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

expresstrain, you might look at the front ported offerings from Elac:

I am considering the B6.2 or DBR62 for my workshop and/or living room/TV systems.  Both applications need the speakers pretty close to the wall.  Front ported should be better in an actual bookcase as mentioned before.

 

Tomic601

Hi Tomic601, 

I hope that you will receive notification with regards to this reply. I don't want to have the last word by you not being alerted. I don't have access to that circuit anymore, but for the heck of it I replaced the tweeters with Hiquphons, and, although they tapered off too soon, they sounded far better, with no honking which you were speaking of. I can't say about anything beyond the 2CE or was there a 2CEI? I thought it was a 2CEI, but I couldn't recall if they made such a speaker. So, for the sake of avoiding an argument, if the original tweeters honked, then he must have been compensating for a tweeter issue. Either way, the caps were not replaced, they were bypassed so the capacitance was increased by .01uf, that would have made no difference as electrolytic capacitors are usually +/- 10% of rated value. Adding .01uf at 600V would hardly effect that. In series capacitance decreases, in series they increase due to the increased size of the plates that the signal has to deal with. As for his later speakers, I'd have to hear that as it would be an about face for him, unless his boys have taken over. I hope they have shifted gears, they, and Thiel, as far as I know, were the only American manufactures of any size who made phase and time aligned speakers, and I believe that no one bought Thiel and brought them back into production. I was just surprised when that happened, by-passing caps generally clears up the sound because most electrolytic capacitors suck. Black Gates sucked a bit less, but usually by-passing could improve even them. Which reminds me, I haven't visited Audio Note to see if they and Rubycon ever got their version of Black Gates into production since the patent has lapsed on the graphite technology that made the BG caps conduct low level detail so much better than other electrolytic caps.. Anyway, although I am skeptical, I appreciate your input and may try to locate a dealer, though I have gone full range because I have never met a passive crossover that sounds better than no crossover. Frankly I didn't believe the claims until I heard it for myself.

For $800, but not $1k? Okay let’s face it, there’s not a speaker in the world at your price point even near the Magnepan LRS. Those speakers are light years ahead of anything else at that price point. End of story. 

I would have also given a +1 for the Maggie LRS, but it appears size matters.

If I could take the bass from my Wharefdale Diamond 10.1s (currently back-benched) and put it into my ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2 speakers that are in my office, I’d be able to suggest a top-notch, value bookshelf speaker with amazing sound.  Both on their own are outstanding in their own rights, but one has better bass, the other better detail and higher-end extension.  

I haven’t seen anyone recommend the Wharfedale Denton. You might try and find a pair of those on sale.

Everything I’ve read about the Dentons and the Diamond 225 is that they require space from the wall to perform as reviewed. 
 

FWIW, I had a pair of Diamond 220s in my kitchen, up against a wall, and they sounded fine but kinda dull and grainy. 
 

Rega RS1s are another good choice against a wall. And Kef Q100s (older front ported design)