I see allot of great advice on gear but very little inquiry on what is important to the end user.
Many of you do not inquire how this particular gentleman is going to use his system, or take into consideration what this man may find appealing both in sonics as well as visual presentation, and although Vandersteens are very good speakers their look and sound is polarizing, many Women hate their boxy, fabric look, not to mention that if you have Cats they might not be the best choice. Also Vandersteens sonic signature is laid back which some people love and others do not.
I find it disturbing that they seem to be shouted out as the holy grail when I find them to be a very fine product but just one good choice in a sea of excellent choices. This is the same argument that Wilson is the best or B&W is the best or Magico.,I personally don't feel that any of my speakers is the best I have my favorites however, we extol the virtues of many different brands of speakers and let the customer decide which product they find matches their tastes, room size, visual look and sonic flavor.
All loudspeakers have their strengths and weaknesses and this gentleman needs to hear many different products and systems till he finds out exactly what he finds satisfying.
Also many people don't' want tubes or multi piece audio systems with a lot of components.
So what I find interesting is how few of you have actually asked the pertinent questions of how the customer is going to use their system and what qualities matter most and what are the features or qualities that matter to the purchaser.
There is a difference between the music lover and the die hard audiophile, and unfortunately too many of you do not realize that the music lover does not necessarily care about tubes or records they just want to listen to music on a higher quality system. and simplicity and streaming may matter more.
When I talk to a customer I ask all of these questions, we start with the choice of speakers first then work on electronics.
For your guys edification, Audio Doctor, has largest collection of audio gear in the area, and we have quite a few brands of equipment that we showcase.
So for this gentleman's budget we have a choice of three or four excellent sets of speakers and many different combinations of electronics:
We have the Dali Opticons 6 and they are amazing for $2,500.00 The Dali's offer a unique set of sonic qualities they have a huge sound stage, are very warm yet have surprising detail.
We have the KEF R 500 a great $2,500.00 speaker, big sound stage, very good clarity and resolution, stunning wood work.
We have the Paradigm Prestige 75 very detailed floor standers, outstanding bass and dynamics
We have NAD, Cambridge Audio, Naim, Micromega, Nuprime, April Music and many more. In tems of first real audio systems, the Naim Uniqute is one hell of a great amp which has a built in dac, streams, Tidal and Spotify and is very compact with a great app.
The Nuprime IDA 8 at $995 beats most $2k integrated amplifiers and we have many more great choices.
So to recap there are many great speakers in this price range, there are many choices of simple effective systems, this gentleman needs to understand that his choice should mirror all of the things that may be important to him,and that includes the way a system looks, its sound quality, how it suits his musical tastes, as well as how the system functions.
He should visit Audio Connection and we would welcome him to visit Audio Doctor to hear our collection.
If you guys are in the area you should come in and take a listen to some of our systems.
