Boutique or Big Brand?


Good evening everyone! I am looking at new speakers in the $5k, maybe $6k range. My electronics and room dimensions are on "my system" posted on my profile so I won't repeat them here. I currently have Tekton Impact Monitors, but feel they do not have a good low end (I posted my review on another post so won't bore everyone here). That said, they were the best I could afford at the time and above 40Hz sound good to me.

Now I am ready to upgrade and am faced with a decision... Do I go boutique with a bigger pair of Tektons, or maybe the Salk Song3 A or BeAts; or something from Zu or Devore? Or do I go with a Big Brand like the Sonus faber Sonetto V, B&W 702, or Focal Arias?

I have heard the Tekton, Sonetto V, and B&W 8-series (not the 7 in my price range). I want a slim tower because I feel a lot of them have the same footprint as a pair of standmounters and have better bass extension.

So, what are the benefits of boutique over big brand and vice-versa? It seems in my price range boutique may be the way to go? Thoughts? Any other recommendations?

Because of the pandemic I had to move to a place that doesn't have the audio stores that N.Y.C. and Columbus, Oh. did when I lived there, so I am asking your opinions. Please keep it positive and constructive, thank you.

l1975r

1. you have a small room - do not try to push a big sound into it (large speakers - suffocate)
2. your electronics are hi-fi, not high-end... what kind of music do you want to listen to? ...
I would start by replacing the preamp - this amount is enough to buy a CAT SL-1 ... musicality will immediately appear ...
3 . the secondary market is very cruel and rarely sell good stuff. But if you can find Sonus Faber Extrema (do not look at modern models - this is money out the window).

You can buy new ProAc D-2 - good acoustics for reasonable money ... at a low volume it will give deep bass.