@james633 I love my Personas/Sub combo and most well-recorded music sounds great. If i put on the Black Keys recording of Crawling Kingsnake I feel like I’m in the studio with them or jamming with friends in the basement of my college house twenty years ago. That’s pretty perfect. But it’s a super-resolving system and lesser recordings have their warts on full display. Maybe I’m chasing a dragon but hopefully i can keep the great instrument separation and soundstage that I have but with a presentation that’s a touch more….forgiving?? Musical?? (Not sure what word I’m searching for here.) with run-of-the-mill recordings. If i only ever wanted to listen to Steely Dan or Pink Floyd or [fill-in-the-blank-masterfully-engineered-recording] then my search would be over. Alas, not every great band has equally great recording/engineering.
Sonus Faber is on my shortlist from a previous audition of the Olympica Nova 3. Chose the Paradigm specifically for it’s more resolving presentation but the SF was more “musical” so I’m hoping further up the line (Amati?) may provide the best of both worlds. Others on my shortlist were Raidho and Borresen because of their stellar reviews and association (either past or present) with Aavik Acoustics makes good synergy likely. Kef Blade 2 Meta was a recent audition that was pretty great as well.
I’m not in a rush for change but I’m not realistically going to audition twenty or thirty speakers so hoping the group’s collective wisdom can help pare things down for me. Then if I have to drive or fly somewhere once or twice, it’s a doable task.