What are your room dimensions? What are your goals? What kind of sound are you looking for? What about the surroundings of your room? Is there carpet, drapes etc. There are a lot of questions to be answered first, before you decide. And, make sure you listen before you buy, or you could be really sorry in the end. Also, don't get caught up in systems that only do one, or two things great, and everything else terrible. Balance is the key to truely finding a system that you will want to keep for a long time.
Oh yeah, almost forgot, plan on pushing those speakers 2 to 4 feet out into the room before they sound good, unless you buy the NHT 3.3, 2.9, or Klipschorns.
Without a doubt, if I had $3000 and the room for it, I'd get the Totem Acoustic Hawks along with a solid used preamp and power amp to go with them. That's my dream speaker system.
I still can't get over the day I heard them...the sound is still stuck in my head. Just hearing the piano notes thrum and ripple through the room with energy behind it that could be so vividly felt, and hearing cymbals just smash into the room with the sharp crackle and decay that I've yearned to hear in the headphone world but never have to this day...man it's all about being able to crank up speakers and feel the music.
Buying that much equipment without listening is like buying a mail-order spouse. Especially loudspeakers. Headphones are different -- much cheaper and easier to return.
Don't rush into this. Even if it means delaying your purchase, wait until you have had a chance to listen to equipment in an environment similar to the one you have at home. If you are visiting a city, pull out the yellow pages and look for audio stores. Do some listening in several places, with recordings you know, and get your ears educated. You might like the small mini-monitors or you might like the Maggies touted above. Different sounds, both great. But different compromises in listening, and great differences in room setup demands and visual impact (also called "wife acceptance factor").
Once you have some baseline parameters identified, then you can risk buying from a mail order place that permits returns. But for speakers that's still risky unless you are shopping price.
Or consider the used equipment market. You can get some pretty awesome deals on last-years' darlings. You know, the kind the tone-deaf but wealthy doctor bought in 2000, and replaced at Christmastime after reading the latest Absolute Sound...
Another thing to keep in mind is manufacturer longevity. See who's been around for the past decade, and is still likely to be in business in ten years. These companies come and go with incredible rapidity.
I'd compromise a bit on sound to be sure I could still get repairs done, and get parts, and have equipment that retains some resale value. A ten-year warranty from a firm that went out of business after two years is not a good idea.
Here is a list of speakers, and amps that might be in your price range that have a very good reputation.
SPEAKERS:
Vandersteen 2CE Signature best with detailed solid state
Triangle Antal probably tubes
Theil CS1.5 darkest solid state possible
Sonus Faber Concerto neutral solid state
PSB Stratus Gold musical solid state
Paradigm Reference Studio/100 musical solid state
NHT 2.9 musical solid state
Magnepan 1.6 large high current solid state
Legacy Classic detailed solid state
JM Lab 820 detailed solid state
Dunlavy Audio Labs SC-III neutral solid state
B@W N805 musical solid state
Meadowlark Audio Kestrel I've never heard
Totem Signiture Model 1 detailed solid state
ProAc Responce One SC I've never heard
Energy Vertias 2.3 musical solid state
North Karma I've never heard
POWER AMPS:
Adcom- Smooth upper mids not a lot of bass regardless of what the specifications say.
Bryston- Tons of detail with an incredible grip on the bass, very nice.
Parasound- one of the best deals in audio, similiar to Bryston, but less money. Don't buy their cheaper amps. They can be noisy.
Rotel- Somewhat musical, and easy to listen to. Very good for the money.
NAD- More musical than detailed, but great for the money. Drives lower impedances well.
Musical Fidelity- No comment.
Meridian- smooth, very smooth for a solid state. Very nice.
Good luck!
I know a magazine reviewer's verdict IS his/her opinion, however, he will have far more experience in the field then we have. He should have heard the the whole range of system from budget to High end. So at least from experience he'll far better then us mortals, it is his opinion but he can judge it compare to all the High en stuff he's tried.
And I did say "loads of different magazines", so you get a better view from different people.
I finally went to an hi-end audio dealer and got to hear a simple bookshelf setup of Paradigm reference Studio 20's and some Aragorn multi-channel amp setup. He played some Diana Krall CD that I also had and I was initially quite impressed with the sound, but when I finally came home, I realized that I wasn't missing out on anything special at all with my 15 year old AR speakers and IMO they are smoother and have more bass extension to boot(obviously my older AR's are much much bigger so it isn't entirely fair in terms of size, but as far as price was concerned I was quite happy).
The dealer also had them turned up loud to the point that I couldn't hold a conversation with the music playing...while IMO my speakers can sound good and still manage to talk to someone 4 feet away from me. He was a nice dealer though and didn't automatically dismiss my inquiries or anything and let me take some paradigm pamplet. He had better Acoustic Totem speakers or whatever which were even smaller bookshelves in another room but I didn't get to hear it. Didn't have enough time to do thorough listening, just enough to be quite happy with what I already am listening to.
Anyways I have no real point, cept that I need to save for something big I think if I wanted a step up, or audition better stuff.
Paradigm Reference, and Aragon is not a good match. I would hope that the dealer had enough sense to push the speakers out into the room a least 2 feet, and keep them away from side walls.
Next time you go, ask to listen to the Studio 100 version IIs with musical amplification, and a neutral source. Make sure the amp is at least 200 watts into 8 ohms, and costs over a 1000 bucks. If the room is good, and the speakers are placed right it should sound pretty darn good.
I'd like to go again but would rather keep my wallet safe(I probably will go again). He had some Conrad Johnson tube amps that I wanted to hear. It was one of the things that caught my eye. I don't have enough money now to be looking at stuff to die for.
I agree the setup probably wasn't ideal since they weren't setup as a main attraction of any listening room, but neither is my home setup heh. It sounded good, but it definitely didn't make me think that my old speakers were like stock headphones that come with a portable, and the Paradigm Studios were like KSC-35 better. I also definitely need something more complex and merciless to listen to than Diana Krall, which is a forgiving selection IMO. It's the type of music that I feel is easy to sit back and enjoy on many setups. And I need to hear how it sounds at moderate volumes that wouldn't piss off some folks in my house. I'm kinda looking for something that would still really impress at less than exciting volume levels.
He told me the Aragon unit was a SS HT amp, and to me the setup seemed to lean towards analytical side. It was just a quick drop in at the place just to see to at least get my foot wet into how some hi-fi setups sounded.
I saw that he had a huge huge pair of speaker cables on the ground that kinda looked like Opus huge or whatever. The funny thing about going to a hi-end shop is that I felt not everything I see in pictures or web looks as well finished in RL...but some stuff definitely stands out in terms of asthetics. Course I guess some photos just like to add glean and shine to products.
The only room he had well setup would probably be the room with the tiny Acoustic Totem Bookshelves or whatever...and I still wonder how those things sound for being so small. He said they were much much better than the Studios though. The speaker amp wasn't warmed up and I had to run so I didn't push to listen to them.
I totally forgot that I probably had my Etymotics and portable in the car to compare...but I was running errands and only stopped by shortly. It is not easy to find a hi-end audio dealer just lying around, so I found it quite peculiar to find it where I did (its a shop in the corner of a plaza of a Vietnamese marketplace).
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
