Bargain or burden

[motoxlrg]

Greetings All,
I'm a complete rookie and I am facing an issue that hopefully I can get through with some borrowed experience. I have a Rotel RSP1068 & RMB1075 and planned to purchase a complete Klipsch 7 speaker set. A friend has a set of Mordaunt-Short 908's, the 905 center, 903s rears, and the 909w sub which he will sell me for 1/4 the price I was paying for the Klipsch system. If anyone owns or at least has auditioned these speakers I would really appreciate your input.

[Glen B]

Getting opinions of others is fine, but nothing can replace auditioning speakers yourself. See if your friend will allow you to listen to the Mordaunt-Shorts at your home before making a decision. Likewise, visit the Klipsch dealer and listen to the speakers you are interested in. In the end, its what sounds best to your ears that matters.

[P-Dub]

I'm goig to have to agree with Glen. You need to go an hear these in person. What do you have now?

But, there's always a but, do you think you could resell the Mordaunt's and recoup your costs? That way you can have them to compare with the Klipsch. Most dealers will allow in home demo's. You may find that you like the sound of the Mordaunt's better once you have them in your room.

[Clive]

Hi Jim I would like to also extend my Welcome to you and thanx for posting.

In addition to what the above members have said, I'd like to add this........make sure you bring or use the same material (DVD) & track to demo the speakers and try to make it within the same time period. This way you'll get a real sense of the speakers :T

[bleeding ears]

Motoxlrg, In addition to what has already been said, I would also make sure the volume levels are exactly the same on each unit/speaker being compared and make sure the tone controls are at 0 for bass and 0 for treble.

This makes the comparison as fair as it can be, then try out a variety of music and dvd's. I have found many speakers do ok with light music, but when you put on some heavy rock and turn it up things can get messy.

Should you want more info on the MS speakers you may be able to send JDH a private message. He owned the 200 Series MS and seemed to know a bit about the 900 series as well. He is currently selling some gear in the pawn shop.

Hope this helps

[motoxlrg]

Thankyou all for your input. After numerous listening sessions at various retailers, using the same sample material with equal volume, I've made a decision to try the Mordaunt Short system. I had the opportunity to audition this system in three different retailers. At each retailer I would listen to at least two speker systems, listen to the mains alone, and then listen to the complete systems. None of the retailers carried the same brands to compare to the 908's. The three other brands were Dynaudio, Klipsch, Paradigm. I also listened to B&W at one location. All were great speakers and I feel I gained more knowledge about sound systems in this past week than I had absorbed in the previous 36 yrs.

[Clive]

Again, Welcome to the Guide :T

Let us know when they arrive and Please give some final reviews

[motoxlrg]

The latest...

Everything is installed. The system sounds great (to me ). Would likely be better in a tuned room, but it works. The speaker set ended up mismatched having Jamo E8 surrounds, MS 908 fronts, MS 905 center, and MS907 sub. I feared the surrounds would be a problem, but they seem to blend nicely. The system is mismatched because it had been upgraded to use MS908's as surrounds. Isn't that a bit of overkill? Or is it a better system?

We've listened to various music as well as several movies and the system keeps surprising me. We watched Dust to Glory, an offroad racing documentary, which has a scene where Mario Andretti drives a pre-runner. I've watched this movie numerous times, I even saw it in the theater, this scene never sounded like it does now. Our cats duck and look around like the truck is in the room. Great fun!

[Clive]

Glad to hear you're having fun. I knew it would be worth it. As you go along, you'll be tweeking the system for max performance. An HT tune up disk will also come in handy here :T

Enjoy!

[motoxlrg]

Any suggestions on tuning discs? Also procedures for using it?

[Clive]

Avia Guide to Home Theater
Video Essentials

They all have tutorials.