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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
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 
If you found the Harbeth is a warm sounding speaker, a Spendor would sure not be the speaker for you! I have owned many of both brands and the Spendor is a warmer sounding speaker than the Harbeth!

yogi is not wrong on this statement, but spendor’s product line is bifurcated... the standmount 'classic' series is warmer (old school bbc lossy cabinet design)... floorstanding 'd' series (d7 d9) is a much modern hifi sound (rigid cabinets etc etc) ... i would say that newer harbeths pretty much fall in the middle of the two spendor lines
dfwbach's avatar
dfwbach OP
7 posts
 
Hello All - Well, I pulled the trigger and bought a new to me pair of B&W 803 S.  I blew my budget a little bit, but I couldn't be happier.  I did a cursory listen to them tonight, and I am hearing such lovely details and layering in my music that I have never heard before.  I also think the Rotel and the B&W are a match made in heaven.  I'll probably have to add a power amp down the line, but I'm in audio heaven.  Thanks for all of your help and advice!
ghdprentice
7,030 posts
 
Congratulations, worth the money. You will have them for a very long time. They are a good match for rotel and sound even better if you decide to add a more powerful amp… or for that matter upgrades to any of your components.  I’ve owned 7 B&W 800 series for over twenty five years. They still sound great after many upgrades in electronics. Don’t for get they will sound even better after 100 hours or more of play as they break in.
edcyn
1,876 posts
 
Enjoy yourself!
mozartfan
2,143 posts
 
atmasphere9,559 posts06-10-2021 5:28pmDon'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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Again I argued against your thesis on another topic. 
= all speakers are good in all genres.
Not ture, What we are looking for in full orchestra is something that picks up all nuances within the symphony, fq's which get all mushed up in so many xover box designs. 
Mids, Mids, Mids, are everything in CM. This is why i recommend wide band as the best ideal speaker for classical music. 
AER and Voxativ. 
Both will present the demands of classical symphony orchestra. 
My Seas tweeter just could not do  it, It tried all  it could, just came up short = a  dismal failure for CM. 
If you read the ceescript on Seas' page, you'd think it would succeed at CM fulll orchestra, Does not. 
Any tweeter below 91db is not going to voice full orchestra as it should be presented
The solution to this problem is wide band/full range.
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