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$5k Pair Full Range Speaker Shootout - Help me pick

Hi Guys,

Around the holidays I will be purchasing a pair of (roughly) $5k/pair full range stereo speakers for use in a 2-channel only system. My current JBL Synthesis HDI-1600’s will be accompanied by the matching HDI-4500 Center Speaker and likely an Arcam AVR30 and used exclusively for Home Theater use.


Here’s what I’m currently considering for the 2-Ch speakers. If you all could relay any experiences or impressions you’ve had with these specific speakers, or speakers in their range, it would surely help me make the right choice. I know a lot of people say "I listen to all genre’s", but I truly do have an enormous digital music collection that spans all genre’s. Everything from current EDM and Pop to High Res Classical, Audiophile tester type selections, every one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 albums of all time in FLAC (classic rock and funk heavy), etc. I like to put all of this content on shuffle and just listen to whatever happens.

2-ch system will continue to be powered as follows:

Digital - Foobar2000 --> SMSL SU-8 v2 --> Classe CAP-151

Analog - Technics SL1300mkII --> Ortofon 2M Red --> NAD PP-3 --> Classe CAP151


The speaker choices:

JBL L100 Classic

https://ibb.co/yhjJHn1

Revel Performa F208

https://ibb.co/TK4PNBD

B&W 702 S2

https://ibb.co/D4qPFcH
128x128dougeyjones
denverfred's avatar
denverfred
252 posts
 
NOT the JBL's.
Holy cow, $5K will buy a lot of speakers. Look up Magnepan. They go direct with sure return policy. One of the best companies in the business in every respect IMCE.
guy-incognito's avatar
guy-incognito
169 posts
 
If you can stretch your budget a bit there are a used pair of Revel F228be towers in mahogany on Audiogon currently for $5900. Retail at $10k, beryllium tweeters, redesigned crossovers and a bump in efficiency to 90db. Worth taking a look.
gebowers
2 posts
 
Based on many speaker listening tests, B&W and Revel are hard to beat for accurate music fidelity. Yes, Revel is more neutral than B&W, but B&W is more musical like live music. Vandersteen, Magnepan and Sound Labs are junk speakers with poor music fidelity due to weak detailed midrange.
dougeyjones's avatar
dougeyjones OP
163 posts
 
F206 does come in mahogany?! That makes my decision easier.. I’ll be able to afford more electronics. 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,252 posts
 
Those are all European apartment speakers. Spend a little more and get Klipsch Cornwall IV's. Now we are talking serious horsepower. Certainly not Dodge Challenger but not Ferrari. More like Mustang GT.
I can tell you how many L100s I saw torched when I was a kid. 
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