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Best speakers for under $1000?

If you go new I'd say Tekton Lore's for $999, vintage or newer used the choices are endless, I'd say it depends on your musical tastes.
 
1. How big is your listening room?
2. Do you have limitation on speaker placement - ie, do they have to be flush against the back wall, or pushed into a corner?

#2, above, is actually quite limiting, but there are speakers that were designed to work optimally in those positions.
 
Arkay said:
The mentioned Altecs and NS-1000s are good choices.

Others you might consider from vintage sources would include Dahlquist DQ-10s, Time Windows, ESS AMTs, and some Infinities. If you were planning to upgrade the amp to something more powerful (high-current capable), too, then I'd look for a pair of Infinity RS-IIs. If not, then maybe Kappa 6s or 7s would do the trick.

There are a LOT of speaker bargains out there under $1000 in the used-speaker market, if you are patient and willing to look.

One thing to consider is the long-term direction you'd like to go in the hobby. Low-power SET tubes with high-efficiency horns? Open-baffle/dipole speakers? Line arrays? Folded horns or transmission lines? Are you committed to keeping your G-9000 as your source, or will you experiment with other sources to drive the speakers? Does appearance (decor/style/WAF) matter? Lots of things can influence your choice, and there is no one "right" answer, but a lot of potentially GOOD options. Whatever you do, have fun with the journey!
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Appearance is not a major issue but I don't want something fugly. I'll keep the Sansui for a while but when I'm flush again, I'm thinking either a Fisher 500 or maybe 2 mono block tube amps. As to the speakers, I'm looking for something better than the ones I have. Once my ears become educated, I'm not above trading up. I'm not married to anything.
 
I recommend ADS if you're not a fan of JBL or Bose and don't want something bright. I've found that ADS are revealing but still not "bright". They are a magical speaker.
 
frperdurabo said:
1. How big is your listening room?
2. Do you have limitation on speaker placement - ie, do they have to be flush against the back wall, or pushed into a corner?

#2, above, is actually quite limiting, but there are speakers that were designed to work optimally in those positions.
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My living room is 20x15
My wife left me so I'll put them anywhere I damn well please :banana:
 
legalalien said:
If you go new I'd say Tekton Lore's for $999, vintage or newer used the choices are endless, I'd say it depends on your musical tastes.
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I own Lores and they are fantastic speakers. I didn't suggest them because I'm not sure how they would do with the Sansui and because there are a hundred other sugestions already.

Tekton also just released the Oriel, similar to the Lore but for $849 (vs. $1000for the Lore)

http://www.tektondesign.com/
 
I have a G-9000 with a pair of DQ-10's - sound really good to me - bunch of them on the Bay right now - heck - you could get two pair for a grand!!
 
I recommend ADS if you're not a fan of JBL or Bose and don't want something bright. I've found that ADS are revealing but still not "bright". They are a magical speaker.
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I'd like to hear some of the ADS speakers myself. Our CL had a nice pair of L880's very reasonably priced last year but I was laid off at the time. The pair in this thread sure is sweet!

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=331815
 
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You're welcome to come by my place and have a listen to anything and everything I have that may be of interest to you...some new but mostly vintage and newer vintage. I have a pretty good variety including some of the models that fellow AKers have been recommending. I have an acoustically treated listening space that measures pretty flat so you can get an idea of the true character of each speaker. I have several amps over 250wpc including a Soundcraftsmen MA5002, Phase Linear 700B, modified and freshly recapped Hafler 500, Kenwood M2 Sigma and some smaller amps as well or you are welcome to bring your Sui (I have an 8080db as well). I use a tube DAC so I can get you a pretty warm signal to better suit your type of music....and bring your own cause my CD collection is a bit more, um, aggressive.

Vandersteen 2ci
Polk Monitor 10A
Polk Monitor 5
Polk SDA-1c
JBL L100t3
Electro Voice Interface C
ADS 1290/2
DCM TimeFrame 600
DCM CX-27
DCM CX-19
Klipsch KG5.5 (with Crites upgrades)
Infinity RSM
Infinity RS5000A
Dynaco 25 (fresh recap)
KLH 23 (fresh recap)
KLH 6
Paradigm 5se
Axiom M3ti

Shoot me a private message if you'd like to set somethin' up.

-Michael
 
tomlinmgt said:
You're welcome to come by my place and have a listen to anything and everything I have that may be of interest to you...some new but mostly vintage and newer vintage. I have a pretty good variety including some of the models that fellow AKers have been recommending. I have an acoustically treated listening space that measures pretty flat so you can get an idea of the true character of each speaker. I have several amps over 250wpc including a Soundcraftsmen MA5002, Phase Linear 700B, modified and freshly recapped Hafler 500, Kenwood M2 Sigma and some smaller amps as well or you are welcome to bring your Sui (I have an 8080db as well). I use a tube DAC so I can get you a pretty warm signal to better suit your type of music....and bring your own cause my CD collection is a bit more, um, aggressive.

Vandersteen 2ci
Polk Monitor 10A
Polk Monitor 5
Polk SDA-1c
JBL L100t3
Electro Voice Interface C
ADS 1290/2
DCM TimeFrame 600
DCM CX-27
DCM CX-19
Klipsch KG5.5 (with Crites upgrades)
Infinity RSM
Infinity RS5000A
Dynaco 25 (fresh recap)
KLH 23 (fresh recap)
KLH 6
Paradigm 5se
Axiom M3ti

Shoot me a private message if you'd like to set somethin' up.

-Michael
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Best way to do it! Great speakers there.
 
chriswhiston said:
They're better than every speaker mentioned above.
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Unless you have heard every speaker I mentioned, mind you listening to a pair that are tuned and restored, and not ones with blown/swapped drivers, out of spec caps, etc, you have NO business saying such a comment. The ones I mentioned are of a broad spectrum of size and power output, and only a few are comparable to the NS's. I can say I have heard NS-1000's, and while they sounded good, they were a bit too bright, shrill and unbalanced for my taste. I heard them when they were new. Drivers were overlapping frequencies, which makes me cringe. My mentioned ones were all flat, clean and well balanced with nice tight crisp bass response. The NS's had none of those characteristics to me. :no:
 
Big Tuna said:
Unless you have heard every speaker I mentioned, mind you listening to a pair that are tuned and restored, and not ones with blown/swapped drivers, out of spec caps, etc, you have NO business saying such a comment. The ones I mentioned are of a broad spectrum of size and power output, and only a few are comparable to the NS's. I can say I have heard NS-1000's, and while they sounded good, they were a bit too bright, shrill and unbalanced for my taste. I heard them when they were new. Drivers were overlapping frequencies, which makes me cringe. My mentioned ones were all flat, clean and well balanced with nice tight crisp bass response. The NS's had none of those characteristics to me. :no:
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I think I've heard enough speakers to conclude what I did and I'll say what I please. It's a forum after all and I'm entitled to my opinion, especially when it's shared by hundreds of others on these forums. I would appreciate if you refrain from telling me or anybody else that they "have NO business saying such a comment" in regards to anything on this forum. After all, "tuna-tuned" isn't a recognized performance benchmark. The NS-1000 is a very respected speaker in these forums and by nearly everyone else who hears them, and your opinions do not reflect the overall attitude and feeling that the NS-1000 is an excellent speaker even by today's standards. I've heard Kenwoods from the LS series, Marantz from the HD series, and don't get me started on anything Cerwin Vega. You can say what you like about the NS-1000s, but there's no comparison here. Sure, the speakers you mentioned may sound nice, but they aren't on the same level as the NS-1000s clarity, dynamics, accuracy, and imaging. The NS-1000s will sound harsh if they're amplified with something sub-par. The NS-1000 is a very flat speaker from 40Hz on up, numerous response graphs back that up.
 
I can say I've owned many great speakers ie: JBL L-250 TI's, 4333A, Tannoy 15's, Cheviots, Quads, Fostex planar panels, Focal, Kenwood LS-1900's, Altec 19's, 17's, Klipsch Heresy's, La Scalas, Corner Horns, custom 4 way horn loaded midbass/sub system using JBL ring radiators and electronic eq's, and Yamaha NS-1000M's. All of them were special in there own kind of way. Depends on your taste and pleasure. I just realized....I'm a speaker whore.:D
 
I have a set of B&W DM4's which i feel are superb sounding speakers for the money, but may not be suitable for a very large room. they reach down quite low and driven with my tube amp are not overly bright, nor were they when driven by my NAD 3130 however i think that they may sound a little bright on some solid state amps.

I have a set of rogers ls 3/5a on the way which i have lusted after for a long time, but if i don't feel they mesure up to the b&w's i will be offloading them to someone who will appreciate them more. part of me thinks that i will miss the depth the b&w's give. and the is no chance i can afford the AB1 subs to pair with them.
 
Tom Brennan said:
Is that an opinion?
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It's my opinion that it's a fact.

If I said it was a fact, all I'd hear the same tired comment "that sound is subjective and nothing is better than anything else." To me, it's a fact, but it's still my opinion.
 
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I realize I'm going way out on a very thin limb here but I'm going to go out there anyway. If anyone wants to take difference with this, they are free to go ahead and take me to task over it................

IMHO the absolute best sounding speakers for under $1,000 are............the ones that sound best to you in your listening room. That really is the bottom line in all this but once again, I can take it if someone wants to tell me to mind my own business and not be butting in like this...............Ha!

Enjoy whatever you do end up with. If you do your homework and let your ears do the buying, a thousand bucks will get you one hell of nice set of speakers that you should thoroughly enjoy................

There, I said my piece, that's my story and I'm sticking to it..................

Happy Holidays to all...........Terry:thmbsp::music:
 
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