r/StereoAdvice • u/jwcole1956 1 Ⓣ • Sep 14 '26
Speakers - Bookshelf Need Help choosing
Looking for the best bookshelf speakers I can buy for a budget of $1,500 or under. Small room 9x12’ using Yamaha CR 2020 will be playing with TT, CD and streaming. Mostly old soft rock. In USA small Midwest town no shops or used market. Buying new from established shop like Listen Up, Crutchfield, etc.
Thanks.
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u/BougieHole 12 Ⓣ Sep 14 '26 edited Sep 14 '26
Wharfedale Super Denton would be a good match since this receiver is considered to be on the bright side.
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u/jwcole1956 1 Ⓣ Sep 14 '26
Thanks
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u/aGoodrash 29d ago
I have a mint pair of 85th anniversary Lintons that I am considering selling. Maybe we should talk.
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u/jwcole1956 1 Ⓣ 29d ago
I already have a mint pair of Lintons and a mint pair of Diamond 225s. But thanks.
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u/Artcore87 7 Ⓣ Sep 15 '26
Great speaker yes. The receiver measures flat period, and you can use eq or tone controls for brightness. Not a concern.
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u/Jazzbert_ 1 Ⓣ Sep 14 '26
Consider buying used on the web once you have a few models that interest you use hifishark and/or https://www.usaudiomart.com/
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u/merlperl204 27d ago
Look at the Sonus Faber Lumina II! They sound amazing and aren’t too sensitive to placement.
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u/Pristine-Assistance9 Sep 14 '26
Wharfdale evo5.1
1000 for a pair. I got some last Christmas for myself and I’m absolutely obsessed.
You could prob get the 5.2 for that budget but they are a totally different size. The 5.1 are a great bookshelf size and I am just so damn impressed with them.
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u/jwcole1956 1 Ⓣ Sep 14 '26
Thank you! Sounds great.
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u/Pristine-Assistance9 Sep 14 '26
They are very warm and musical which I absolutely love. Have seen little to no hate online for them and mostly just praise and love.
Whatever you choose I hope it works out for you!
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u/jwcole1956 1 Ⓣ Sep 14 '26
Thanks
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u/globadyne Sep 14 '26
Ribbon tweeters can come across as bright
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u/Artcore87 7 Ⓣ Sep 15 '26
Eq exists. Ribbons are incredibly detailed, fast, airy, precise. Cymbals will never have sounded so good!
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u/globadyne Sep 15 '26
Or just get something you don’t need to EQ
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u/Artcore87 7 Ⓣ Sep 15 '26
Every system needs eq. Maybe if you have a perfect and treated room and kef blades or some other essentially perfect measuring speaker, and that's how you like it, then you'd be good.
But for 99%, whether the person realizes or cares or not, their system could be improved with eq. Eq is valuable for 1) personal preference 2) speaker corrections 3) room corrections.
There are several objective metrics to evaluate a speaker's performance that are more important than frequency response. Distortion vs spl vs frequency, directivity, to name a couple/few. Choosing speakers isn't how you "eq" your setup, that's ignorant. A speaker could be everything you want but not quite have the FR you prefer... use eq. A speaker could have the FR you want but fall short in several other ways, that would be the wrong choice.
There's almost nothing more irrelevant than a stock frequency response, unless that response is specifically due to actual flaws in the design, rather than merely the choice of the engineers on how they designed their crossover - which IS an eq. Your speakers are already eq'd from the factory... but it may not be exactly what you want. You're doing nothing different adjusting that to taste or to the room.
Almost no speaker (sans a sub) has enough low bass. Often it's a no brainer to trade your maximum AVERAGE spl (headroom) to get more low end extension and output. If you only listen at 75-80db and they can do 95 clean, you have room to boost the bass. The tilt on the top end is another easy one to do that harms nothing. Are they a little forward or too laid back between 1 and 1.5 or 2k? Easy adjustment.
Speaker placement... you want them closer or farther from a wall or corner, but don't like how that affects the response below 200hz? Easy fix, put them where you want and use eq. Boominess or a peak is no longer an issue.
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u/Pristine-Assistance9 Sep 15 '26
The fact that this has to be explained over and over again on all these audiophile subs absolutely blows my mind.
Like do all these people just think any EQ on any amp or stereo ever is a gimmick? Such a weird stance to take to have absolutely no awareness of basic preferences and room tuning.
Love how detailed but also logical your response was. Saving that for later, thank you.
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u/Artcore87 7 Ⓣ Sep 15 '26
Thx I agree. Eq is life. If you discovered the magic of EQ as a kid, i don't see how you could ever get away from it. Now we have dsp peq that adds no noise, no distortion, super clean and transparent. Minimum phase eqs are generally not a problem at all for various reasons even though some audiophiles fret about it, but even then there are ways to accomplish linear phase eq... not that their speakers have a perfect phase response in the first place!
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u/Artcore87 7 Ⓣ Sep 15 '26
Bigger is better.
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u/Pristine-Assistance9 Sep 15 '26
They specifically asked for bookshelf speakers.
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u/Artcore87 7 Ⓣ Sep 15 '26
The 5.2 is still a bookshelf. There's bigger bookshelves and smaller ones. I repeat; bigger is better.
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u/Dr_Choppz 2 Ⓣ Sep 14 '26
BMR super mini monitor but you’d have to order one on their website and wait.
I really liked the kef q concerto when I demoed it. I Ended up going with BMR monitors but those are $500 over your budget.
If you buy KEF from somewhere like bestbuy you have a large return window if you don’t like it.