Floorstanders or Sats with Sub??

Rocket B

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Hi all, I have just posted a thread earlier about which sub to buy, however since then have thought of an alternative, what do you think.....? Decent Onkyo Amp, with Boston Hand me down Micro 90x,c and xls satallites (which i have) plus buying a sub around the £200 mark i.e. the BK Gemini 2.... or using the elac center which i still have from a previous system with the boston 90x pair for rears and buying some floorstanders and making do with that untill i can afford to upgrade further?? Are there any floor standers that will give me a decent bass untill i can afford to uprade?

Music is not really that important as i have a seperate music system which i am happy with.

Did have some Kef coda 9's and some B&W 602's which were pretty good but never had a sub so don't know how they would compare????
 
BUDGET?

For the record, here is what the Boston Micro 90x look like -

Boston Micro 90x - Google Search

When you say "...Decent Onkyo Amp..." are you saying you have this amp, or you are contemplating buying this amp? Again, BUDGET?

I don't think you will get any response until you give us some kind of working budget? The field is just too wide and too deep to randomly guess at speakers.

Steve/bluewizard
 
Yes i have the white Micro 90x front and xls rears and the center is micro 90c which is black... my old friend kept the sub tho unfortunately. I have a Onkyo IXDS575... when i say decent i mean decent to me and its Onkyo... old now but i think still pretty good. I bought this years ago with the Coda 9's (later replaced by the B&W 602's running on the front), this was back in the days when i had a well payed job, no missus, and no kids (lil boys now 19 months and eating my thin wallet!). Just want to buy the right sub for around £200 and treat my self to some good movie sound! using the PS3 my partner bought me for xmas as a bluray player with the optical sound as no HDMI on this old girl, on Panasonic 42 Plasma (bargain ex demo from John Lewis about 2 years ago)

What i'm thinking so far is the BK Gemini 2 and maybe getting a second when i can afford it if ones not enough on its own, What do you think?? I did pop into my local shop and listen to a REL T5... sounded good! to much money for me but that was the smallest, cheapest sub they had and thought it might give me an idea of what to expect from a small sub... i know its £200 cheaper but would the Gem be similar or £200 cheaper in sound too?

Cheers and sorry
 
Oh and the B&W's i had.... when moving house i stored stuff at my parents place for a bit and made the mistake of hooking them up in there living room... they use them all the time and love them... i'd feel bad taking them away now
 
Oh and also the friend who gave the Bostons.... I did tile his floor :)
 
Basically either solution will work, and the cost for comparable quality will work out to be the same. So the answer to the title question is the same as the answer to the question "what suits your room and furnishings better?".

The Gemini is a popular subwoofer and should work well for you.

Don't bother adding a second subwoofer, even if your room is very large. Getting two subwoofers to work together rather than against each other is a major job, and the result is little more than slightly louder explosions in the mansion your budget implies you don't actually live in ;).
 
Thanks, think i'm going with the sub for deeper movie bass and the floorstanders might look abit over powering in my room. So I'll go with Gemini 2 and if its not enough then i'll upgrade to a bigger one when i can afford it... the Gems seem to hold there value quite well if i evr do want to upgrade.... cheers

No i dont live in a mansion... end of terreace with the kitchen inbetween the living room (5m x 3.5ish) and my naibours who are pretty cool anyway, so i can crank it up abit. :smashin:
 
So, the basic choices are -

- Boston in front with a new Sub?

- New Floorstanding in front, no Sub for now, and the Boston in the back?


To some extent, it depends on your priorities. For me it would be floorstanding in front, and perhaps a Sub later on when I could afford it again. But then, I'm not you.

With a £200, perhaps a Sub woofer would, if you will excuse the pun, give you the biggest bang for the buck (most for your money).

But, while your amp may work, it seems to have some limitations, and while I realize money doesn't grow on trees, you might want to consider replacing that in the future. I believe you said the Amp doesn't have HDMI, and it is not likely to have HD audio decoding. So, while it is an amp, and while it does work, interconnects are going to be difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.

The Boston speakers seem pretty small, so to use them in the front, you definitely need a Sub. Floorstanding speaker will have good bass, but for £200, not likely Sub bass.

I can think of a couple of floorstanding speakers, one in particular, that would do well in all areas including bass, but they are monster sized speakers-

Wharfedale XARUS5000-BLACK from Hughes Direct

Twin 8" bass drivers, 8" midrange, and deep bass response (30hz @ -6db) equal to many Subs at a real bargain price, but 1080mm tall (42.5 inches).

However, there is no truly matching Center for the Xarus line of speakers. The best you could do, when the money was available, is try to blend something from the Wharfedale Diamond line.

It is a very complex task, but I think probably the shortest and easiest path is to get the Sub, use the Boston in front, use the current amp for now, and continue to upgrade as more money becomes available.

As to Twin Subs, I'm inclined to agree with Mark, you simply don't have the money, the room, or the real need for this, and as such, it becomes a waste of money when you have so many other areas that need updating.

Steve/bluewizard
 
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Thanks for that guys! I ordered my BK Gemini 2 today, called and asked if they had one ready to go and they did, so no 3/4 week wait. It will arrive tomorrow and i can't wait! i've wired everything up ready to plugin and go... well sort of, i'll run her in gentely for a while first.

Had a go at getting every i've got right and ready for the sub and i have to say i'm very suprised by the little Bostons... they sound great! When I've got that Gem going i reckon i'll be sorted for while... definately enjoy movies more than i am now with TV sound, thats for sure!!

I think like you say i'll be looking at my amp next and maybe a set of secound hand Floor standers from ebay... i've seen the likes of the Kef Coda 9's and mission 733's going very cheap... old i know but i had the Coda 9's and from memory they were great!

But that won't be for a while anyways... i'm just happy and excited to be getting my new sub tomorrow :D

Cheers
 

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