Ok, so these speakers break our rules a bit but, if you opt for the slightly larger 6. These are probably better suited as part of a home entertainment system than a stereo.
The Polk Rs are decent sounding speakers. But I could not test them and therefore cannot vouch for them. Sign up. Latest Reviews. See all articles. O'Brien Sponsored Links.
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Q Acoustics is now pushing hard into the high-end with the Concept stand-mounted full-range bookshelf loudspeakers. They deliver unrivaled levels of coherency, clarity and presence in a stand-mounted design that can compete with significantly more expensive loudspeakers.
Low-end performance is surprisingly deep and taut making them adept with all kinds of music and they will never be the weak link in your system. The slightly scary-looking Tensegrity tripod stand utilizes cutting edge acoustic isolation and plays a significant role in the sound of the Concept — image solidity and soundstage depth are first-rate. Paired with the right amplifier, these are end-game loudspeakers that also look the part.
The Q Acoustics Concept is available in two different finishes: white oak or black rosewood. Released in , the JBL L82 Classic is effectively a smaller, more affordable version of the L Classic which were released in Each speaker has the same tweeter found in the L Classic and a smaller 8-inch woofer, but the pair still delivers the accurate, dynamic and powerful sound you'd expect from a legendary speaker. That said, it the looks that seal the deal — the L82 Classic is a dead ringer for the L Classic with the same vintage design, wooden cabinets and what are arguably the most conspicuous speaker grills ever made available in blue, black or orange.
Each speaker weighs almost 14 pounds and is 18 inches tall — much bigger than traditional bookshelf speakers — and they require a big room and a powerful amplifier. But if those aren't deal breakers and you're looking for loudspeakers with unmatched retro flair, the JBL L82 Classic is about as cool as it gets.
In , it introduced the bookshelf speakers and then just two years later, in , it replaced those speakers with these S2 Anniversary Edition speakers. Polk Audio is best known for making hi-fi speakers that push way behind their affordable price tag, but in it stepped into true audiophile territory with its Legend Series, comprised of the L and L speakers. The L speakers have a finely tuned 1-inch pinnacle tweeter and a proprietary 5.
The frequency range is wide, too, as You're getting lows in the 50Hz range and highs up near 50kHz. Note: the L are effectively bigger, better-sounding and more expensive versions of the L Q Acoustics is a British audio company that makes some of the best affordable speakers, and its i are the best bet for most people. Released in , they're the the next-generation versions of the and, compared to their predecessor, the is are slightly taller and have a percent deeper chamber to deliver more punchy bass.
The Q Acoustics i are available in several different colors and because they are a few years old you can often find them discounted. Each speaker features a unique Uni-Q driver — which consists of a centered tweeter-and-woofer combo, instead of two separately mounted drivers, resulting it a more direct and accurate sound — that's similar to ones found in KEF's more expensive lines.
The Q also have a nominal impedance of 8 ohms, making them fairly easy to drive for most amplifiers. If you're looking for a more refined sound compared to most "entry-level" passive bookshelf speakers but don't want to take out a loan, these are all-around great speakers.
Today's Best Deals. Pair this set with an inexpensive amplifier , and it will give you better sound than most top-of-the-line wireless speakers produce, for a much lower price. The looks are refined four finish options are available , and the engineering is outstanding. The Borea BR03 largely eliminates the unnatural sonic colorations—such as boomy, thin, or harsh sound—that come from almost all less-expensive speakers, and it produces a fuller, more satisfying sound than most bookshelf speakers do.
The SMKII powered-speaker pair delivers best-in-class sound, looks nice, and comes with useful features such as built-in Bluetooth, bass and treble controls, and a remote. Among all the powered speakers we tested, the SMKII pair produced the most enveloping sound; its vocal reproduction was realistic, too, and its bass was impressively full.
It also looks nicer than most powered speakers do, although its styling is decidedly old-school. It includes bass and treble controls for you to fine-tune the sound to your liking, as well as a remote, a variety of input options, and built-in Bluetooth. These versatile, good-sounding speakers offer the widest variety of connection options, including a phono input for a record player.
The Klipsch RPM set is a great choice for vinyl-record enthusiasts because it includes a phono input, so you can easily connect most record players without having to buy a separate phono preamp. Learn more about it in our blog post.
The addition of USB and optical digital audio inputs, a subwoofer output to connect a powered subwoofer , and a nice remote control give the system excellent versatility. Parts of this guide are based on the work of its previous author, senior staff writer Chris Heinonen, who has been a die-hard audiophile since his teenage years and a professional audio reviewer since He has reviewed dozens of speakers and has taken training courses from Audio Precision on the best ways to objectively measure speakers.
Due to pandemic restrictions, we were unable to assemble a listening panel for our latest round of testing. However, we have carried over several of our picks from previous guides, for which we had help from experienced listeners—including Lauren Dragan, Wirecutter senior staff writer and headphone expert, and John Higgins, a professional musician and composer who has also written for Wirecutter and Home Theater.
Bookshelf speakers are great for the music lover who wants better performance than anyone can get from the vast majority of one-piece, wireless tabletop speakers that dominate the scene right now. As the name suggests, these speakers are sized to fit on a shelf or to be mounted in a stand.
But for most people and most music styles, a good pair of bookshelf speakers will deliver a satisfyingly complete sound. And if you really want more bass, you can often add a subwoofer. A good set of passive bookshelf speakers is an investment that will last longer than most other audio gear you can buy today and will never become obsolete.
You can pair passive bookshelf speakers with a Bluetooth-equipped stereo receiver such as the Sony STR-DH or with a streaming amplifier such as the Sonos Amp to get the latest music-streaming technologies, and if you decide to upgrade your system as new technologies arise, the passive speakers will still work fine.
Compared with passive speakers, powered models are a more plug-and-play, all-in-one option. Some powered speakers including one of our picks even incorporate a phono preamp so you can plug a turntable straight into them. For movie and TV watching, a pair of good bookshelf speakers can deliver much better dynamics and vocal clarity than the speakers built into any TV, and many of our recommendations have a matching center speaker designed more specifically for dialogue reproduction.
However, if you know from the start that you want to build a multichannel home theater system, check out our guide to the best surround-sound speakers for most people , where we review complete systems that include a center speaker, surround speakers, and a subwoofer. Because this guide combines two previous guides—covering passive bookshelf speakers and powered speakers—for this round we had to consider many speaker types and the needs of many different types of listeners.
Here are the criteria we considered when deciding which models to test:. With the above criteria in mind, we scanned sites such as Amazon, Audio Advisor, Best Buy, and Crutchfield to see what new models were available, and we reached out to manufacturers we thought might be introducing new models in these categories.
Before conducting listening tests, I broke in each speaker pair for 10 hours with music. I then listened to each system casually for a couple of days, getting a rough idea of its pros and cons and looking for any difficulties a listener might experience during setup and everyday use.
I then moved on to more formal testing, in which I concealed all the speakers behind a sheet of thin, black fabric in my acoustically treated listening room. As research shows , reliable, unbiased comparison tests of audio products can occur only if the identities of the products are concealed from the listener and if the volume levels are matched. The switchers also let me move among the speakers labeled only by number without knowing which one I was hearing.
This testing took place during the COVID pandemic, when it was still risky to have panelists visiting my house, so I had to do the audio evaluations by myself. Also, some of our recommended speakers remain from previous versions of their respective guides, for which we were able to conduct panel tests.
I conducted numerous rounds of testing, comparing speakers within categories such as small and large or affordable and expensive, and sometimes I also did so across categories to get an idea of what improvements you might hear by spending more. The Q Acoustics i set has pretty much everything most people could ask for in a pair of passive bookshelf speakers.
The speakers are also nicely designed for the price, with custom binding posts, magnetically attached grilles, a decor-friendly The i pair comes in a variety of finishes to match your decor. This impressive level of detail should be just as beneficial with the drum machine and electronic effects on hip-hop tunes, as well as the dozens of interwoven instrumental sounds on orchestral recordings. On more mainstream pop recordings in our tests, the i set performed equally impressively, presenting a natural and detailed sound on voices and guitars.
The availability of four different finishes white, black, gray, and walnut makes this speaker easier to match with your room. The grille uses magnets instead of plastic tabs and grommets, which gives the front of each speaker a clean look when you remove the grille.
Measured bass output from a pair of i speakers was The i also has a slightly bright tonal balance that may leave some listeners craving a fuller sound or yearning to add a subwoofer. The binding posts are short, which makes it somewhat challenging to fit in bare speaker wire larger than 14 gauge.
The speakers come with foam plugs for those ports if you do place them next to the wall, but that will reduce the bass output. In our tests it did a reasonable job with the bass notes in most light rock and pop music. The 0. We found that the more high-frequency sounds the music contained, the harsher the B sounded. With most male voices, such as John Legend or James Taylor, the tweeter is barely in the mix because a filter capacitor inside the speaker limits the tweeter to frequencies above about 6 kHz almost 2 kHz above the highest note on a piano.
With most female voices and higher-pitched instruments, such as cymbals and acoustic guitars, the tweeter is more active, and the sound can become harsh and fatiguing if you play it loud. The B is a sealed-box design with no bass ports, so you can place the speakers against a wall without making the bass sound too boomy. A keyhole mounting bracket on the back makes it easy to hang each speaker from a drywall screw; in my lab, I have a set hanging this way, which I use to produce noise for headphone measurements.
At just A removable grille is included. The B has two real downsides. The other is that the speaker-cable connectors are the cheap spring-clip type, which tend to produce a looser connection than good binding posts do—but for inexpensive spring clips, they keep a pretty firm grip on the speaker cable.
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