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Best bookshelf speakers <$2000

I’m building my first high fi system after being more of a portable audio person. I want to start with the speakers. Space is limited so bookshelf speakers are a must.

Preferences:
Balanced and revealing with a hint of warmth.
Midrange most important to get right over highs and lows
Timbre is super important - I listen mostly to acoustic music especially jazz
But I do need some bass as I also listen to some electronic music
Smaller is better but SQ is most important
A speaker that sounds good with different amps but also scalable with high quality sources
Wide sweet spot - I wont have money for a great amp at first but want them to be scalable for later

These speakers have caught my eyes - any thoughts on them?

Ascend Sierra 2s - Ribbon = dispersion limitations?
BMR Philharmonitor - See above. Also massive.
Buchardt S400/S300 - Wary of the sudden hype train and limited info
Silverline Minuet Grande - Limited info
Reference 3A De Capo - This caught my eye as a potential endgame speaker if I could blow up my budget a little. But concerns about BE tweeter as well as some potential snake oil stuff (cryogenic treatment (!?)), exaggerated sensitivity claims and wonky measurements put me off.

What else should I be looking at?

Edit: I could have sworn I had <$2,000 in the title... Anyway, my budget is 2k.

stuff_jones

Showing 5 responses by erik_squires

erik_squires
16,732 posts
 
I believe the Revel M126Be, which is $4,000, has slightly better than the 10 x 1 driver ratio cost you listed.

SB gives amazing discounts to volume purchasers. Look at the prices for the Tekton series with 20 or so $30 tweeters.

So, I'm pretty sure they revels are still around 10:1.

Just try to run through the math. Standard dealer markup is 45% ...


erik_squires
16,732 posts
 
FTR: Wilson used not only Focal, but also a lot of Scanspeak. Some of the most expensive commercial speakers I know of use Scanspeak including B&O, Wilson, and Gryphon. Magico uses Scanspeak tweeter motors with custom diaphragms.

Fritz uses a whole lot of Scanspeak. :)

Best,
E
erik_squires
16,732 posts
 
In all things, buy what you personally like. Pay money to make your family and yourself happy, not reviewers and not me.

I will say that hearing things for yourself is critical.

My goal in life is not to buy $3,000 bottle of wine. It is to spend $30 for one I like more, and I can't do that if I see price tags and market acceptance as the overriding marks of quality and performance.

Having said all this, there are store brands I like and direct brands I like. Fritz is one of the latter. If you talk the former, Monitor Audio, Magico and Focal are some of the brands I tend to like.

Above all, buy what you will love.

Best,
E
erik_squires
16,732 posts
 
I wouldn't even briefly consider buying from a company that can't be bothered to stock and distribute their products through retail outlets.

Because that's just so damn easy, it's a real wonder everyone can't do it.

There's no reason to believe you're buying a better speaker that way. You're buying a speaker from a box company. None of those companies make their drivers. They just build the box and design a crossover, then buy everything else off the shelf.

Buying direct or not is not really an indicator of anything, but I will say this:

To get to retail (which is oh so very easy) you have to charge 10x more than your drivers cost. So if you are buying $30k speakers, at BEST the drivers might have cost $3k. The markup is often higher. If they make their own drivers it's easily 20-30  to 1.

Fritz is a really good example of some one using nicely designed crossovers and cabinets with top of the line parts and charging you a lot less than 10x. Also, they sound really really good. 
By all means, please go spend as much money as you can on speakers. On the other hand if you have your own ears and prefer to spend the least you can for the same sound quality like I do, then Fritz and Tekton make a lot more sense.

Not that I like everything either maker puts out.
erik_squires
16,732 posts
 
+1 for Fritz. Great value and well balanced. Top of the line parts for a fraction of other brand costs.

Last audio show I went to, I talked with a couple of recording professionals, both women, and Fritz was one of the few brands they would listen to. I agreed.

Best,
E
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