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Small speaker advice

Greetings and salutations fellow audiophiles!  Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this.  
     I am moving into an apartment for a year or so after living in a house with a dedicated listing room (divorce).  I’m looking to find a speaker to replace my ML Summit stats.  Not easy to replicate I know which is why I’m soliciting advice.  My max price range about 10k is give or take a few thousand. 
     Room is about 11’w X 12’d.  
I have a pair of Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Baby Grands I can also use but I need to upgrade their tweeters to get the best out of them.  So before I go that route and spend the $$ I’m considering selling them for something better suited to a room so small.  The Wilson Tune Dots are a contender. Never had a pair of Wilson’s. Love their sound and was thinking of inevitability replacing the Summits with them one day.  Head in a vice takes a toll after a while. 

My equipment consists of:

PS Audio BHK 250. Tube input stage with MOSFET output love its sound.
Krell KSA 2 preamp
My media choice is Vinyl and DSD.
I listen to classic rock, soul, jazz, electronic, and generally well recorded music.  No hard rock, rap, or otherwise. 

What I like is a speaker that can convey high detail with an open airy sound. Imaging is particularly important.  I’m fortunate enough to have the ability to hear higher frequency range with my 50 yr old ears (per my recent hearing test) 

Again thanks for sharing your experiences and advice!

rob606
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,778 posts
 

look at a pair of alta audio Allyssa is  a bargain at 6k, easily competes with 10k monitors 

they feature:

an incredibly inert composite cabinet,

they feature state of the art drivers a custom modified pure ribbon tweeter coupled with a log throw, titanium former equipped, high speed midrange driver

and a unique hybrid bass loading concept which combines a transmission line design with a conventional infinite baffle design for very deep tight bass.

 

Dave and Troy

Audio Intellect NJ

Alta Audio dealers 

soix
9,456 posts
 

Given what you’re looking for I’d also highly recommend the Joseph Audio Pulsars.  I’ve heard them at shows in a small hotel room and they still worked very well.  Best of luck. 

rob606 OP
14 posts
 

Thanks @audiotroy. Will definitely put them on the list!

rob606 OP
14 posts
 

Thank you @soix! I’ll look them up as well

yyzsantabarbara
4,795 posts
 

Go for some headphones. This will be better than anything you put in that small room (I have the same space). Unless you spend some time with DSP or physical acoustic treatment. These headphones are what I should have bought and not wasted time with the 2-channel for my small office.

RAAL 1995 headphones, Magna and Immanis | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

With your amp and preamp, the 1/2 the price RAAL SR1a phone would also be better than most things in that space.

If you insist on a 2-channel speaker I recommend the Magnepan LRS+. It was the best sounding speaker in my room. I am not saying it is the best quality speaker I have used in this room (far from it). However, I got the best sound from the LRS+. I even removed the acoustic panels that caught the first reflection when using the LRS+. Those panels were essential for all the other speakers I tried,

Now if you do not want to use phones and do not want to use acoustic treatment. Then another option, with any of the speakers mentioned in this thread is to talk with Mitch Barnett at this company. 

Digital Room Calibration Services, Convolver, Headphone Filtersets (accuratesound.ca)

The dude will remotely setup your too big speakers in a small room and make it sound great (cost was $750). I think he only supports systems that have Convolution filters, such as ROON and JRIver. The guy is a digital genius.

 

 

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