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Totally overwhelmed (speakers under $5k)

I am newer to the audiophile community and don't have much in the way of higher end gear to be honest.  I have been upgrading things as I go with my home theater (now Anthem receiver, Martin Logan speakers, and SVS sub) and am now wanting to upgrade my music system that is in my home office.  It is currently equipment that was originally in my home theater that has been replaced.  So I have a BasX preamp, 7 channel solid state BasX amp running 2 channel, T2+ speakers, and cabling all from Emotive.  The wires are basic copper speaker wire with banana plugs on the ends.  And I have an RSL Speedwoofer 10"  subwoofer. My source is Amazon Music HD on a Macbook Pro fed to the preamp by an optical cable. All in all it sounds pretty good but I want to take it up a notch.  

The other day I spoke with James at Raven Audio about cables and he said suggested that I would actually get a lot more bang by upgrading my equipment than worrying about my cables (which is fair).  Of course he is a fan of his own brand's amps and speakers but he also said very good things about Dynaudio and Focal (which I do have some experience with for car audio and headphones).  In doing research on the Raven Audio speakers, I have seen people lauding the Tekton Moab, Aperion Verus III, as well as others.  When I do searches for "best speakers under $5000" I get lots of mainstream review sites that talk about brands like Definitive Technologies, Polk, KEF, Klipsch, SVS, and more.  But they generally don't talk about Ravel, Tekton, or any of those. I assume it is because they are too small. 

Honestly though, at this point I am overwhelmed. Too many brands with too many speakers and where I live there are not a lot of shops to go listen to these higher end speakers. I have seen lots of debates on here along with folks that really have their definite opinions.  Here are my requirements and hopefully I can gain some knowledge, insight, and direction from folks on this site that have much greater experience than myself. 

1) I want speakers that are clear and clean with lots of detail.  But I also want to be able to just listen to the music, being immersed without having my ears ringing from the sharpness after a bit.

2) I want to be able to plug them into my current preamp and solid state amp and be able to enjoy them as is.  Later on, if/when I decide to change the amp to a tube amp, I want them to be able to work well with those characteristics too. 

3) I want the new price to be limited to $5k and under.  I am open to used in the right circumstances but hoping to get a smoking deal on some used $15k speakers (like some Legacy's) is just wishful thinking at this point.  With new, you know what you are getting and will have a warranty.  

4) I listen to all sorts of music so it needs to be able to switch between rock, heavy metal, classical, jazz, hip hop, bag pipes, and everything in between.  

5) Subwoofer is optional.  I have the Speedwoofer currently which is know is not perfect for music (ported).  I am fine upgrading to a sealed SVS at some point or getting towers that don't even need a sub. I actually have an older pair of Infinity SM 125's that I got close to 30 years ago that don't really need one.  

6) Aesthetics are a plus but not a requirement.  I am a function over form guy.  Some of these B&W's, Focals, and others look beautiful compared to the Moabs which are more utilitarian but I am not stress about it. 

7) Size can be whatever.  Again, the Moabs appear to be massive and that is fine but so is something that is much smaller.  The room is roughly 14' by 24' with 9' ceilings.  While it isn't an auditorium, it isn't just a small room either.  

Ok, I think that covers it except to say straight up, I don't tend to care for negativity.  If you have heard something and you don't care for it for X, Y, and Z reasons, great, please say so.  But please don't put something down because you don't like their marketing or you believe that it has to be a $100k system to be worthwhile.  Thank you in advance for your responses. 

ddonicht
wlowe
10 posts
 

We just went through this process. Took a good bit of time and research. We wound up listening to Focal, B&W, Polk, Aerial, Dali, Revel, Kef, Dynaudio, Paridigm, and Sonus Faber. At the end it became incredibly clear that the speaker sound is very influenced by the amp, some so much that the sound was just obviously different. Regardless of amp though, we had to rule out those we found just too 'bright' - we felt fatigued even after just short periods, even with full tubes on them (Focal, B&W, Paradigm, Dynaudio). We liked the Kef and Dali a lot, and felt that with the right amp they would have sounded better. We ended up with Sonus Faber because they were just beautiful sounding. If they are put with really warm amps (like tubes), they do not shine, though some people like that sound. We matched ours with a McIntosh MA352, which is a hybrid. We were stunned at how great that amp made the speakers sound. The MCMA252 was also excellent. Full tubes and monos dragged the higher frequencies down too far for us. Anyhoo, our advice would be listen - a lot. Go out an listen and have them switch amps if you really like a speaker and want to know what else it can do. 

Post removed 
audio-b-dog's avatar
audio-b-dog
10 posts
 

I too recently had the problem of finding a mid-range speaker, under $5,000. My electronics are an ARC Reference 2 Mk.II preamp, ARC PH7 phono preamp, McCormack DNA-1 amp souped up by Steve McCormack, VPI Prime Signature turntable with Sumiko Starling cartride, and McCormack UDP-1 CD player. I like a tube sound but not over-inflated.

The reality of the situation is that I could not fly all over the country listening to all lthe under $5K speakers I'd read about. I had to visit local audio dealers and see what was available in my neck of the woods (L.A.). I decided on Goldenear Triton 2+ which sell for $4500. My previous speaker was an Apogee Slant 3, which hasn't been sold for years. I am super happy with the Goldenear Triton 2+. They have built in sub woofers with accompanying built-in amps. However, I have tried other amps on them, and the woofers take on the signature of the main amp, which pleases me, because I love my main amp. Steve McCormack tuned it to the type of music I lsten to, which tends toward jazz and classical. However, they rock out when I want them to. 

In the end, however, I think visiting your local audio dealers will narrow down the field for you. Of course, make sure they set them up with decent electronics close to yours. At my dealer, the Triton 2+ speakers were being shown in a surround sound room with a crackly amp. They were featuring the more expensive Reference 1. I had them move the speakers to a room where they were fed by decent electronics.

Good luck. It's a lot of work to find good components, especially speakers.

 

 

 

 

4

lemonhaze
415 posts
 

ASR has been mentioned. To help remove a little confusion, do not, repeat not take any notice of this 'review site'  They do not review anything, they only measure! This arrogant p..p..person (phew that took some restraint) states that he does not need to listen, the measurements will tell him how it sounds.

A used pair of Vandersteens is definitely worth a listen and will play well with tubes or powerful SS.  IMO they represent great value.

spiritofradio's avatar
spiritofradio
3,449 posts
 

What a great question/post.  Mostly terrible responses.  
 

Dude!  First thing.  Very first thing.  Get your computer out of the system.  
 

Get a streamer.  Research this yourself. YouTube is good for this.  Audiogon is nearly useless for this.  

Ok, you’re overwhelmed and you know what Martin Logan’s sound like. Presumably you like them.  

Because you said you’re overwhelmed, take a deep breath and upgrade one aspect at a time.  Think about priorities (as said above, good advice To figure out what you like e.g. category of speaker). Don’t buy mediocre stuff but instead wait with patience until you can afford and have really considered each component.   
If you buy more than one piece at a time how will you know what you like?  
 

after the streamer, well, it’s most common to start with speakers of course but I’d be tempted to start by ditching that receiver.  
 


 

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