I am very fortunate to be setting a brand new hifi system for my office. It’s about 16’x16’. Just bought the Stellar GCD and S300 and I’m waiting for it to arrive. I am a professional church musician, so I have the luxury of listening to music at reference levels as part of my occupation. I have a pair of Klipsch 610f speakers, but my experience with them tells me that they are not going to work well in my situation.
I am having a very hard time deciding what speakers to buy. Needs to be able to be near the wall, I’m thinking bookshelf with good near field capabilities. LS50s? Seems like the Q150s are pretty good value? Does anyone have any good standmounts that they know work well with S300?
Thanks!
1 Like
Howdy @matthew.vanover!
What sort of budget are you working with for your speakers?
Well, the LS50’s are about 1,300 right now. That’s probably my upper limit at this point. But I don’t mind to spend less if there is a good speaker that fits my situation. Thanks for replying back so quick!
1 Like
LS50s are pretty damn hard to beat. Goldear Aon 3s are also quite good, and should be a little more flexible when it comes to placement since they use passive radiators on each side rather than a rear port.
If you don’t mind buying used, these would also be a great pair of speakers.
I didn’t know about Music Room. Um, I know what I am doing all night! Haha! Thanks!
1 Like
If you hadn’t purchased your amp, the active LS50’s would have ben nice I think for an office. If you listen to organ music, you might need a subwoofer.
The Music Room is great! They have a seemingly never-ending rotation of excellent used gear. They’re friendly folks, too.
I’ll second Yann when it comes to the sub. If you plan on listening to a fair bit of organ music, a subwoofer will come in handy.
According to zero fidelity, Buchardt S300s can be used in a nearfield situation(near the wall) if you plug the port, and apparently it does not change the tone of the bass, just reduces it to an extent.
I’m not sure if PMC speakers are available in the US but they are by far my favourite speaker company and worth checking out. I’m surprised how little coverage they get as I have yet to hear one of their speakers that doesn’t sound fantastic at its price point and I think this has a lot to do with their use of transmission lines for bass.
They make some studio monitors which may be suitable for near field listening in your case and may function well close to a back wall. I think their smaller monitors might fit into your budget.
Even their small speakers use transmission lines - after owning a few of their speakers I can’t go back to a traditionally ported design because frankly the bass is so much better. I think they also make subwoofers (also TL designs) for use with the smaller speakers if you absolutely must have the extra bass extension.
Only caveat is that they are not always pretty. The build quality is really good and they last forever (which is why a lot of studios use them too) but their appearance is very “functional”.
1 Like
If it’s of any consequence, new LS50’s in the Black can be found locally for around $999 Canadian. Used I’ve seen them as low as $800 Cdn.
Thanks to the great many recommendations. I’m checking them all out.
Does any one have any experience with Zu Audio Cubes? They look interesting given my application (no rear port to interfere with the wall). I’m a little concerned about how loud they could be in my office given their sensitivity?
Haven’t tried the Cubes but we had some Zu Audio Omen Dirty Weekends in here for a while and I started to understand some of the appeal behind Zu.
The main downside I see to the Cubes is they only go down to 80 Hz, which in my books would need to be supplemented by a sub. Since you’re looking at $999 for a pair of Cubes, your budget would only leave you a couple hundred for the sub.