$1000-$2000 Floor-standing speakers for larger room w/NAD 326bee
I’m looking for a set of floor-standing speakers for our main listening room. They will be 2 channel music only. They need to be "cat safe" (no fabric on front, or removable grills), able to fill a larger room (20x15 with vaulted ceiling) with decent volume (typical max listening level is 85-90db but a lot of listening is at low volume as well) and efficient enough for a NAD326BEE. Budget is ~$1000-$2000 for the pair. My old speakers in the room were open baffle design (Hawthorne Audio Duets) and I did like the relatively open sound stage they provided. I may move them to a different room or just sell them (they’re too wide for our current configuration in the room and they aren’t too high on the "cat safe" scale). I have a couple of Polk TSi400’s in the room now as "placeholders" until I decide on a permanent pair. Minimum distance between speakers is about 8-10 feet and listening position is about 10 feet from the speakers. The speakers will need to be within about of the wall behind them. The floor is carpeted.
Music is a mix of Jazz, Classic Rock and Classical and sources are turntable and streaming from a Roon server. I live in the Atlanta metro area and
I’ve been out of the speaker hunting game for a while so any suggestions would be very much appreciated!
I have a pair of Wharfdale Diamond 10.7 speakers hooked up to a much older NAD amp (7175PE) in a similar sized room (15x40, with 8.5ft ceilings) and I love them. Great detail and great bass. They are now the older model and available for less than your budget from Music Direct. https://www.musicdirect.com/speakers/wharfedale-diamond-107-tower-speakers-pr |
@ruleof72 , I have only heard the T2, T3 (flagship) and Alphas (I think). I also have your situation where I have my speaker cables in the wall. I started with Monoprice, like you, and now I have signalcable wire in the wall. I thoroughly enjoyed the speakers, including my Totems, with 12-14 gauge Monoprice cable runs. You'll get a lot of different views on the subject. Mine is a middleview--I believe cabling makes a difference but it's hard to imagine a great system sounding terrible with good gauge hookup wire. I found--in my room/my system that interconnects made more difference. And keeping the WAF high keeps me enjoying music right in the living room. I also like the recommendations for Monitor Audio and Totem. The "PSB sound" was different to me than the Totems I had before. The Totems were very lively--not harsh, yet very much forward sounding. The PSBs are more neutral and warm and, yes, they can sound slightly laid back with some recordings. I got very accustomed to the sound and now I prefer it just slightly over shiny, forward, etc. sounding speakers. |
Tomic, great story. I need to get that first hand. You may need to call me on that one. The visual is just stunning, lmao. Yes, when set up properly the Maggies can get excellent, but personally I dont 'love the bass and no matter what folks tell me, I have yet to hear any sub that integrates properly with them and I've heard most as all my dealers carry them. JMHO |
