Looking for my End Game Speaker


I'm looking for my end game speakers.  My system currently consists a digital streaming front end with the Mola mola Tambaqui DAC and Grimm MU1 streamer along with Magico A3 speakers.  For amplification, I recently acquired on the used market, the Audionet Humboldt.  

I live in a small 960 sq ft condo in a highrise.  My system is in the great room (living, dining, and kitchen all in one).  Given the room configuration, my speakers have to be located close to a side wall (unless I radically change the room and block my balcony doors with my stereo).  Room dimensions are 12' x 16' (not including kitchen).   

The following speakers are on my list to auditon:

Marten Parker Trio,  Acora (SRB, SRC1, SRC2), Magico S3 - 2023, Magico M2, Joseph Audio, Franco Serblin, Rockport, Vivid Audio Giya G4, 

I have already heard the Acora SRC1 and thought they were amazing, however, perhaps a bit  bass shy.  

Given my room constraints, I'm concentrating more on the models that have a sealed box design.  Given that, I am very interested in the Magico M2 and S3 - 2023.  Has anyone heard these two models?  A used M2 would cost about the same as a new S3.  How do these two models compared?  Which would you choose?  

Can anyone recommend any other sealed box design speakers.....or any speakers that would fit into a relatively small room (close to the walls)?  I should also note that I would like a speaker that performs well with lower listening volumes....

I have booked my ticket to AXPONA 2025, so I'm making a list of speakers that I should audition.

 

calgarian5355

@zuesman You seem to be pushing MA a lot.  I'm a fan too, having owned several pairs including two generations of Platinum. I still think they are in the top 3 in the world for value but there are other brands out there and it's nice we have so much choice. I did have several listening sessions with the PL500.  Those are great speakers, no question there. But I do not think they would put the Fenestria to shame. Yes the tweeter is extremely good but the drivers are the same as the ones in the PL200 and PL300 (gen 2) and MA improved on them in Gen 3.  I did listen to the PL300 Gen 3 and the Hyphn. I prefer the Fenestria. Not by a long shot but the anti-vibration system in the PMC plus their ATC system allows for a cleaner/more accurate bass and is easier to install in smaller rooms which is not the case for the PL500. Plus the Fenestria have the ability to sound excellent even on less than ideal recordings. I don't know how they do that because they are still very detailed but with my MAs, it was not always the case.  Anyway, at the end of the day, the differences are generally 'minor' across models/brands at that level and mostly subjective i.e. the type of sound you prefer based on the fact that more pepper / salt was put in X recipe. So that is why I would never us an expression like "put [insert speaker name here] to shame" when comparing models in the cost no object bracket. 

Vandersteen Treo CT, which can be placed very close to the front wall, or its bigger brother the Quatro CT (or even the Kento, but $$$$) . The Humboldt is a superb integrated, I’ve read, and the question is whether it would work with the high-pass filters that the Quatro CT requires (and that’s why separates are more ideal with the Quatros).
https://www.vandersteen.com/categories/crossovers

Quatro Wood CT

"That's primarily what I want from a pair of loudspeakers—not deep bass (which these Vandersteens do have); not wide dynamics (at which the Wood CTs excel); not clean, uncolored mids and highs (something the Vandersteens readily offer); but a stereo virtual reality engine to connect me with the music I want [to] listen to. On that ground, a pair of Vandersteen's Quatro CTs scores big-time." ~
John Atkinson

https://www.vandersteen.com/products/quatro-wood-ct

 

 

guyl,

that's not a very fair comparison putting the platinum 300 G3 up against the finestria a more fair comparison would have been the PL500 against the finestria and they are much better than the finestria sorry the platinum driver technology is way ahead of the finestria.

audioTroy,

The monitor audio platinum series will put the focal speakers to shame, they're very two-dimensional compared to the platinums. sorry but you made wrong choices again.

I am currently running Monitor Audio Platinum 300 3g's and while I enjoy them, I have them 1 meter from the wall behind and beside them. They need room.