New room needs new speakers, I need your help


Hello everyone!

I have a new house and a new acoustically treated room, but it is very small: we are talking roughly 12' by 16'.

I use a pair of Dali Euphonia MS4 and I feel they need a bigger room to shine, the volume I need for them to sound full is just too much for my modest room. I really enjoy accurate timbres and I need a beautiful midrange and midbass, I listen mostly to women vocals and jazz.

I am looking for a pair of speakers that will cost me a maximum of 5K on the used market.

I am very sensitive to fatiguing treble, I don't look for absolute treble clarity, I love an easy listening speaker.

My ideal speaker would be the PMC IB2SE which I auditioned extensively, but sadly it is out of my budget.

 

I am open to your suggestions!

 

Rest of the system is


Sony Ps-X9 turntable on a  Sutherland Phono

Analogue Audio Maestron Anniversary integrated amplifier

Lampizator DAC

Wattson Digital Streamer

Muon Filter

Silent Angel switch

All Luna Mauve Cables

Everything but the amplifier pluggeg in Plixir

 

maurice89

Another vote for Harbeth. My room dimensions are similar. The 30.2 XD (in my case 40th anniversary) are fantastic. Easy listening , outstanding for vocals . Much bettethan the HL5+ XD for vocals and soundstage IMHO. You need to plan a budget for stands however. I have tried different stands with the Harbeth the best by far are the Ton Trager. More expensive but they make the Harbeths sing because of the cabinet resonance configuration . All in all that should fit in your budget if you get used. Pulsars (graphene) be another option to explore but more expensive. Keep us posted!

With your preferences I would avoid the Clayton Shaw Caladans. They are rather hot in the presence region (upper mid to lower treble).

Fyne F1-8 are a standmount speaker with an adjustable presence control. You might find they meet your needs. Very expensive new, but I know where you can get a beautiful used pair within your budget.

Also, the QLN suggestion someone else made is a good one if you can find them used.

I wouldn’t write off Harbeth based on their limitations with music you dont listen to.

I own 40.3 XDs and had the opportunity to compare them with 30.2 XDs paired with 2 REL subs while they were up for sale.

They really held their own in a big room. They don’t rock out and they don’t do classical well (at least not loud) but Jazz, vocals, blues, well recorded music like Dire Straits (self titled) - very nice and not at all fatiguing.

Not the only game in town though…good luck.

Lots of great recommendations for speakers from others, so I won't recommend speakers. I also have a small listening room, and my room is even smaller than yours and it is both my office and 2-channel music listening room. I went through a number of speakers and integrated amplifiers and settled on Focal Supra N°1 speakers on Focal stands, paired with Naim Uniti Nova integrated amp/streamer. What made the room & my setup come alive was when I added acoustic panels and reduced a lot of reflections. I feel it is easier to get by without adding anything, except maybe some carpets to reduce sound reflection in a large room, but with a small room the sound I was getting was far from ideal due to all the reflections. Getting decent (and still nice looking) acoustic panels in the past used to very costly, but these days you can fairly good acoustic panels for a good price and they look good as well. You can also do some simple sound measurement once you decide and buy your speakers and see if you need acoustic panels or not before buying them. 

Have to agree with the Clayton Shaw Caladans, being open baffle they need more room. I had them in a small room for a month or so, but really started to shine in a larger space.....and soften up. Otherwise I LOVE my Caladans.

++1 Joseph Audio Pulsar Graphenes, hard to find used (especially at $5,000.....but worth it if you do