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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
wim1983's avatar
wim1983
221 posts
 
Before any recommendations, I would strongly suggest you not to take any metal tweeters design speakers like Klipsch or Focal, or you may need very great electronic to tame it properly, personally I've owned few speakers include Klipsch RP-160M, Elac B6, Q Acoustics 3020, Wharfedale Diamond series, etc. These speakers is good though not great enough for me.

I would recommend the following for wide range of music:
Wharfedale Denton (walnut got the heritage classic look, go for it)
Class D Audio SDS-470C with upgrade power supply (I’ve just recently got this power amp, I’m shock Denton can be driven to be so powerful and dynamic)
Fostex HP-A3 DAC/preamp (It’s one of my favourite DAC/preamp)

For a huge collection of music, this setup give me almost no weak point to comment.

leemaze
330 posts
 
What did you get OP??
lowoverdrive OP
169 posts
 
@leemaze First I purchased the KEF LS50 speakers from Amazon. I also bought a pair of Magnepan 1.7i speakers through a local dealer. I still had my original speakers, the Polk RTi A7.

After breaking in all the speakers and doing a number of listening tests, I discovered that the Polk speakers have really good sound in comparison to other well-regarded speakers.

I love the Magnepan speakers. However, the Polk speakers sound extremely good too.

Therefore, I returned the KEF LS50 and purchased a pair of Polk RTi A9 speakers that were deeply discounted. These are a larger version of the A7. I have the A9's paired with a pair of SVS PC-2000 subwoofers. It is a great setup in my opinion. Not only do I enjoy it, I get a lot of comments from other people about how good it sounds.

Now I have the Maggies at home and I have the A9's and SVS subwoofers in my office.
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