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Speakers in 10-15K price range for Classical music

Well I am in the market for speakers. My music choice is primarily classical and then a little bit of everything else such as jazz and soft/alternate rock. I started with a budget of 5-7K and auditioned Maggie 3.6, Quad 989, Spendor S8e and so on, but quickly realized I couldn’t get what I was looking for in these speakers. They all did pretty well on solo or few instruments but could not nearly reproduce a symphony (Mahler’s fifth, or Tchaikovsky’s sixth or Schubert’s ninth) with any authenticity. This was about a year ago. Since then I had stretched my budget and am now looking for speakers in the 10-15K price range.

Now here’s the challenge. I didn’t like the Thiel, B&W or Wilson sound. I had liked Maggie 20.1 in the past, but can’t find any dealer nearby that carries them for an audition. Heard the Vandersteen 5a for about 10 mins and they are pretty convincing, but I need a proper audition and then it’s still beyond my price range. Now my question is what other speakers I can look at for the kind of music I like?

Thanks much in advance, for your help.

Oh, my system is Krell SACD and 400xi Integrated Amp. Will upgrade the amp eventually, but will need to wait for another year at least :)
neal1502
weseixas
519 posts
 

Hello Pdreher,

I would like to use this moment to apologize for my initial response but with no edit feature, alas...

What are you disputing, the sterophile article? I posted links to those who are so inclined and gave my opinion as asked by the OP.

The spendors are 84db/1w/m that is considered low efficiency, that in itself does not make it a bad speaker, but since the OP intends to drive the speaker with an Integrated Krell will he have enuff power for reasonable dynamics, seems that way if he does not exceed a nominal listening level of 84-86 db ...

Frankly and based on the OP's comments on the speakers he has already auditioned and discounted, tells me has already moved beyond the spendors.

Maggies 20.1/3.6 and the quad 989 are already ahead of the spendors, So i would suggest a re-listen to the quad's, try and do so with subs, a very different speaker with subs IMO, very formidable with subs...

regards,
nolitan
865 posts
 
With a krell integrated amp, the Harbeths would work well with them. Either the M40.1 and SHL5s.
I cannot really stress it enough as I had gone thru my shares of speakers.
These harbeths have that natural timbre and musicality especially for string instruments, piano and other acoustical instruments. You wont be sorry.
PS: not related to any harbeth dealer or company just a happy harbeth users for many years.
extravaganza
373 posts
 
NO NO NO.Krell and Harbeths don't work together.I have Krell kav500i,connected several times to shl5.The sound was awful
pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,213 posts
 
Weseixas - While the 40.1's would not appear to be easy to drive by looking at the efficiency rating (spec'ed @ 86db/1w/1m), they have a flat impedance curve, rated at 6 ohm nominal / 5 ohm minimum. Furthermore, the beauty of the Harbeth sound is that you don't need to crank up the volume to ear splitting levels (like I had to do with my Dynaudio C4's) to get them to sound their best.

Also, even though some at Stereophile had some critical things to say about the Harbeth 40.1's, they still gave it a class A rating.... also TAS gave it their Golden Ear award, so I think there's strong consensus that it's a highly acclaimed speaker, albeit not for everyone.

weseixas
519 posts
 
Hello Pdreher,

Yes , it does appear that the Harbeth is well reviewed. In situations like this and from experience, the Harbeth will be very sensitive to ancillary equipment for best sound.


regards,
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