Good speakers for a low budget

Wow, we don't have a clue about what this woman's taste in music is, what equipment she's going to use with whatever speakers she chooses, the room she plans to put the speakers in, but already we have many people giving suggestions about what speakers to buy. Anybody know what's wrong with this approach? To many people around here, are very quick to say "but this, buy that" without having any idea about what really needed or what might works best for this woman. Perhaps, some of y'all before you "shrill" your favorites, you might want to ask some necessary information. It's the type of thing that might help make someone make an educated decision. What works for you, might not be what's best for somebody else. As I see it, the orginal poster has given very little information to work from, and that being the case I would be hesitant to make any recommendation whatsoever.

Btw, for those who are wondering what the "cleaned up" thing is all about, it just means that certain things you might have done in the "hippy days" you've let go of. While I still enjoy a little "herbal enhancement" from time to time, all the other stuff I let go of, way back in the 80s. So now you know what a "cleaneduphippy" is all about.

"The best speakers in the $600 class are limited in one way or another, and I doubt the different music going through them would make 'that big' of a difference."

Well Carrot, why did you even post the question if that the way you feel about $600 class speakers? While you are correct that speakers in this price range have their limitations, the fact is what those limitations may be vary greatly beween the various makes of speakers. and what their designers think is the best compromises to make in keeping a speaker at certain price point. Anyway, based on what you posted about your friends listening taste, and associated equipment. I would probably be like Rar1 (Rich) and would suggest either the Energy RC-10 or the NHT Classic Two or Three. All are incredibly good souding and good looking speakers at their price point, and should she in the future, wish to upgrade her other components these speakers would be more than ready to fit into an upgraded system.

PS: Just curious on why your friend wants to get rid of her "unlabeled PSB"? From what I remember, their Alphas were some good sounding little speakers.

Imaginarynumbers,

I'm going to take the side of your female friend, and say replace the "weak link" first, which seems to be her CDP. One that I've owned and though was a good sounding player is the NAD C542. If her speakers are PSB Alphas, then she already has some good speakers, and while getting some $600 a pair speakers may be an improvement, it could also prove not to be the case. Bottom line, keep the speakers, replace the CDP, and that may be all she needs, to solve her soundstaging and high frequency problems. If not, then I would also be looking at an integrated amp (and there are good sounding, affordable offering from NAD, Cambridge Audio, Denon, Rotel, Marantz, ect) as an integrated should give her better performance than her receiver (which may be the real "weak link"). Basically the "speaker first" approach works great if someone is building a complete system. Otherwise, I would subscribe to "relacing the weakest link" method. Remember, a system is only going to sound as good as it's "weakest link". You could find yourself in a situation, where "upgraded speakers" only further magnatizes the weaknesses of the components in front of them.