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Can speakers be too good?

Now that I have over-improved my house, I am on to my stereo. I have what is, for me, probably my final 2 channel front end: Sony SCD555ES CD/SACD, Musical Fidelity A3.2 Integrated, Music Hall MMF7 table, Kimber Kable interconnects, Monster Cable power center. My thinking was to get the best quality electronics for the money, which I think I came pretty close to doing, and then concentrate on the speakers. I currently have PSB Image 7PT. I listen to mostly singer/songwriter, jazz, blues, alt country, roots rock. Mostly stuff that is not demanding in a dynamic or low frequency sense, but places importance on spaciousness, imaging, naturalness in the mid-range, etc. Also, my room is fairly small – 11 x 18 x 8.

My question for the forum: Is it possible to spend too much for a speaker to finish the system? (Within reason – I am not looking at anything in five figures.) I am a musician with a fairly well developed ear, but I am definitely not into chasing the last 0.5% of resolution at any cost. I have always been able to hear more of a difference between speakers than between electronics, although I can hear the difference between, for instance, my generic Sony DVD player, previous Cambridge CD player and Sony SCD555ES. I am thinking of a very high quality monitor in the $3 - $5 k range (basically equal to the entire rest of the system). Candidates would include Dynaudio Special 25, JM Lab Mini Utopia (used), Spendor 1/2e, B&W N805 Signature, Tyler Linbrook Signature, Totem Mani2. (Have heard some, but not all. Just giving possible examples in the price range.)

Does this seem like the right allocation of funds? Will I be able to get the most out of these speakers with my existing front end? (FYI - I am not likely to change the guts of this system anytime soon, although I would be open to tweaks/adds such as cable upgrade, power conditioning, outboard DAC, phono stage, etc.) All thoughts are welcome.
scotthmartin
kclone's avatar
kclone
679 posts
 
I own the Green Mountain Europas. In my opinion, you can't go wrong with these speakers. I just heard the Von Schwiekert VR 1s 2 weeks ago, and they are just as good as the Europas, perhaps better base. Plus, the VR-1s are nice looking. Both speakers retail for aroung one thousand.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Scott- I am not a musician, but I listen to the same kind of music, and have Vandersteen speakers for years. My room is a tad larger than yours, but not too much. You could go with new 3Asigs in your price range, or a used pair with a 2WQ sub and then add a second sub later. Don't laugh, there is a lot to be said for adding the subs. But make sure you get the fixed value filters, after determining the best value for your system (assumming that your integrated has a pre-out and amp-in set-up). Otherwise, the Vandy 2WQ will not work, although its possible you could get the HT sub (forget the model #) and run if off of a line out on the integrated.
steelhead
318 posts
 
You should listen to Maggies and Logans. I Love how singer songwriters and folk type stuff is rendered with Logans. A buddy has Maggie 3.5's and they are also excellent. Both used are well within your budget.

Have Fun!!!
semi
649 posts
 
I will vote for SF Concerto Home line or older Signum, EA1/2, or Cremona Auditor. All are high resolution monitors with decent bass, musical without being too analytical or hyper detail, and under your price range.

EA II in particular might work very well in your room because it's not ported and can be placed close to rear wall if needed.
scotthmartin OP
6 posts
 
Thanks to all for the input. Some good speaker suggestions that I will look into and some good feedback on the general concept of system balance. I am particularly interested in the comments recommending British speakers (ProAc, Harbeth and Spendor are Brits, correct?) I always loved the Kef 103.2 when I was a starving college student 20 years ago and could not imagine spending $900 on a pair of small 2 way speakers. How things change, huh?

Is the consensus that my front end might need some warming up versus a very revealing speaker? It is so hard for me to tell with my existing speakers that are not revealing at all. I am cool with a “musical” speaker, by all means. BTW, several people suggested Vandersteens, which I know are pretty much universally loved and thought to offer great value, but they have just never done the hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck thing for me. It is all very personal, I know.

Also, given the difficulty of directly A/B’ing multiple speaker lines, what does everyone think of the concept of getting a well-regarded but inexpensive reference (Triangle Titus/Paradigm 20) and then bringing a series of speaker in to compare or even taking the reference speaker with me? Then it would move to the rear channel in my surround set-up. Just an idea I had. I know that acoustic memory is VERY unreliable and auditioning a bunch of different speakers on different days in different rooms with different electronics is hardly ideal. I used a journal with the same music in the same order the last time I did this, and it was better than nothing, but still not great.

Fun problem to have, though. It beats working.
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