[pcookie]

I'm looking to get a pair of floorstanders for the large kitchen/diner in our house.

They must meet the following criteria:

1. Compact.
2. Easy to drive (ideally 8ohm)
3. Magnetically shielded.
4. Easy to place (one has to go in a corner)
5. Cheap. No more than £300.

I like the look of the Cambridge Audio s70's in Richer Sounds, but can't find any reviews.
The AE Nero 3's look promising, but I don't know if they are shielded. The MA Radius s270's look interesting and I've seen them for under £300, but they look too thin to give a decent bass without a sub. I'll be using an old Denon 50wpc amp as stop gap until funds can buy something better.

Any ideas?

Ta, Cookie

[yoman228]

get the RS6 while you can for £325 pounds while you can..... It worth the full price before they discounted

[Thresherinc]

Originally Posted by pcookie

I'm looking to get a pair of floorstanders for the large kitchen/diner in our house.

They must meet the following criteria:

1. Compact.
2. Easy to drive (ideally 8ohm)
3. Magnetically shielded.
4. Easy to place (one has to go in a corner)
5. Cheap. No more than £300.

I like the look of the Cambridge Audio s70's in Richer Sounds, but can't find any reviews.
The AE Nero 3's look promising, but I don't know if they are shielded. The MA Radius s270's look interesting and I've seen them for under £300, but they look too thin to give a decent bass without a sub. I'll be using an old Denon 50wpc amp as stop gap until funds can buy something better.

Any ideas?

Ta, Cookie

I was looking for some floor standing speakers last week, however I managed to get a demonstration of some Q Acoustic 1030s against a similarly priced pair of B&W bookshelf speakers the difference in sound was amazing, went for the B&W speakers.

General advice was that unless you're spending about £500+ then you get a much better speaker from the bookshelf jobbies, the B&W speakers come with a 5 year guarantee too.

I think they were the 686.

[KUBBY]

The Wharfedale 9.4's are on run out at the moment for around £160/£180 you get the equivalent of the award winning 9.1 in a tall form.

I prefer these over the similarly priced Mission and Q acoustics,but your ears may have different preferences.

As an aside,I've often wondered why the Vardus range doesn't feature as highly in the budget floorstander queries as others?.

K.

[pcookie]

Thanks for the swift replies. Unfortunately I have to have floorstanders as placement of bookshelf designs is not possible and I personally don't like the look of standmounted speakers. Some good suggestions but none of the above mentioned appear to be shielded. One of the speakers is going to be very close to my old Philips CRT.

Thanks, Cookie

[KUBBY]

The Wharfedale 9.4 are shielded according to the spec here;
WHARFEDALE DIAMOND 9.4 SPEAKERS (PAIR) - available from Superfi UK Visit http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/product_id/2200 for details

Good Luck anyway.

K.

[BlueWizard]

First, WHY does it have to be shielded? This is not necessary unless the speaker is within 1 foot of an old CRT Tube type TV.

I has some large 12" woofers that were less than, though not my much, 12" from my CRT TV and never had a problem with magnetic interference.

So, again, unless the speaker is literally right next to a CRT TV, you don't need shielding.

In the roughly $300 range are the Tannoy Mercury F4. These were on deep discount a few months ago and many people here snapped them up, and we extremely pleased with the speakers.

The Q Acoustic 1050i is also a design similar to the Tannoy, and in the same price range.

You already know about the Acoustic Energy Neo-3 for about £200. I suspect these would be extremely good speakers for the price.

Now, since this is in a combined Kitchen/Dining area, can I assume these are more or less for background music, or general listening?

If so, you may not really need huge speakers. For the extremely low price of roughy £150, as mentioned by others, you can get the Wharfedale Diamond 9.4, which is a floorstanding speakers with a single 6.5 inch woofer. (AVBristol.co.uk , SuperFi.co.uk , and others )

These are actually larger than the well liked well respected Diamond 9.1. The 9.1 is a bookshelf with a 5" woofer. The 9.4 is a floorstander with a 6.5" woofer. A 6.5" woofer is about 1.7 times bigger than a 5" woofer.

Wharfedale 9.4, granite slabs and flatfeet

Scroll down to post number 8 to see a photo of the 9.4 in place in someone's house.

Now if you could possibly push to £370, you can get the very substantial Diamond 9.6. These are a true 3.5-way speaker with twin 8" woofers. (SightAndSoundUK.com )

Also, the new Q Acoustic 2050 is about £370, which is the new improved version of the 1050i.

It is worth calling several dealer to find out what the current prices are on the Monitor Audio Silver RS series speakers. These are available for about HALF their normal discount price, but I don't see them advertised anywhere. To get the deal, you have to call and ask. These are stunning speakers.

One additional point. One of the members here in the group went to Richer Sounds and listened to several speakers in the £100 to £150 range. He was most impressed with the sound of the Cambridge S30, which is a small bookshelf speaker.

While it was the most expensive in the test, he implied that it was well worth the extra money. In view of that review, I would say that the larger Cambridge floorstanders are well worth giving a listen to.

I also notice that Richer Sounds has Mordaunt Short 916i speakers on sale for £299, available in several finishes. That is also a speaker well worth listening to. I've never heard a bad word against Mordaunt Short. Most people are very impressed and pleased by their speakers.

In terms of 'easy to drive', that is more determined by Sensitivity. The closer to, and farther above, 90db the sensitivity rating is, the easier they are to drive.

You would only need to consider impedance if you are placing more than one speaker on each amp channel.

Steve/bluewizard

[shanecr]

I have the wharfedale 9.4's (indeed, thats my photo linked to above ) and i love them, excellent sound, and dare i say with limited knowledge, easy to place due to the forward facing ports. Only £150 delivered from AvBristol, they get my vote.

[S Bibby]

Hi,
If you can get a deal on KEF speakers ie. ex-display/demo then the IQ5 or IQ50 would be worth considering. I've seen the IQ7 discounted to £350 at Richer Sounds, but those are somewhat larger.

As Steve pointed out to me on a Wharfedale thread the Diamond 9.4 uses a 6 inch woofer from the 9.2, so it probably has a bit more poke than a 9.1 plus a decent frequency range. For these and Mission speakers AV Bristol might be the best site to look for (also on Ebay; I bought a Minidisc cleaner from their shop and service is good).

I don't know if you have heard of Boston Acoustics but they have a floorstanding speak. available called the CR97 with a 170mm (7 inch) woofer and patented tweeter. I am using a pair of CR series speakers at the moment and although they aren't the manufacturers latest range, they are basically equivalent to British budget ranges such as the Wharfedale Diamond. They are available on special from Peter Tyson for only £130 - slightly less than the Diamond 9.4 Peter Tyson Online

If you wanted more info then I would recommend the Boston website -
Category Grid
The Classic Series is known as the CS line now since the model above is older.

[S Bibby]

Apologies, Boston CR97 is no longer available on the Peter Tyson website. I'm disappointed since I hoped to try them out soon but their Ebay shop still has some CR77 on sale for £80, which is a good deal but they are not floorstanders.

Peter T seems to be the only big dealer for Boston in the UK so I might send them a few emails. The Reference range must be available since Home Cinema Choice just reviewed it.