small home audio speaker advise needed
 

Hi all, I need a small pair of speakers for my kitchen. I am currently using Sony,s that came with a micro CD player. I would like something a little more full sounding as the the Sony's only cover the vocal mids and only that is done adequately at best. I need something about 6 inches wide, 10 inches tall, and 6 to 7 inches deep. The Klipch Icon or the Mirage are interesting but I have not listened to them yet. Any suggestions.

I have a Klipsch Synergy 5.1 setup, I think it sounds pretty good. I think you'll certainly get a more rounded sound than your Sonys.

Remember: Mirage is owned by Klipsch, and the products use many similar components, . Mirage just has more CACHET which will require more CASH, EH from you.

I use KRK monitors for my computer speakers. Quite small. The only downside to this is that they require their own power. Fantastic sound quality though.

price range?

what amp will you use to drive them


are the Atom's still around...

Thanks, I did not know about the mirage/klipsh connection. I have the Klipsh computer speakers and they are the best I've had.

They are powered by a Harmon Karden HK3450 at 100 watts per channel. I feed this to a Niles 6 channel speaker/volume selector. So I should be able to power many small speaker sets.

LS3/5a, Yamaha Ns10m, maybe even some older Visoniks would be nice.

I have a Creative Labs Inspire set-up in my bedroom office; two two-way satellites and a powered subwoofer. The sound is pretty exceptional using the EQ adjustments on my iPod and the adjustable subwoofer. I wouldn't want to try to fill a really big room with them but for less than $50 bucks at Circuit City it's a great set-up in a small room (and I'm pretty picky about sound; I have TOA reference monitors in my living room; my wife worked for years in the pro recording hardware industry).

Creative stuff is good. Might check and see what JBL offers in that size range. I have several sets of JBL speakers and they sound like sex.

ok - I have epos in my bedrooom. They are a giant killer and mine are slightly larger than your stated dimensions. They make a smaller model also.

If price is critical I'd try to find a used set of Rogers L3a's or a similar Brit. mini-monitor.

Use this and the above posts to build a short list of new speakers and take your own program material to a good store and listen to several. Female voice is a good test...

i love B&W speakers of all sizes. pricey though
http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=768

Rega makes some nice small speakers. also pricey
http://www.rega.co.uk/index2.htm

Totem has some nice compact speakers. also pricey
http://www.totemacoustic.com/products/compact/

I would say at the high end I can get a set of Paradigm SA35 built into the wall for $ 850. This is the high end. Also I begin to run some problems getting these rationalized with my wife. I think if I could wrap up the total around $ 500 including shipping I would be very happy. The Klipsch Icons are very appealing.

In that price range, I think you could do much better than Klipsch. The problem is getting decent range/fidelity with those dimension limitations. Also, as I've mentioned previously, I would much rather buy used (but well taken care of) quality, than new mediocre.

Here are a couple bookshelf pairs on Audiogon that are worth checking out IMO:

Dynaudio Contour 1.1
Vienna Acoustics Haydn
Totem Dreamcatcher
Silverline SR12

The Dynaudio's would be my first choice out of that bunch.


Other contenders in that form-factor on fleabay:

Totem Model 1's
Definitive Technology Studio Monitor 350

SmileWavy

Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 Computer Speaker System... about $100.00
very impressive for the money