Insignias at Best Buy $39.99

Never Again!

Thought I would get a pair of these and do a "store pickup"....
Well they were out of stock and would ship to me free. OK...:scratch2:

Well it has been TEN DAYS since I was expecting them to be delivered.
OOPS has NO CLUE where my package is:no:
Can't pick it up and no one has a clue as to when to expect it.:no:
Called BB and asked if I refused the package if/when I ever saw it would I get my money back. NO. Must return in-store or whatever. :no:
Right now I am so fed up with the whole process if I saw the box I would probably kick it right back at the driver (Except that I would NOT get a refund.) :no:

NOT a WorstBuy fan and CERTAINLY NOT A UPS FAN :no: :no: :no:
The combination of these two is making me NOT A HAPPY CAMPER :no:
If I could get these at Circuit City I would have picked up a pair in a second.

Oh Well Live and Learn :thumbsdn:
 
Git what you pay for.....sorry. They'll turn up. You are owed a pair of speakers. Bitch till you're happy.
 
I bought a pair online tonight, we'll see if they are "in stock" as stated. Can't beat the price, though.
 
I did an A/B against my Original Advents. Put an Insignia on top of an Advent, connected them to the right and left channels. switched into "mono" then compared by twisting the balance control.

First thing, I doubt their claim of 90 dB sensitivity. One needed a lot more volume control to match the sound from the Advent. The latter is an acoustic suspension design and not known for efficiency but it clearly was more efficient (sound per power input) than the Insignia. If the Advents are 90 dB, than the Insignias are 87 dB.

Besides the bass range where the Advents would clearly the winner, the transparency of the Advents was generally superior as was the "pacing."

Next, I'll compare them to the Baby Advent IIs. The original idea was to replace the Babies with the Insignias. I've dumped on the Babies before although they are sounding better when driven by the SoNy STR-6060FW then ever before. Got the Babies for $25 off eBay.
 
Picking mine up now. I'm gonna use them to blast rap from the "white" company van whilst I drive through WhiteSE's 'hood tonight.
 
I picked up a set tonight, but they were off sale, regular price $49.95. I had a $25 gift card to use tho so it wasn't bad.

I brought them home and hooked them up in my workshop, which quite possibly has some of the worst acoustics possible. 13x30 room, bare concrete floor, 2 bare block walls (the short walls at each end) and thin paneling with zero insulation over block on the long walls. Ceiling is 1x1 cardboard-esque tile with no insulation. 2x10 ceiling beams on 24" centers, and 4" of concrete on the roof above the tounge and groove underlayment. In short, a big echo chamber.

I have the Allied 495 sitting on one of those cheap 10 foot folding tables (it came with the house) and the speakers are currently sitting on the floor up against the wall under the table. This actually proved to be the best sound from them. First impressions were a bit blah. They sounded a bit better than the Fishers (no surprise, they're pretty much junk) but nothing totally amazing. They'd develop very distinct distortion by 2/3 volume, bass was kind of muddy and not terribly substantial. I remembered reading on here that these things need some breaking in, so I put on some Dire Straits and let it go for a while at decent volume while I did some cleaning. After a while, I noticed that the bass had opened up a lot. I did some tweaking on the tone controls, and gave it some more throttle. After a while, I found that I could actually run the receiver at 100% volume without substantial distortion. I have never in the 8 or 9 years I've owned this baby had it wide open like that. I cut it back and did some more tweaking and found myself pretty pleased with the sound. A bit strong in the ~200 hz range but nothing really bad. Bass was much cleaner and more powerful than I'd expected and the highs were nice. Just for yucks, I flipped to the remote speakers (the aforementioned trashy Fishers) and good lord those things sound bad by comparison. What was not a huge difference at first is now like night and day after a few hours of thrashing. All in all, I'm very satisfied for $50, and the first brand new set of speakers I have ever owned.
 
Aaagh!!! Best Buy knows the Insignias are good! I just checked on the Insignia bookshelf speakers and they are $79.99/pair now!!!
Who let the cat outta the bag? Last week they were $39.99/pair. So the next day I went to grab a pair but they were back up to $49.99 so I passed.
 
I'm not surprised. I suspect that BB is trying to cash in on the buzz. Seeing what you got for less then $50.00, I wonder if they were selling them at a loss just to get them on the street and generate some good word-of-mouth. However, since BB business is selling consumer products as opposed to production of audio equipment, I wonder if they won't pull a Radio Shack-like manuver, and make running changes to them that include "more cost-effective" drivers resulting in a inferior sounding speaker, now that the speakers have developed a following.

Mike
 
In another related thread, a member had expressed his concern that all the positive attention given to the Insignia NS-B2111 on AK (and other audio websites) would drive up the price. I had chimed in and agreed with another member that if that were the case, it would have happened already months ago, that all of our commentary on this product likely amounted to no more than "a tempest in a teapot".

Given the new $80 pricetag for the 'sigs, I now am forced to reconsider this position.

When I wrote that, I had not stopped to consider what happened to prices and availability of the Entech Number Cruncher 203.2 DAC units. Many of us participated in extensive (and ongoing) discussion detailing an overwhelming positive perception of this product as well. These originally sold BIN for about $35 on the popular auction site, then $50, then $85, and finally a recent one went for over $100 when it showed up.

Here you have it: Two case studies in the most basic economics lesson of supply and demand. Though I DID get the Insignia set for $40, I did not cash in on the 203.2, though now the 205 version is being snapped up for $100 BIN as I write this. THIS time, I will prognosticate a price increase.
 
Well, try to look on the positive side, boys- pay $80 for the speakers, do $100 worth of mods, and you'll have the best $50 speakers you can buy.
 
bookasan said:
WTF? Now it says $79.99.
Click to expand...

As is the deal with most buys of a lifetime, "You snooze, you lose!"

Still the best new speakers under $200 money can buy........
 
Everyone had ample time to buy

tentoze said:
Well, try to look on the positive side, boys- pay $80 for the speakers, do $100 worth of mods, and you'll have the best $50 speakers you can buy.
Click to expand...

Paid $35/pr each for the few pair I bought, didn't do any mods, and they still sound sweeter than the majority of vintage bookshelf speakers that cost TEN times as much 30 years ago!!:yes:
 
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