Looking for "realistic" speakers

Douglas - you're right. I CAN reallocate anyway I want up to the $15K+ limit. And actually going to some local audio stores was an eye opener as I really didn't like ANY speaker under $5K.

The only speakers less than $10K that I liked were oddly enough Totem Forest Signatures for $6.5K. And those only had 20 hours of burn in so they'll have a different character once they're burned in anyway.

Here's the thing - even though my Cary 5 channel 200 watt amp had two fried amps, there are still three that work fine that could be used for two channel audio. So either I find a preamp that mates well with the 5 channel amp or start over with an integrated.

In that case I'd use more budget on a Media Server, DAC or maybe just a preamp DAC combo. I listen to Spotify on the main rig more than I'd care to admit.

All this choice is a nice problem to have - but educating myself on what's best in class on an entire system plus what plays nice together is more than I have time for these days.

I kept things really simple with my last setup - All Cary Audio electronics and all Purist Audio interconnects, speaker wire, etc.

The definition of dumb but since they all played nice together it saved LOTS of research, fiddling, and trial and error.

Where are you located?

I'm in Maryland

Actually, what you need is a whole house gizmo that prevents surges to take out your valuable electronic stuff. I had a Vandersteen amp fried because of a surge and put in a surge protector. It protects the house and makes the system sound better too. If you are interested I'll go out and check the brand.

"Best realistic speakers under $5K anyone? I currently have everything in a fairly small room, that may or may not change in the near future. I want something that can scale - but giant Maggies (or anything else giant) won't work."

I'd agree with others about allocating more than $5,000 of your check for speakers. Can you expand on what you mean by "scale"? I do think I understand what you are talking about not being impressed with speakers under $10K, especially if your are talking about traditional speaker lines that sell via dealers.

On Saturday, I was able to audition some speakers in Houston at a dealer as well as at an "Audio Fest" at a local hotel. At the hotel, Legacy Audio was demonstrating their whole line, including flagship models as well as the more reasonably priced Focus HD. They also had the new Signature HD, but I did not get to hear it. I also heard the Dynaudio Focus 340 and Sonus Faber Venere 3.0 at the dealer.

Now, the 340 are very high quality and accurate speakers, but they are achieving that with extremely high quality, but small woofer drivers. This is where I think one can have problems creating "scale", if I understand what you mean by that word. In contrast, the Legacy models take a different approach, using larger woofers and much larger cabinets at similar price points.

I don't mean this to be a cut on Revel--as I said, they are very high quality speakers, and there are many other top tier manufacturers that produce speakers at similar price points with similar size cabinets. The thing is, the Focus 340 retail for $7500, which seems to me a bucket of money when I actually saw and heard them. I was really surprised at how small they actually are. Great speakers, but I'm not sure they are going to produce the sense of "scale" you're looking for.

For less $ than that, you can get the Legacy Signature HD, which includes dual ribbon tweeters and is rated down to 22Hz on the low end. If the Signature is too large, they also have the Classic, which is a bit smaller, but still goes down to 32Hz(+/-2dB). Deadalus and Selah are a couple other brands you may want to check out as well. There are just a bewildering number of speaker makers, so I know how frustrating it can be to figure out what to purchase.