equipment.

Yes AVRs are generally cheaper than separates by about 50%. They also have more bells and whistles at least when they first come to market. Buying one is almost like getting a free amp section and since you have the anaolog outs you can use the AVR amp to death and then get some bigger amp.