Road trip to demo $10,000 speakers

ieales,

Reading your two posts above is humbling and relieving at the same time. I would dare to say that most of us have not even close to as much understanding of technical details as you do. I, personally, can be described just as skyscraper described himself. Enough knowledge to be dangerous. That was the humbling part, accepting reality that I am clueless.

Relieving part was that, despite the black hole of ignorance, I function on the simple level. "I hear it, I like it, here is my credit card." If I knew all you do, it would drive me crazy. To understand that I am buying something so imperfect would be a torture. Like this, I walk out satisfied. Ignorance is bliss, as they say, and, apparently, there are many blessed ones here.

"However, I’m not buying furniture."

You surely are a hard-core enthusiast. Many speakers are bigger than some of the furniture in the room they are placed in so they are hard to ignore. Once you do not care about that, you have really arrived. Consider yourself lucky.

Some other threads mentioned Boenicke. I looked it up and remebered that I heard the small W5 at a show and they impressed me. You might want to listen to their W11 or W8 floorstanders.

@skyscraper , since you listen mostly to jazz I would also suggest that you listen to Focal Kanta 2. I heard them with an acoustic piece and it was very suitable for them.

If you are spending 10k. listen to the Mac  XR100’s. I’m very pleased with mine 
Martin Logan’s were a close 2nd.   Listen to music you know and choose what sounds best...  & try to have similar source. as your amp / preamp  etc. 
Good Luck 

Ieales, thank you so much for sharing your expertise, and the links and recommendations provided. They will help provide direction.

I have considered sending my DQ-10s to Regnar to be rebuilt and have spoken to them twice, including inquiring about the DQ-89W’s. I finally decided that constantly doing repairs and upgrades on forty plus year old equipment is fighting a losing battle. Parts availability and no experience doing electronics repair myself are limiting factors. If I have to take apart and fix my aesthetically pleasing old Bang and Olufsen Beogram 4002 turntable one more time, I think I’ll scream. It’s time to bite the bullet and start anew. Time marches on whether we like it or not.

I’ll research all your links and will heed your advice and warnings.

Mountainsong, thank you for your recommendation on the Gamut. I never heard of that one either.

Jetson, Good advice on taking notes. I’m planning on doing exactly that.

Headphonedreams, I’ve added the Boenicke’s to the list. There are apparently an endless supply of $10,000 loudspeakers out there I’ve never heard of. Thanks for the suggestion.

Mac1523 your suggestions on the Mac XR100’s and Martin Logans are now on the list too.

Appreciate everyone’s guidance. With all the hurricane induced rain today might be a good day to organize all your suggestions and recommendation on speakers and listening locations. I’ve learned a lot already from all your help.

Would somewhat please clue me in on what the audio term "squids" denotes. I tried googling it but only found overly technical, or aquatic explanations. Thanks,

Michael.