Dazzdax,
At the risk of being overly simplistic, in what areas are you especially looking for improvement over the SC-IV's? Even up around 15 grand, you'll be making trade-offs. You see, different speakers excel in different areas...
How loud do you like it (at the listening position)? How wide do you want the sweet spot to be? Do you place a higher priority on holographic imaging, or richness of instrumental timbres and textures? Are you more interested in a presentation reminiscent of a jazz club, or of a concert hall? How important is hearing all the little inner harmonic nuances - would you trade off some performance in other areas to get the inner details right? How critical is coherence? What are you looking for in bottom-octave performance (recognize that this is the most expensive part of the spectrum to "do it all" in)? What kinds of music do you mostly listen to? Do you sometimes listen at low or very low volume levels? Do you want a speaker that is ultra-revealing, or one that is forgiving enough to sound good with mediocre recording? Do you have any particular speaker-positioning constraints?
Sorry for all the questions, but the more information I have the better the chance of offering useful suggestions.
On the Genesis vs JM Labs front, I have tended to prefer Genesis, but haven't heard any of their new models. In my experience, JM Labs speakers really like tube amps (Air-Tight amps seem to work especially well with them - nope, I don't sell 'em).
Also, just curious - which Accuphase amps do you have?
Best wishes,
Duke
At the risk of being overly simplistic, in what areas are you especially looking for improvement over the SC-IV's? Even up around 15 grand, you'll be making trade-offs. You see, different speakers excel in different areas...
How loud do you like it (at the listening position)? How wide do you want the sweet spot to be? Do you place a higher priority on holographic imaging, or richness of instrumental timbres and textures? Are you more interested in a presentation reminiscent of a jazz club, or of a concert hall? How important is hearing all the little inner harmonic nuances - would you trade off some performance in other areas to get the inner details right? How critical is coherence? What are you looking for in bottom-octave performance (recognize that this is the most expensive part of the spectrum to "do it all" in)? What kinds of music do you mostly listen to? Do you sometimes listen at low or very low volume levels? Do you want a speaker that is ultra-revealing, or one that is forgiving enough to sound good with mediocre recording? Do you have any particular speaker-positioning constraints?
Sorry for all the questions, but the more information I have the better the chance of offering useful suggestions.
On the Genesis vs JM Labs front, I have tended to prefer Genesis, but haven't heard any of their new models. In my experience, JM Labs speakers really like tube amps (Air-Tight amps seem to work especially well with them - nope, I don't sell 'em).
Also, just curious - which Accuphase amps do you have?
Best wishes,
Duke
