New Speakers for $2000

As a fellow student, I encourage you to buy used. I love supporting the dealers and the companies, but we have plenty of time to do that after we graduate...I listen to jazz, classical, classic rock, and metal. It is next to impossible to find a speaker around 2k that will reproduce all those genres correctly. With that said, if you do listen to mostly metal I highly recommend a speaker that satisfies your first 5 requests then pair it with either a vandersteen sub or rel sub(strata III). Some say that adding a sub may interfere with the coherancy of the speakers...and for jazz and classical I tend to agree...but for rock and metal, a sub will take your system to another level.

My final advice, buy used on audiogon. Only buy if the speakers have their original box, manual, spikes, etc. Dont buy until listening to those speakers locally. Finally trust your ears and only take peoples recommondations with a grain of salt (including mine). We all of our own preferances and point of view. Afterall its what makes this hobby so fun!

Speakers I recommend for you:

Used Magnepan 1.6 (900-1000 used) pair with rel stata III (750 used). (Total: 1750) Nad or Rotel equptment will be a good match.

Your first couple of wants kinda spells out maggies! They also have stellar highs. Again with the rel...bass wont be a problem even with some the most brutal double bass action! Do make sure you have some room tho...maggies need room...and power.

Merlin TSM monitors (1100-1600 used depending on model) Also pair with the rel. (Total: 1850-2350)

I have owned merlins before and find them to have a very forward sound. Not in a negative way tho. Very bitey, clean, fast as hell, and uber transparent midrange. This pairing would also sound nice with tons of other music. The merlin is such a neutral speaker...whats on the recording is what you hear. My experience told me this: merlins have that hifi feeling with also that live type of sound mixed in. The soundstage is very realistic and just lets the music take over. Lets not even start to talk about the resolution...its better than any other speaker you would be willing to fork the cash for....

Good luck man, its awesome to see another student up here!

Fritz Rev 5

Not to be sarcastic, but it seems like the OP's wish list encompasses all of the great attributes of a perfect speaker system. Ok so he said he did not need bass slam. I would think that there are many 20,000 speakers that could not meet all of these preferences. I am surprised someone has not said that this is a tall order to fill for two grand. Or maybe , I am off base and there are many or a few that can meet all of these.
Todd

01-21-12: Toddnkaya
Not to be sarcastic, but it seems like the OP's wish list encompasses all of the great attributes of a perfect speaker system. Ok so he said he did not need bass slam. I would think that there are many 20,000 speakers that could not meet all of these preferences. I am surprised someone has not said that this is a tall order to fill for two grand. Or maybe , I am off base and there are many or a few that can meet all of these.

Good point, but not quite true: Besides not asking for deep powerful bass, he didn't mention anything about wide dynamic range or the ability to play at live concert levels. There are many stand-mounted speakers that meet all his criteria--$2K will buy many different mini-monitors, any of which will provide that imaging and soundstaging, plus airy highs and a transparent midrange. It's when you try to maintain those characteristics and add in dynamic range and bass extension that it gets expensive. The Nola Boxer sounds like an excellent match at $1500 (or Paradigm Studio Ref), and if he adds this excellent sub from SVS he'd still meet budget and be able to do the metal thing fine as well.

Honestly, my current speaker system does many of these things to a satisfying level. It lacks a little bit of resolution but as far as sound signature goes, mids and bass are both perfect. Highs a little rolled-off but I can deal with that. Sound stage width could be wider. I'm just looking for basically the same sound signature with a resolution and imaging upgrade. These speakers were $1600 in the early 90s. I don't know how the whole market goes but I'd like to think the industry could do that with $2000 in 2012.

Another thing is, I've been reading about stereo amp power. The speakers I have, have 200W power requirement and are 4 ohms yet my amp only has maybe 110W at 4 ohms continously. I've read that this can cause distortion. Maybe, I should just invest in an amp upgrade since almost everyting I read recommends twice the power required by the speakers on the amp.