OP,
I’ve posted bits and pieces of my speaker search across various threads but basically I just went to 4-5 dealers within 100 miles few times each over 4-5 months and listened to everything I could in the $3-7k range. For speakers I could tell weren’t for me, I’d eliminate them after 20 mins of listening. For those more interesting I’d listen for an hour or more, ideally over a couple amps. Now obviously not true A/B testing always cause often different dealers/rooms/amps etc but was best I could do.
I can’t give you a final list 1-20 (or whatever #was) cause didn’t approach that way. Rather, I just kept track of current front runner and nearest runner ups and kept testing them trying to knock them off their perches. By end I’d probably listened to D7 four-five times and Dyn, Vandy at least two-three.
The D7 rose to top and stayed there for me. I loved the LPZ tweeter (in house design by Spendor like all drivers in D series) and for me was what gave them the more lively/energetic/less laid back sound vs Vandy.
When i had convinced myself I liked D7 better than anything I could get for under $7k (my budget) and important to me to have heard in person, I decided to do something dangerous and audition a few in the $7-10k range. Coming from B&W speakers purchased in 2000, it was only when I convinced myself that I liked the D7’s better than the $9k Bowers 804d3 that I was ready to pull trigger on D7.
I cant remember full list of what I auditioned but included various (typically several) models from Spendor, Focal, Dynaudio, Vandy, Paradigm, Bowers Wilkins, Martin Logan, Magnepan, Rega, Goldenear, Linn, Macintosh, Kef. Probably forgetting some ... Three house sounds best to my ears were Spendor and then either Vandy or Dynaudio (didn’t differentiate between them bc they were always a bit behind Spendor for me).
I’ve posted bits and pieces of my speaker search across various threads but basically I just went to 4-5 dealers within 100 miles few times each over 4-5 months and listened to everything I could in the $3-7k range. For speakers I could tell weren’t for me, I’d eliminate them after 20 mins of listening. For those more interesting I’d listen for an hour or more, ideally over a couple amps. Now obviously not true A/B testing always cause often different dealers/rooms/amps etc but was best I could do.
I can’t give you a final list 1-20 (or whatever #was) cause didn’t approach that way. Rather, I just kept track of current front runner and nearest runner ups and kept testing them trying to knock them off their perches. By end I’d probably listened to D7 four-five times and Dyn, Vandy at least two-three.
The D7 rose to top and stayed there for me. I loved the LPZ tweeter (in house design by Spendor like all drivers in D series) and for me was what gave them the more lively/energetic/less laid back sound vs Vandy.
When i had convinced myself I liked D7 better than anything I could get for under $7k (my budget) and important to me to have heard in person, I decided to do something dangerous and audition a few in the $7-10k range. Coming from B&W speakers purchased in 2000, it was only when I convinced myself that I liked the D7’s better than the $9k Bowers 804d3 that I was ready to pull trigger on D7.
I cant remember full list of what I auditioned but included various (typically several) models from Spendor, Focal, Dynaudio, Vandy, Paradigm, Bowers Wilkins, Martin Logan, Magnepan, Rega, Goldenear, Linn, Macintosh, Kef. Probably forgetting some ... Three house sounds best to my ears were Spendor and then either Vandy or Dynaudio (didn’t differentiate between them bc they were always a bit behind Spendor for me).