Vandersteen 2ce SIG II
Challenge: Best $2K-ish floorstander
I'm in the market for a floorstander in the $1.5-2.5K range. It will be in a 13x23 living room with a ceiling that vaults up to 15'. Also there is no real back wall to the living room as it opens onto the hall and dining area, also with high ceilings. In fact, the only doors in the entire house are to the bedrooms and bathrooms. The rest is open architecture.
Here are my current candidates:
Sonus Faber Venere 2.5: $2500, absolutely beguiling sound.
Monitor Audio Silver RX8. Auditioned over a year ago, sounded promising but it overloaded the demo room so it was hard to tell.
Salk SongTower: Elegantly proportioned and beautifully made.
SVS Ultra Tower: At the big end of the space I have. Designed by Mark Mason, a 13-yr vet with PSB. Bass extension into the 20's, probably the only one on the list that does this.
Aperion Verus Grand Tower: $2K price includes either gloss piano black or real cherry veneer. Size is a good match for my space.
Tekton SEAS Pendragon (the std. Pendragon is too big for the available space)
Tekton eNZO
Axiom M80 v3: Actually made in Canada and has damped titanium tweeters, something I'm accustomed to with my Mirage speakers. In fact, Andrew Welker, who designed the Omnipolar and Omni Design lines at Mirage, now designs for Axiom. Std. finish is vinyl, but there are many custom finish options.
GoldenEar Triton 3 or Seven, $2K or $1.4K. I auditioned the Triton Seven last week and--like the Monitor Audio--the bass overwhelmed the demo room and it was hard to evaluate the speaker when things got loud--was it congestion or room overload?
MartinLogan Motion 40
Silverline Prelude Plus: Petite and elegant, but would four 3-1/2" woofers cut it in my space?
Ascend Sierra Tower: An interesting same-price alternative to the Salk SongTower. It claims a phase-coherent step response, which I would like.
Magnepan Magneplanar 1.7: The poster child for $2K speakers. WIll try to audition them tomorrow. The 19"x65" profile may prove problematic. Then again, I could turn them sideways and tuck them to the sides of teh hearth and bring them out into the room for listening. Are these physically robust enough to be handled regularly like that? Or would they start falling apart even with my most careful efforts?
I'd love to get something that's good down to 30Hz or a little below if possible, but if there's a compellingly good speaker with a higher rolloff (e.g., Mag 1.7), I have a pair of small, quick subs that will blend easily to fill out the 60-40Hz rolloff, but they're not much help below that.
I use these speakers for a 2-channel music system only, and most music is sourced from LPs or lossless redbook and 24/96 digital on my MacBook Pro via Audirvana.
Musical tastes are acoustic folk, classic rock, combo jazz, big band, blues, chamber music, large scale orchestra, vocalists (Sinatra, James Taylor, Holly Cole, Norah Jones, Allison Kraus, Diana Krall. Will the Maggies stand up to Holst's The Planets and Respighi's Pines of Rome?
Any of you have direct experience with one or more of these speakers, please share your recommendations and caveats.
Here are my current candidates:
Sonus Faber Venere 2.5: $2500, absolutely beguiling sound.
Monitor Audio Silver RX8. Auditioned over a year ago, sounded promising but it overloaded the demo room so it was hard to tell.
Salk SongTower: Elegantly proportioned and beautifully made.
SVS Ultra Tower: At the big end of the space I have. Designed by Mark Mason, a 13-yr vet with PSB. Bass extension into the 20's, probably the only one on the list that does this.
Aperion Verus Grand Tower: $2K price includes either gloss piano black or real cherry veneer. Size is a good match for my space.
Tekton SEAS Pendragon (the std. Pendragon is too big for the available space)
Tekton eNZO
Axiom M80 v3: Actually made in Canada and has damped titanium tweeters, something I'm accustomed to with my Mirage speakers. In fact, Andrew Welker, who designed the Omnipolar and Omni Design lines at Mirage, now designs for Axiom. Std. finish is vinyl, but there are many custom finish options.
GoldenEar Triton 3 or Seven, $2K or $1.4K. I auditioned the Triton Seven last week and--like the Monitor Audio--the bass overwhelmed the demo room and it was hard to evaluate the speaker when things got loud--was it congestion or room overload?
MartinLogan Motion 40
Silverline Prelude Plus: Petite and elegant, but would four 3-1/2" woofers cut it in my space?
Ascend Sierra Tower: An interesting same-price alternative to the Salk SongTower. It claims a phase-coherent step response, which I would like.
Magnepan Magneplanar 1.7: The poster child for $2K speakers. WIll try to audition them tomorrow. The 19"x65" profile may prove problematic. Then again, I could turn them sideways and tuck them to the sides of teh hearth and bring them out into the room for listening. Are these physically robust enough to be handled regularly like that? Or would they start falling apart even with my most careful efforts?
I'd love to get something that's good down to 30Hz or a little below if possible, but if there's a compellingly good speaker with a higher rolloff (e.g., Mag 1.7), I have a pair of small, quick subs that will blend easily to fill out the 60-40Hz rolloff, but they're not much help below that.
I use these speakers for a 2-channel music system only, and most music is sourced from LPs or lossless redbook and 24/96 digital on my MacBook Pro via Audirvana.
Musical tastes are acoustic folk, classic rock, combo jazz, big band, blues, chamber music, large scale orchestra, vocalists (Sinatra, James Taylor, Holly Cole, Norah Jones, Allison Kraus, Diana Krall. Will the Maggies stand up to Holst's The Planets and Respighi's Pines of Rome?
Any of you have direct experience with one or more of these speakers, please share your recommendations and caveats.
- ...
- 25 posts total
- 25 posts total