New front speakers - budget £300 inc stands

[davepuma]

Hi,

My mate has just blown up his Celestion front speakers and is in the market for some new fronts. He has a Celestion Soundstyle set up, the centres and surrounds are similar to the KEF eggs, in fact, I think they might have the same innards but I'm not sure.

http://www.celestion.com/products/soundstyle/soundstyle300.html

His budget is £300 and I've had a gander on the net and came up with a few suggestions for him to look at. I don't think he will be able to demo them all as the local Sevenoaks has a very limited stock. His room is farely small, I would say it's about 14' x 12' and he has laminated floors. Obviously the fronts need to be magnetically shielded.

Book shelf:
Q Acoustic 1020
Acoustic Energy Evo1
Wharfdale Diamond 9.1
Mordaunt Short 902i
Tannoy Sensys DC1
Quad 11L
KEF iQ3

plus a set of Atacama stands for £60.

Floorstanders
Q Acoustic 1030
Tannoy Sensys 2
Wharfdale Diamond 9.4
Acoustic Energy Evo3

He has a Harmon Kardon AV amp/DVD player. I would say it's 50/50 between music and movies but it looks like it's the music he plays at high levels as that's how he blew the Celestions so they need to be more inclined towards music, which all of the above should be.

Any comments/suggestions? The Tannoy DC1's look like a good buy to me (I have Tannoys myself) but that would be at the top of his budget but I don't know how they would fit in with his kit. I suppose the KEF's would be the nearest tonally wise, if the Celestions have the same innards as KEF's. Does anyone know if that is indeed the case? Does it really matter if his fronts are a different brand to the rest.

Ta

 

[BAN5HEE]

Wow he must have really given them a work out as I have them as my surrounds with the bigger beach effect ones as my two fronts and I can tell you I have had them up mega loud before where I feared for my life and they just kept going. If he wants something similair I would say gor for the KEF eggs but if ups his budget a bit he can get the SVS 5.1 system for £399. And they are the ********. check out the powerbuy special: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=313923

 

[davepuma]

It's the fronts (beech effect) that he's blown up. (Yes, he did give them some welly apparently. He was listening to mp3 via his media player and had the amp up at full. Don't ask me why?). He only needs replacement front speakers and if he's managed to blow them up, I would suggest something a little more beefier than AV speakers this time, hence the short list above. I have a SVS sub and am really impressed with it but as I said he only needs new fronts not a complete set. I don't know if floorstanders would suit though. I have floorstanders and a similar sized room but I've got carpet (won't change to wood as it would ruin the sound).