Bookshelf speakers with weighty bass.

neil27

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Hi,

Could anyone out there recomend me bookshelf speakers with nice presence and weight in the bass for music, and on the cheaper side, below £150.

Thanks.
 
Most if not all bookshelf speakers that are capable of a good quantity and quality of bass will be well outside the £150 price bracket I'm afraid.
 
well what would be the best i could get for around £150...

I also want the speakers to have alot of clarity in the mids and top end. keeping in mind my amplifier is quite neutral and flat sounding (cambridge audio a3i)

How are those XTZ 93wmt's compared to other popular speakers in this range like cambridge audio s30, Mordaunt Short 902i and Tannoy f1's?

Thanks,
 
If you want big bass, you need big speakers in big cabinets. Now there are many bookshelf sized speakers that have impressive bass for their cost and size, and that is about the best you can hope for.

Now 'impressive for their cost and size' does not mean bad or weak bass. Many of the compact speaker are indeed impressive, but you can't expect them to stand up along side a good speaker with a 8", 10", or 12" woofer.

The most common speaker just under your price range that are most frequenlty mentioned are -

Wharfedale Diamond 9.1
Mordaunt Short 902i
Tannoy Mercury F1
Mission M32i

All these are going to be in the slightly less than £100 to slightly less than £130 range.

Steve/bluewizard
 
Im going to test out some speakers tomorrow, most probably at richer sounds.

I think i will try to check out (just going off reviews):

Warfedale 9.1
Tannoy F1
and possibly Warfedale 9.2's as well.. just to compare the extra frequencey response and see if its worth it.

Any other input on this would be aprichiated. :thumbsup:
 
I running a pair of Tannoy F1's as rear's in a 5.1 setup. Used a fair bit for music with my Onkyo set to "All channel Stereo" splitting left and right across both fronts and Rear's.

The F1's do a grand job and happily keep pace most of the time with my larger F4 front's.
 
if you can you should get MONITOR AUDIO BR2 for £200 they are quailty they are worth alot more than £2oo i know because a spent 5 hours testing them with alot of other speakers witch were £500+. I was going to get the MA GS10 for £799 but there was no real diference than br2
 
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if you can you should get MONITOR AUDIO BR2 for £200 they are quailty they are worth alot more than £2oo i know because a spent 5 hours testing them with alot of other speakers witch were £500+. I was going to get the MA GS10 for £799 but there was no real diference than br2

I'm shocked you compare the Br range to the GS range like that, but your opinion is your opinion I guess.

The XTZs are supposed to be better than just about any other speaker for the money and there is thread here by a member called Badger0-0 that goes into some detail about them. Drop him a PM and ask him, or read his review thread or both. They are apparently well worth checking out and I really would drop him a PM about them :smashin:

The other speakers mentioned are all favorites though and it'd be wrong of you not to look into them too.
 
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I'm shocked you compare the Br range to the GS range like that, but your opinion is your opinion I guess.

The XTZs are supposed to be better than just about any other speaker for the money and there is thread here by a member called Badger0-0 that goes into some detail about them. Drop him a PM and ask him, or read his review thread or both. They are apparently well worth checking out and I really would drop him a PM about them :smashin:

The other speakers mentioned are all favorites though and it'd be wrong of you not to look into them too.

The MA BR2 are not better than MA GS10 but there not far behind in quailty not £600 anyway
 
The MA BR2 are not better than MA GS10 but there not far behind in quailty not £600 anyway

I'd say that more to do with the law of diminishing returns, I'd say they are certainly a fairly large leap beyond the BR speakers. Even my R270's are better than the Bronze speakers IMO, and I found the Gold series a real jump in performance on what I have.
 
I'd say that more to do with the law of diminishing returns, I'd say they are certainly a fairly large leap beyond the BR speakers. Even my R270's are better than the Bronze speakers IMO, and I found the Gold series a real jump in performance on what I have.

Well i tried them both as i had a budget of £2000 for a 5.1 package and i was gonna get the Golds but i could not see a big differnce over the br2 thats my opinion
 
You cant get anywhere near a 5.1 setup of golds for 2000 mate! i dont think u could go with silver either!
 
You cant get anywhere near a 5.1 setup of golds for 2000 mate! i dont think u could go with silver either!

I've already got a subwoofer so i had £2000 for 2 fronts 2 rears 1 center. Sorry never said. The subs a REL T1. My local Sight and Sound were goning to Sell me 4 MA GS 10 for £1550 that would off left me with £450 for a center. And they were selling the GS-LCR for £500 so i could got that just (without my wife kicking off)
 
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Well i tried them both as i had a budget of £2000 for a 5.1 package and i was gonna get the Golds but i could not see a big differnce over the br2 thats my opinion

People should keep in mind that buying a speakers is rarely about what is literally best, and more about what you like best.

People always think they want audio perfection, but are usually disappointed when they hear it. They expect more when in reality, they are likely to find less.

Keep in mind there is a reason that they sell so many cheap stereos and boomboxes. The reason, lots of people like them. The sound is far from perfect, but to many people it sounds good, and good is...well...good.

I suspect that is exactly what we have here. Yelts found a speaker he liked, a speaker that impressed him. If he's happy then I'm happy.

As someone else pointed out, there is the Law of Diminishing Returns. Likely, Yelts did like the Gold, but simply did not think they sounded more than three times better than the Bronze. Why spend a lot more merely to gain a little more?

I think this is valuable information for anyone purchasing audio equipment. While many are in pursuit of audio perfection, and spend a lifetime never finding it; other are in pursuit of what pleases them - right or wrong. I think you will be more satisfied with a speaker that pleases you than you will be with they typical obsessive pursuit of perfection.

Just a thought.

Steve/bluewizard
 
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Well i tried them both as i had a budget of £2000 for a 5.1 package and i was gonna get the Golds but i could not see a big differnce over the br2 thats my opinion
While I dont agree I will concede that if thats what you feel then thats how it is for you. I guess the best thing from that is the amount of cash you get to keep n your pocket, and I can but only envy your for that. Fair play to you mate :smashin:, and I'm glad your happy with your kit.

I almost wish I did agree with you :(
 
People should keep in mind that buying a speakers is rarely about what is literally best, and more about what you like best.

People always think they want audio perfection, but are usually disappointed when they hear it. They expect more when in reality, they are likely to find less.

Keep in mind there is a reason that they sell so many cheap stereos and boomboxes. The reason, lots of people like them. The sound is far from perfect, but to many people it sounds good, and good is...well...good.

I suspect that is exactly what we have here. Yelts found a speaker he liked, a speaker that impressed him. If he's happy then I'm happy.

As someone else pointed out, there is the Law of Diminishing Returns. Likely, Yelts did like the Gold, but simply did not think they sounded more than three times better than the Bronze. Why spend a lot more merely to gain a little more?

I think this is valuable information for anyone purchasing audio equipment. While many are in pursuit of audio perfection, and spend a lifetime never finding it; other are in pursuit of what pleases them - right or wrong. I think you will be more satisfied with a speaker that pleases you than you will be with they typical obsessive pursuit of perfection.

Just a thought.

Steve/bluewizard
What you say really hits home. Over the past year (since buying my sub), Ive got into EQ'ing, and started to be critical of my now under par speakers. I cant seem to just listen and enjoy anything anymore (although I do enjoy what I hear), I'm forever critically analysing the sound and being distracted by 'what if', and 'if I did this-then what' questions. I'm always wandering if I can squeeze another 1 percent performance out of my sub and so on.

here are times when I listen to something and think, thats how I want it to sound all the time and then there are other times when it gets a bit fatiguing and I cant just seem to be happy now. Upgraditus has set in and its like having OCD.

Sometimes I wish I was just happy and could forget about how its sounds :(
 
People should keep in mind that buying a speakers is rarely about what is literally best, and more about what you like best.

People always think they want audio perfection, but are usually disappointed when they hear it. They expect more when in reality, they are likely to find less.

Keep in mind there is a reason that they sell so many cheap stereos and boomboxes. The reason, lots of people like them. The sound is far from perfect, but to many people it sounds good, and good is...well...good.

I suspect that is exactly what we have here. Yelts found a speaker he liked, a speaker that impressed him. If he's happy then I'm happy.

As someone else pointed out, there is the Law of Diminishing Returns. Likely, Yelts did like the Gold, but simply did not think they sounded more than three times better than the Bronze. Why spend a lot more merely to gain a little more?

I think this is valuable information for anyone purchasing audio equipment. While many are in pursuit of audio perfection, and spend a lifetime never finding it; other are in pursuit of what pleases them - right or wrong. I think you will be more satisfied with a speaker that pleases you than you will be with they typical obsessive pursuit of perfection.

Just a thought.

Steve/bluewizard

Very well said.
 
What you say really hits home. Over the past year (since buying my sub), Ive got into EQ'ing, and started to be critical of my now under par speakers. I cant seem to just listen and enjoy anything anymore (although I do enjoy what I hear), I'm forever critically analysing the sound and being distracted by 'what if', and 'if I did this-then what' questions. I'm always wandering if I can squeeze another 1 percent performance out of my sub and so on.

here are times when I listen to something and think, thats how I want it to sound all the time and then there are other times when it gets a bit fatiguing and I cant just seem to be happy now. Upgraditus has set in and its like having OCD.

Sometimes I wish I was just happy and could forget about how its sounds :(

This was something that happened to me back in the early 90's, in the end I was just listening to the equipment, not the music, and not getting much pleasure from it. Spent too much time fiddling about with my kit. It can become a bit of an obsession. Now I have a system that I like to listen to music on. Its a budget set up but I really like the sound I get out of it. Perhaps i am mellowing in my old age !
 
for there price the diamond 9.1 takes some beating next would be the MA Br2s although more costly.
I agree sometimes people get to involved with there kit instead of actually enjoying the music, thats not to say there is anything wrong with trying to improve your kit.
 

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