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Comment by jay_kyburz | Hacker News Reader

This!. I've been searching for a set of speakers for my lounge room with a nice big cone in them, but I just cant find that is not priced for audiofiles. I have been looking second hand, but everything I can find is over 40 years old and the cones have all started disintegrating.

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If you have some diy desire and skill, you can get a lot of bang-for-your buck from the speaker kits from Parts Express (https://www.parts-express.com/speaker-components/speaker-sub...). The sound quality of their kits is surprisingly high! In addition, there can be a lot of satisfaction when you're listening to them, knowing that you built them yourself.

I actually bought a couple pairs of these Dayton bookshelf speakers with AMTs for surrounds with my Totem mains and center a few years ago. They sound fucking GOOD for $60. Far better than all this satellite and soundbar crap. If I was on an absolute budget, I'd get these as my mains, and the acoustech subs that I use for my computer($240) at the time. SOLID.

https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-B652-AIR-6-1-2-Bo...

Yeh, unfortunately you're going to have to spend some bucks for quality. I'm still using my fathers 50 year old ESS Model 5's in my upstairs office and they sound amazing. Original woofers too! I just refoamed them, easy. I love the sound of the HEIL air motion transformers.

Downstairs is all Totem I bought 20 years ago.

I would love some JBL L100 with the 12 inch cones, but I just can't justify the $8K they are here in Australia.

Love the look of those, I'll have to listen to them. $5000 here in the states.

I'm in Australia, and there are still plenty of good options around.

I got a pair of Dali floorstanders for around AU$1000 a few years back on sale. The Dali Oberon (which I think is the replacement) is $1500 when not on sale right now.

You can get B&W 603s for under AU$3000.

Sure, you aren't getting a 12" woofer - but these are lovely speakers.

Oh yeah, I have a really nice set of JBL floorstanders in a 5.1 cinema set up I bought when I left home 30 years ago but I have never been fully satisfied with the sound. I'm sure its the mid range from the large cones that I'm missing.

The subwoofer I bought at the time doesn't have a large cone on it. The mistake I made I think.

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