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Comment by AriaMinaei | Hacker News Reader

Speaking of smart speakers, I'm moving to a new flat and I'm looking for some good old dumb speaker setup. The smartest that I'd let it get would be a Bleutooth dongle.

As a recovering Audiophile, I'm gonna stay away from r/audiophile lest they temp me to sell my kidney to afford that extra 5% in "acoustic fidelity." Seriously, I'm happy with the 95%.

Now, how do I go about putting together that sound system? Or in Audiophile terms, what is the DT 770 Pro of home stereo setups?

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Where I'm from everyone is using Genelec speakers.

Difficult to answer the question without knowing the OP's budget, but I agree on the Genelec line. $700 for a pair of their smallest powered speakers, and they sound great. What you are getting from these little speakers would have been considered quite exotic a few decades ago: individually-driven speakers with active crossovers and equalizers. For a couple thousand dollars you can put together a system that would have cost more than a house 25 years ago.

In my home office I have a little Onkyo (CR-N575) desktop receiver and it sounds okay at best. I keep wondering if replacing the default speakers would make much of a difference? I'm doubtful because the amp itself isn't great.

I clearly don't know much about amplifiers, but the specs say "RMS output power: 20W+20W (1 kHz, 10% THD 6 ohm)" which is terrible, right?

https://www.intl.onkyo.com/downloads/manuals/pdf/cs-n575d_ma...

20W per channel at 10% distortion is pretty bad. The $350 powered speaker mentioned elsewhere in this subthread claims < 0.05% amplifier THD at 100W total power, and total distortion including the speaker of < 0.5% at 85dB SPL, which is an uncomfortably loud output.

On another line of the spec sheet I linked to, they say:

> 12W+12W (1kHz, 0.9%, T.H.D 6ohnm)

Which isn’t terrible. I have no idea how to read these spec sheets.

A pair of cheap(ish) active studio monitors will probably give you the best price:performance ratio: https://www.sweetwater.com/c405--Active_Monitors

I can vouch for the JBL 305Ps sounding pretty damn good. If you aren’t keen on spending that amount, though, the Presonus Eris line looks decent, as well.

Studio monitors are maybe a bit specific - ie: flat response and VERY directional.

Used KEF Q150 if you mean full sized speakers. Or these: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-surround-sou...

> Or in Audiophile terms, what is the DT 770 Pro of home stereo setups?

You want speakers with a weird treble hump and sibilance?

Denon HEOS wireless AVR with Definitive Tech ProMonitor wired L,R,Center and pair of wireless surrounds.

Or Sonos ARC with sub and their version of surrounds.

Or ATV4 + HomePods OG or these, then anything hooked to an eARC tv plays through these once TV+ATV4K set to eARC mode.

Probably something active like the Q Acoustics M20, Triangle AIO Twin, JBL 305P, or Kali Audio In-5 (though the last two are monitors so you’d need a dac/preamp of some sort).

Just got a pair of Kali LP-6 last month for my desk setup and they're incredible for the price

Klipsch The Fives ticks a lot of boxes in terms of ease of connectivity and sound quality.

I love my AudioEngine A5's

I like my HD6s too. Onboard amp, two analog inputs plus optical and BT. Sound good to me.

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