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Large speaker recommendation

I've lived with the Sonus faber Elipsa speakers for 10+ years. Now thinking about upgrading to something with a bigger sound. Elipsa sounds great with classical music but not so great with pop/percussion type of music in my system/room. I do listen to classical music most of the time though, but hope to get a pair of speakers that are good in both worlds. Have also owned Tekton DI and Audio Solutions Figaro XL (really big, too big) but looking for something better, under $30k used or new, aesthetically pleasing. My system consists of: Mark Levinson No. 33H monos, Mark Levinson No. 523 preamp, Aesthetix Io signature phonostage, Basis Ovasion turntable, Vyger Atlantis turntable, digital components include Okto Dac8 Stereo, Oppo UDP-205, AMR DP-777 dac, Schiit Yggdrasil, and Bryston BDA 3.14. Room dimensions: 20x15x9 ft. Thanks! Ron

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rmdmoore
163 posts
 

I'm a big fan of a lot of the speakers on the market right now with a powered sub integrated into the speaker. I have Vandersteen Quatros and what really like about them, aside from the house sound, is that they have an active crossover that takes the bass out of the midbass driver and then put it back into the built in sub. Additionally, you can tune the sub portion to the room using a SPL meter and 11 little volume knobs. It's really a fairly robust bass management system. All their lines from Quatro up have it. They're worth a listen. 

ottoferrari
3 posts
 

Definitely focal sopra 3

blackbag20
468 posts
 

Some great suggestions here ... let me throw in a couple that I've been gawking at over year or so:

Salk and Volti  (love American ingenuity)

 

mgattmch
572 posts
 

Magico A5s at $28k; they look wonderful and sound amazing, even in a very large room at very high SPL. I attended AXPONA this year and came back very happy with my A5s, Sure I heard better sounding loudspeakers (Avantgarde, MBL, Estelle etc.), but these were all +$150k speakers.

elliottbnewcombjr
5,474 posts
 

I would look for (what I have, imagine that):

3 way, 15" woofers. Solid directional bass.

no ports, or if so, front mounted only, option to close them.

efficient enough to allow you to try tubes some day.

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Your space seems unproblematic, but you never know for sure.

How do you adjust them to your listening space?

Many of the big speakers in the old days had level controls. Even the smaller AR-2ax’s I just restored have level controls.

My 4 L-Pads are wonderfully difficult. However, I get the best response possible. After doing it ’by ear’ for 48 years, I finally bought an inexpensive sound pressure level meter and have a test cd with selectable individual frequencies. So easy, so good!

Even without level controls, the meter on a tripod at listening position, and test tones help you refine locations, and toe-in, perhaps alternate toe-in, one for you in the center, another for two listeners, each off-center.

IMO: Now that they are so inexpensive, speaker makers should add L-Pads again, and include a meter and test cd in the box!!!

 

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