Speaker suggestions?

With my beloved's permission (just in case she's reading), I plan to acquire some new (second-hand) speakers in the not too distant future. I'll have in the region of £300 to spend.

I'm looking for recommendations as I am unable to position the speakers very favourably within the room. They need to operate against a back wall and, in the case of the right hand speaker, approximately 8 inches away from a side wall (i.e. in a corner). The room is roughly 5.5m x 3.5m, but is not square, and in practice the speakers fire across an area which is 4m x 3.5m.

I'm thinking that a ported design is probably best avoided, but if necessary I guess a front ported model would be better than something rear ported.

My listening is mainly rock/pop/film soundtracks/light classical, in that order.

The speakers will be sitting on the end of a STD-305M/RB250/Entre, Teac VRDS-10, Naim 62/140.
As I'm unlikely to be in a position to listen to them in my own home before purchase, I think something relatively easy to shift on if they don't work is in order.

Over to you chaps, any ideas???

 

knee jerk reaction is linn kans. or perhaps keihlids.
cheers

julian

 

Thanks Julian.

I heard a pair of Kan II's in the context of a freinds system and thought they were pants, so I guess they're just not to my taste. He's since replaced them with Briks which are much more to my liking. Unfortunately I just don't have room for Briks.

Any other ideas guys, no one here is normally bashful in expressing their ideas and opinions!

 

Rega Ela?

 

Yeah I thought about Ela's, but any idea if they like being against a back wall?

 

I have a set of Ela's and they seem to be fine placed anywhere, never had them against a wall but against a wardrobe didn't make any difference.

Definitely excellent speakers though!!!

If you are interested, I know someone trying to sell some wharfedale pacific pi40's for £100+p&p

Andrew

 

The Quad 12L might be worth a look - the 21Ls I had for a week didn't seem enormously fussy about positioning (unlike the 22Ls which seem to need a bit more space).

 

Have heard the Rega Alya sounding pretty good on the end of Naim amps. I looked long and hard for a solution to a similair problem, as I use the same amps as you. I ended up spending about £500 and getting the infamous Meadowlarks and reworking the room to get away from the walls. You could try Naim's own Intro's they can sound great in the right place, are designed to be used against a wall but I'd try to try before I bought with those. The Ela's are great, but to be wife friendly I think you'd need the newer versions, that is if your missus is anything like mine. Otherwise the standard Naim speaker recomendations are Royd's and Neats. I haven't heard either so couldn't comment

 

Thanks for the feedback chaps.

Ela's look to be a pretty safe bet then.

Anyone heard Ruark Templars or tempests?

 

I can,t remember if it was this forum or Hifi choice , but somebody replaced their Audio note speakers recently and asked during the thread if anybody wanted to buy them .
I,m rambling this because
a, I,m sure his AN,s are the ones that are designed for use in corners (handy)
b, he wasn,t asking a lot for them
c, they will probably be a bit different to the norm .
So , if it was this forum , they may chirp up , or if it was HFC , it might be worth you posting a thread on the main forum .

 

The guy with the AN,s is Supercapman over at HFC .
The speakers are AZ2,s .(Ihad a little look over at AN just to check that they were the ones designed for corners , but I can,t find them on there )

I,ll post a link to the thread but I don,t seem to be able to get my links to work lately

http://forum.hifichoice.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=11820

 

I've got my Ela's in the corners of the room at the minute, and to be honest they dont seem to mind at all. Very nice speakers too, IMO, you cant go wrong.

 

i have heard the Royd Minstrels and Doublets. They had quite a nice musical sound and not too coloured. iirc the Minstrels don't look disimilar to the Rega Elas.

Bit of a wildcard, but maybe try some Wharfedale Diamond 8.4s too. They're front ported and give a decent bass output. Not bright sounding speakers though.

 

Thanks Kermit, I found the thread (your link doesn't work btw).

Judging by Supercapman's comments about overblown bass I'd have to conclude that the AN's probably don't work as well in corners as they're meant to!

Paul; which of the Ela's have you got?

 

I would have to say that in a smaller room the Ela's work really well, the bass can be a little light in a large room but I would say it makes the music sound more natural than the more bassy speakers which can seem a little artificial (just my opinion though).

As for vocals though, they are superb speakers for the money and you should have some money left from your budget (mine were £215)

I have the mk1's in wood rather than vinyl which apparently are better made and sound better than the more recent ones but I haven't heard any newer ones so couldn't help.

Andrew

 

I used to have the Ruark Templars mk I - absolutely wonderful little speaker.... but needed to be out in space to get wonderful imaging and hear-through transparency, despite being sealed boxes. needed around 60 cm behind them, also needed careful amount of filling with sound bytes, not too much, not too little.