$20K to spend on speakers…. . wait! There’s a catch!


Greetings,

Perfect sense says buy stuff only after you have heard it. Only after an in home audition.

Sometimes we are forced to wing it.

Admit it, best guess trigger pulling happens a bunch because not everything is everywhere.

For some unknown reasons we seem to feel we know what we want or need in spite of never having auditioned it.

Here are a couple scenarios based on a “this thing should work’, “shot in the semi dark” buying practices.

Premise: You have $20K and it MUST be spent entirely on loudspeakers.

Here are the options:
1. The used speakers option.
You have NOT heard them ever. At all. Nada.
The deal here is you’r egetting them for about 50% off retail in quite good esthetic (8/10) condition, excellent working orde according to the seller, and about three - four years old and landed or shipped.

The seller has good feedback. No negatives.

All of the speakers numbers are amenable to your existing power plants. They should do well in your room.

2. brandy new speaker option.

The brand new units you’re paying $20K for include a 25% discount from MSRP and sold by a brick & mortar dealership.

You did hear the brand new ones, but only with modest SS gear and nothing on the level of your own equipment which is tubes, or vice versa for sake of this argument.

These come with warranty. ..and in your color preference.

Lastly, neither of these two sets of speakers are what could be called very popular, loudspeakers. Meaning they aren’t littering the pages of the speaker for sale pages with any regularity.


The carrier arrives. The boxes are fully in tact. No issues at all. Still, there’s a nagging thought. Did I do the right thing?

Shouldn’t I have bought used speakers and obtained still more value given just a bit older speakers sell for much less than MSRP.

Or, I bet I should have bought the new speakers and put up with another long run in.

Man! I hope I did not messs this up!!


What is your choice and why?

Thanks for the ideas and insights..

blindjim
I like JOND's suggestion too.  A set of custom high efficiency speakers from Deja Vu Audio with vintage horns and drivers would be just the ticket.
ProAcs are known for their synergy with tubes, plus look and sound amazing.  There is a beautiful rosewood D48 with the ribbon tweeters brand new on ebay for $12000 with free shipping and 14 day return policy.  Unfortunately, ProAcs take a long time to break in, but once they do, the sound of string and double reed instruments will blow you away.  I like to use Soundocity SEV9 with my ProAc Studio 148s (a smaller and slimmer tower version).  Check my system page for details.
Check out milpai's posts.  He searched for two years, travelled to a bunch of places, and eventually settled on the D48R.  *That* is a recommendation.
Or you could possibly call Sound Organization in Texas.  They are the ProAc importers for the US.  They might be able to setup a listening session for you or an extended return window?
@phusis > Funny thread. Would active speakers be granted access to this experiment?

Blindjim > it is unconditional …. Any sort.. any tech… its about tactics not about types.

Albeit, mentioning brands and models has its value too. Especially if it/they coincide with the idea being demonstrated herein.

ATC, Meridian, Focus Aries, etc. would then all come in under the buy it new prospect I suppose. Albeit not at much of a discount.

Being more general seemed the best path as I try to put up threads that could help more than just myself.
Thanks.

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@salectric > I like JOND's suggestion too. A set of custom high efficiency speakers

Blindjim > Hmmm. I missed that, or misread it. Thanks for the reminder.

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@sbrownnw > the sound of string and double reed instruments will blow you away…. D48 with the ribbon tweeters brand new on ebay for $12000

> you could possibly call Sound Organization in Texas. They are the ProAc importers


Blindjim > Cool. I thought these 48s were more pricey than 12K. I might have misunderstood. Looking for a review I could not find one readily available online.

I’m guessing the R = same tower but with Ribbon tweet?

Wanna check out a special tweet, check out the Lanch 7 review in TAS from a while back. Whoa.
Thanks again.

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@twoleftears > Check out milpai's posts.

Blindjim > is that the one with the talk about a few other Pros? 30, 40, 48R etc.? it had 50+ posts. I read that earlier today or when I posted here last. The one I read made mention of various power options and I think was fairly recent too.

I’ve never run across any PROAC dealer in my state. Which is not a deal breaker as was said.

This thread of course, is really about how one would go about buying some pretty costly speakers in the semi dark.
Thanks.

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So far, the best “all in’ plan seems the buy used getting as much ‘built in’ value to performance ratio as is possible. Then blend accordingly..

Shaken. Not stirred.lol

Two more outlines are as interesting.
1 Get a kicking amp. Garnish to taste. An attractive direction especially given my ideas on audio. Although, its not germain and can’t be a true option for purposes of this topic’s thrust. Crap.

Of course, one can always rush out and use that as your own template. Nobody is gonna tell on you. lol

2 My own orig concept when first starting out here years back. Jump into the mix somewhere and step up accordingly, when appropriate. This one however has to be dis qualified as it doesn’t meet this thread’s focus.

Super. When was the last time you disqualified yourself? Lovely. Freakin’ lovely. Lol


To regain focus, where are you gonna pitch your 20K speaker buying bundle, and why?.