Please, help me choose the speakers!

I wouldn't buy any of those... Take a look at Salk. The Salk Silks's have been called the best monitor money can buy before. But with only 120w I'd want the AT version. The Song3 would be a great choice as well. They will sound nice and refined, either of them. Nothing on your list is as good as the he Salks. In your price range it's very hard to get anything of significant performance from a dealer, direct is a better choice. Dealers are best when you're spending serious money, in the lower levels they don't provide much of anything to your benefit since the price margin prevents significant quality as the budget is the biggest factor.

Also Salk is very accustomed to shipping overseas.

New Tannoys are made in China by the evil Behringer devil.

Hello Alessandro! Of all the speakers you listed as possibilities, there's one that sticks out to me as having a completely 'different' type of presentation than all the others (and not to my personal liking, although they do have many fans) which would be the Klipsch. Of course the decision really has to be yours and hopefully made after some extensive auditions and comparisons to narrow your choices. My favorites would be the ProAcs given your musical choices and sonic preferences listed. Good luck and let us know how you proceed, and try to be patient as it may take some time!

That's fair. I'd buy them based on merit alone in your price range however. They're that much better of a deal for performance. We're talking about the difference of a high end sound to a hi-fi one.

Folsom said:

That's fair. I'd buy them based on merit alone in your price range however. They're that much better of a deal for performance. We're talking about the difference of a high end sound to a hi-fi one.

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..I wouldn't describe the sound of any Proac speaker as hi-fi

Ciao Alessandro,

From your list I would narrow it down to the Proacs & Tannoy, not familiar with this model Klipsch but I do like some other ones but none of these would be my first choice buying speakers in this size. Old isn't necessarily bad and in fact there some real sonic advantages with vintage good vintage speakers. Living in Europe my first choice would be a pair of Quad ESL57 or ESL63, you should easily find clean refurbished samples within your budget. If you're not keen on electrostatics then I recommend in no special order vintage JBLs like the L100, L200, L300, 4341, 4343 or the wonderful Grundig Super Hifi Boxes like the 1500 and the larger 2500 or the Telefunken TLX-3. Of course if you want smaller speakers then the old Celestion SL6, SL600 and the SL6000. IMO opinion any of these choices will outperform any equivalent modern speaker and some cost a lot less than your budget too. Of course given the heavy decoration of your living room, speaker positioning and setup are also very important to get the best from your system.

david

barolo61 said:

Hi all! This is my first post here! I would like your help to select a few speakers that I can later try to hear at some seller. I have an Audiolab 8200CD and as an ampli a Roksan Caspian M2 (85W on 8 Ohm and 125W on 4 Ohm). The speakers are very very old (40 years old! some KLH 317) and I want to change them. The room where I listen to music is 4 x 5 meters, with a thick carpet, curtains, heavily furnished. Speakers along the long side, facing a sofa. Max distance of speakers from front wall about 50-60 cm (20-25 inches), separation between the two speakers about 2.5 m, distance from listening position about 2.5 m. I listen mainly to classical, jazz and “classic” rock. I would like to spend about 2000-4000 euro for the speakers, certainly not more than that.

I like a sound that is detailed but not aggressive (at the moment I have quite serious problems with sibilants) and with a well articulated bass (it is quite muddy at the moment). Here follow a list of speakers that in principle could fit, but I would like to know your opinion, specially concerning the size of the room and the power of the ampli. BTW, I live in Italy where it is more easy to find speakers from UK, France, Italy (!) than from USA (I can find Klipsch). Thanks for your help! Here is the list of the "candidates", with prices from a shop in Italy. I can also be interested in PMC and in Spendor, although that shop does not sell them.

Focal Aria 926: 1799 euro
B&W PM1: 1950 euro stand
Roksan Caspian FR 5: 1999 euro
B&W CM9 s2: 2350 euro
Proac Response D2: 2752 euro stand
Sonus Faber Venere 3.0: 2788 euro
Monitor Audio new Gold 200: 2920 euro
Sonus Faber Auditor M: 3060 euro stand
Proac Response D18: 3224 euro
Tannoy Definition DC 8: 2349 euro stand
B&W CM10 s2: 3500 euro
Klipsch Cornwall III: 3540 euro
Proac Response D20 ribbon: 3828 euro

Thanks again! Alessandro

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barolo61 said:

Hi David! thanks for your answer and suggestions! Electrostatic are fashinating indeed, but I do not think my room is large enough to accomodate them, unfortunately. The maximum distance of the speakers from the front wall is about 50-60 cm (20-24 inches) and from what I read a much larger distance is needed for an electrostatic speaker to sound fine. I find interesting your suggestion to look at vintage speakers. I did not really think at that possibility, but it is interesting. I will try to find a shop selling vintage, I did not notice lot of them, but I will check more carefully. Thanks again for your suggestions! Alessandro

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Quad ESL57 aren't large and were designed for small rooms and nearfield listening, they'll surprise you given a chance!

Where do you live in Italy?

david

barolo61 said:

I live in the north, Ferrara. I will try to find the ESL57! thanks again!

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Piacere!

david

Hi Alessandro, I noticed your amp is 85 watts a channel. I don't see any "bad" speakers on your list, it will really be a matter of your personal taste. My feeling is you want the big dynamics in music to sound effortless, lots of headroom and no compression. I would recommend comparing the speaker with the highest sensitivity to the one with the lowest sensitivity on a track with huge dynamics you are familiar with to get a feel and let that be your benchmark for the others. Remember to bring your own amp to the listening auditions or you will likely be wasting your time.

barolo61 said:

Hi witchdoctor! yes, my ampli is 85W on 8 ohm. Fortunately the shop i want to visit has exactly the same ampli and cd player that i have, so the testing will be rather realistic (although the room will be different, of course). With the exception of the Klipsch (having an enormous sensitivity of 102 db!) the other speakers all remain in the range 87-90 db, i think. But there are speakers which are more difficult loads (although, as you said, no one is "bad" from that viewpoint): for instance I think that Sonus Faber needs quite a lot of current to sound fine. I will certainly compare speakers of different sensitivity, I am just a little worried of my room, if it is not too small for some of these speakers... Thanks a lot for your email and your suggestions!

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Hi Alessandro,

As you're from Italy, my first port of call would be the Diapason Adamante or Karis. Both have received revisions over the years, although I've not heard the latest versions, so I'm not sure whether their intensely musical character has remained. Beauty being in the eye of the beholder, I can only say for me they are one of the more aesthetically enduring designs, and not in a Sonus Faber-y way which is a little too gauche for my taste. (I concur with your comment regarding the current demands of most Sonus Faber's. They like a lot of it.)

The Boenicke W5 really blew me away when I heard it. I think it's a great little speaker, literally, not to say anything of how it plays music which is far from small.

Of the speakers you've listed, I'm not familiar with that many of them. If I was in your position, personally I'd be looking second-hand. The LS3/5a remains a favourite of mine and production from numerous manufacturers over time (from Harbeth, Rogers, Stirling Broadcast, Spendor, etc) allows a choice of subtle and not-so-subtle character to suit most listeners. As long as, y'know, you don't hate them, which many do. You could go for an LS3/6, BC-1 or SLH5 which are its bigger brothers, but I've not felt the love for them in the same way I have its smaller sibling.

Old favourites I think still stand up relatively speaking would be the Epos ES14, the Acoustic Energy AE1 Classic, and the ProAc Studio 100 which I owned for many years. They're quite characterful in a way a lot of newer speakers pretend not to be, so if you're after an intensely modern sound they may not be for you. I think the newer ProAcs are probably objectively better, but still have a soft spot for the 100. Speaking of which, if you can find a pair of Spendor SP100's, they are really lovely. Not analytical in the least, a bit dry, but overall very accommodating and probably reasonably priced these days.

Of course, you could just do as ddk has suggested and get ESL57's. They do what none of the others above can or ever will. Cats and small children will, of course, touch them and die, but hey... ESL57's!

Let us know how you get on.

Best,

853guy

I agree with DDK recommendations, especially Quads. Even better if you find a pair of used Acoustat Spectras, I heard the 2200, and should cost you less than 2k.

Just checked, the horns fp15 was listed used at 4600 GBP. This is excellent for the money in the type of Audio Note AN-E/Tannoy kind of boxed sensitive speaker that you can drive with a SET.

yes, I agree with your idea very much.

witchdoctor said:

Hi Alessandro, I noticed your amp is 85 watts a channel. I don't see any "bad" speakers on your list, it will really be a matter of your personal taste. My feeling is you want the big dynamics in music to sound effortless, lots of headroom and no compression. I would recommend comparing the speaker with the highest sensitivity to the one with the lowest sensitivity on a track with huge dynamics you are familiar with to get a feel and let that be your benchmark for the others. Remember to bring your own amp to the listening auditions or you will likely be wasting your time.

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I agree with your idea so much.

barolo61,

Perhaps Pure Audio Project can be a fit for you. http://www.pureaudioproject.com/

Many great reviews and made in Germany. The Trio 15TB Neo comes in at your budget.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHvg2rV8l9g

CTT