Candidates for best speakers in the $2000-5000 market


I’m asking for listeners’ experience in this bracket, buttressed by reviews and/or data; I am not a fan of "whatever sounds good to you." Ultimately, yes, that will be the case. But in getting to that point, I’m looking to benefit from the advantage of a thousand pairs of ears rather than mine alone. Those ears can include the inanimate. Thank you.

My experience has included my own Elac 403, Elac 407, and Dynaudio Special 40. Auditions have included various Sonus Faber, and Magico. All of this is in preparation for justifying the leap for an Electa Amator lll or its equivalent. But that’s for another day, another forum.

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I'm a vandersteen guy. You could get a new pair of 2s in that range but I suspect the wife won't go for the look of that. My pair of 2Ce are iny attic for that very reason. The Treo though is a fairly sleek looking speaker with nice wood veneered sides. I actually used the more appealing look to get my wife to approve a pair of Quatro Woods. The Treo new is out of that range but you can find a used pair of the non CT model for 3500 or so on another resale site. They're excellent and would pair nicely with your primaluna gear

Most of the speakers here would benefit from a Sub for full range bass... even for music?   The Triton 2+ has them built in.  Used, they could be had for your budget, maybe even the 1R.  I love my Triton 3+ but haven't heard the big brothers. 

 

Kef LS60--if you're interested in music more than tinkering with components. Active speakers are state of the art audio technology. No need to buy anything else.

 

New to the scene, but I auditioned a fair amount of speakers at a slightly lower cap, and end choosing Monitor Audio Silver 500 7G ($3.4k), with Sonus Faber Lumina V as runner up.  I passed on Focal 926 (slightly pricier and a bit lean to my taste), Totems (various models), B&W 7 series (though signature line did sound great). 

I never did get to listen to Revels, but people are going nuts for the Revel PerformaBe line and the 226 could probably had used under $5k

I run my Monitor Audios off Hegel 190 integrated and just got some Pine Audio iso cables (bi-wiring DOES make a substantial difference on the MAs).

Good luck and let us know where you end up.