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Excellent Speakers for Classical Music - $2,000 USD Budget

Hello All...I am primarily a classical music listener, leaning more towards solo piano, symphony/orchestral, and chamber music. I have a Rotel A14 integrated amp in which I plan to add mono amplifiers to at some point in the future. I let a pair of B&W 804 Nautilus Speakers slip through my fingers recently. There is a B&W 804 Matrix set for sale near me, but don’t know if the Nautilus are better than the Matrix. So, I let a good pair slip through my fingers. But, it got me to thinking...Are there any other brands that I should consider besides B&W? I had in mind to audition Magenpan and Martin Logan electrostatics. Seeing that I only want to spend around $2,000, does anyone have any ideas?

In my office, I use Adam A7x nearfield monitors with ribbon tweeters, and for headphones, I love my Sennheiser 800S’. I like a nice detailed, clear, and forward sound. Would another ribbon tweeter floor standing set do it for me? Electrostats the way to go?

Looking forward to your suggestions.
128x128dfwbach
calvinandhobbes
307 posts
 
Monitor Audio Silver 300s have a fast, but refined sound which I find works well for acoustic music such as classical and jazz. By "fast", I mean a speaker that sounds agile and responsive. I mention "fast", because that is what I do like about electrostatics and you had mentioned an interest in electrostatics. However, unlike electrostatics, the Silver 300 is easy to drive and you (and your wife) don't wind up with giant panels in your living room that look like room dividers.

When auditioning speakers, I also listened to the B&W 704 S2. They were similar in sound personality, but the Silver 300s had a sweeter top end. If you are looking into used speakers as well, the Monitor Audio Gold 200 has an even more resolving top end. Basically, everything the Silver 300 does well, but even better.
dfwbach's avatar
dfwbach OP
7 posts
 
Yes I heard about those. Just need to find a place to audition them. Would you say they are warm at all? I had heard that they were, so I had sort of discounted them.  
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 
Wharfedale Lintons + stands. $1800.  A number of places have them so you should be able to get a 30 day home trial.
hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,974 posts
 
I’ve been very happy with my Salk stand mounts for classical. In your budget, you might consider these towers:
https://www.salksound.com/model.php?model=SongTower
Email or call Jim about classical music and see what he recommends. With the above model, I like the tweeter in the middle arrangement (MTM). They’re also quite gorgeous to look at. And you can return them if they don’t work out if the chosen veneer is standard and not specialized.

For a bit more, a similar design with a RAAL ribbon tweeter might be especially suited to classical: https://www.salksound.com/model.php?model=SongTower%20RT

I auditioned Focal, Klipsch, Fritz, Martin Logan, Dynaudio and Salk was my favorite.
calvinandhobbes
307 posts
 
@dfwbach The Monitor Audio Silver 300s are just warm enough to avoid sounding harsh. To my ears, they are pretty neutral and quite revealing of upstream source components.
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