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Please recommend speakers

I’m just starting my audiophile journey and want to make sure I pair the right equipment before going too far down the rabbit hole. I am coming into this as a complete newbie. I listen pretty much to everything but mostly pop, classical and jazz in a fairly large-ish lower level living room (maybe 20 x 20 feet square) and speakers sitting on bookshelves. I know they should be on stands or floor-mounted, but that doesn’t really work for me right now space-wise. So far I have Jamo 803 bookshelf speakers with newly purchased SMSL DA-9 amp and matching SMSL SU-9 DAC (previously was using an old NAD D 3020 V1 integrated amp with direct connection from iPad to internal DAC). Now I stream directly from an old iPhone/iPad via a USB camera adapter to the DAC which has balanced connections to the DA-9 amp. I pretty much stream music exclusively (currently on free trials with Tidal and Amazon HD). No other sources. No library to speak of. No headphones. The Jamos sound great to me, but I feel like I need something better to pair with the mid-fi DAC and AMP. So I’m looking for upgrade the Jamo 803s which were purchased on sale for $130. Looking to spend up to maybe $800 for a pair. Recommendations? Thanks in advance!

 

Edit:  Here's what I'm considering so far.  KEF350, Polk R200s, Audio Monitor Bronze.  Thoughts on pros and cons?  Anything else?

expresstrain
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,880 posts
 

Kef will sell more LS50 in a year than Tekton has sold since inception. KEF are real engineers w ears who also know how to measure a speaker for sensitivity vs the hype of others.  I know a guy, he is sort of famous….has a stack of platinum records, he has a nice coaxial two way bookshelf on his mixing board ( no stands ). Of course, he is lore and legend, and they aren’t… Tekton. Go out and listen….you have lots of choice. Good for you reading the $130 k thread, once ya get by the sour grapes and jealousy there are some clues there… great bespoke drivers, inert cabinet, super high quality crossovers, believable specs, long lasting firms w parts, warranty and support, dealers where you can hear them…etc. The speaker I mentioned comes from just such a company….You can find a used pair every now and then..for a grand.

Enjoy the music and the journey ;-)

Jim

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artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5
1,924 posts
 

@expresstrain

Perhaps I should also consider the Klipsch 600M (sensitivity of 96db)

Yes, Klipsch is another high efficiency speaker mfg. While looking up the ones you mentioned, I ran across these. Supposedly the are a discontinued model but are the same as the 625FA which sell for $599 apiece. They are towers if you have the room they should have a better freq range They are 8ohm & 97db sensitivity.

 

Klipsch R 26FA

tsushima1
1,165 posts
 

“Tekton Moab and other Tekton almost never come up for sale”

I am genuinely beginning to Feel the mearest spark of Pity for You 😶

 

Errrrr on reflection Not 

prighello
53 posts
 

Among other speakers, I’ve owned both the KEf LS50s and the Tekton M Lore (towers). I even had them in the same system for a bit and liked them both for different reasons. IMHO, your room is too big for the LS50s if you want to push any volume or play complex music and sit anywhere other than near field.

I strongly advise you to get towers for that room size. M Lores won’t be the the last word in detail or refinement but they are fun to listen to and fit your budget. If you go used there are many other speakers would fit the bill too...Vandersteen 2c comes to mind.

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