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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
james_w514's avatar
james_w514
286 posts
 
@helomech 

Great post and recommendations.
gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
Focal, Revel, Golden Ear and similar ilk are like a hot and wild girlfriend. They’re great fun for a while, but not the ones you want to settle down with for the long haul.
I’ll settle down for the long haul anytime with a hot and wild babe. Same for my Golden Ear Triton Reference.

EDIT: Keep in mind many folks have a different interpretation of exactly how much time (days, weeks, months, years, decades, etc.) the long haul is :) I take it to mean years, not a "life time".
helomech
1,672 posts
 
I’ll settle down for the long haul anytime with a hot and wild babe. Same for my Golden Ear Triton Reference.

I really shouldn't have included GE on that list. For me, they don't even fall into the fun category.

I auditioned the GE Triton 1s and found they were more fatiguing than just about any speaker I've heard. My girlfriend plugged her ears before the first song ended. Maybe it was just some weird room anomaly, but that was my experience with a pair driven by a McIntosh amp.
gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
I really shouldn't have included GE on that list. For me, they don't even fall into the fun category.

I auditioned the GE Triton 1s and found they were more fatiguing than just about any speaker I've heard. My girlfriend plugged her ears before the first song ended. Maybe it was just some weird room anomaly, but that was my experience with a pair driven by a McIntosh amp.

That's fair. Don't buy them. Best of luck/times to you and your girlfriend. Presumably the two of you will be together for "the long haul".


rackon
301 posts
 
Oh golly, this is why I suggested the OP go on an audition trip to hear a range of speakers for himself. Different ears and different gears and different music and personal taste etc etc. 

I haven't spent much time with GE Triton Ones but I did audition the Triton 3+ and 2+ extensively and one thing I never heard them sound like was fatiguing. They were also remarkably coherent top to bottom. I once upon a time tried to integrate Maggies and subs, and we listen to mainly big classical/orchestral/piano, and coherency is a MUST in our system. If anything, the Tritons were just a bit sweet on top and over-all slightly forgiving. OTOH, I found the KEF LS50s almost unlistenable so there you go. (I sometimes feel like the only audiogeek in the world who doesn't love these speakers.)

When we started looking for speakers I thought we would end up with Vandersteens, or Focals, or Sonus Fabers, or B&Ws or Alons or anything but Golden Ear Tritons. But we did and we're very happy.

So different strokes and all that.
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