The Bose Solo TV sound system

I'd always go floor standers if there is the room to do so - besides anything else, the increased cabinet volume leads to better/more natural bass (think of it like the difference between a cello and a viola); having said that, there have been some cracking stand mounted speakers over the years too - Wharfedale Diamonds, Mordaunt Short MS10, B&W DM600 etc;

The way to get the best way from stand mounted speakers is to get the best stands you can, preferably hollow single tube construction and with floor spikes - fill them with lead shot or dry sand (and I mean FILL them), then isolate the speaker from the stand either on spikes/isolating cones OR (and this was my preferred choice) blu-tack. Then, get the distance between the back of the speaker and the wall right, and avoid having a speaker in a corner of a room;

 

Another brand that I haven't heard for years - Castle! A quick Google shows they are still alive and kicking too, although are now part of International Audio Group along with Quad etc.

VHS did actually have really good sound quality - in fact, some people would use Super-VHS machines for recording only audio off radio broadcasts etc.

 

Very nice - doubt you will be disappointed with them; they've made very few speakers that could be classed as duffers over the years, with the vast majority being pretty incredible. I was very fond of the '6' range back in the 90's (six sided, speaker cabinets, often with a marble effect top panel) with the 611 being the pick of the crop; went very nicely with a Kenwood KA-3020 amp and a Marantz CD-63, or even a Denon PMA-450 (I always wanted one of those!) in place of the Kenwood amp; Tannoy also went very well with ARCAM kit (don't know if that applies now).

The other ones I would be tempted to look at are the Monitor Audio RX6?

 

God, I could still spend a fortune on hifi! Shame I don't have the space any more.

 

Have you seen the Tannoy Kingdom Royal @Freddy - might be a wee bit expensive for your taste though........


















A snip at £35,000!

 

Their CD players have generally always been good, and I would agree that they are a lot more musical sounding (the KI Signature was a cracker in its day, and would probably knock spots off many new players even today) - - I was never struck on their amps though - don't really know why, they always felt as though they were 'missing' something if you know what I mean?

ARCAM are another that have quite a musical sound to them - not the cheapest, but worth their money in my opinion. Rotel are also well worth looking at for amps/CD players, as are Cyrus - all tend to give a sound that is nicely balanced between pace, detail and warmth.

 

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up - Kenwood's tended to be bright and breezy with plenty of guts, Technics were generally overly bright/sharp but also had oodles of grunt; Denon, again no lack of drive, but they always erred on the warmer side, NAD - very flat at times, and not everyones cup of tea, but did make some real crackers as well; Marantz - well, I always felt that I wanted to be turning them up all the time; good enough sound quality, but they never really felt as though they were driving things along to me

The thing is, as you know, its all very subjective and what one person likes another will detest.

 

Shame, because they were generally reliable as far as I recall. The only odd one that springs to mind was a CD player that had a really odd audio fault - sound distortion a bit like you get on a freeview channel when its starting to break up; took us weeks to get to the bottom of it, and it turned out to be a couple of condensers that had gone bad.