Downsizing from tower to bookshelf
Moving to smaller home and need thoughts on bookshelf speakers. The new dedicated audio room is 12x14 and I plan to use the same wall/floor treatments I currently have in my 14x20 room.
I don’t live near a big city to go and demo, so I’d like to narrow down at least 3 speakers I can purchase and demo in the new room. I’ll send the others back once I find a winner.
Current equipment is;
VPI Scout with Hana SL
Parasound A21
Vincent SA32 Preamp
Elac PPA2
Dyneaudio Emit 30
My preference is neutral to slightly warm sound with heavy emphasis on holographic soundstage. Price point is maxed at $3,500.
I was never really in love with the Dynaudio Emit 30’s but they did provide the neutral holographic soundstage I like. The only negative with the Dynaudio is they didn’t seem very dynamic or musical.i always felt they were missing something in terms of enjoyment. Maybe stepping up a model would help but I’m open to other brand suggestions.
My initial picks are;
Harbeth P3ESR XD
Revel M126Be
Wharfedale Aura 2
Any other recommendations would be appreciated.
I want to recommend a speaker I haven’t heard myself, but I use the company’s products, and like them. Plus they get great reviews. The speaker is the PS Audio Aspen FR 5. Apparently they are warm, rich and have surprisingly powerful bass. The best part is they give you 30 days in your own space to try them out and decide. |
Early last summer, I think it might of been @bdp24 , posted a thread about the pre-release of those speakers. They certainly sounded interesting. I wasn't sure about the specs, low sensitivity and 6 ohm load, but the impedance apparently doesn't dip too low, so I guess that mitigates the sensitivity. As I typed, I thought they sounded like what I was looking for, but I was auditioning the Revels at the time. |
So I did exactly what you are doing. I have a nice pair of usher mini-X with the DMD tweeters. They sounded pretty good in my smaller room but something was missing. So I started looking at smaller floorstanding speakers and went with the revel f226be. I have a 15.5’ x 13’ room and hear revels sound so much more full and produce enough bass so no need for a subwoofer. Since you were looking at the revel bookshelf speaker, spend a few more $$$ and get the f226be speakers. If you want to go with a bookshelf, look at the ps audio fr5, sounds bigger than it should. |
MD has a couple of pairs; both are theoretically marked down. One pair is marked down to 4k, and the pair they are calling "B stock" is marked down to about 5800 (which I don’t understand the "b-stocks" being more than the other pair). ON EDIT: I just looked and saw that Uncle Kevin AND Crutchfield are selling them for 4k a pair. They are not huge floor standing speakers--41" H is all. But anyway, OP, if it makes any difference to you, Revel did farm out the manufacture of the M126be to Indonesia. I am NOT saying that it should or should not make a difference, I am just putting that out there because I was under the impression when I ordered mine that they were USA made and the salesman I spoke to on the phone "kind of" gave me that impression as he said I would be impressed with the "American sound" as opposed to the "British sound" of my B&Ws. I am still not sure what the difference is that I was supposed to hear. |
