$6000 budget question

The RBH SX-8300/R retails for just under $6K but can be had for less and should be considered seriously if you have the means to demo them. I came very close to buying them before deciding to go with the Revel F208's. I auditioned both speakers but unfortunately not at the same time. I guess what steered me away from RBH was that the bass was just a tad too boomy for my tastes but I'm guessing RBH owners would strongly disagree. Perhaps if I had a chance to demo both speakers in the same environment I might have felt differently. What also steered me away was that the matching center speaker in the same line was way out of my price range so I decided to go with the F208's & C208.

Try to audition Teac ai-1000, 2000 or even 3000. They can be had on ebay for 40% off. They have parts found on much much more expensive receivers, and sound like it too.

I was really impressed with the pleasant hifi from Teac of all the makers - you wouldn't normally expect hifi from mass company like them, but this is exception.

Sometimes companies like Sony, Denon, Marantz can come up with affordable hifi gears that are good value...

Concerning speakers, you should really audition them your self - they are so personal and subjective...

I like JBL L-300, Paradigm Studio, Usher, etc. but I am into Opera and my speakers won't do for other type of music, and vice versa...

Axiom M100, under $3000.
30 day money back audition period.

after 30 yrs chasing the demon i have found the answer...for myself anyway. i am now a firm believer in full range hi eff. single driver vented, not horn loaded, speakers powered by inespensive tiny set amps. with a good recording and a simple oppo cdp i get sound i never ever thought possible. it is an uphill battle to convince the masses of this simple cheap approach but i thought i might share this with fellow audiophiles. voices are so incredibally honest and real it is like hearing your favorite singers for the first time. for the $$$ you save you could buy hundreds of well recorded cds and quit trying to create some bs synergy thaat always leaves you doubting. i posted a thread a month back..maybe you might read it. with 6K you could quickly assemble the most misiacally honest reproduction system nearly equal to a live performance. and yes, it is THAT good! i am no newbie and live with a profesional pianist and attend many live events so i know live sound. true a symphony hall is never going to be recreated but man you are gonna be as close as you can get to a jazz club with ella or oscar in the room with you. you do not need 200 watt monoblecks, 1000$ cables and multi driver huge speakers with complex parts etc. it is all a marketing gimmick and thats why the industry does not promote this path. no profit in it for them. and yes i ride a recumbent bike which makes traditional diamond bike design look and feel midevil.

pardon my ego driven exuberence but here goes... having owned and heard all sorts of stereo gear over yrs i recently found myself in the realm of single driver full range hi eff. drivers powered by tiny tube amp. i posted a thread on this a mos. ago and now speakers are fully broken in. so, i have never heard anything so purely musical in all my life. from a simple oppo cd player and well recorded cd's the realness and presence of the music is stunning. i here vocals from my favorites being revealed so purely that i feel like i am hearing them for the first time. it is that good. research it a bit and have someone build cabinets, not horn loaded, for you. the cost is ridiculously small and tube rolling tiny tubes is cheap. i will never change the multi driver big amp culture that sprang up decades ago but i feel like i should at least give it a shot with my fellow audiophiles. btw, fostex in the cain and abbey is not really as good as you can find, sort of the budweiser in the world of full range drivers... imo. not to demean cain owners out there as they are still great speakers. get back to the music and not the hype, you do not need huge power supplies and thousand dollar cables and complex crossovers and internal speaker engineering to get realistic musical reproduction.