So many choices what to buy?


I am coming to the end of my analysis paralysis and i have listened to many speakers. I have narrowed it down to a few with quite a price spread.
JM Lab's Mezzo Utopia's, B&W 802's, Thiel cs6 or 7.2's. Any advise?
Rich
richnus
One more vote for Dynaudio. Great speakers,build quality is excellent ( but kind of boring), and the Dynaudio North America people are helpful and responsive. When I wanted to hear the Confidence 5s they shipped a pair to the dealer for me to listen two in two days. They were also very helpful in discussing matching amps, room placement, cabling, etc.
As between the two Thiels you are considering, go with the 6's before any of the 7's. The 6's sound better! (IMO) With Thiels, you have to be careful and patient about room placement. It may take you two weeks to find the right spots in your room, but when you finally do (and your dealer should help you do this), you will be amazed. I too have heard various Dynaudios and love them, esp. because they have such a slim profile (as opposed to the Thiels). You have great choices to pick from; I envy you!
I have Thiel CS6’s and drive them with a Krell FPB 200. The Thiels require lots of current. Krell amps have that BASS slam which is just what the CS 6's need to shine. The CS 6's need care in placement, 2'min from sidewalls and 4' to 5' from rear walls. They are very heavy and when spiked will scar a wooden floor. I recommend taking the Krell you have down to the dealer and audition all the speakers on your list. If you can have the dealer do a in home audition, so much the better. Speakers always sound different in the showroom. I hope I helped. As we say in Las Vegas, Good Luck!
Well Rich, I asume your only discussing 2 channel applications...but you didn't mention the room conciderations/placement/price points/or sytem matching components you may be concidering, or already have!!..which all makes a differnce.
If your chosing your speakers first, then good! This is the single most important element in the chain besides the room (which would need to be adressed, as you probably already know the room it's going in, right?) And, yes, ultimately you shouldn't expect to simply sit the speaker down in YOUR space and expect em to just sound great!...it'll take some tinkering and time...
Back to the speaker choices...
I think what needs to be said here, to properly fine point your choices for speakers, is what speaker is going to make sense with my setup choices and arangement! Will it work with your room/system/setup for best results for what I listen to, and expect from the system!
For instance, is it going to be played loud?...small room?...big room?...close to the walls?...out?...is your chair next to a close wall?...will it mate with the gear that makes sense for you as well?...etc...?
I think if you become more specific about your situation and needs/uses, some better recommendations (even between what you narrowed down) can be more specifically taylored to what you might want to concider!
However, if that's more than you want to hear, I personally would rule out the JM Labs stuff myself, as I find most of their stuff rather bright sounding! I do like the Thiel CS6's a lot for classical and such (but you'll need the strongest amp in the world to make em jump at all dynamically!) The B&W's, while not as refined, quite as detaild, and transparent as the Thiels in my experience with them, will give you more flexibility out of some of the B&W offerings.
You can Biamp the B&W's, which are much easier to drive and more punchy over all than the Thiels, with much less power and demand! If you Biamp the B&W's, you'll even get more drive and slam out of em, and with better perfomance all around if you do it right!
However, in the end, to be critical to critical to critical (you may not be...God bless ya), The B&W's aren't as refined and neutral/transparant and detailed as the Thiels, but they may be more fun!...depends on the listner/requirement...
...Let's hear more about your situation/system/needs