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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.

lowoverdrive
imhififan's avatar
imhififan
2,217 posts
 
@clarinetmonster2
If you want to put a pair of Sonus Faber on your list, the Venere line sounds much better than the Chameleon line, if the looks are ok for you. Either the Venere 2.5 or 3.0 fit into your proposed budget.
Yes,  Sonus Faber Venere sounds much better than the Chameleon, but when you recommending a pair of speakers to someone, you need to consider the amplifier to pair with it. OP's amplifier is a Yamaha P5000s ( A very good amp for the price! My friend has one, he use it to power some outdoor speakers at the pool side ), I think the Chameleon is a better choice in this case. If you demo a pair of Venere 3.0 powered by a McIntosh MC275 and powered by a Yamaha AV receiver you will know why.
lowoverdrive OP
169 posts
 
@imhififan My Yamaha P5000S power amp doesn't sound anything like the Yamaha A-S801 integrated amp in my opinion. So maybe comparing it to a Yamaha A/V receiver wouldn't be appropriate.

I sent the 801 back and kept the P5000S.

The Yamaha P5000S even makes my Polk RTi A7's sound good to me! :-)

lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes
688 posts
 
"hi im just curious why do you only want to buy off amazon and best buy"

Multiple reasons. It’s not just return policy.

I don’t want to get into the details because that will only detract from my question. The whole discussion will go off topic.

My question was not "where should I buy speakers?" I asked, "Looking for speaker recommendations that I can purchase on Amazon.com" and I would simply like to stick to that.

If things change in the future and I can shop at other places, I’ll post a new question. I appreciate everyone respecting the constraints built into my question. :-) "




I think it’s rather obvious  -  you work for, or are affiliated with, or are doing some market research for (such as a focus group) and that’s why you don’t want to look at Audio Advisor or the several other on line options that also offer excellent return policies (and probably have better sounding speakers as well), or broaden your horizons to other gear that is not on Amazon or Best Buy.

Please just come clean with why. We are a group of honest audiophiles, hobbyists, in the pursuit of enjoying music thru our audio systems and always looking for better sounding gear. As such, we want to educate others to find the best possible thing out there that will make them happy. Audio systems are about synergy between components. Obvious you’re trolling us for information, and some folks, myself included, have an aversion to that. You’ve been given some good information and suggestions here, best of luck to you.
lowoverdrive OP
169 posts
 
@lou_setriodes no, you are wrong. To set the record straight, I'm not trolling or phishing or in any other way conducting research on other people. Period.


lowoverdrive OP
169 posts
 
@gnason

I am sure your meditation music would sound great on them, but they will really shine when you play acoustic music, which has more range and depth than what I heard on the YouTube link you posted.

FYI, that "meditation music", as you called it, is NOT what I listen to. (I think that might be rather boring after a while, right?) I listen to Indian Classical music (which is acoustic, with great range, depth and dynamism) as well as many other styles.

The link I posted was only one instrument called a "drone". It is an accompaniment instrument often found on sitar or vocal compositions. It almost never plays the main rhythm. It just produces a drone sound.

In my experience, the drone sound can produce harsh tones in poor quality recordings or with low quality speakers and audio gear. I found that playing any piece of music with the "drone" (aka tanpura or tambura) at louder volumes is a good test for whether a system can produce the smooth, non-fatiguing treble I'm after.
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