Best Floor-Standing speaker SET for under $2000

[invizo]

Hey guys, I have buddy that has a pair of old JBL floorstanding speakers, he has had them since 1991 lol. He needs an upgrade for sure, he spent $2k on the pair back in the 90s, I'm hoping to upgrade him for the same price now, the room itself is about 1000sqft so I want a pair that will really fill that well. He currently has a new $800 sony amp, 2 top of the line polk audio surround sound (component) speakers, a $600 Energy subwoofer (think that's the brand), and some $600 mid speaker bar that sounds very clean for dialogue.

I was tempted to keep him on Polk Audio or something since they have a nice pair but am unsure of how this market has changed this past decade. Please advise.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

That's a hard one since he has mismatched components. The best thing he can do is go listen at a local audio store preferably with an isolated listening room with a similar amp.

I had a decent Sony surround receiver back in the 90s but I don't really have any recent experience with them to know how they sound.

I have a pair of Klipsch RF 82 IIs paired with a Bic PL 200 sub and driven by a Yamaha R S700BL. It makes for an amazing 2.1 music setup. The RF 82 IIs would also make for great front speakers in a 5.1 setup but you need to like the horn loaded tweeter sound. Some people find them bright sounding but I couldn't be happier with mine.

At that price range Martin Logan, Definitive Technology, Klipsch, Polk, JBL....you have lots of choices. Like I said, go listen and with a similar amp preferably. The same speakers will sound different with different amps.

 

[ien2222]

You could look at:

Salk's SoundTowers
Ascend Acoustic's Sierra Towers
Swan's M3
Focal's Chorus line
JTR Noesis 212HT
Various speakers from KEF, Revel, PSB along with the usual suspects.

 

[invizo]

That's a hard one since he has mismatched components. The best thing he can do is go listen at a local audio store preferably with an isolated listening room with a similar amp.

I had a decent Sony surround receiver back in the 90s but I don't really have any recent experience with them to know how they sound.

I have a pair of Klipsch RF 82 IIs paired with a Bic PL 200 sub and driven by a Yamaha R S700BL. It makes for an amazing 2.1 music setup. The RF 82 IIs would also make for great front speakers in a 5.1 setup but you need to like the horn loaded tweeter sound. Some people find them bright sounding but I couldn't be happier with mine.

At that price range Martin Logan, Definitive Technology, Klipsch, Polk, JBL....you have lots of choices. Like I said, go listen and with a similar amp preferably. The same speakers will sound different with different amps.

Thanks for the suggestions, A friend pointed me towards Bowers & Wilkins or Martin Logan. He also said my situation was difficult since everything else was mismatched but at first I was leery of those two companies because they must be bought in Best Buy or other full-MSRP retailers,

So with that being said, do you think that the CM8s are a pretty good sound for the price? http/www.bestbuy.com/site/5-3-way-floorstanding-speaker-each/1284912.p?id=1218246664556&skuId=1284912&st=categoryid$abcat0205003&cp=2&lp=4

I'll listen to the Martin Logans when I get there but the delicacy of electrostatic speakers concerns me.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Generally the speakers sold at Best Buy will be a companies 'budget' models. Klipsch for instance only sells their Icon line at Best Buy. Still a good speaker but it's the lowest end speaker line they make. Those B@Ws do look pretty nice though.

Don't forget to listen with a similar amp.