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Audiophile Active Speakers?

Bracing for a flame war on this one - but are there any really seriously good sounding active floor standers? The new Dynaudio XEO 6's intrigued me.

Here's why I'm interested. I recently acquired some great Verity Audio speakers that I realized my entire cabling, amps, preamps etc were too warm for. Problem is I'm getting past the point where I see this as a hobby and am just looking for good music reproduction without tons of system matching experimentation etc.

One interesting option would be selling all my electronics, cables, etc on A-gon and just purchasing a good DAC and good sounding Active floor standers. I could therefore afford decent speakers (up to $7K or so), pocket some cash, simply the system (and save lots of time and grief shopping for matching components).

Am I expecting something that would sound as good as the Verity's with appropriately good electronics? No - not even close.

But a quality audiophile sound I could live with and possible tweak with the right sounding DAC that could make me more or less satisfied is the goal. The don't have to be magical like the Verity's. Any thoughts?
larrybou
larrybou OP
130 posts
 
Wow - great responses! And yes, I'm more interested in a realistic to timbre, scale, transients, etc sound than caring as much about audiophile fetishes such as perfect instrument placement, spooky imaging, or being able to actually hear whether Diane Krall clipped her nose hairs before stepping into the studio.

I've actually always been partial to good pro-audio sound and would probably go that way it if my wife would put up with it (as if..).

I guess I'll check out the ATC's Adams and Dynaudios.

But with active speakers you all still recommend a preamp rather than a front end? No preamp/DAC combos?
jriggy's avatar
jriggy
564 posts
 
Has anyone mentioned the new Bamberg Series 3 yet? If not, end of discussion! ;-) It is seriously good, with imaging and design characteristics better than anything listed here.
I was part of a private demo of this speaker after hours at AXPONA this year.

Look it up and drop Philip a line.

I am unaffiliated, just very impressed by the Bamberg speakers I have heard. The Series 5 is outstanding as well!
macrojack
1,303 posts
 
I just ordered a pair of KRK Rokit 8 powered monitors for the bedroom TV and my computer desk in the same room. Reputation is very good but I chose a discontinued model thinking that these would be half the price of the VXT 8 and probably almost as good. They'll be here next week and I can let you know after that.
At $442.80 and free shipping for the pair, I figured the gamble was well worth it. I've never heard anything from this company but the customer reviews on line have been encouraging.
I agree with above comments about stand mount. Why is it important to buy floor standers? They usually cost much more and have about the same footprint as stands.
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