I have a Marantz 80 watt surround sound amp. I need to buy bookshelf speakers for listening to music. I want to buy good quality mid-range speakers, any brand. Any recommendations?
The AudioEngine P4s would sound great, also NHT and PSB make great speakers for a reasonable price. Cambridge Audio is another brand that I like too. If it were me I'd get the P4s paired with a subwoofer (HSU STF-2 or VTF-1).
Marantz builds a good quality amplifier and has a nice warm sound to it. So you want to choose speakers that will work well both electrically and be complemented sonically by the amplifier. Do they have to be bookshelf speakers ? Of course with small bookshelf speakers they will be somewhat limited in bass output (which isn't a bad thing) its just a limitation due to size. Sure you can make up for that with a subwoofer, but that introduces a whole other set of concerns. If they didn't have to be bookshelf I would recommend looking into Magnepan, or Vandersteen as they are making the best budget speakers out there right now, and would work nicely with your Marantz amplifier. They would also produce a nice full sound without the need of buying and dealing with placement and calibration concerns of using a subwoofer with the bookshelf speakers. As for bookshelf speakers, Tannoy, Kef, Aerial Acoustics, BW, all make nice sounding bookshelf speakers. There are also many others, but all will be found at the better audio stores. Or simply go and discover your local independent high end audio video store as they carry the better brands of speakers. The salesmen at these stores also have years of experience designing higher quality systems so they can best help you find the right speakers for how you like to listen, the room it will be played in, and that matches with your amplifier correctly. Kevin 40 years high end audio video specialist
Energy Audio; Boston Acoustic; NHT; Axiom speakers.Totem Acoustics; Bowers and Wilkins
