Australian Acoustics Speakers?

[Craig Alexander]

I am currently in the maerket for a 5.1 speaker set to complete my home theatre.

I already have a Yamaha RS-V459 receiver and looking for suitable speakers to match. I am looking to spend up to $2000 on speakers

For the rears I am tending towarda in ceiling speaker rather than wall mounted. Floor standing rears are not an option because of a doorway and hall locations.

I visited Eastwood HiFi on the weekend and they recommend the following for the Mains/Centre/Subwoofer

Mains and Center Australian Acoustics

Subwoofer Yamaha YST-SW515

I have not been able to find any reviews on these speakers except for that on the Eastwood HiFi web page.

I did listen to the speaker/sub combo at the store and the sound was quite good to me.

Is there anyone who is familiar with speakers who can comment on them?

Cheers

Craig

[dantan]

Hi Craig,

I am not familiar with these speakers myself. I have Krix speakers (Australia's largest loudspeaker manufacturer).

Let me just please advise you to audition as many speakers as you possibly can. As confusing and painstaking as it is, you won't regret it when you realise there are so many good brands around.

Please don't let salespeople push you towards certain brands. There is one hi-fi specialist here in Perth which is extremely keen to push customers towards British brand Monitor Audio. Nothing against Monitor Audio, but this hi-fi specialist criticised Krix, a brand it sold for years before its contract with Krix expired.

I would certainly recommend sticking to one particular brand throughout. There are heaps of excellent brands around.

For your budget, perhaps you could go for a B&W (Bowers & Wilkins - British brand. Exceptional speakers) system - go for their excellent satellite speakers and sub woofer combo. I cannot remember the series name and number, but check these speakers out.

Otherwise, check out Krix's range (www.krix.com). They are Adelaide-based. They supply a lot of speakers to a lot of Australian - and even overseas - commercial cinemas.

For you, I would recommend tonally matching everything, so, Krix's KDX series will be perfect, as they all have exactly the same drivers and tweeters. Get 2 pairs of Krix KDX-M (1 pair for main front and 1 pair for main rear) and 1 KDX-C centre channel speaker (110-watts RMS per speaker) and 1 Krix Seismix 5 sub woofer, and you will have a rocking system, that is fully matched tonally. Your budget will be slightly blown here, but you will not regret it. The KDX-M are about $900 per pair, the KDX-C about $600 (I think), and the Seismix 5 about $900.

Don't forget to haggle. If you purchase all of these, you should get at least about $800 off the retail prices.

[Craig Alexander]

Hi Craig,

I am not familiar with these speakers myself. I have Krix speakers (Australia's largest loudspeaker manufacturer).

Let me just please advise you to audition as many speakers as you possibly can. As confusing and painstaking as it is, you won't regret it when you realise there are so many good brands around.

Please don't let salespeople push you towards certain brands. There is one hi-fi specialist here in Perth which is extremely keen to push customers towards British brand Monitor Audio. Nothing against Monitor Audio, but this hi-fi specialist criticised Krix, a brand it sold for years before its contract with Krix expired.

I would certainly recommend sticking to one particular brand throughout. There are heaps of excellent brands around.

For your budget, perhaps you could go for a B&W (Bowers & Wilkins - British brand. Exceptional speakers) system - go for their excellent satellite speakers and sub woofer combo. I cannot remember the series name and number, but check these speakers out.

Otherwise, check out Krix's range (www.krix.com). They are Adelaide-based. They supply a lot of speakers to a lot of Australian - and even overseas - commercial cinemas.

For you, I would recommend tonally matching everything, so, Krix's KDX series will be perfect, as they all have exactly the same drivers and tweeters. Get 2 pairs of Krix KDX-M (1 pair for main front and 1 pair for main rear) and 1 KDX-C centre channel speaker (110-watts RMS per speaker) and 1 Krix Seismix 5 sub woofer, and you will have a rocking system, that is fully matched tonally. Your budget will be slightly blown here, but you will not regret it. The KDX-M are about $900 per pair, the KDX-C about $600 (I think), and the Seismix 5 about $900.

Don't forget to haggle. If you purchase all of these, you should get at least about $800 off the retail prices.

Thanks for your reply.

Is it that important to match the sub with the mains/centre. I certainly plan to match the centre with the mains.

Note that for the rears I will be using in ceiling speakers or perhaps wall mounting my existing B&W 2001 ZMF bookshelf speaker as rears.

Cheers

Craig

[kuribu]

Hi Craig,

Can't help out with the speakers (I was running 11 year old Bose Acoustimas 7's 'til my Sony Amp shat its self...)

Which brings me to my question for you... I'm in the market for a new amp and was wondering what you paid for your RX-V459? I'm actually interested in the RX-V461, but as they retail for the same ($699) I figure they should be able to drop to the same... (oh, and where'd you get it?).

I'll still be running the 461 with my Bose set - great sound from such a tiny package, and you can mount them up high out of reach and interference from the kids!

Good luck with the speakers!

kuribu