The Elacs on Amazon I would have recommended, (the FS407) seem to be "temporarily out of stock". All the Elacs in the FS line to me are the real Elacs, made in Germany with in-house designed drivers. The Andrew Jones stuff is their China line.
Looking for speaker recommendations that I can purchase on Amazon.com
Budget: under US$5000 and would prefer a price point of less than $3000/pair. The most expensive speakers I have owned so far are Polk RTi A7's, so this will be a big jump for me.
Purpose: music
Room: I tend to move every few years, so I don't want speakers that will work best only with very specific room conditions. Currently, I will be using these in a medium size room of about 22 feet x 18 feet. The room has carpet and window treatments.
Music sources: CD's, lossless music files stored on computer and MP3's when that's all I have available. I don't ahve any SACD's yet, but I plan on purchasing more high quality music once I have this system set up.
Music styles: acoustic, Indian classical (sitar, srangi, flute), alternative rock (Portugal. The Man, Sleeping with Sirens, etc.), older rock (e.g., Rush).
The speakers should sound good playing the Tanpura (aka Tambura). It is a classical Indian accompaniment instrument in the "drone" category. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanpura) Example of sound here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7tlqXix_eo
With bad equipment that sound is fatiguing to me. Live it is beautiful and relaxing. Hopefully I can find speakers that will do it justice.
Personal Preferences: I am looking for non-fatiguing, warm, musical qualities. In another discussion topic here on this forum, @mtrot and I agreed about "smooth, sweet, soft, silky treble" and "shimmery, airy cymbals" as goals.
Amplifier: Yamaha P5000S
DAC: to be determined, but probably something like the Teac NT-503
Finally, the speakers of choice must be sold on Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com (or possibly some other similar retail website). I have personal reasons for this limitation. It isn't always true that I will need to buy all my speakers or audio gear from one of these sites, but for the moment, it is a requirement. Please don't recommend anything that isn't available on one of these sites. Thanks.
Purpose: music
Room: I tend to move every few years, so I don't want speakers that will work best only with very specific room conditions. Currently, I will be using these in a medium size room of about 22 feet x 18 feet. The room has carpet and window treatments.
Music sources: CD's, lossless music files stored on computer and MP3's when that's all I have available. I don't ahve any SACD's yet, but I plan on purchasing more high quality music once I have this system set up.
Music styles: acoustic, Indian classical (sitar, srangi, flute), alternative rock (Portugal. The Man, Sleeping with Sirens, etc.), older rock (e.g., Rush).
The speakers should sound good playing the Tanpura (aka Tambura). It is a classical Indian accompaniment instrument in the "drone" category. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanpura) Example of sound here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7tlqXix_eo
With bad equipment that sound is fatiguing to me. Live it is beautiful and relaxing. Hopefully I can find speakers that will do it justice.
Personal Preferences: I am looking for non-fatiguing, warm, musical qualities. In another discussion topic here on this forum, @mtrot and I agreed about "smooth, sweet, soft, silky treble" and "shimmery, airy cymbals" as goals.
Amplifier: Yamaha P5000S
DAC: to be determined, but probably something like the Teac NT-503
Finally, the speakers of choice must be sold on Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com (or possibly some other similar retail website). I have personal reasons for this limitation. It isn't always true that I will need to buy all my speakers or audio gear from one of these sites, but for the moment, it is a requirement. Please don't recommend anything that isn't available on one of these sites. Thanks.
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- 146 posts total
@alborosie, The benefit offered by many online retailers is in-home auditions. It's true that sellers like Amazon and BB have no real knowledge to offer, but the same can be said for 2/3 of the hi-fi dealers in my area. They simply stock the most attractive speakers and gear. I've encountered $50k systems that sound terrible because these dealers are clueless about room/speaker/gear synergy, or they're more focused on home theater applications. When you ask about in-home auditions, they tell you that all sales are final, or they only allow exchange for store credit. The brick and mortar industry is dying because most consumers simply don't care much about sound quality. They want small, unobtrusive, "plug and play" speakers that can relay the news or weather. They're creatures of convenience. Many have no interest in learning how to drive, let alone set up a hi-fi stereo. I don't like it either, but it's the reality of our times. The OP had already countered suggestions for other retailers prior to your post. I don't think he should have to repeatedly defend his position. |
1 - if Best Buy and Amazon are the only places you can buy right now, I would postpone your purchase until that changes. They are not the best places to buy high end audio gear 2 - you should be looking at used speakers. Would you rather have $5K speakers that are instantly worth a fraction of that the minute you take delivery, or some used $10K speakers that sound a whole lot better (assuming they are carefully selected - price certainly doesn't always = better sound) |
https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=dayton+audio+b652-air&tag=googhydr-20&index=a... I know that these speakers are a REAL value at $49 plus shipping. I am continuing to be amazed at the quality of this design, by Dayton using the Air Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeter, made famous by ESS Heil in the 1970s. Sure, you could spend more on speakers, but you should at least listen to a pair of these before investing 10 times or 100 times more. As editor of "Computer Audiophile on the Cheap", I recommend only products that have been tested by me personally. With such a low price, you could afford a separate subwoofer, as the deep bass notes are not going to put a thump on your chest, but the mids and hi-end will be marvelous. May I also suggest the iFi iOne DAC. It retails for $199 and is also available from Amazon. I am four days into testing, and this Multibit DAC performs beyond my expectations. |
- 146 posts total