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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
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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atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,841 posts
 
Don't worry about if the speaker is good for classical. What makes a speaker good will be equal for jazz, classical, rock or what have you. No-one's figured out a way to make electronics (including speakers) better for a particular genre. This is a very old and prevalent myth.
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