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


128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xmarkcdaniel
@coffee-jerkgow would you describe the Proac sound? How would you say the overall sound compares with Dynaudio?
I was actually trying to make a joke. 

Bakeoff -> Dine-Audio. 😂 

But seriously, Spendor is my favorite speaker brand and Dynaudio second. 
I own Dynaudio Special 40 and love them. Have seen several pair pop up used at around $2K. You have plenty of power for them. Before I bought them, these were on my short list and in your price range:

Buchardt Audio S400

Salk/Philharmonic BMR

Legacy Audio Studio HD

Tekton Design Impact Monitors


Just saw a pair of Philharmonic BMR sell on another site for $1,200. Well within your budget. All of these are at or under $2K except a new pair of the Salk version of the Philharmonic BMR.


andrewkelly:
I have a pair of Sierra 2s and I'm very happy with them.  I hadn't heard of the EX until you mentioned it; I looked at their site, and I have complete confidence in their proclamations.  I might just order a pair of the update kits myself.