$5k Pair Full Range Speaker Shootout - Help me pick


Hi Guys,

Around the holidays I will be purchasing a pair of (roughly) $5k/pair full range stereo speakers for use in a 2-channel only system. My current JBL Synthesis HDI-1600’s will be accompanied by the matching HDI-4500 Center Speaker and likely an Arcam AVR30 and used exclusively for Home Theater use.


Here’s what I’m currently considering for the 2-Ch speakers. If you all could relay any experiences or impressions you’ve had with these specific speakers, or speakers in their range, it would surely help me make the right choice. I know a lot of people say "I listen to all genre’s", but I truly do have an enormous digital music collection that spans all genre’s. Everything from current EDM and Pop to High Res Classical, Audiophile tester type selections, every one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 albums of all time in FLAC (classic rock and funk heavy), etc. I like to put all of this content on shuffle and just listen to whatever happens.

2-ch system will continue to be powered as follows:

Digital - Foobar2000 --> SMSL SU-8 v2 --> Classe CAP-151

Analog - Technics SL1300mkII --> Ortofon 2M Red --> NAD PP-3 --> Classe CAP151


The speaker choices:

JBL L100 Classic

https://ibb.co/yhjJHn1

Revel Performa F208

https://ibb.co/TK4PNBD

B&W 702 S2

https://ibb.co/D4qPFcH
128x128dougeyjones
Go gently used, and you can widen your horizons considerably and get a lot better than those three.
I think you need to broaden your search. 
Considering your minor hearing impairment(mentioned on another thread), I would look at a phase/time aligned speaker like Vandersteen, or an electrostatic like Magnepan or Sound Labs.
Not that they would alleviate your hearing issue, but they seem to not aggravate it.
At least in my opinion.

Bob
 
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Your amp doesn't have a ton of power. How big a room do you have? How loud do you like to listen? 

If you like to listen loud (at least occasionally), have a larger room, or heavily damped room, you may want to focus on fairly efficient speakers. None of these speakers is > 90db/w sensitivity, so 60w/channel isn't going to give you much reserve in a mid-size or larger room unless you never listen at higher volumes.