What used speaker would you buy with $20,000-$35,000 and why?

nab2  Great decision to go to shows first. At those price levels there are so many choices just between all the different types of speakers. But I would like to add - consider the electronics. At that level speakers seem to be more picky as what it driving them to sound their best. You have to consider what sound you like best.

That said I'm all for finding the sound from a speaker you like best then work on an amp - pre and source(s) to optimize that sound. IMO you have more choices than starting with electronics.

Best of luck

What: TANNOY Kingdom Royals (used )

Why: do NOT just rely on their stellar reviews, make the effort to actually audition them.

when you do audition them, it is quite apparent that you are in the presence of something quite special

Eg. http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue64/tannoy_royal.htm

If you have the room for them, forget the used journey
and get Magnepan 20.7s and apply the difference
to your source and amplification chain.......around 13K
90% of the way to the 20.7s are the 3.7i's at around 6K

You can attempt to do better, but you won't..........

I also cast a vote for the Linkwitz 521, but the multichannel
discrete aspect makes it a difficult speaker.....plus you have
to build it yourself.......

I have entertained the Magnepan's. I'd like to set them up A/B in my room with my speakers. Before I pull the trigger on this I'm fixing the room dynamics (in part by stiffening up the floor and removing the carpet). It's a near perfect cuboid, but the structure behind the walls and underneath the floor is lacking (listening room is in part of the old house).

Only downside of shows is that it's all cutting edge stuff not used stuff like I'm asking about here. A slightly used high end car generally drives pretty close to a new one at a fraction of the price. Electronic gear is even closer due to the nature of electronic components.

I'd say in most cases, especially ss amps and preamps that holds very true......speakers are all over the map, there's a 30K pair of Martens on GON for 12900......will they beat a pair of Mag 20's in most categories?  no.......so does that mean they're overpriced?  who's to say.......most would say new Maggies are severely underpriced........

So what do you get with Maggies that others can't touch:

There's a definite sense of space around instruments that create an eerie realness and it's primarily a function not only of speed, but also dipole dispersion that's close to perfect.....instruments on a stage create a lot of their image by reflecting off the back wall as well as directly and dynamic speakers with a few exceptions just don't reach that element.....

The downside has always been the low end, but the 20.7s pretty much negate even that argument if you feed them what they want, which is a lot of SS watts with high current, coupled with a great tube preamp......

I've owned 30K speakers......I now own 6K speakers......

Give them a chance if you can deal with their size......they're very forgiving in terms of placement.......some listeners even listen to them with the edge of the panel facing them.......LOL