Speakers in 10-15K price range for Classical music

09-17-09: Macdadtexas said:

I think if you upgraded your amp first, and tried the Spendor or Maggie 3.6's again you would find them much different. Your integrated does not have the power to really open up either of those speakers."
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I couldn't agree more! In your original post you were looking at speakers in the 5-7 K range Before you double or triple your original budget on speakers I'd consider what a better integrated or separates might do with the Spendors or Quads..

just my 2 cents, but it might save you a lot of money:)

You can get a 10/10 new pair of JM Lab Alto Utopias here on Agon for $11k or $12k. they were running $23k last year before they were updated to the new line. Some are new from large volume dealers as they are getting rid of the old stock to place the new Utopia III line. This speaker does many things well and has a huge dynamic range. I drive mine with 500 watt monos and am not looking to replace any time soon(that is unless I get a fantastic deal on the next level up Nova Utopias!!).
Enjoy the hunt!
Pepe

Thanks much Layman, 4musica44107, Classical1 and Cajunpepe. Really appreciate the suggestions. Now I have a big list of speakers that I need to check out.

@ Classical1 - I haven't tried the Quad and Spendor at home, rather at the dealers who had much better electronics than mine.

I'll post my experience as I go along.

For classical orchestral and choral music, I would suggest you make a real effort to audition Shahinian Hawks or Diapasons. They are designed by their creator to model as closely as possible the sound of an orchestra playing in a concert hall. They provide an extremely convincing spacial and timbral recreation of that sound. In addition, they boast very dynamic, concussive bass, an enormous sound field, more sense of 3-d ambience than I have ever heard outside reality, and a string sound that is palpably rich, realistic, and velvety.
Very importantly, they will play very loud without strain or tonal variation. I can listen in my 2200 cubic foot room to Mahler's Eighth at close to actual live-concert-level volume (peaks of 108db) and the sound is as good, clean, undistorted, and easy on the ears as at 80 db. This takes a good amount of power and current though (I use 2 Plinius SA-100's).
The Shahinians are polydirectional above 250hz and use a transmission line woofer terminated with a passive radiator.
They do not do pintoipnt imaging. Of course, neither does the Berlin Philharmonic or Miles Davis. If you want razor sharp images, unlike the reality you hear live, these are definitely not for you.
There are no US distributors so these can be purchased only from the factory at about $12,000 for Hawks, $20,000 for Diapasons. A used pair of Hawks just sold for $3200 on Ebay.
If you listen primarily to large force classical music, or any acoustic music recorded well in a live space, Shahinian's top speakers (or even the Obelisk, at $6000) are very, very hard to beat.

I will also add that the speakers I use (Sforzando JL-1s) are similar in their presentation to the Shahinians Rpfef is recommending (which I also think are excellent for classical music). I would have recommended my speaker brand earlier, except that it is not currently produced in any quantity. However, the person who makes them lives in Raleigh, and if you're interested in going there (you're not too far away, from your earlier post) he could probably demonstrate them to you. The large model he can demonstrate might be a little large for your room (mine work fine in an 18x20x10(h) room), but the designer who lives up here in NJ also makes smaller models that give up ultimate bass extension below 30Hz for a bit more speed in the mid and upper bass. The large version needs to be bi-amped (an added expense), and will at this point likely have no real resale value, but it might be useful to hear it if only because it can give you an idea of the Shahinian sound, and you might like it enough to buy it despite the lack of a name brand, dealer support network, etc. If you're interested, you can email me directly through the Audiogon email system.