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What are the best speakers for my application?


M1J0E

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Hey y’all, new here & looking for some help in choosing the best Klipsch speakers for my needs & budget.

 

I’d had a vintage Akai receiver & speakers that came with it, and a Bose streaming puck hooked up.  

Then we bought a garage sale marantz 5 CD hooked up to the aux (the puck got hooked to the tape monitor).

I knew we wanted a turntable, so that came next.  Then the Akai got replaced by a Marantz 2230 (love the vintage).

 

But all this now is still running through the old speakers that came with the Akai receiver probably 35+ years ago.

I thought an upgrade was in order so started researching speakers which led me to Klipsch.

 

But there are many choices!  & I’m new at this so not even certain of which ones might best meet our needs.  

Here’s our contenders:

 

1. The Sixes - initially drawn to these for the esthetics, which got me looking into Klipsch..  They seem to be a nice bookshelf size, probably similar to what we have.

But I discovered they only come in a powered version with an aux in, not just as “normal” speakers to hook to a receiver.  And I read in another thread that the cable between the 2 speakers is 20ft long (or some other measure of :D) so long enough for our small livingroom.

Can I hook the preamp out of the 2230 to the phono in (with the phono amp shut off) of the sixes?  THe manual seems to show I should do this with an external receiver.

Can I hook the CD into the aux in on the sixes?  If so, then does that eliminate the need totally for the 2230, since I could hook both external sources into them at once?  And the sixes are Bluetooth & have a. Klipsch app, that I think does Sirius/XM which is all I use the Bose puck for now.  At that point, my 2230 is just a source switch?  Or would I be better off letting it handle at least hte preamp duties?  These might still be my top runner, I’d have bought them already if they were just ‘normal’ speakers.

 

2. RP-600M/160M & RP-500M/150M - we’re limited in size to bookshelf speakers in the crowded livingroom we have.  But with the selections of higher end non-powered bookshelf speakers, which may or may not be a better choice than the sixes, I do have even more questions.

Are the 600/160 worth the increase in size/cost?  They appear to be just ‘bigger’ versions of hte 500/150, but that extra size could be put to some good use, given how large some speakers can get.  But also, are the 600/500 worth it over the 160/150?  They appear to be newer versions of the same thing, only without the riser/plinth underneath.  Perhaps that’s a necessary thing too, so maybe the 160/150 would be a better choice.

 

3. RP-51/41.  Absolute budget choice, but I bet I’d be amazed at what you could get without spending much money.  I’m probably discounting the cheapest versions however as I tend to buy things & keep them well for decades.  

 

3. Vintage Heresy - here’s the wildcard in the whole thing.  I like vintage, & vintage heresy’s can be found for the price of new bookshelf speakers here if you watch & are patient enough.  But I’m not necessarily one to do DIY speaker repair, and won’t be happy if they’re not in great cosmetic condition.  I’d have to shuffle stuff around, or take stuff right out of the livingroom to fit, so I’m not sure this is the best choice.  New heritage speakers would cost more than my truck & are out of our budget.  

 

Any & all thoughts & opinions appreciated.  Thanks in advance!

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Thanks Dave!  I’m sure I can see the madness starting :D 

 

Thanks LT!  Initially I’d started out looking at vintage speakers, but at Bose 301’s given we have a great bluetooth speaker from them.  However the prices people want for examples that are completely trashed can be insane, & the internet consensus seems to be that they’re not worth putting any money into.  Whereas the Klipsch Speakers seem to be owned by “audiophiles” if that makes sense, & therefore are much better kept and seem to be much more worth putting money into if any is required.  So really vintage could be back on the table.  

 

& with a little more reading, reviews of the sixes show the phono preamp might not be as good as hoped, and they don’t seem to support streaming (that must have been the three I was looking at), so keeping my system built with the 2230 would still be a good way to go.  

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Brand new, the RP 600Ms or if you can find them their predecessors the RB61IIs. For some reason the six inch driver is extremely accurate, musical and full with music and TV /movies. I consider it the sweet spot with modern Klipsch. You won’t be disappointed . Sound quality seriously above the price point. Used, the Herseys all day day long.

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I would add that a Cornwall or a Chorus ll should also be on your radar to listen to. Since you have an old Marantz which you like you should consider having it totally rebuilt as it is at an age where the caps are long past ready to go south. This is not an issue of "if" but one of when. Full failure of the supply could take out your loudspeakers. Fresh caps throughout will bring a level of performance it never had as modern cap quality is far beyond what was available when the unit was manufactured.

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17 hours ago, M1J0E said:

3. Vintage Heresy - here’s the wildcard in the whole thing.  I like vintage, & vintage heresy’s can be found for the price of new bookshelf speakers here if you watch & are patient enough.

All great advice, above ^^^.

 

Check your PM.  I track Heritage prices and attached my spreadsheet so you can do your own research.  Hover your mouse over any cell with a Red Triangle and you can see my detailed notes on condition, location, date of sale, etc.

 

I do suggest for vintage you check out something Heritage, but just in case you come across a CF-3 (dual 10" woofers in an MTM configuration) or CF-4 (dual 12") if the price is right, grab them.  These are my favorite.   Prices are listed at the bottom of the spreadsheet under "Other Prices."

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Thanks YK for confirming what I thought, the larger drivers in the modern bookshelves are worth the additional cost.  

Thanks John, I haven’t seen a Forte/II come up yet in our local listings, only Heresy’s, but then I’ve really only begun looking.

Thanks James, I’ll watch for Cornwall or Chorus to come up as well.  Thankfully I’ve got a bit of time with all these suggestions too to watch for different listings to come up, as I’m not yet ready to make any quick decisions.  & don’t need to thankfully.  You’re right on the 2230 as well.  Though I bought it “serviced”, I think it was cleaned & lights replaced, but no caps replaced.  

Thanks WVU for sharing such an awesome piece of info!  I’ll go check my PM 7 check your spreadsheet.  

Thanks for the vote of confidence in the 2230 as well Jim.  I’m in Calgary, Alberta.  I do see there’s a garage sale section of the forum, so I’m not sure if there might be any members close by or not.  

 

Once again, thanks everybody for putting in to my thread.  I’m getting a whole lot of love for the vintage stuff here.  When I’m home after my hitch here in a week, I’ll have to do some measurements in our livingroom to see if I can fit in something more than a bookshelf speaker.  There are 4 sets or so of Heresy’s now on Kijiji (1’s & II’s, and a few threads I’ve seen telling which ones to target, so will have to do some reading).  

 

Having said that, the right answer might be still to go new with the larger drivers in the bookshelves.  My wife could use the bluetooth capabilities at least.  I’d like to have a little more space to take the pressure off our livingroom, but even if I made a listening area in the rec room in the basement, it wouldn’t get used as much.  The good tv is upstairs, the fireplace is upstairs, the comfy sofa, the dog’s bed.  We’ll see.

 

Please keep the opinions coming though, love to read them all!  Thanks again for such an awesome welcome.

 

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remember that a Forte is just a Heresy ll in a larger cabinet. you are welcome to visit for a listen to a modified H3. Quartet is also a good candidate to play with though hard to find in the woods around here, you can get some excellent bass response out of them with a little coaxing. The Quartet has the advantage of a better mid horn than the Forte or Heresy if you want to go three way. Bob Crites had a great idea to build a two way Heresy. You could forget about the horns altogether and consider running Karlson K-Tubes instead. You have a lot of options.

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On 8/28/2018 at 6:46 PM, M1J0E said:

Hey y’all, new here & looking for some help in choosing the best Klipsch speakers

Hi Joe,

 

Like your selection of the Marantz 2230 :D  Have a 2252B ... think these sound best with the vintage Heresy's.  Plus, you will never loose money on those ... haha, because you WILL be upgrading.

 

Cheers, Emile

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Thanks Moray James, I’d love to visit & hear the modified H3 if you’re close enough to road trip to.  I probably have more options than I even thought of before!  

Thanks Emile, gotta like the vintage Marantz!  The 2252B would be awesome as well.  I didn’t think you could go wrong with any of them.  My selection was somewhat luck as I wanted to keep the purchase price lower than what some of the higher models go for, and find the nicest looking one I could.  Happy with it so far.  But um yeah here I think I’m just doing the upgrading (from a bluetooth speaker) now! :D But yeah you’re probably right, as I get more into it & know more of what I like, there can always be further upgrades & changes! :D

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