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
My apologies fsonicsmith, don’t know what I was thinking. Everybody misspells my last name, O’Neill too, so I’m usually conscientious about that type of thing. I won’t fail you again.

Tomic601, you’re lucky to have seen the Pretenders live. The closest I’ve ever come is listening to a drunken Clyde McPhatter and the Platters sing "Yes, I’m the Great Pretender" on stage at my college at a golden oldies show. I always figured the Pretenders named themselves after that song.

Thanks prof. I was actually quite influenced by your extensive post and reviews of so many speakers in that price range. Your post helped narrow down my search considerably. I read you review of the Magico A3 , Vandersteen and the Devore speakers twice.

I couldn’t get past how well the 50’s jazz selections sounded on the Magico’s. Just the right sonic qualities for my listening taste I suppose. I hope they sound half as good at home, especially until I can upgrade my old, but still functioning Phase Linear 400 amp and 4000 preamp.

Another thing I liked, having nothing to do with sonic qualities, is the Magico A3’s appearance. They seem to be designed to blend in with a decor, not be a jewel in their own right as some are. I’ve antique furniture pieces in the same room and I don’t desire twenty-first century modern design speakers competing with them, or drawing attention to themselves. Instead, blending in as much as possible is the goal. That being said, the A3’s do look good in their own right with a stylish subdued industrial look that should fit in with my other electronics, and provide a pleasing contrast to the mahogany wood in the antiques. We’ll see. My old Dahlquist DQ10’s were admittedly always an eyesore in this room and referred to as "big black holes" on many occasions I did not thoroughly enjoy.

I wish the old Thiels were still being manufactured. Your’s sound wonderful as described. I talked about them with the Vandersteen dealer.

Mike

Outstanding! MikeI enjoyed reading about your Speaker trek.  You did not miss out on the Aerial 7t model, a few years ago I was sorely disappointed.  Turned out to be a great move, as I discovered Thiel Audio. Revel was a disappointment as well. Much Thanks for listing the dealers/retailers visited. There is nothing wrong about citing a poor experience w/ any Audio shop visited.
Enjoy the Magico A3.   Happy Listening!

skyscraper,

Congrats on the Magico A3 purchase. 
In the next couple of weeks I will be visiting a local dealer to hear them. Based on your experience, it sounds like I need to leave my CC and check book at home!

ozzy
skyscraper
Good move not buying any speaker junk sourced to china for production.
As above, any dealer/retailer that turns down a (potential) $10K sale is doing well, financially. Your travels revealed the M.O. in which some Audio shops operate.  Nice report.   Happy Listening!
Ozzy, you’re right there. The Magico A3’s can really put a spell on you. Good luck and have fun.

Jafant, thanks for taking an interest. And thanks for describing your listening experience with the Aerial 7T and the Revel. I usually like to be thorough researching and checking into any product I’m buying, especially at these prices. I really should have been more OCD and auditioned more speakers after the amount of reading I did on each of them. Your statements about those two models makes me feel a bit better about not having done so. Those Magico’s did grab me though.

Do you still have Thiels? Shame they went out of business. Would have liked to have heard them.

Well, it’s on to researching integrated amps next.

Mike