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Your thoughts on best audiophile speakers in $10,000 neighborhood?

I know the best way to select a speaker is to auditioon them at a dealer or in my own home. However, living in a rather rural area in northern Michigan, there's only one reputable dealer (Sonus Faber) in town so I may end up relying on reviews and your feedback. 

I used to own Vandersteen Model 2Cs in the late 1980s, but finally want to step up my game. I currently have a legacy Nakamichi receiver / amp with 1000wpc, but will probably upgrade that once I select a new pair of speakers. Currently I'm playing mostly LPs on a Technics SL1210G. I now listen mostly with a Mark Levinson 5909 headphone connected to a small Class A pre-amp, so I treasure detail and transparency and don't lean toward "warm" speakers.

Room is good size since it encompasses living room and opens to dining room and kitchen behind it. Cathedral ceiling is about 12 feet high. 

I'm considering the following speakers: Vandersteen Treo CT, Wharfedale Elysian 4 (perhaps too big for my room), Monitor Audio Gold 300 and the Sonus Faber Sonetto VIII. These all fit within my budget. What are your thought about any of these...or do you have others to recommend?

Thanks for whatever guidance you can give me.

 

aphilc
roccity's avatar
roccity
15 posts
 

As suggested earlier, prearrange demos with the dealer(s) and get to a city. I'd put together a list of speakers you'd like to demo first, perhaps drawing upon some of the suggestions here.


I'm in the same boat as far as having limited lines I can audition in shops close to my home. That said, after hearing Wilson, Sonus Faber, Fyne, Atohm, B&W, Focal, Triangle, and a few others, I plan to soon upgrade to PMC.  When I heard them at my local dealer, they delivered everything I had been looking for: imaging and instrument separation like I'd never heard before in a floor-standing speaker, deep and textured bass, sweet and natural sounding midrange (especially vocals), and clean, incisive highs,  The PMC Twenty5.24i and Twenty5.26i are worth putting on your list.  Others I haven't heard but would like to are Borresen and Gershman (their Studio xDb speakers are sort of in your price range at $12k list).

ortodox
69 posts
 

italian Zilgali QA series speakers outperform everithing i have heared so far - almost Wilson sound at 1/3 price.

tonyrox
21 posts
 

Another vote for the ATC SCM40a speakers.  They are tri-amped and this allows the mfg to voice the speaker and amp together, and with an active crossover further control is possible.

I have SCM7's with Benchmark amplification in a small room, (plus subs), and that tweeter really is amazing.

jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
6,610 posts
 

another vote for maggies (if you can deal with the looks and demands on the rest of the system)

lloydc's avatar
lloydc
737 posts
 

PMC for me.

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