Well, IMHO you’re doing your excellent amp a disservice with $3000 speakers. It deserves better. My advice — save up your sheckles until you can afford a pair of speakers that does it justice. Leading contenders would be Vandy Treos or Quatttos, ProAc D38 or D48, Joseph Audio Perspectives, Usher BE10, etc., any of which will be a big upgrade depending on your tastes. I will say though that if you’re accustomed to time/phase-aligned speakers you might wanna stick with Vandy. My other suggestion would be a used pair of Verity Audio Parsifals — outstanding speakers that, like Usher, fly way under the radar. Harbeth, IME, don’t image and soundstage near on the level of any of these others so you might be disappointed with that aspect especially coming from Vandys that excel in those aspects. Best of luck.
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while respecting op’s stated budget, i very much agree with @soix on what he said the ref75se is roughly a 10 grand retail price unit, and still 6-7 grand used (and worth every penny of it), it deserves speakers of commensurate value... |
Wouldn't recommend OG Cremonas, I had the Auditors. Very midrange centric and can sound quite thick. Definitely not neutral, not very good bass control. For vocals and chamber music--beautiful. Based on your criteria, which are very similar to mine, I suggest looking at Totem Tribe Towers. I never had any interest in Totem, but was looking for a subwoofer for the monitors in my bedroom system, where placement flexibility is zero. I thought maybe there's a small floorstander that would work, which led me to the TTTs. They are so skinny and light they look like a joke, but my god do they play so much bigger and deeper than you'd ever think. After 4 months of living with them I still shake my head in disbelief, but at the same I forget that I'm listening to a small speaker. No desire for a subwoofer, but you can certainly augment with one or two. Quite neutral and extended, but no top end harshness whatsoever. Great soundstage depth, which is not easy, very detailed midrange. I actually find their tonal balance pretty similar to my Joseph Audio Perspectives, but without some of the top end air and overall refinement. I got mine for $3k used. A big plus is that they are easy to ship. |
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