Pairing Bookshelf Speakers to my Yamaha A-S801


Hello dear Audiogononians,

I’m a long time lurker, who made a personal account to ask for some advice. I’m looking for a pair of bookshelf speakers that I can buy new or find used that would pair nicely with my integrated amplifier (Yamaha A-S801). The current speakers are a pair of B&W bookshelf speakers. I don’t recall the exact model number off the top of my head, but it doesn’t seem wholly relevant as they retail for less than half of the MSRP of the amplifier (and I happened to have gotten them for free. A story for another day.). 
 

The sources are as follows (wired with audioquest interconnects):

Bluesound Node

Apple TV (ARC back to the node) 

Sony Blu-Ray player (ARC back to the node for movies, and coax into the integrated for use as a CDT) (Will eventually be upgraded to the Yamaha CD-S303)

Teac TN-350-SE Turntable (with bypassed internal phono stage going into the phono preamp in the Yamaha) 

Sanyo Cassette player (soon to be upgraded to the TEAC W1200)

 

Any advice or conversation is greatly appreciated!


Thanks,

Mulchy

 

128x128mulchy

I’m open to used if I can find a good deal but new is the more likely option for me. Ideally around $2k. 

At that price the Totem Bison and MoFi SourcePoint 8 would be great ones to look into, and if you can stretch a little further the Fritz Carbon 7, ProAc Response DB3, and Revival Atalante 3 would be really excellent as well.  All of these are good enough that they’ll scale up really well if you upgrade your amp in the future.  Hope this helps, and best of luck. 

I appreciate the recommendations! I'll update the thread when I pull the trigger. 

You didn’t mention speaker cables or stands with current speakers but with the amp you have I would spend my $ on Sonus Faber Lumina II’s on good stands with decent cables with bi wire jumpers or already bi wired...



I'd say go for a new set of KEF R3 Meta. Couple of hundo over $2K but superior to the others in many ways. They are really VERY good and the Yamaha/KEF pairing has been a match made in heaven all the way back to the 80s & the Tweeter Etc days when they used to pair them together in almost every full system they sold; and that was a lot. There's a lot of info in this review... have at it.

https://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2023/05/05/kef-r3-meta-speaker-review-juicy-beats/