Advice needed: speakers for my son's first stereo

I'm buying my soon-to-be 12-year-old son his first stereo. I've settled on the NAD C516BEE CD player, NAD C316BEE integrated amp.

Now I'm trying to decide on the speakers. Looking at bookshelf speakers at around $300. Right now I'm thinking about either The Elac Debut B6, which have gotten great reviews or the Wharfedale Diamond 10.2 speakers, normally $450, but on sale for $299 at Musicdirect. Any thoughts on these two?

If I wanted to stretch a bit, Musicdirect also has on sale at $499 the Focal Aria 905 and Wharfedale Denton speakers. I'd welcome thoughts on those as well, though I don't know if I want to go up that high.

Any thoughts and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

Those Focal Aria 905 speakers are pretty amazing for that price, I think that's everywhere, not just MD, we were just talking about them in another thread, but yea, might be more than he needs or wants at this point, none of us really know, he might want something a little more "ballsy"

 

Holy cow, lucky 12-year old!

Are these going into his bedroom? You can't go wrong with either one, and you also couldn't go wrong with the open box 10.1 at $199 or the open box B5 at $181. Looks wise, the Wharfedales seem cooler and that alone might sway a kid.

It seems like the few comparisons I've seen have favored the Wharfedales in terms of refinement and maybe the Elacs for just plain producing big sound for the size. I have a set of 10.1's in a bedroom and their bass can be quite surprising in quantity and is just plain very nice in quality.

 

Thanks for the feedback so far. The stereo would go in his bedroom, which is a good size room for a kid's bedroom. In terms of types of music, his musical taste is obviously still developing and changing, but at this point his favorite bands are Led Zeppelin, Green Day, Soundgarden, and Royal Blood.

Again, really appreciate all your thoughts.

 

Nice Dad you are. When I was that age I got a Truetone suitcase style record player from Western Auto.

 

Hi, You might want to consider the PSB Alpha B1 speaker. PSB and NAD are owned by the same parent company and from what I understand use each others equipment to voice their own. I have a C315bee and the Alpha B1's in an office system, and they are great together.

 

Would that NAD amp have enough power for the Elac's?

 

That's what I was thinking, especially in a good sized room...

 

What a dad!

 

I would imagine that a kid who likes the bands mentioned would want to crank it now and again. A lot of bookshelf speakers fall into the 84-87 db sensitivity range ( some easier to drive than others).

You might want to look for an amp in the 80 to 100 watt range that fits your budget that way there won't be clipping and distortion when he wants to Crank It Up. Or find some speakers in the 90 DB and up range.

 

Although the Elac's are 4 ohm so as long as the amp has 4 ohm taps that should double the power to them.

As long as you have enough juice to them, it sounds like the Elac's are an amazing value.

 

I've always found that NAD packs a lot of power into their amps for the rating - lots of dynamic headroom. I'm not too worried about that.

 

That's a good thought. I should consider PSB's. Anyone have any direct experience with them compared to the others I've mentioned.

 

Nor would I be (worried). He can always engage soft clipping for speaker protection if he's going to stupid levels.

Being a young rocker, I imagine he definitely would like the bigger models!

 

Dang, that's one dad right there. I budgeted about the same for my own speakers.

 

I'd get the 10.2s. Almost bought the B6s but didn't because they were out of stock. Most people report a darker sound signature on them that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like. If that's what you think your son would like, then go ahead and get the B6s.

 

That's a great "starter" choice of player/amp! I have the same combo in my home office. Nice to see a young audio enthusiast explore music through physical media.

Personally, I have the Music Hall Marimba speakers due to their small footprint on my desk. But any of your choices seems solid to me.

 

This image just in of grbl's son's bedroom:








Some alternatives to consider:

Q Acoustics 3020: Q Acoustics 3020 Bookshelf Speaker Pair

Monitor Audio Bronze 2: Bronze 2

If you are not wed to bookshelf models:

Tannoy Eclipse 3: http://www.tannoy.com/lifestyle/products/HiFi/Eclipse/Eclipse-Three/

Q Acoustics 2050i: Q Acoustics 2050i Floorstanding Speaker Pair - Floorstanding (10% off deal works in addition to price reduction!)

 

Q Acoustics 3020 are very,very nice. Also consider Dali Zensor....

 

Thanks guys. Keep the recommendations coming.

 

When I first started setting up my "listening" room (part time office), I bought a pair of the PSB Alpha's to use and was very pleased with them. I had them hooked to an older Arcam Alpha 9 rated around 80 watts and was very happy with the sound. Highly recommended. I would suggest a nice set of speaker cables to go with them. I first used some I had laying around and later upgraded to a heavier 14 gauge cable. Nothing fancy, just AQ spool wire. It was a tremendous difference with a more fulfilling sound. My son is enjoying them now.

I think this is great set-up you are putting together for your son. I am sure he will get a lot of pleasure out of it.

 

The Focals would be awesome!
And he will dig them in college.

 

I ran my focal 826w's fine with my nad320bbe. But I was glad to get the Chronos mag back.

 

Any of those he will like, unless he has them all lined up and "clicking" the button he won't know the difference. Get the Focals and be done

 

I'm selling a pair of fairly high efficiency Epos Epic 2s in the classifieds, great rock speakers and easy to drive.