Need help for floor stander speakers under 100 K

I have just bought a Marantz SR 9200 receiver which is 7.1 channel with a 140 watt output per channel. Got it cheap as the model is being discontinued but has most of the bells and whistles as the newer SR 9600 and a powerfull continuous power amp. I now need to zero in on a set of speakers to match intially perhps floor stnaders and then the remaining 5.1 speakers.
I am considering the following :
1. DALI ikon 6 5.1 package ( am told bass is not very great)or Ikon 7 as front speakers.
2. Boston VR 3
3. KEF
4. Monitor
5.Tannoy ( can eem to get many models here in Delhi)
6. Dali AXS 8000 getting them cheap can I use as surrounds????
7. Polk Audio
8. Mordant Shaurt 904 ( good bass as integrated powered sub but not very natural sounding.
9. B & W though I auditioned them with some small amp in Mumbai and was not very impressed though, may be the ettings were not right or perhaps the amp dont really know.

I like listening to rock, jazz, indian and westwrn classical so a wide spectrum. Need to hear each instrument clearly at a low volume as well as have the ability to blast it with good bass ( perhaps with dedciated subs later)
Thanks for your advice.

Cheers

Ranjit

Hello Ranjit,

I would suggest you hear the Dynaudio Audience 62 or 72. I think this speaker will suit you fine and will be in Your budget. I heard them myself and they are going to be my next loudspeaker brand in my shooping list soon.

If you are in Delhi, you can call Mr. Shivraj at Mobile: +91-9811271606 for a demo.

List of dealers in India -> http://www.thesoundsmiths.com/DealerNet_All.asp

Thanks Cyrus. What about the Dalis compard to Dyanaudio. What are their pros and cons. Also what about B & W. I saw the sesitivity of the Audience 62 and 72 is about 86db as comparred to 92 db of the Dali Ikon 7s. TO what extent does that make a difference to the soundscape and sound spectrum. THanks for the advice.

IMHO speaker sensitivity this does not really make any diference if you have a good amp.

I would suggest you to hear both the Dali's and the Dynaudio and then buy the one that sounds best to your ears. They both are excellent speaker manufacturers and you can't go wrong with either. I feel that B & W are highly overrated speakers for the money.

For a 100K budget I would put my money on the Dynaudio!

Hi Ranjit,

Let me conciously stay away from recomendations and reviews as I beleive they are fine only to the extent of broad guidelines of what brands are available. At the end u land up picking, something what appeals to ur ears the most irrespective of whether that has a favourable review or not. I say this out of personal experience, which I would like to share with you..

To pick up a pair of speakers for my ARCAM AVR-350 & DV-137 , I had prepared a list of brands, essentially based on reviews and opinions, which included all of what has figured in this & other threads ...the MAs (RS & GS), B&W, Focal, EPOS, AE, ELAC, Dali, Dyna Audio...and probably a few more. Strangely, the brand that I was blown away by was a not so much so a name that is associated with ARCAMs...they were the ProAc Studio 140s.

Though the ProAc Studio 110s & 140s are considered to pair well with Primare equipment and have won quite a few awards, I found them to be extremely cold, analytical and unappealing. I'm not sure if any one else has tried this, but to me the ARCAMs & the ProAc Studios delivered a warm, natural, enveloping sound...a feeling of u being soaked in music. It probably doesnot have that initial WOW factor as many other brands do and after an hour of listening u tend to get fatigued. Instead the ProAcs are very very intoxicating...like shots of tequila...u dont really know how many u had before u know u had few too many. I have spent hours listening to them at a stretch until my wife had to virtually throw me out of the listening room.

Marantz is very similar to ARCAM in terms audio quality (warm, mellow, natural), and your experience might not be very different with ProAcs than mine (being prodominantly a Rock, Jazz & Blues maniac). Especially with the criteria you have laid down ("I like listening to rock, jazz, indian and westwrn classical so a wide spectrum. Need to hear each instrument clearly at a low volume as well as have the ability to blast it with good bass"), I felt those were precisely the reasons why I picked up the ProAc Studios

I have completed the entire 5.1 setup with Studio 110 for surrounds, Studio center and ER1 for sub. Cant help it...just cant listen to anything else.

cheerz

Thanks Aveexplorer for your advice. Any idea where one can audition Proacs in Delhi? Availability and after sales is also important as I understand they are only available in Bangalore and other cities down South.
If you got them from a dealer you know, I would be grateful if you could snd me his contact details.

Cheers and thanks again for the advice.
Ranjit

Hi Ranjit,
I'm not sure if ProAc has a dealer in Delhi. I picked up my speakers from Absolute Phase, Bangalore. If you dont have one, spending another 5K (Del-Blr up/dwn by air) to evaluate a purchase of 100K isn't a bad idea, is it?

hey prithvi, if you see this, please help Ranjit out...

I live in Bangalore and I had precisely the same problem with ARCAM as the distributor was in Faridabad. But let me assure you that when good brands are backed up by good country representatives, I don't believe support would be of much concern. Again this is out of experience...

My DV137 conked out within a month of purchase and I had the replacement piece from the distributor within 3 days...There on so far so good...

ProAc too has a very good country presence...

Hi! Thanks for the info & your experience given to Ranjit!

Ranjit, ProAc are available in Bangalore, Cochin & soon will be available in Hyderabad, Mumbai etc. As AVEXPLORER says its worth you flying down to evaluate the ProAcs.

Rgds

Prithvi

First of all do not get sucked into buying any speaker without listening to them in your own living room or house with your own amp, input source and cables. I too have gone through the speaker buying process and it took my 8 months to finally decide which one would be best for me.

A speaker that may sound good in the shop floor may not sound that good in your home played through your hi-fi. So if you are going to audition any speaker make sure you at least hear the through your own amp and souce with your own cables or hear them a your own place.

Hi Jagat,

You have made an important point. An on-site audition would be ideal, however, we need to realize that in this country very few dealers if any would allow an on-site demo for any of their high end equipments. To be honest, I do not blame them either, most of us lack the moral values and ethics to enjoy such a priviledge.

Now coming to how to deal with it, I feel acoustic colouring is important but does not make a bad speaker good or a good speaker bad. If you like a speaker x over speaker y, with acoustic colouring you would still like speaker x over speaker y. What would change is that you would like speaker x in location-a more than in location-b. I feel it is more important to pay attention to the right combination of speakers & electronics than to acoustic colouring. When you have got that right, the colouring aspects can be taken care of with some acoustic treatment heuristics.

cheerz