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Road trip to demo $10,000 speakers

I'm going to take a several hour road trip to the Washington DC/Baltimore area to demo some speakers in the $10,000 range for a once in a lifetime purchase. I plan on listening to some Magico A3's, Aerial Acoustic 7T's, and Spendor D-9's. One of the dealers also has Paradigm Persona 3F's on the floor, so I'll take a listen to them too. While I'm up there are there any other speakers in that price range you'd recommend I try to locate and take a listen to. I'm open to and welcome your suggestions and will take the time to research each one as well.

I'm not in the market for used equipment. Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Mike



skyscraper
inna
7,304 posts
 
I disagree with the OP, though of course understand him.
When auditioning good speakers you want to hear everything they are capable of. $100k preamp/amp with $10k speakers is good, generally speaking. But if you want to insist on more balance in terms of cost - yes, at least $10k integrated or preamp/amp.
Speakers don't have to be the most expensive component. Electronics is easier to upgrade. Again, in your place I would ask a dealer to bring out the best in the speakers I might consider.

audiokinesis
2,749 posts
 

One of the things that is usually impractical to evaluate if you have limited time is, whether or not a speaker will remain relaxing and non-fatiguing over the long run. I’d like to suggest a way to check for this relatively quickly.

Assuming a speaker sounds good on your music when you sit in the sweet spot, in other words it’s obviously a strong contender, try turning up the volume a little louder than normal and walk out of the room. Listen through the open doorway but with no line-of-sight to the speakers.

From the next room, all you can hear is the tonal balance of the reflections and the dynamic contrast. If the speakers’ reflected sound (reverberant field) sounds natural, that tends to correlate well with long-term fatigue-free listening. If the dynamic contrast is also good, you might even experience a decent illusion of live music happening back in the room, outside of your line-of-site. Again, this would tend to predict long-term fatigue-free listening.

When there is a significant spectral discrepancy between the first-arrival sound and the subsequent reflections, that tends to produce listening fatigue over time.  Note that live unamplified instruments have no such issues, even a fairly directional instrument like a trumpet.  A live trumpet still sounds like a live trumpet from the next room. 

This listening-in-another-room (L.I.A.R.) test doesn’t tell the whole story obviously, but ime it tells a part of the story that you may not have time to discover otherwise.

Enjoy The Quest, and very best of luck to you in it.

Duke

inna
7,304 posts
 
That's certainly a good idea.
I would also add this for in the room listening - turn the volume up and down not too fast. Good system should essentially sound the same and coherent, its character should be unchanged. Then leave it at your preferred listening level. In addition, listen near field as well, and walk around in the room. If you like it from any listening position, including in another room - that's good.
skyscraper OP
831 posts
 
Shkong, thank you, yours is a reasonable suggestion. I'll keep it in mind when shopping for amps too, sometime in the future.

JackD, Good suggestion, Command Performance is actually my first planned stop. Spoke to them only a few days ago. They carry Magico and Focal, both of which I'd like to hear. 

Inna, How dare you disagree with me? (just kidding) I suppose there's no reason not to do it both ways, both to hear what the speakers are capable of doing, as well as what I might expect to be hearing at home if I don't win the lottery. I'll do the volumes changes and walk about the listening room when listening as you suggest also. Thanks for your suggestions.

Audiokinesis, thank you for your interesting out of the listening room suggestion to check how natural the reverberant field sounds, which as you say will correlate with possible listener fatigue. I will definitely try that out, and would have never thought of doing so without you suggesting it.. 

Mike
larryi
4,094 posts
 
While you are at Command, don't overlook the Neat speakers and Devore.  They may not have the more expensive Neat models in the shop, but, that brand is worth exploring.

As to how to audition speakers, I suggest doing a lot of the listening at quite low volume level.  It is easy to get juiced when speakers are played at high volume, but, that tends to be deceiving.  If you listen at your normal, comfortable level, or even lower volume, and the music sounds flat and uninvolving, you should be concerned with being caught in the trap of looking for more and more power to get satisfying sound.  I think this is common problem with a lot of modern, high-end speaker-amp combinations.  

Also, set aside a lot of time for your visit to Deja Vu.   I doubt that you will encounter another place anything like it anywhere in your travels, so take in everything they have to offer.  In particular, listen to the custom-built stuff because it sounds quite different from most modern speakers.  The more mundane "regular" brands include Harbeth, ProAc and Audio Note.  
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