Your Favorite cheap Mini Speakers???

[crispycircuit]

I usually end up down in my shop listening to music and I end up using mini speakers due to room size and lower listening levels (read married). I also use a pair of Radio Shack Minimus 7s for testing/listening gear I'm repairing on the bench. For my needs mini speakers are fine. I'm sure everyone has a pair hidden away. So what are your choices for mini speakers? Anything recommended that can be had on Ebay for $100 or so?? A speaker you though was above average for the money?? ...... I already have AR-11s, Boston A-200s, & Audio Nivana Super 8s..... But my shop is where I spend most of my time listening to music.... I'm guessing there might be a few more married members out there......

[joeriz]

I've had a set of Boston A-40's since they were new (around 1986 or so) and I still use them in my bedroom system. Great little speakers and dirt cheap on the used market. They will most likely need to be refoamed but are well worth it. Since you already have the A-200's, you're probably familiar with the re-foam thing...

Joe

[nyazzip]

if the shop is where you "listen to most of your music", you might as well go for it, and put some decent speakers down there. why should they be cheap, or small? put the cheapo ones in your living room for your wife to "appreciate" Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_03
i listen to mostly NPR(talk) in the "shop", and it emanates from a vintage 12" full range ceramic speaker( i didn't like it for guitar- too trebley) hung loose from a joist with wire, directly above the bench, powered by a 0.5 watt transistor clock radio Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_16
...but i'm working on changing that.

[SDS-PAGE]

I was looking for a AV receiver for a friend on Craigslist and ended up buying a complete surround system that included an Onkyo receiver, Infinity 2000.1 reference mini speakers, a center speaker by Infinity, a DCM sub, and a pair of Bose surrounds. All for $100. I gave my friend the receiver, the Bose, and the sub.

I kept the Infinity mini 2000.1s for my garage system. I have them hooked up to my DIYTUBE ST-70 through a 8" Velodyne sub. They sound surprisingly good. Decent efficiency at 88 dB/W/m. They appear to be pretty well made too. I have been listening to some orchestra music blasting through those tiny speakers and the sub when I work on amps in the garage. SO FUN!

[wiredbecker]

Lately I've been really enjoying my Zilch modified Realistic Minimus 7's. Here's the thread with schematics http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showth ... p?t=199790

[crispycircuit]

I like my Minimus 7's so I just bought a pair of Minimus 77's which is the larger metal cab with a 5" woof that are rated for 50 watts. The "Pro 77" is the same cab with a heavy duty 5" woof rated for 70 watts. I'll be hooking them up today and see what shakin'. At the moment I'm getting a kick out cheap little speakers on Flea-Bay. I'm usually listening to old retro rock anyway while enjoying my shop time and I'll look into those Minimus upgrades...... excellent FUN!

[MashBill]

I'm running some old refoamed Visonik Davids (5000s or 6000s, I can't remember) in the barn with a pair of 8" subwoofers I made 20 years ago.

In my office I use a pair of JBL Control IIIs I picked up used online. These are really good speakers for the money.

In my bedroom I use a pair of Monitor Audio Radius 90s.

In the 80's I worked in a hifi store and I sold over a ton of BA A-40's. These are great speakers. My sister still uses a pair I gave her in her basement system.

[CpuZapper]

Paradigm Titans, I paid $100.00 CAD new years ago. They still sound great and I use them in my HT as rear channel speakers now. The newer V.2 version is reported to be even better sounding. How old are they now 10 years?

[EWBrown]

I've been using the top part of some AR "Holographic Series" speakers as test speakers, they contain a 5 inch mid-woofer and titanium dome tweeter, and have excellent frequency response and decent (90 dB) sensitivity. THese tops were from the M5 or M6 series, in which the main 8 inch woofer(s) were housed in a separate tower cabinet upon which the tops were placed.

I have two pairs of these, the first set came from a hamfest many years ago, the second set from the local dump "swap table" last year.

/ed

[crispycircuit]

Ed you find all kinds of cool stuff. Nice find..... I enyoy my shop time and switching up speakers. I did hook up the Rat Shack Pro 77s (5" woof & 70 watts rating). You need to try several amps on them because they sounded very nice on 1 amp and just OK on another. Over all they rate v. good for cheap mini's. .... But I bought a set of Paradigm Titan's v1 and have been really taken with the overall sound. They make my other mini's sound a couple levels down in quality. I don't know if these qualify as cheap mini's, but they're not very big. I found them for $50 and can highly recommend them for that price....

[EWBrown]

The ARs which I use look like these:



Just the tops, I don't have the woofer "columns". The tops sound quite good by themselves, though they are a bit bass-shy, probably good down to 80-100 Hz by themselves, but then I'm not really into "thump" and "rumble" all that much, anyway Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_03 Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_06

These "top units" were used on the AR Holographic M5 and M6 series, the difference being that the M5 had a single 8 inch woofer, and the M6 has two. The "tops" are the same for both models. input connections are two female banana plug receptacles recessed in the bottom.

/ed B

[soundbrigade]

I've got 2 pairs of HiVi A2S speaker chassis laying around and cannot get myself to do anything of them. I found out when I had managed to fix some nice wooden mini boxes that I definitely cannot use any material thing than 5 mm else I cover the holes in the chassis.

[msmpe]

I took a (too big) DCM center speaker with dual 6" woofers and horn tweeter. Cut it in half, added 1" mdf bottoms, new Vifa tweeters, new 12 Db crossovers (guestimated the woofer parameters). I am surprised how good they came out - clean sound with good bass for 6" . Great learning experience and fun project.

[ChrisK]

Check these out:

http://www.orbaudio.com/

Amazingly full sound...4" diameter, 100W, American made. I've had these for a surround sound system for three years and they sound great. Trouble is, as with all small speakers, one has to think about a good sub for those freqs under 120-100cps or thereabouts.

WAF made me do it, and it's a lot better than I thought it would be. These little orbs can crank way above normal pain thresholds yet stay clean...

Chris

[riverrat373]

Minimus 7's