UKC

HI

I have just moved, and with less space have ditched my old but brilliant Mission floorstanders. I am after smaller standmount speakers with a budget of up to 450. I am currently using an old but good rotel pre/power amp if this helps and have no plans to change these.

There are the usual suspects out there, but certainly will consider less well known names.

cheers

In reply to kipper12:

I got some old but good quality B&W DM601s on ebay for 75 quid.. Get the S2 version if you can. Def not the S1. S3 is ok apparently too. Beware of pushed in tweeter cones! Pickup is obviously best, if you can.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/casse/bw601_e.html

They're not modern, but to me at least they sound amazing. Really nice with my Rotel amp as well. I listened to the new version in a hifi shop

http://www.whathifi.com/bw/685-s2/review

at £500 and decided they were marginally more 'open' (but that could have been the acoustics of the specifically designed listening room as opposed to my lounge) but definitely not worth 425 quid more!

hth
M

In reply to kipper12:

Sell the amp and buy a pair of Yamaha HS8s and a two channel mixer.

In reply to kipper12:

I have an old pair of Mission 731 standmounts in my summerhouse. Unobtrusive but pack a hell of a punch. Very musical too.

In reply to minimike:

I'll agree with the B&W 601 option. Very satisfying, though I found the siting a little challenging - they felt a bit too directional for me. Probably the room they're in though. On the point of pushed in tweeter cones, has anyone got a good tip on how to pull them out again? One of mine got modified by a toddler...

In reply to kipper12:

Also, what source are you playing from?

In reply to kipper12:

Have you considered KEF? Q100 or Q300 would be in budget.

I've been a big fan of these, the UniQ drivers really are great - many years ago i had a pair of Q10s - superb clarity and soundstage and i was using with a Rotel RA971 at the time.
I've now got floorstanding Quads for my main system, but I have a pair of current-model Q100s in the kitchen attached to a Marantz MCR610 and once again they're superb. Excellent 3d soundstage, drive and clarity, in some ways better than my Quads.

In reply to kipper12:

The new version is well over budget but it would be worth becoming an eBay hawk and seeing if you can get a pair of Neat Petites. Lovely speaker.

T.

In reply to LG-Mark:

Kef 300 in Richer sounds £299 at the moment, I am going to go in on Saturday to check them out

In reply to kipper12:

Could be worth asking if you can trail them at home, to make sure you can live with them?

Any shop worth their salt would let you do that.

In reply to kipper12:

Spendor make great small speakers, worth looking for a second hand pair