The Sonus Faber Lumina for around $2k are a great buy and look
excellent for the money.
excellent for the money.
Full range speaker for rogue 90 or 100 wpc amp.
Interestingly when Herb Reichert reviewed the Rogue Stereo 100 he paired the amp with Harberth M30.2, KEF LS50, and Maggie .7 and liked them all...perhaps the Harbeth's best. He never once tried a higher impedance/high sensitivity speaker. Perhaps the peppy 100 watts obviated the need for a "traditional" tube-friendly speaker although he noted that the amp didn't seem any more powerful than his Pass XA25....in fact the Rogue seemed less alive, open, and dynamic. It would have been interesting if he had tried an 8 ohm/90+dB speaker to compare to the rest. https://www.stereophile.com/content/rogue-audio-stereo-100-power-amplifier |
i own a Rogue Stereo 100 power amplifier, with a KEF C658 streamer/DAC/pre-amp as a source. This is a second system in a small room 12' wide by 10' deep. I listened to small Maggies, but the small models need a subwoofer. I ended up buying a pair of Totem Acoustic Sky Towers. They are very small, two-way floor-standers that reach down to 36Hz. I listen in triode mode and have no problem driving these speakers, for which the manufacturer lists the efficiency as 88 dB. (I put more of my money in the speakers and amp, as I felt the technology in the world of streaming and DACs is moving quickly and suspected I will end up replacing the NAD unit in the next several years.) I listen almost exclusively to jazz and classical. The Totem speakers are excellent in my view for both, and the Sky Towers present good, reasonably tight bass for my small room, with excellent imaging. But because they use a 5.75" woofer, are not in the league of larger floor standing speakers which are likely outside your budget. A larger Totem floor stander may work better in your room, as it is more than 50% larger than mine. Your budget is workable if (1) you can find a pair of used or demo Totem Sky Towers or the larger Forest Towers, or (2) you purchase the Totem Sky stand-mount speakers and add a sub later. (The larger cabinet of the Sky Tower allows it to generate lower bass than the stand-mounters. Both Sky speakers are ported, but can be placed reasonably close to a rear wall if that is a consideration, which it was in my small room.) The Totem speakers are more revealing than Harbeths and most of the other brands recommended by others, so if you don't like that kind of sound, you should consider some of the other suggestions. Finding larger Harbeths or Spendors within your budget will be a challenge. Good luck. |
thanks for the additional insight. I would really like to find a floorstander that is not too hard to drive that goes down around 28-30. Maybe I'm all wrong but 35 is not a lot of bass or deep bass. I am not a fan of speakers that have 5 or 6 little drivers. I guess I'm a traditionalist when I say I like a woofer, mid, tweet. |