Rockport Avior or Magico S5

My only rich friend has Magico 5's with Lamm pre and amp plus 30 K worth of MIT wire ,a 50K TT with a 8K MC.
Sounds OK.

Don't agree with CTsooner regarding the Vandy 5CA. Heard them, didn't do much for me, even had Richard Vandersteen there.

Sounded good, but still didn't sound real to me.

Heard the Aviors that Phil was talking about - my dealer told me about some guy who bought the Aviors and then upgraded to the Cygnus sight unheard. Must be him... hehehe

But yes, I agree, Aviors have dense imaging on Ayre electronics. I found them a little harsh at first, but then when we switched the amps and pre to the Ayre updated "twenty", it was no longer harsh up top. I think the Aviors are great speakers and you would be happy with such.

Joey, what did you hear the Vandy's with? I realize no speaker is everyone's cup of tea as we all hear so differently. We do agree on the Ayre 20 gear though. I've heard them on a few top end speakers and the sound was outrageous.

For every person who loves a speaker there is someone who doesn't. that's why folks really need to go listen and why dealers need to be supported. Many of us refuse to buy sight unseen or pay up front to have someone ship something to us and then have to ship it back if we don't like it etc.. That's really not realistic when you are talking about these larger components from heavy amps to large speakers.

I would think that anyone in this range would want to hear the Magico, Rockports and Vandy's to get an idea of what three totally different sounding speakers sound like. Many of us do feel that the Vandy's sound lifelike and coherent with no smearing. Some like the 'detail' of the Magico or even Wilson and some like a compromise. All speakers are compromised and it's up to you to figure out (by listening) what compromises you like or don't like. We all can post about what we own or want to own, but we don't have your ears or your room or your.....you get it.

All well built and great choices. Wish I could play in this league. I'm in the AAA league I guess, lol.

I have listened to the Vandersteen 5A carbon and would agree with Joey V that they didn't really do anything for me. The electronics were acoustic research at a dealer event. The midrange seemed a little thick to me and the bass was bloated and overdone. Perhaps it was the dealers room but Richard was there so I don't know what was up. I have also listened to the Wilson offerings including the new Sophia, Sasha and Sabrina. I don't care for the Wilson top end. It grates on me with a certain hardness and glare. In the next two weeks I will listening to the Magico S1, S3 and Rockport Atria and some Focal offerings. Perhaps then I will have a different perspective.

Audio research upstreams.