Not really a repair...and I do not see this asked here much.
Am interested in installing a couple of decent, but not very expensive speakers in the kitchen. Say, in the $250 range.
Would prefer surface, or on speaker brackets. Do not want a separate subwoofer, as it needs cables and space.
Anyone can recommend a good brand from experience?
There's a box near the ceiling with cables, which is OK for one speaker. Would have to run something from that one to the other speaker on the surface.
Mainly looking for a recommendation on speakers. They may have to be a bit bigger to produce acceptable base without a subwoofer.
The recommendation would tend to be influenced by what you will be driving the speakers with.
A good small speaker with a decent range is the JBL (professional) Control series like the Control 1. I believe they also package the Control 1 speakers with a sub as a consumer line package, but they do quite well without a sub. Plenty of other small pro monitor type speakers similar to this out there as well.
Whatever you do, don't buy into the Bose marketing hype, their speakers are not better than any of the quality name brand competition and their tiny units are often blown up by people who bought the hype overdriving them. I know this from a number of years in the pro audio world, including a year doing repairs and seeing all the blown up Bose cubes coming in,
Another vote here against Bose. Advent & Boston Acoustics both make some very nice small speakers. Keep in mind that bass, when performed live, comes from instruments (or speaker cabinets) that contain or move quite a bit of air. Think of the inside of an upright bass, a long organ pipe, the volume inside a bass drum, and the cabinets that electric bass players use. When you think you're hearing this accurately in a small speaker, it's really a form of trickery done well (hopefully). There's no way a speaker the size of a shoe box can really create the same bass that you hear live, but in some designs, it still sounds good.
The variations are very subtle, so the best thing to do is audition some speakers at a real audio store, not the Circuit City type places where it's so noisy that you can't hear the subtle differences between speakers, and the speakers are often incorrectly placed. Find a store where they'll give you a quiet room to listen, and bring some of your own CDs.
As Pete C mentioned, you also have to consider the amplifier/receiver you'll be driving them with. And, consider the surroundings. If you need to overcome lots of background noise (dishwasher, for instance), you'll need more power. Otherwise, in your attempt to get more volume, you'll drive the amplifier to the point of distortion. The result will be lousy sound, or worse, you'll cook your speakers.
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