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Best bookshelf speakers

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
stuff_jones OP
65 posts
 
^ Cutting out a significant margin must mean more speaker for your dollar, all else equal right? If you shave off the retailers 40 percent or whatever, the consumer is getting those savings.

As far as criticizing direct sellers for not making their own drivers - That seems like criticizing Lenovo for not making their own CPUs. It's the final product that matters, right? 
erik_squires
16,056 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.
sgmistretta's avatar
sgmistretta
1 posts
 
I know the BMRs are big but what you are describing is exactly what they give you at a price well below the 2k mark. Take the savings and put it towards the amp without sacrificing anything. I have owned the BMRs for a few months now. I cannot peel myself out of the chair. So smooth, so detailed and oh so natural. Absolutely love my speakers!! 
laserjock1963
139 posts
 
I haven’t heard many of these speakers but I bought a pair of Revel M106 for 5.1 surround duty and played them in 2 channel with a very small mini tube amp using Tidal as a source. 

They sound very good with what I’ve thrown at them. $2k MSRP but can probably get them a little cheaper or used for about half that. 
mrmanisundaram
82 posts
 
+1 for Legacy Studio Hd.  I use a Heed Elixir amp with them in my second syatem, and it is a great combo.  Good luck.
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