Short List of the Best 20K Speakers

Interestingly enough, I went through the exact same quandary just a year or so ago. I too owned the Revel Studios, (a very good, all around, speaker that had no real weaknesses, but was not truly a great speaker, as it was not great in any one category either – at least IMHO anyway). I did have some constraints to my choices, which eliminated some speakers, as my wife really did not want me to have really tall speakers. (She loved it when I bought my Revel Studios, as they were much shorter than my previous speakers, the Martin Logan Sequel II’s.) Nor did she want really big (wide) speakers, such as the Quad ESL speakers. (So, my first choice would probably have been some reconditioned Apogee Diva speakers, as I loved those, but they would have gotten me divorced! Plus having Apogee out of business was a deterrent too.)

(I should point out, that at this point in time, my friend, (whose system's sound I love, and who has similar sonic tastes as my own), and who used to own the Avalon Eidolons, had upgraded to the Rockport Antares speakers, which is as close to the perfect speaker as I have heard, at least in a dynamic type of speaker. They are a very, very transparent speaker, with little to no weaknesses. Their imaging and soundstaging is fantastic. They have a deep, tight bass response, a lovely mid-range, and an extended and very refined treble response. Since I could not afford to get those, (they were $45K new), I wanted something as similar to those as I could afford.)

So, with those considerations, I contemplated several speakers, including:

The obvious upgrade, the Revel Salon, as that was a true full range speaker. But, after five years with the Studios, I really wanted something different, both aesthetically, (even though I did, and still do, like its stylish and modern looks), as well as sonically. (Basically, the Salon is just a Studio with deeper bass, at least IMHO.)

The second obvious choice, (for me anyway), was the Avalon Eidolons. These are wonderful speakers, (and great looking too!), but they just lacked the bottom end to be a truly great (full range) speaker. (Their bass response was no better, and maybe not even as good as the Studios.) Although, I do feel they are a great speaker, just not a great full range speaker.

The Wilson WP 8 was another alternative, but these, for some reason, just did not float my boat, either aesthetically, or sonically. Aesthetically, they look very modern and clean looking, but a bit too robotic, and sterile looking for my tastes. (i.e. they are not as stylish as I would like.) And sonically, they sounded somewhat similar to my Studios, (detailed and somewhat analytical), and I was looking for something that just sounded a bit different, (i.e. more musical, is the best way I can describe it).

I thought about the EgglestonWorks Andra II speakers as I had heard nothing but good things about them. But in looking at them in the pictures, I really did not like their looks that much. Their shape had a kind of a “barn” look to them, and none of the pictures ever showed them with their grills on, and I prefer to have grills on my speakers, as I dislike looking at the drivers, particularly the woofers. And, I have kids over occasionally, so grills keep little fingers off the drivers. (But, most speaker’s grills either affect the sonics or don’t look that great, or both. (The Revel Studios had a nice grill covering the woofers, which I always liked, and which did not affect the sonics.) But, in desperation, I reconsidered them, when a local pair showed up on Audiogon for a really good price. I went to the seller’s house and looked at them, and they looked much nicer in person than they do in the pictures. The black granite sides really class them up in person. (And the speakers come with really nice looking grills, and they are designed to not affect the sonics at all.) So, I spoke with the seller, and he agreed to let me borrow them to try in my system. (A totally classy seller by the way! Way to go Richard!!!!)

I took them home and set them up and listened to them for the weekend. By Monday morning I had decided these were the speakers for me. They had all the transparency that the Eidolons had. They had that last little bit of bass response that most supposedly full range speakers lack. The mid-range was very nice, and made vocals really come to life. The treble was well extended and much more refined than the Studios were. (FYI, they have the same Isotar tweeter that my friend’s Rockport Antares has.) And they imaged and soundstaged very similarly to the Antares as well. (In fact, I look at the Andra II speakers as being the little brother to the Rockport Antares. The Antares are built slightly better, (but then again, NO speaker is built as nice as the Rockports are, IMHO), look slightly better, (I love their looks), and sound slightly better (they are just a bit more neutral sounding that then Andra II speakers). But their similarities outnumber there differences, and that was exactly what I was looking for.

(Note: The only downside to the Andra II speakers is that they do have a bit of a mid-bass hump. I solved this via room treatments, (i.e. using a bass trap and echobusters in the corners), as well as (possibly) via my speaker cables, Nordost Valhallas. (I say possibly the speaker cables helped, because when I was putting in my room treatments I also upgraded the speaker cables at the same time, and I can not tell how much they helped. I have heard that some people consider the Valhallas to be slightly lean in the mid-bass, so maybe they helped.) My system has never sounded better, and I am pretty much through upgrading my system now. It also helps to have some beefy power amps in order to drive the 12” twin (Isobaric) woofers. I use the 200 wpc Lamm M2.1 hybrid monoblock amps. (Your Krell amp should work nicely as well.)

Well, I hope that helped.
(I am home waiting for a repair man, and had lots of time to write on and on, so if this was long winded, I apologize.)

unfortunely there not 20k but have a pair in my home threater and I will match them to anything.
totem sharmans they detail,bass and three dimentional.The vocal is unbeleiveable . But all this is for not if you don't have a good DAC look at MSB TECH rated top five in the world
feel free to contact me

Herman. I considered that but between my amp, my speakers, my racks and 2 doorways leading into the room I really don't know where the hell I would put it. The room is smallish as well. It would probably look more like a storage closet then a listening room.

Kurt. I had the original Andras for a few years and loved them. You should see the hunk of granite they put on those bastards. Like two inches thick. Only reason I got rid of them was I was selling my house and put them in storage. Winter was approaching and the place I had them was not climate controlled. So I let them go. I found a house 2 weeks later. Pissed me off. Like you I wanted to try something new as well. The Revels took their place. Which was better? Hard to say. Many months between listening. A different listening room. Etc. Both were great. I imagine the Andra II would be a hands down winner but havent heard yet.

What is with the 20Hz? If you are serious and want to maintain equal quality with your revels then you need a couple of good subwoofers like a couple of JL112's or 113's or a single high quality monster subwoofer (15" or greater) and you can get close 20 Hz. I'd budget around $10K to achieve this goal with less than 5 to 10% distortion at decent SPL levels. If you think there are any number of 20K speakers that can achieve 20 Hz with any kind of accuracy at decent SPL levels then I am afraid you have been reading to many reviews and manufacturer's wild claims...you need to look at sounstage distortion plots - most speakers are playing extremely high levels of distortion at 20Hz or the better ones are sensibly rolled off before 20 HZ.