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what speakers to buy

so this is my 1st time posting. the question is what speakers. i am going into this blind trying to put together a decent system on a budget. i live in a city where bose is considered the high end of high end and the nearest audiophile shops are hours away.
over the years i have owned a lot of vintage gear and still collect some of it. solid state and tube. some of the tube gear was marantz, macintosh, dynaco, heathkit, radio craftsmen, pilot etc. also the usual solid state marantz, pioneer, kenwood, adcom. speakers jbl, polk, altec (model 19 and vott), paradigm, klipsch, bozak, sansui, AR, advent. all the usual suspects
so far i have purchased a copland tube pre cta-305 and a pair of rogue audio m180 amps. all mint condition all under a year old for under half price of new. i also have a denon DP-60L TT 
(with sumiko pearl cartridge)
speaker budget is around 5000 give or take a 1000. if i'm patient i think i can find something that was originally in the 12-20k price range for what i want to spend.
so far i am leaning towards ew andra ii, dali euphonia 800, canton reference 3.2, revel studio ii. size is also a factor and all of these are within that limit.
i have a fairly large area open concept living /dinning and breakfast nook with high ceilings.
and i know "dont buy without listening" but not an option
so looking for some opinions/options

after speakers i will be getting tuner, cd and music server, current interconnects and speaker wire are all ZU mission


dragonbutx
cycles2
205 posts
 
@dragonbutx, I agree with Ina about the Focal Alto Be speakers.  I used to own their bigger brother, the Focal Utopias and the Utopia house sound, build quality, aesthetics and re-sale value are reasons I would also recommend these speakers.

You may want to consider saving some money by buying a good music streamer/server/DAC like a Lumin S1 or if on a budget an Aurender A10.  I recommend making sure it's MQA certified. 

This will allow you to not buy a CD layer or a tuner.  A TIDAL HiFi subscription for $20/month gives you access to over 35,000,000 songs at Redbook CD quality.  I can't tell a difference between Redbook format songs I stream via TIDAL and CDs I play on my Ayre CD player.  You'll also have the advantage of playing MQA songs which trump CD Redbook sound quality.  TIDAL's MQA album selection is growing rapidly. 

Instead of a tuner, you can use TuneIn or other free Internet radio station players integrated in the music server. Just make sure the music server you select supports seamless integration of TIDAL MQA and internet radio stations such as TuneIn and you'll be good to go.  
lradder
56 posts
 
I certainly have no argument with Focal speakers. However, I own a Rogue Cronus Magnum II, and I have them paired with Sonus Faber Venere 2.5's. It's an extremely strong match at a good bit less expense then Focal Utopias. And don't just take my word for it, I have a brother-in-law with $50k invested in his system, and he agrees my system sounds very, very good.
powermd
7 posts
 
I was in a similar situation needing to buy audiophile level speakers without auditioning. Based on my reading of the AVS forum and Audiogon I determined it was pretty hard to go wrong with Dynaudio. One of the guys who deals on Audiogon hooked me up with a new pair of Contour 3.4LEs and an ATI amp at a great price. I couldn't be happier with the setup. They sound absolutely stunning, and look gorgeous. I added a Dynaudio center channel and SVS SB16 ultra sub and I've got a nice HT setup too. I wouldn't say I'm the most critical listener, but I appreciate the nuances of well reproduced instruments playing at a healthy 75-80 db. 
chalmersiv
12 posts
 
if you are close to st Louis there is a great revel dealer there...other brands to hear  and compare
gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
@kosst_amojan

You raise interesting points regarding the AMT driver and the forward sound of the upper region. However, as a current owner of the Reference and former owner of the One I can tell you in my experience it is not "unnatural" or "ear-popping" by any means. Correct placement and/or room treatments is important though, but that too is the case with any speaker.

The OP claims he/she is looking for something in the 4 - 6K price range. Don't you think it's a bit unrealistic to even mention a Focal Utopia in this thread? If I'm not mistaken their top model is the grande utopia em and the MSRP on that is 200K or there about. If we come back down to earth, I still maintain anything in the GE Triton Tower line would be something for the OP to consider and would imagine (although I honestly can't say with first hand/ear experience) that the GE would best anything in the Focal line at the same price point.  
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