"Rob" wrote in message
eb.com...
On 29/01/2012 11:45, Rob wrote:
I'd like some speakers for a small room/office, and they'll be
tucked
into a bookshelf. The room is about 10'x8'x7'(H). I'm not
looking to
spend very much - up to £100 second hand. Amplifier 20WPC SS.
Any
recommendations?

Thanks, Rob



Many modern small bookshelf speakers are rear ported so putting
them on a shelf and presumably thus close to a wall will make
them very boomy and muddy in sound. You would be better to go for
one of the older infinite baffle designs.

As you are in a relatively small room and will probably not need
much volume you want a speaker that doesn't need a lot of
driving. I would suggest you look at a pair of Wharfedale Dentons
or Shiltons. Yes a 30 year old design but both are speakers that
are very easy on the ear and have well made drivers. Also
consider perhaps some of the smaller and older Mission, Monitor
Audio, or Celestions, or if you want probably the best look for
some smaller Castles. Also look out for almost any of the smaller
KEF units - they will never let you down. A rare-ish but very
compitent small speaker was the TDL NFM (Near Field Monitor) but
they tend to be few and far between.

If you want more modern then something like the small Tannoy or
Quad products of the last few years but they may exceed your
budget. Older Gale (now I think a brand owned by Richer Sounds)
were also solid little units.

For the creme de la creme the BBC-designed LS3/5A which were made
by several manufacturers - Goodmans, Rogers, Chartwell, etc - but
you will be paying hundreds for them! (Probably the only speakers
you will buy secondhand that cost now more than they did new
15-20 years ago - they are that good.)

Whatever you do (a) get speakers that have rubber driver
surrounds - as against foam which rots - and (b) make sure those
surrounds are not cut. I saw a pair of reasonable TDL's yesterday
for £40 but one surround had a small cut in it and TDL are no
longer in business.

I have assumed in the above that you listen to a decent spread of
music types - pretty well none of the above will handle heavy
rock very well!

Apart from fleabay, look at what Richer Sounds have even new, and
also look at some of the specialist secondhand hi-fi outlets such
as Fanthorpe in Hull and Steve's Hi-Fi in Hastings both of which
have web sites.


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com