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Road trip to demo $10,000 speakers

I'm going to take a several hour road trip to the Washington DC/Baltimore area to demo some speakers in the $10,000 range for a once in a lifetime purchase. I plan on listening to some Magico A3's, Aerial Acoustic 7T's, and Spendor D-9's. One of the dealers also has Paradigm Persona 3F's on the floor, so I'll take a listen to them too. While I'm up there are there any other speakers in that price range you'd recommend I try to locate and take a listen to. I'm open to and welcome your suggestions and will take the time to research each one as well.

I'm not in the market for used equipment. Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Mike



skyscraper
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,576 posts
 
skyscraper

Baltimore- Soundscape -ask for Ed.
                 The Listening Room - ask for Don.

there are a few more in the DC, VA area as well. Have a fun trip and keep me posted on the dealers & retailers visited.

Happy Listening!
marsrecords
24 posts
 
Golden Ear Reference and save a couple thousand for wire  
rbstehno
1,424 posts
 
Hopefully the demo will be with similar equipment that you currently own, for example, if you like tubes, demo the speakers with tube electronics. You will need to match speaker specs to your amp specs.
If you are in the DC area, go demo Totem loudspeakers, I would rate them better than some you stated. 
Too bad you don’t want used. If you like the revel “f” series, for < $10k, you can get a pair of revel ultimate salon 2 or studio 2’s depending on room size and amp power you have. Thes speakers would trounce anything you stated IMO, even over the Magico’s.
1 suggestion, I would attend the RMAF audio show next month so you can hear 100 different speakers. The last time I went, I heard the revel ultimate 2’s and the Usher x-towers, and bought the usher’s.
dodgealum's avatar
dodgealum
1,402 posts
 
A good suggestion to check out CAF in November. I would also recommend calling Mark at Linear Tube Audio in Takoma Park (MD) just outside DC. LTA is producing some of the best value for money tube electronics based on David Berning designs. He has been showing with Lou Hinkley of Daedalus Audio recently (they will be together at CAF) and I believe Lou has shipped Mark a pair of Muse speakers which are in your price range. Pair them with an LTA Ultralinear and LTA Microzotal preamp and you will have a system that will keep you smiling for years to come. 
glupson
7,842 posts
 
Try Revel Performa F 228 Be. Also see if you can find Sonus Faber. Olympica III are over your budget, but they can be found (new!) on sale for about $10000 from time to time. They are definitely worth a listen.

As an earlier poster suggested, call in advance and make sure you can bring your own CD. Many, if not most, of the places try to demo with Tidal. Anything I tried was not actually there.
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