Speaker Suggestion for teenage pre-stereophile

Woops, I didn't read this post carefully, thought I was hearing from a father not a son. 600 bucks eh ? I like Asa's idea of buying something to carry you through later upgrades, and I like the Totem and Triangle suggestions. The Totem Ones are _much_ harder to drive than the Triangles though. Maybe one could get lucky and find a used pair of Meadowlark Kestrels ?

However I run a Linn LP12 and I say source first. I have always wanted to spend more time with a system whose source was superb but whose downstream stuff was not, than vice versa. My advice would be to look for speakers that you will love for $600--Totem, Triangle and Meadowlark might be right, keeping in mind they are not equivalent and need different electronics--but do this only if you already have a great source.

For around 500 dollars I will suggest looking at the Monitor Audio Silver S1 bookshelf speaker - very nice sounding and nice looking speaker.

Dave

When I was in your shoes I found a pair of paradigm 9semk3's for 350! and they absolutely rocked. I used to listen to them for hours with a big smile on my face(up to that point I had never heard anything close to their performance) and for 350 bucks!! what a steal. Dont waste your time paying full stroke for some bookshelf speakers that will lose half of their value as soon as you walk out of the door with them and wont have any bass extention at all. Buy used from a seller with good feedback, you will get a hell of a lot more speaker for your money. Ive seen the paradigm monitor 9's going for $500 and the 7's for even less. The 7 and 9 semk3 were the models before the monitor line came out and they sound just as good. Now those are some serious speakers for the money. A decent outboard amp is a must too. Find you an older b&k or acurus for a few hundred dollars.

Wow! Thanks a lot for all the feedback, I finally have some good starting places. I'm wishign more and more that I had a good store in my area! What would be some good integrated amps to go with these speakers?? Keep in mind for the next 10 years (finish high school+college) these speakers will be in a small room. I definetly want to buy used, because it just seems that you get a drastic amount more for your money. Thanks for answering all these questions, and hopefully over the next few monthes I'll procure a system that will fully allow me to discover my collection of music. For now the only two things I want to get are int. amp and speakers becuase I've recently inherited a great old sony (I know, not the brand of choice) cd player. I was shocked, but this player sounds great hooked up to a friends HK amp+infinity overture system. So can anybody suggest an amp to go with the speakers they've suggested? Also, I hear great things about the magnepan mmgs...and it'd be sweet to have something a little "different". How much amp would I need to push these things, do they really need as much power as others have said to sound the best they can? Thanks again for any responses!

Welcome to high end audio. That's a good age to start.

Second the recommendation on the Paradigm Studio 20's. For $350-400 (stands included), they're an enormous bargin on the used circuit.

If you can afford to stretch a bit, go for the Studio 20 actives (~$700-800). With the amps built in, it's a great, simple package. Get a Citation 7.0 pre-amp (~$300-400) and you're SOLIDLY in the high end.

Good Luck!