Cheapie speakers that might sound ok

There was a pair of bookshelf speakers for a hundred quid which had some very favorable write ups.

Troble is I can't remember the name

Acoustic Energy I think.

Or what about a pair of Mordent Shorts, a club in Slaisbury uses MS with naim kit and they do a very tidy job, I believe that naim used to have something to do with Mordent so could be a good synergy.

How inexpensive were you thinking?

Richer sounds are selling kef cresta 1 for £40. Richer sounds have an advert somewhere in the middle of the what hi-fi magazine full of bargains

Hi Topof,

You could try either Epos ES11 or ES12's very good for the money!!

I've seen them for approx. £150-£200 secondhand.

I use a rather nice pair of modified ones with CDX/XPS 82/Hicap & 180.

Cheers!

Mad Boy Matt

Just found a pair of cherry Linn Kans (not biwired so maybe these are the original versions), I know some people on this forum rate them so any idea what's a good price for them?

Cheers

Dave

Matt,
I think Buying ES 11's without their stands would be a mistake. The cost would be closer to £200-£240 for ones in good nick with their own dedicated stands.

Topof -
I think Mission M71's recently where given the thumbs up. Failing that I think a week ago or so there was a thread on cheap 2nd hand speakers have a look for that.

Simon

I use a rather nice pair of modified ones with CDX/XPS 82/Hicap & 180.

Cheers!

Mad Boy Matt[/QUOTE] Matt how did you get your speakers modified and how much does it cost? ive got some epos es11's

Kan prices

Around £175-£250 depending on condition. This should include stands. Don't buy them without proper KanII stands with top and bottom spikes, they don't work on anything else*.

You might be better off with something other than Kans though - they're ruthlessly revealing and not terribly CD friendly. If you don't set them up right and feed them expensive signals they can sound terrible.

Regards
Steve

*Except properly set up wall brackets and possibly an expensive pile of stuff outside your budget parameters.

Thanks everyone for contributing.
I guess I was looking at around £200 for speakers and stands (probably Atacama Nexus 6).
Of couse a slim floorstander might suffice as well. I saw a good deal on an older Acoustic Energy 109.
I'll check out Mordaunt Shorts too.

Dave

Another vote for KEF's.

Otherwise Tannoy have a pair of very small bookshelf speakers which go for about £250. I found them very impressive and recommended them to a long-time Jazz aficionado, he really loves them.

Cheese

Hi,
I used a pair of KEF Q15s on the end of a Nait 2 and I thought they were bloody excellent for the money. Should be plenty of cheap ones about as they have been replaced by a new model. I think I only paid £150 for them new.

Say Matt,

My Epos ES11's were 10 years old when I replaced the main woofers & their integral front baffles for ES12's. At the time I also upgraded the capacitors & replaced the internal wiring. Incidently I didn't replace the ES11 tweeters preferred these over the es12 ones!

Hope this is of interest to you matt!

Cheers

PS Simon B:

The prices I mention for used Epos were only meant as a guide, & included their dedicated stands...naturally!!

Mad Boy Matt

If you are willing to look at second hand, slim floorstanders, you could do a lot worse than Royd Minstrels (SE if possible). Should be able to pick up a pair for less than 100 squid.
You need to hear them b4 you buy as the mid/bass drivers are supposed to be a bit fragile and may be damaged if they've been thrashed. Mine still sound fine after ~6 years though.

Simon

Hi Topof

You mention The Kef Cresta 2s in your first post and these are certainly an accomplished pair of speakers with good stands and are still on sale at Richer Sounds for about eighty quid. This would leave you plenty for good stands. I've got a pair which I used before getting the Saras and still bring out now and then and are an enjoyable listening experience having surprising amounts of bass for the size. i preferred them about a foot from the rear wall and slightly toed in.

Yours in Music

Syd

You could get a lovely pair of Naim Intro's for £250. Best £250 ish I've every spent

Hi Simon,
Any sugestions on where to source the secon habd Royds?

Cheers

Dave

Syd,
Yeah noticed that RS still have them, could also try the Acoustic Energy Aegis 1 that were out a couple of years ago - anyone heard these at all?

Ta

Dave

Royds

Pairs show up on loot quite frequently. Audio-T have a couple for sale on their second hand page at the moment, probably a little bit over priced but you may have more comeback with a dealer. I'm not sure where you are located though.

Simon

There are currently a pair Royd Coniston "R"s on E-Bay, highest bid is currently £1!

Thanks everyone - lots of options there. I liked the look of the Royds but the GF wont have black in the front room.
I've seen a pair of Acoustic Energy 109's for sale which would be good as they're shielded and I wont have to splash on stands.
No idea what they'd sound like on the end of a CD5, Nait5 combo and the only review I've found is:
http://www.hifichoice.co.uk/archive/perl/344_printreview.htm

Any thoughts on this one?

Dave

I've never tried them on 5-series Naim gear, but on 3-series stuff AE109's were great fun! We sold pallet loads of AE109s. They gave a lot of bang for your buck (£350/pair at the time). They require at least 18 inches from the rear wall, preferably 24" or more. They have a remarkable amount of (not very tight) bass. Their one minor failing is that they're capable of being a bit uncouth in the treble.

But they're a lot of fun, even driven by a Nait! AE got it wrong with the original Aegis range after that, but the new EVO3's (also £350/pr) are remarkably similar to the 109's, so they're back on track. Incidentally, 109's are not the easiest drive so if you have a BIG room, (say, 20 feet by 14) forget it (unless you don't want to play LOUD).

Forget Aegis 1's - best of a bad lot, but not as good as KEF Cresta 2's in my view.

By the way, towards the end of their life, AE produced an AE109SE. This had veneer instead of vinyl wrap and a revised tweeter. It was much less harsh in the treble and basically addressed the only weakness in the original.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Thanks Frank.
My room isn't big - it's 15 1/2 feet x 12 1/2 at its widest point so I guess this is ok?
I'll try and get these for a good price otherwise it's down to RicherSounds for some KEF Cresta 2's

BTW Just noticed some Royd Abbot's on Ebay - they look quite unusual (nice), is this typical of how Royd floorstanders look.

Thanks

Dave