Does anyone know anywhere that I can get advice on getting some speakers, in English, in the Zurich area, please?

I've had an amp and so on for ages, but my wife always refused to let me buy any decent speakers. Well now the wife is gone, so I'm going to make the neighbours' ears bleed (I kid! I kid! I enjoy my peace and quiet too, but the speakers do have to match the amp, as I proved with my last pair... oops...)

Alternatively, is there anyone here who could help with advice?

What Amplifier are you running? And what music types do you listen to?

A local manufacturer: www.piega.ch Price Range CHF 250 up to 25000

I like Canton, you can get them shipped from Germany.

But it depends what kind of set-up you want and the kind of budget you have.

I would get a couple of BOSE. They have some very small and top quality, but not cheap!
If you want something good but not to spend too much money, I would recommend you JBL.


http://www.bose.ch/CH/de/index.jsp
http://ch.jbl.com/homepage-jbl-ch.html

For good speakers I would avoid BOSE like the plague.

I run Cyrus amps and Mission speakers - a rather year 2000 setup I would admit

Again - it does all depend on music; amps; source; personal choice.

There are a number of high end shops in and around Zurich - but having not added/updated for a long time I can't really help.

I did buy a Fatman from here http://www.klangwandel.ch/lautsprecher.htm - the service was excellent, price superb and they spoke at least a smattering of English.

You might want to note down the german words for the sound you want

Strange. I thought BOSE were supposed to be good? On the other hand, I also had in mind their products were all(?) active speakers. Or am I simply confusing them with B&O? I am, aren't I. Oh bother Last time I looked into this the guy in the B&O shop tried to get me to throw away my amp and buy 3 grand's worth of speakers instead. They were very nice, but...

My amp and CD player are very 2000, too, which is why I need to ask advice I will dig the details out this evening and post them.

Music taste... kind of everything. Some jazz, rock, a little classical and opera but not very often. And soul. A whole lotta soul. And ska. Some reggae. Like I said, kind of everything. Okay, maybe a bit more detail since I left something out. I also like the sound of one voice and one guitar a lot. Joan Baez is a good example.

I'll add the amp details later on. It's nothing special. A Sony. I got it on a deal because I worked for them at the time.

Secondary requirement: it might be nice to get TV sound through the speakers as well. Would I need any extra kit in this case? Am I better off going for two speakers, or more? Sooooo confusing I'd ask on more specific forums - indeed I did do, last time I was looking - but they tend to recommend stuff you can't easily get in the local market.

Budget? Not fussed. Not thousands, but a few hundred I would expect. Most important is that they work well with the amp, I suspect. There's no point putting a Ferrari engine in a Mini, or Mini engine in a Ferrari. They have to work together.

BOSE is overpriced, and its quality is far far less than any decent speaker in that price range.

The important question is: what is your budget for speakers? Generally speaking, speakers are the most important part of your audio setup, so you should invest generously in them.

I have been very happy with Monitor Audio (UK brand); also Genelec speakers are my all-time favourite. Genelec are rather expensive.

There are so many choices out there; researching your choices is pleasure in itself. Good luck!

I was satisfied with the service at http://www.highdefinition.ch . I bought my KEF IQ-series speakers from them, which I'm very happy with. I guess they deal with KEF, B&W and Canton.

They have a nice listening room where you can try out various speakers that they sell.

musikundform near kreutzplatz speak english, they have sorted me out well on occasion.

whatever you do, never visit augundohr in zurich west.... worst service in the history of bad service. i shudder.

Because bose is german and the other are swiss...

Sennheiser and AKG are bad too?

I understand you well.

The amp is a Sony TA-FB940R.

I recommend you this ranking:

http://www.testfreaks.com/hifi-speakers/?sort=score

The amp is two channel and a bit on the weak side if you want to push speakers that have strong bass. You also need to consider the space you want to fill with sound.

If you want to consider a cinema system, it will likely be self-powered, but if you want quality music sound from a cinema system you will probably want to look at higher end systems.

To get your bearings, I would cruise a bunch of stores from high end down to moderate. The really high end stuff is generally reaching the diminishing returns for the price or is good sound in pricy decoration, B&O, for example.

In any case, if you want good sound, not the best, be ready to put out a k or two, but spend it on the content, not the wrapping.

Audiophiles, recommend that you should use most of your budget on the source, then amplifier, and then speakers. This is due to "garbage in garbage out".

...well, the source today is likely to be digital and the quality of the original recording is something you have no control over, so basically you want your system to be equal from the player through to the speakers.

This brings you to the other point, consumer or audiophile. The manufacturers of consumer gear cheat all over the place with electronic "enhancement" and cheap components common to many brands that are names of former repute, such as JBL, Harmann, etc., names that have been bought up with nothing of the former rep behind them. The audiophile gear is today mostly names you don't recognize, so you will have to inform yourself, and at the same time find out if your hearing is good enough to differentiate.

Amar Gopal Bose was a Native American, who arrsed about with psycho acoustics to try and defy physics. Whilst some of their products can be said to be impressive for the size, high end and accurate they are not.

IMHO with an amplifier like that you want to look for a speaker that has high sensitivity and is easy to drive. The higher this number the easier to power e.g 90dB/1W is easier to drive than 86dB/1W. Also, although rarer now, you could avoid 8 ohm boxes; a 6 ohm is a good medium between power output and not making an amp block like yours too hot and work overly hard.

Low end Jamo, JBL (just bloody loud) etc will give you an instant wow factor but you may find them harsh and tiring to listen to for long periods and artificially blooming in the highs and lows. These sort of boxes are tend to be modelled on the "smiley face" graphic EQ curve.

Marques such as B&W, PMC, Dynaudio, Mission and Monitor Audio etc tend not to be so much, but can need a lot of instantaneous current available to drive them convincingly. You do not want to run the amplifier into clip in order to move some air; this will damage loudspeaker drivers faster than anything.

However, all that being said if you are running at moderate levels then PMC would perhaps be worth looking at. Their transmission line floor-standers are super impressive. Personally I would scour Ricardo and ebay for good examples as opposed to buying new at CH pricing....

If you don't mind buying second-hand, you can get superb kit for a fraction of the new price. Like dodgyken, I run a Cyrus system -- DVD player, CD player, tuner, pre-amp, two amps, two power supplies. Bought new, the system would have cost upwards of CHF5'000. I bought my entire system for around CHF1'000 second-hand, all in mint-condition and in original boxes. The system blows away anything I could have bought new for the same price, even with advances in technology.

Similarly, I bought a set of Ruark Talisman speakers. They're amazing speakers that sold for over CHF2'000 a pair new. They're regularly available on eBay for CHF200 a pair. Even if you throw in shipping from the UK (where most of them are located), you'll get a stunning pair of speakers for under CHF300.

FWIW, I run my TV through my stereo system. All it required was an extra set of cables. It's not 5.1, but two-channel stereo through my system is good enough for me.

oooooo forgot Ruark!!! Good boxes