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Bookshelf Bake Off

Fellow Audiogoners,

Lend me your ears.  I live on a farm in South Georgia and have a 3+ hour drive in any direction to audition anything.  The price I pay for land, peace and horses I suppose.  I am putting together a secondary system and can't audition everything I have interest in, so I am hoping you can help me shorten the short list to a manageable set of maybe three (two would be even better) auditions for bookshelf speakers. They will be driven by 2 x PS Audio M700 Monoblocks, Schiit Freya+ tube preamp and a Mytek Brooklyn DAC+.  The space is fairly small at approx. 10'x20'.  For a number of reasons, floorstanders are not a possibility, hence the call for bookshelf speakers.  I would like to keep the budget in the $2K range, +/- a reasonable %.  I am not someone that feels the need to max the budget, i.e. linear correlation of price and quality, so feel free to suggest high value brands/models less than the max budget.  I have a pair of Focal Aria 906 in another system and very much like their sound, but want something a bit warmer with similar (or better) resolution.  Deeper low frequency extension would be a plus.  The brands I have narrowed the field to are:

Revel
Legacy
KEF
Monitor Audio
Sonus Fabre
PSB

This list is not written in stone, just my initial list after research.  Feel free to suggest anything I have omitted that warrants consideration.  Thanks in advance for your ears.

Mark


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markcdaniel OP
45 posts
 
I should have also included my listening tastes.  Here is an approximate distribution of listening time by genre.

Heavy Rock (Korn, Tool, etc) - 40%
Vocal Jazz (Norah Jones, Diana Krall, etc) - 40%
Hip-Hop - 10%
Folk / Country / Blues - 10%

@twoleftears I have never heard of Fritz or Silverline, I'll look into them, thanks.

@yogiboy The reviewer pretty clearly states that the Harbeth are not for my musical tastes, would you agree?

@kren0006 I was actually going to put Dynaudio on the list, I just don't know much about them.  Would you recommend them over everything else on the list?

@glennewdick Ironic, I had actually just opened an article on ProAc when your message came through.  I don't know much about them, but reading up now. 

Thanks guys for your input. 

Anyone else have an opinion in Audiogon land?
tomcarr
1,523 posts
 
ELAC
Klipsch
B&W
yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
5,701 posts
 
I don’t listen to Heavy Rock or Hip-Hop so I can’t give you my opinion on that. All the other type of the music you listen to is what I like and the Harbeths are outstanding! I doubt that any small bookshelf speaker will satisfy you if you like Heavy Rock!
https://www.hifizine.com/2011/12/harbeth-p3esr/
audionoobie's avatar
audionoobie
361 posts
 
Have alook at the ELAC AS-61 Adante. The Kef LS50W are also a very popular choice.
verdantaudio's avatar
verdantaudio
1,500 posts
 
In that price range, of the ones you laid out I would look a the Monior Audio Golds as they will deliver a warm sound.  The others will be neutral to a little forward.  A couple years ago I auditioned every product in this price range that you have above and 6 or 8 others.  I opted for the Revel Performa3 M105s which are awesome speakers but are definitely a touch forward.  That being said, I prefer a slightly forward sound.  

The MA Golds are a hair warm and I think would be a really good match with your system to land just to the warm side of neutral.  There are certainly other products, but those would be an A+ Choice for what you describe.  

The ones I haven't heard and you might want to check out are the Monitor Audio Studio's. Reviews have been strong and they have the potential to be outstanding.     
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