Bookshelf Bake Off


Fellow Audiogoners,

Lend me your ears.  I live on a farm in South Georgia and have a 3+ hour drive in any direction to audition anything.  The price I pay for land, peace and horses I suppose.  I am putting together a secondary system and can't audition everything I have interest in, so I am hoping you can help me shorten the short list to a manageable set of maybe three (two would be even better) auditions for bookshelf speakers. They will be driven by 2 x PS Audio M700 Monoblocks, Schiit Freya+ tube preamp and a Mytek Brooklyn DAC+.  The space is fairly small at approx. 10'x20'.  For a number of reasons, floorstanders are not a possibility, hence the call for bookshelf speakers.  I would like to keep the budget in the $2K range, +/- a reasonable %.  I am not someone that feels the need to max the budget, i.e. linear correlation of price and quality, so feel free to suggest high value brands/models less than the max budget.  I have a pair of Focal Aria 906 in another system and very much like their sound, but want something a bit warmer with similar (or better) resolution.  Deeper low frequency extension would be a plus.  The brands I have narrowed the field to are:

Revel
Legacy
KEF
Monitor Audio
Sonus Fabre
PSB

This list is not written in stone, just my initial list after research.  Feel free to suggest anything I have omitted that warrants consideration.  Thanks in advance for your ears.

Mark


128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xmarkcdaniel
I should have also included my listening tastes.  Here is an approximate distribution of listening time by genre.

Heavy Rock (Korn, Tool, etc) - 40%
Vocal Jazz (Norah Jones, Diana Krall, etc) - 40%
Hip-Hop - 10%
Folk / Country / Blues - 10%

@twoleftears I have never heard of Fritz or Silverline, I'll look into them, thanks.

@yogiboy The reviewer pretty clearly states that the Harbeth are not for my musical tastes, would you agree?

@kren0006 I was actually going to put Dynaudio on the list, I just don't know much about them.  Would you recommend them over everything else on the list?

@glennewdick Ironic, I had actually just opened an article on ProAc when your message came through.  I don't know much about them, but reading up now. 

Thanks guys for your input. 

Anyone else have an opinion in Audiogon land?
I don’t listen to Heavy Rock or Hip-Hop so I can’t give you my opinion on that. All the other type of the music you listen to is what I like and the Harbeths are outstanding! I doubt that any small bookshelf speaker will satisfy you if you like Heavy Rock!
https://www.hifizine.com/2011/12/harbeth-p3esr/
Have alook at the ELAC AS-61 Adante. The Kef LS50W are also a very popular choice.