Home audio system: Yamaha vs. Klipsach vs. Sonos vs. Polk

Klipsch...

My recommendation is Klipsch speakers and Denon receiver. That said I also use some Bowers & Wilkins speakers that I'm quite happy with. You may also want to consider a brand that specializes is subs for bass. Most point to SVS for that but they are expensive.

While there's nothing wrong with them I would consider all of those beginner brands and an intro into mid-fi. As mentioned already it's pretty important to do A/B listening to different brands for comparison.

Golden Ear Technology

Check SVS speakers too. I have definitive technology speakers and Denon receiver. 1 of my 4 subs is SVS which I've been pretty happy with.

By "home audio system" do you mean a soundbar, 2 stereo speakers, surround sound, or what? For music, TV, movies or a mix? And of course there's the omnipresent question of what is your budget?

For basic sound any of the 4 you list have competent setups available, they aren't crap. As mentioned Sonos is different from the other 3 in its design and intent.

There are some other good brands mentioned in the replies, but depending on the answers to above they might not be a fit and you'd want to do a little more homework.

I basically meant like TV/movies/music, speakers in den with stray speakers throughout other rooms in the house +/- a soundbar. I'd like to stay under $1,500 total for entire setup, but if I can get a deal, I wouldn't mind going up to $2,000

Good suggestion. To me it’s about the tweeters. I can’t stand metal tweeters. They fatigue my ears. One reason I have Dynaudio

I prefer speakers with rubber or similar flexible connections between the speaker and the housing. Polk has seemed to do this consistently, but every brand has different lines of differing quality.

I've never been disappointed in Sonos units, but I've never done them in wall (I think we had 7 individual units.) I would not say Yamaha, Klipsch, Sonos, or Polk were bad. Kinda like saying, "do you like your Samsung TV?" Well, which line? The one that cost $4k for a 65" or the Samsung that was $400 for a 65"?

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I prefer speakers with rubber or similar flexible connections between the speaker and the housing.

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What is the hypothetical advantage of doing this? I have been building speakers as a hobby for a long time and I have never run into this. All (decent) speakers should have a gasket of some sort behind every driver to prevent leakage and it is just as important with a sealed box as a ported box but that should hold the speaker essentially stationary and lock it onto the baffle. Any appreciable movement here would begin to act like a passive radiator as well as changing the baffle diffraction characteristics as it moves relative to the baffle.


To the OP a few points:

1. speakers even at the same price point are "voiced" very differently and will have characteristics based on the construction and materials of the drivers, crossover, and box itself. Each choice is a compromise and what you gain here forces you to lose something somewhere else. Asking for the best speaker at a price point is like asking which is the best crawfish boil recipe.

2. this leads to what YOU like, the only way to determine this is to listen to a lot of speakers preferably with your own test tracks. A lot of people don't like bright speakers (Klipsch, B&W, Mission, Focal are brands that tend to be bright) but one man's bright is another man's detailed and one man's warm will be another man's veiled. I like hard dome tweeters that are a little "hot". Beryllium, ceramic, and diamond domes are right up my alley and I have heard titanium domes I liked... I don't think anyone really likes aluminum domes. I won't say silk or other soft domes are bad but even the ones made by Scan Speak or Dynaudio just feel lacking to me but that is just my taste. Also, be away a slightly bright speaker can be tamed with setup most of the time by having no toe-in or even a slight toe-out. Give me a slightly bright speaker, with a wide horizontal dispersion, good sound power, with an analytical midrange forward soundstage, laser imaging and a slight mid-bass hump and I am in heaven, others would recoil from the same speaker. It is all taste because there is no speaker that approaches perfect reproduction even in the high 6 figure price range. This means you have to learn your own taste.

3. As much as I hate to say it with your needs and budget a Sonos system may be perfect for you. It will likely be the simple and inexpensive way to get the flexibility you want. If you just wanted a 2 channel system or a simple 5.1 surround sound system I would have other recs but wanting a multi-zone system really points to Sonos at the price range.