Looking for a good full range floor stander


Hello all.  Making a good two way system for a 20 x 40x 12 high room budget 12k to 16 k.  Powered by a bryston 14b cubed amp.  Have a surround system with Golden ear ref and surrounds powered by parasound a21 for mains  and Carver cinema grand for surrounds. Like the GEs  The speakers I'm looking for will be for music only lots of jazz (female vocalist a fav), classical, classic rock and roll (70's and up).  I have heard good things about proac k6, Joseph audio, and a few others but am not within 4 hours of audition range.  Real interested in people in the know about the proac or suggestions.  Thanks in advance.
paliden
Post removed 
Ron the Proac is most likely an excellent speaker but will be woefully inadequate for this size room. 

In fact we think they make excellent loudspeakers, sound wise they are very good and they have wonderful cabinetry however for such a large room these are really not the right loudspeakers because:

Point one: the power handling is only 250 watts, the OP's amp is 600 watts 

Point two: although the bass spec is 20hz no db down point means that realistic bass response is 24-28hz which is not really enough low bass for this size room,.

Point three: the speakers are 90db efficient which means greater heat on the voice coil compared to a much greater efficiency loudspeaker.

All of the above points mean that the speakers won't work well in that huge volume of air.

Ron if the room was smaller they would be an excellent choice.

Again what we have found for a big room this is what you need:

1: High efficiency 95 db 1w 1M or greater
2: High power handling 500-1000 watts
3: High SPL output
4: Rugged Drivers especially large bass drivers to handle the excursion required, this means larger 12-15 inch woofers with big voice coils

Tekton will do it Legacy will do it. Possibly the Salk Exotica 3 with self amplifiers woofers might do it.

Food for thought

One last point the OP likes the sound of the Golden Ears the Legacy sound is like a better version of the Golden Ears. Both speakers use Heil tweeters both have prodigious low end, both speakers are efficient with the Legacy's handling more power. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ  



@paliden

I thought the D48R's with maybe a couple of JL Audio subs would be great for your large room. The D48R's would be excellent for the music you listen to and if you could cross them over @ 60-80Hz, it would fill your room with quality sound and still be within your budget. I mentioned them because I saw a used pair and thought you could try them (in your room) and if you didn't like them you could return them. I'm sure the K6's would be better, but a new pair would be out of your price range.

I'm not a dealer, just a satisfied Proac user giving my unbiased 2 cents.

Again good luck and keep us updated on your search.



I really appreciate dealers that know when to ease off a little when things get heated.  
Ron we are not going to sell this gentleman anything but see our points as listed before we agree with you that they are good speakers, however, the sound of a ribbon tweeter with a Bryston amp in a live room might be a bit bright.

Subwoofer issues:

1: Not everyone wants two large subwoofer in the room
2: They can be tricky to integrate sonically 
3: They may not look integrated visually with the main speakers
4: They may be difficult to wire with the main gear

Other issues:

1: 600 watt amplifier which may damage a 250 watt maximum power handling loudspeaker

2: 90 db efficient loudspeakers are not that efficient for such a large room even though he has lots of power, the voice coils may heat up excessively when trying to dissipate heat if the gentleman wants to turn it up or plays for a long time at a spirited volume, 

Therefore, the greater the efficiency the less input power hence lower heat dissipation required for the same volume. 

Happy searching

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ