best 5.1 speaker system to get from USA?

3 Way Bookshelf Speakers
blackscorpio said:
Exactly, my thoughts, selling the Denon and get a better one. Actually I bought it as it was cheap and never thought about the speaker support.

I assume you are Indian in the USA, which part of India are you from? How does the Indian songs sound on your setup? What is your source for the Indian music? I mean do you buy music discs or play ripped mp3's? How much one appreciate playing mp3(120KPBS) on speakers like SALK compared to average quality speakers like polks or KEF's?

Too many questions I suppose, but I appreciate your help. Will look into the SALK you suggested. Thank you.
Click to expand...

Yes, I am from Kanpur. Indian songs sound as good as they are recorded. The Salks are quite neutral and revealing speakers, so any differences in source - good and bad - will be very audible. Unfortunately, hindi movie songs are not all stellar recordings. 120kbps mp3's will most probably not sound good. I use ripped Apple Lossless (similar to FLAC) most of the time and they are quite decent. I have several 192 kbps and above too, and they are fine too. Excellent recordings will sound amazing on Salks though.

If you want to hide the flaws and have everything sound good, Polks etc (or any other speakers that are considered warm rather than neutral or bright) may be a better option. But if you want to have amazing sound for good recordings, Salks will stomp all over such speakers.
 
sarge_in said:
Yes, I am from Kanpur. Indian songs sound as good as they are recorded. The Salks are quite neutral and revealing speakers, so any differences in source - good and bad - will be very audible. Unfortunately, hindi movie songs are not all stellar recordings. 120kbps mp3's will most probably not sound good. I use ripped Apple Lossless (similar to FLAC) most of the time and they are quite decent. I have several 192 kbps and above too, and they are fine too. Excellent recordings will sound amazing on Salks though.

If you want to hide the flaws and have everything sound good, Polks etc (or any other speakers that are considered warm rather than neutral or bright) may be a better option. But if you want to have amazing sound for good recordings, Salks will stomp all over such speakers.
Click to expand...

Where are you in USA?

SALK, do you want me to stick with SALK Sub as well or others do fine with that?

If not salk, what other brands do you recommend? Any views on following brands, EMPtek, KEF, SWAN, Monitor Audio.

I was looking at this SWAN

Monitor Audio Bronze series

KEF Q900 series

Emptek, it is local made in SLC, Utah.
 
blackscorpio said:
Where are you in USA?

SALK, do you want me to stick with SALK Sub as well or others do fine with that?

If not salk, what other brands do you recommend? Any views on following brands, EMPtek, KEF, SWAN, Monitor Audio.

I was looking at this SWAN

Monitor Audio Bronze series

KEF Q900 series

Emptek, it is local made in SLC, Utah.
Click to expand...

I am in Los Angeles. I got the Salk sub so it matches the speakers and have been pretty happy with it. There are several other subwoofer speacialist brands - HSU, SVS, Rythmik, Seaton etc. I have not heard them all to offer objective comparisons. But several forums will have ample discussion and comparisons of them. Size of speakers and subwoofer will depend heavily on your room size.

Of the brands you mention, I have heard Monitor Audio RS6 (didn't like them at all), KEF (just ok for me), Swans - I heard a much bigger and expensive version of these a couple days back and they were good, but don't know about the other models. Speakers are very personal though. Several people like KEF and MA a lot, so who knows. For me, I just attended The Home Entertainment Show (T.H.E. Show) in SoCal last weekend, that had 2 hotels full of high-end speaker brands. None of them in the less than $10,000 category sounded better to me than the Salks I currently have (HT2-TL).

Btw, all of Salk (standard finish), Ascend, Aperion have 30-days trial. Aperion pays for shipping back as well. You can choose a couple brands and then decide for yourself at your home.
 
I would strongly recommend GoldenEar SuperCinema 3 (for your budget),,,recently bought Triton Cinema...amazing sound....:)
 
If I look at your music/movies (75/25) distributions, I have few experiences here to share. I have the very same 2112 CI and is paired with Klipsch HD1000 (5.1). After few tries of Audysses, the Movies are perfect on them. And the recommended movie master volume is around -20db. It really gives a theater feel.

For music, you know it's another ball game altogether. I never listen music on this. I have a separate stereo setup with Sansui 717/Sansui D11 / Sansui D7 powering my bookshelves.

Recently I am using another combination for music and I am pretty much happy with the quality and this is...

- Streaming FLAC to DLNA compatible Denon 2112 (let the DAC thing happens in Denon), use the Zone 2 pre outs to fed to the Sansuis and you have to trust me, this sound is quite high grade.

So in my opinion, since your Movies are only 25%, any good 5.1 should work for you in the range of around 600 - 1000 USD. All works pretty damm well. Just one thing, plan properly to get the BIG woofer of that 5.1 set back to India. I have a tough time carrying the abnormally big woofer of Klipsch HD 1000.
 
Last edited:
vipul_bscity said:
If I look at your music/movies (75/25) distributions, I have few experiences here to share. I have the very same 2112 CI and is paired with Klipsch HD1000 (5.1). After few tries of Audysses, the Movies are perfect on them. And the recommended movie master volume is around -20db. It really gives a theater feel.

For music, you know it's another ball game altogether. I never listen music on this. I have a separate stereo setup with Sansui 717/Sansui D11 / Sansui D7 powering my bookshelves.

Recently I am using another combination for music and I am pretty much happy with the quality and this is...

- Streaming FLAC to DLNA compatible Denon 2112 (let the DAC thing happens in Denon), use the Zone 2 pre outs to fed to the Sansuis and you have to trust me, this sound is quite high grade.

So in my opinion, since your Movies are only 25%, any good 5.1 should work for you in the range of around 600 - 1000 USD. All works pretty damm well. Just one thing, plan properly to get the BIG woofer of that 5.1 set back to India. I have a tough time carrying the abnormally big woofer of Klipsch HD 1000.
Click to expand...

on Second thought I am considering a second stereo purely for music and raising my budget. so, this will be for 90%(Movies & TV) and 10%(games music etc). Considering $2500 for each setups including subs, may go little over budget for HT though. Still reading through various forums/threads to understand better.
 
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