Help Deciding On New Speakers For Small Room, $10k budget


Hello everyone! A brief background. For the first time in my life, I have a dedicated room for listening! 🙌 I’m very excited about it. However, it’s not very big. Something is better than nothing though. Previously I always lived in apartments and had to primarily listen on headphones. The room size is 10 feet by 11 feet with 10 foot ceilings, almost a perfect square. It has already been professionally sound treated with many panels from Gik Acoustics. So despite its tricky sizing, it should be all set up for a proper experience! And I already have a nice chain, a McIntosh MC52 Preamp and Primare Power Amp and CD Player with a Holo Audio May KTE. Oh, I also have a Rel A7X subwoofer.

I unfortunately have a disability that makes it very difficult for me to travel. I cannot easily just go to a hifi store and try things. I also live kinda in the middle of nowhere. But I’m a former professional musician and music is my life, and I want to feel connected to my music as much as I can, so I’m willing to invest into it. I have a budget of about $10k give or take $1k or so. I don’t mind looking at used options in like new condition.

A little about my hearing preferences: I am very sensitive to high frequencies, specifically around 7k-10k. For reference, every hifi headphone I’ve ever used made me wince because the high frequencies are too pronounced. I just put up with it because I didn’t have a choice, but I’ve noticed that with speakers I’m usually not so sensitive to them so I’m excited to go down this journey and enjoy my music listening more. I like powerful, punchy bass, and generally prefer a warmer sound signature, however, even though my ears are sensitive to higher frequencies, I love a nice crisp and realistic cymbal sound. In general, as a musician, I think I’d love something that sounds “true to life” because I have obviously a lot of experience hearing instruments live. I mostly listen to jazz (because I’m a jazz musician) but I also love music of all genres like rock, electronic, pop, soul, alternative, and occasionally K-Pop too, I’m pretty open minded. So something that is a good all-rounder might also be nice. Writing this all out, I now think I might be asking for the moon though, so let’s just say jazz and realistic instruments is my main priority 😇


So with all that said, I would greatly appreciate your suggestions. I’ve been looking at Focal’s line of Kanta and Sopra but I’ve heard they are bright. I’ve heard B&W but I don’t think their house sound is for me, again too bright.  Also debating between bookshelves and small floor standers for a smallish room. I’ve been looking also at Canton, Dali, Tannoy and Wharfdale, but I’m not as familiar with the speaker world as I am the headphone or IEM world, so I’m quite open to ideas. Thank you so much and best wishes on the evening of this crazy time I’m in the U.S.!

cookiecurls

  I think a pair of Spendor Classic 3/1's would put a big smile on your face & keep several thousand $ in your bank account...

Do you have any placement limitation; such as, the speakers need to be near a room corner or a wall, etc.?  Does the speaker have to be small in size?  More detail is helpful.

There are some fairly large speakers that work extremely well in small rooms, so don't assume you need tiny speakers.  For example, speakers from Volti, though on the larger size, will work in a small room.

If you can place speakers near the corners of the room, or at least along the front wall, the Audio Note line offers great sounding speakers that are not very bright yet they remain lively sounding.  If you can place speakers somewhat away from the side walls, then something from JM Reynaud and ProAc fit your description. 

Good luck on your search. 

I also forgot to say that the Spendor 3/1 recommendation above is a good one too.