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Great bookshelf or small towers suggestions

I'm looking to upgrade my main speakers for home theater/music setup.

Currently have Sound Dynamic 300 ti's that are about 16 years old. I have a Marantz 5009 AV receiver and some Orbs for side and back channels. I have a sound dynamic center speaker too. The room is 11x15 with a fairly low 7' ceiling. I want to replace the LR main and Center speakers.  Budget < $5K.

floorplan:  http://tinyurl.com/zd68dqf

Soundwise I am after improved brightness and up front treble and mids. I am not the biggest bass nut - a) I have downstairs neighbors and b) I've played drums for 40 years and have heard it all. I hate being bounced out of my seat every time stuff explodes and mainly want to hear dialog better for TV and clearer more sparkly acoustic pianos and spangalang of cymbals like they're in the room with me.

So far from what I've heard in stores, I liked the Magnepan .7's a lot. But they just won't fit the space. Too wide and didn't pass WAF. I listened to a few other speakers - mid level B&W's, Golden ear, martin logan, and so far little compared to the magnepans except maybe the BW 805D3's - which are way over my budget. I thought about looking for used 805d2's. I did like a pair of Focal 714's and could probably live with them. But this is the last pair of speakers I ever want to buy. So I keep coming back to thinking about the new 805's or something close.

I've been interested in a lot of the factory direct speakers like the Sierra Tower & 2's but it bothers me to buy speakers I can't hear first.

Any advice appreciated.

Thx!
wolfernyc

Showing 1 response by reubent

reubent
7,072 posts
 
Wolfernyc,

There's one in every crowd, Know what I mean? I'm going to offer up the contrarian post now......

The Sound Dynamics 300ti is a very good speaker and was considered one of the true Giant Killers when it was produced. Even today they are very highly regarded. You may end up buying different speakers that are not necessarily an improvement, but are simply different.

Looking at your complete system, it makes me wonder if your $5000 budget might be better spent on electronics instead of speakers. You are using a mid-priced HT receiver for processing, pre-amp and amp. What are your source components? DVD player? Dedicated CD player? Digital Music Server? Vinyl? What type of media do you play? Redbook CD, vinyl, mp3, FLAC, hi-res digital, etc.? Digital, especially low-res digital, is notorious for having highs that do not sound natural.

The Sound Dynamics 300ti is capable of sounding very good when feed a good signal from the source and amplifier. You may be looking at the wrong part of your system for an improvement.

Now, that said, I have not heard your system or any of the components you own, so I could be totally off base. However, I suggest you do a search on "Sound Dynamics 300ti Reviews" and read what has been written about them. People who own Quad Electrostats, Magnepan and other high end speakers have kept their old Sound Dynamics 300ti's because they were too good to get rid of....

The Contrarian
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