Advise Needed, Best speakers for approx $15,000

Hello Magoo,

How about a trip to New Orleans? We have several dealers here carrying such brands as JM Labs, Wilson Audio, and Vandersteen. I'm also a dealer for the JC-1's, and could give you an audition of Sound Lab full-range electrostats driven by JC-1's. I'd offer you a free place to stay regardless of where you shop, and if you ended up purchasing Sound Labs (I know they're not on your list, but hey a dealer can dream, can't he??), then I'll re-imburse your airfare. I'll offer you transporation as well, and would be more than happy to take you to the other shops I mentioned (there are several other fine brands carried here that aren't on your list).

Worst-case scenario would be your trip to New Orleans doesn't result in your discovering the ideal speaker, but at least you narrow down your list while enjoying some great food and live music without having a killer hotel bill, and you meet a few fellow crazies along the way.

Seriously, check out ticket prices at Travelocity.com or wherever. Shoot me an e-mail for details of my accomodations and such.

And whether or not New Orleans makes sense to you as a place to visit (there are bigger, better-stocked cities), I'd suggest investing a portion of your budget into making the necessary pilgrimages. Say you travel a couple of weekends and spend a grand doing so. My argument would be that fourteen grand well spent will probably take you farther than fifteen grand spent on an educated guess.

Best of luck to you on your quest, wherever it might lead you!

Duke

www.vonschweikert.com

I think Duke's suggestion of listening to the Sound Lab
M1s or maybe the new R3s with some subwoofers are what you are looking for. Forget Kharmas or Avalons because of your listening tastes. The JC-1s will probably drive any speaker you choose. And the Pass Labs pre-amp is one of a handful of ss preamps that are musical. Once you decide on a speaker, the next stop is the cd playback system. The Cary
is very good but not in the same league as your other components. Good luck!

Let's see, how many replies and how many suggestions so far? Have you gotten any closer to a decision? I doubt it--I wouldn't have. June 5-8th is the HE 2003 show. It's designed for consumers. True the show venues are not the greatest set-ups (understatement), but you can at least hear a large variety of equipment in one place in a couple of days. Airfare to San Fran is probably less than $400 round trip from almost anywhere in the country. Very nice accomodations are available for less than $125 a night, and of course you can find much much cheaper places. If I was about to spend $15k on speakers I would have to hear them. Every speaker has it's strengths and weaknesses--particularly considering your tastes in music. The Soundlabs are wonderful on vocals, but I don't think they are going to do much for your heavy metal days. You can find out more about the show here.

Infinity MTS Prelude with the RABOS Subs, look no more awesome set up, you can buy new for 10K look at Stereophile Mag Class AA up with the Big Boys $80,000 +++. You can buy
used for $5500,$6500 on this site.
I own them, I auditon the Wilsons ,Revels , B&W. My brother also, only 3 months ago was looking at the Talons K X and the Eggelston, bought the Infinity's on site, New. They are small in size , the subs are self powered. easy to set up big room ,small room whatever. I would recommend to get it down to 3 of your favorites and work your way to the ones that sounds best to you. Don't go by reviews or what poeple say, ( does help but your ears is what matters) you must listen to them on your home stereo at home, that's tought but the only way.
Good Luck