[neekomax]

Can anyone recommend a cheap receiver or integrated for under $200 to complete this set. Used or new it doesn't matter.

Thanks.

Not sure if this is any good, but the price is right... http://www.echohifi.com/details/4028/Audio-Source_AMP-100

[srb]

Not sure if this is any good, but the price is right... http://www.echohifi.com/details/4028/Audio-Source_AMP-100

There have been mixed reviews on the AudioSource AMP-100, but it is inexpensive.  Amazon currently has it for only $92 shipped.  It might be worth a try.

AMP-100

Steve

[Doublej]

You might be able to find a Yamaha RX-V373 for around $179. If you live near a Frys check them out.

[Outofthewoods]

Certainly no disrespect for any of the previous posters/comments, but believe the towers are getting a bit of a bum rap. 

Owning both, I fully agree with Frank that the towers do not quite have the "magic" that the little brother has.   I do not want to profess having the musical ear that Frank and Dennis have, nor can I wax as eloquently on the sound as those two extremely talented designers/legends have already done so, but would concur that the complexity of the crossover is the driving force.  There is a separation of integration with the 52’s, which does not appear with the 22’s.  Ultimately, the towers are not as fluid as the bookshelves.   

The reality is though, these are $250 speakers. 

I cannot comment on many other speakers in this price range, but imagine they all have compromises.  I’m willing to bet Andrew did the best he could, within the constraints given to him.  And based on the 22’s exceling at its price range, I’m betting the towers do too.

For me, I ended up with the towers in our family room system.  Reasoning;   
a)   like the looks of the towers better – don’t have to mess with stands, nor the extra cost
b)   able to get away without using the subwoofer - obviously not earth shattering bass, but there was not a lot of difference with/without….the subwoofer is really more of a woofer, than the sub part 
c)   my system is more geared toward home theater use, which with the slightly etched sound, serves its purpose better

I ended up with the bookshelves in our den system.  Of the two, they are the better 2 channel speaker.

As with many things in life, it is about choices.  What are the parameters, what are the constraints, what is the overall intent?

Anyone on the fence of either speaker, they are as good as advertised.  Peace!

Spot on! Thank you.

You certainly get a lot of bang for your buck with these little towers. There is a thread on AH where they are receiving a lot of well deserved praise from many happy owners. Who knows, the pair I had could have been the product of poor quality control? If it wasn't for the listening fatigue I experienced I would have likely kept them. For HT (what they were designed for) they are great!

Ruben

[charmerci]

Spot on! Thank you.

You certainly get a lot of bang for your buck with these little towers. There is a thread on AH where they are receiving a lot of well deserved praise from many happy owners. Who knows, the pair I had could have been the product of poor quality control? If it wasn't for the listening fatigue I experienced I would have likely kept them. For HT (what they were designed for) they are great!

Ruben

And don't forget DMurphy here (last page) is selling 3 pair with better tweeters and x-overs for less than the price of new stock ones!

[charmerci]

Can anyone recommend a cheap receiver or integrated for under $200 to complete this set. Used or new it doesn't matter.

Thanks.

adydula (somewhere here on AC) has and likes this.

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/ONKTX8050/Onkyo-TX-8050-2-Channel-Network-Stereo-Receiver/1.html

[adydula]

The Onkyo 8050 2 ch AVR is the "bomb" when it comes to a real honest to goodness best buy for the money.....great all around AVR....2 ch...no HT 5.1.

The prices at accessories4less has great prices and yes they are refurbs, I and several friends have bought several avrs from this less than $200 wonder to the $1000 - $1500 AVRs never had an issue with this seller.

They are the factory authorized Onkyo dealer......

I would buy this receiver again...

Alex

[alphaiii]

I understand the slight difference in treble presentation between the FS52 and BS22 based on addition of a midrange driver and different crossover.

However, I would expect that the BS22 and C22 would be more similar, both being a two way with the same crossover perhaps with only slight padding to accommodate increased sensitivity.  I notice that the C22 has the same 6 ohm impedance as the B22, so I assume it's paralleled woofers are versions with twice the impedance.

Hopefully AJ might see this and weigh in on the C22's suitability as a pair of mains as well as any technical difference that might explain any difference in response, if in fact there is any.

Steve

Well, Audioholics shows the measurements, and the C22 is elevated a bit in the treble compared to the BS22...
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/floorstanding/pioneer-sp-pk52fs/pioneer-sp-pk52fs-measurements

I wonder how the treble measures with the C22 vertically oriented, since the baffle width in the horizontal plane would then be the same as the BS22.

[neekomax]

Well, I am now sitting in front of a brand new pair of Pioneer SP-FS52 floorstanders, listening to the 2008 Brad Mehldau Trio live album at moderate volume.

I am very pleasantly surprised at the sound quality of these right out of the box. They have a nice tonal balance to my ear, and richer bass than I expected. They spec the low frequency extension to 40 Hz, but in room it to go seems a bit lower than that. The imaging is good, with a decent soundstage. Very nice to listen to.

They're not anywhere near as dynamic, coherent, or extended (bass) as my Soundfield Audio Monitors, and the midrange is slightly veiled (that might open up a bit with more hours), but for 1/6th the price (got 'em for $150 for the pair)... damn fine speaker system.

PS - Just torture tested them with James Blake's cover of 'Limit To Your Love', which has very deep infra bass parts.... not bad for a couple of 5.25" bass drivers!!!

[madmaxmedia]

Hi everyone, I just registered and posted so I would get notification the next time the BS22's are on sale. 

I have a little Lepai amp that I'm hoping to use with these, just for my office so volume is not required.

Thanks!

[Letitroll98]

I feel so...used.

Seriously, welcome madmaxmedia.  I hope you find there's more to AC than BS22's.

[roscoeiii]

Welcome to AC madmaxmedia,

I to hope you find that there is more to AC than notifications of sales on gear we like.

How many watts does your little Lepai amp have? As you may know, somewhat counterintuitively, small bookshelf and monitor speakers often require more power than some larger speakers. So the 22s may be best with more power than you currently have on hand. quietglow is driving these with a Dynaco ST70, which is 35 W per channel, and they sound great in that set-up. But even if the Lepai has 35W or so as well, it may not work, since solid-state watts are often not considered equivalent to tube watts. Due to the different clipping characteristics of tubes vs. SS, IIRC. Tubes are said to "soft clip" and thus be less problematic when driven over their amp's rating.

[fredgarvin]

Hi everyone, I just registered and posted so I would get notification the next time the BS22's are on sale. 

I have a little Lepai amp that I'm hoping to use with these, just for my office so volume is not required.

Thanks!

hello Mad Mx, I'm driving mine quite well with the Dayton DTA-100A. It uses the 2050 chipset, as the Virtue one does. It provides a solid 30 watts per and sounds great.

[madmaxmedia]

Thanks for the replies guys! My Lepai amp is rated at 20W RMS which is on the low side, but this is for near field listening in my office anyway. I just want it to play cleanly at lower volumes, and don't need a lot of bass. If anyone has better suggestions for speakers ($100 or less), I would love to hear them. Otherwise I figure these bookshelves would be a good choice, especially if I move them into the house later. I also have an old Harman Kardon solid-state amp that I really like, but it's too big for the office (maybe under the desk though, hmmm....) 

I try not to spend too much time at hifi websites, if only to protect my pocketbook.  I used to have a Zen tube amp and some Axiom speakers that I really liked, but after a move and other stuff I ended up selling them.

Right now I have a Bose Companion 3 Series II which I got for a reasonable price (cheap enough that I could sell and break even for sure if I switch.) I know all the back and forth about Bose, but I like the TrueSpace effect while listening at my desk. For certain types of music it sounds great. Put some loud rock on it though and the little satellites get overwhelmed and sort of turns to mush.

A forum question- is there an option to receive email notifications when there are replies to a thread? If so, I can't seem to find it.

Cheers!

[charmerci]

OK Frank, I went ahead and did it. There is now 2.5 pounds - I guess I could have put in 3 - of non-drying clay coating (mostly) the insides of each cabinet.

What effect does it have? Well, on my modest Denon system, the high and mid-frequencies are now more forward. More there there. Riding cymbals used to sound ssssss but now they sound ssshhhhhh. More like they should. I think that the bass is somewhat tighter - but probably not a whole lot because the low lows come out of the port. It doesn't improve the soundstage (where the instruments are "floating" on the stage) but it does improve the imaging - the exact location of where the instrument/voice is coming from. [Those, I think are the correct definitions.]

Everything has more "snap" to it. Much better!

An interesting side benefit - on some of my mediocre recordings in which I thought I was hearing high frequency digital/component harshness has softened up, making it somewhat more listenable. 

Recommended!

                                                                 Caution!
The allen screws are pieces of crap! I'd recommend pulling one out and going to the store and buying 16 Phillip's screw replacements. (I've stripped two putting them back in.)

Plus, when you pull off the (internal wire) connectors from the speakers, there's a little hook-tab that needs to be squeezed to pull them off.

[ArthurDent]

A forum question- is there an option to receive email notifications when there are replies to a thread? If so, I can't seem to find it.
Cheers!

MadMax -Check in your Profile, under Notifications. you can make your selections there, as well as at the bottom left of the 'post/reply' box, there is a box to check for "Notify me of replies". Selecting the box on the "Post/reply" box should send it to a list in the Notifications, where you can later un-select.

fwiw, as has been noted, for $75 +/- on sale, these are some very nice 'bang for the buck' speakers. Am currently running them as front L/R on the HT system driven by Yamaha Receiver w/ 85 wpc. Just setup so no particular impressions yet. Initial test was in main 2 channel w/ 250 wpc, and given their limitations they were most respectable. 

[Outofthewoods]

I understand the slight difference in treble presentation between the FS52 and BS22 based on addition of a midrange driver and different crossover.

However, I would expect that the BS22 and C22 would be more similar, both being a two way with the same crossover perhaps with only slight padding to accommodate increased sensitivity.  I notice that the C22 has the same 6 ohm impedance as the B22, so I assume it's paralleled woofers are versions with twice the impedance.

Hopefully AJ might see this and weigh in on the C22's suitability as a pair of mains as well as any technical difference that might explain any difference in response, if in fact there is any.

Steve

Well, I got the C22's hooked up and gave them a quick listen. I like 'em! A big surprise to many was the bass output of those little 4" drivers in the B22's. With 4 of those things going I can feel the punch in my chest! They are a bit brighter than the B22's, but that may mellow out some as they break-in. I'll give them some time and see how they act. If they end up needing a little tweaking I'll send them to Danny and let him work his crossover magic.

Thanks AJ!

Ruben

[dlparker]

Well I've been doing some serious listening since I got the BS22s yesterday. I don't have anything at all intelligent to add to the conversation - I've just been listening to music. Seriously cranked (the volume, that is), with and without subs. These puppies really pack a punch. It may be a while before I actually compare speakers - I'm that involved in the music. There are some things I notice that I didn't notice before, but I can't say that they're different, only that I'm totally engrossed in the music. Sorry to take up so much bandwidth to say essentially nothing, but these things are quite impressive!

[Letitroll98]

You're saying a lot.  Getting lost in the music, unable to analyse, is the best compliment you can make to a component or recording.

[madmaxmedia]

If audiophile hell is listening to your gear instead of your music, then he is in audiophile heaven.