Best speakers under $1,000

If you're looking at spending up to $1,000 on a pair of stereo speakers, these are the absolute best performers for the money.

Ty Pendlebury Editor

Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.

Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials

Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.

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Ty Pendlebury

Dec. 22, 2014 3:50 p.m. PT

2 min read

One set of floorstanding speakers stands out above the rest: the SVS Prime Towers. Sarah Tew/CNET

If you're looking to buy speakers for your home system, then the lion's share of your budget should go to your front speakers. Spending in the neighborhood of $1,000 isn't for the weak of heart, but it will reward you with bigger bass, better detail, and party-making volume levels.

So once you decide on your budget, you need to work out whether you want compact stand-mount speakers or the physical presence of floor-standers. A stand mount is less taxing on the decor and better suited for smaller spaces. However if you do decide to go the whole hog for a set of floor-standers, you get fuller sound for what is essentially the same amount of floor space.

Based on CNET's reviews, our favorite stand-mount speakers under $1,000 are the Pioneer Elite SP-EBS73-LR beating out our favorite from last year, the Bowers and Wilkins 685 S2s. The Pioneers, designed by Andrew Jones (who has since moved to ELAC), are true hi-fi speakers and include Atmos height drivers for a smattering of future-proofing.

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Moving up to floor-standers, the competition is a lot fiercer, but one set of speakers stands out above the rest: the SVS Prime Towers . While they are detailed and crisp, they are also very balanced-sounding, and like the Pioneers sound good with virtually any kind of music -- not something you can say for the rocking Klipschs or the acoustic-friendly PSBs. If you can afford the extra $250, the SVS Prime Towers are ultimately the ones to get over the Pioneers for the pure scale they can summon up in your listening space.