2. speakers
  3. 140026-121318

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
Post removed 
Post removed 
anonymous-vn
3 posts
 
A pretty many topics of interest, but I do not know what bookshelf speakers are? Can somebody please tell me?
mrfungi
10 posts
 
Stuff Jones,
Sounds like we're at about the same stage.  I bought the S400's and they just arrived so haven't gotten to listen to them just yet.  Great experience so far.  Good luck on your journey putting together a system you can enjoy for years to come.  Such a subjective thing (what sounds good).  And so many variables and idiosyncrasies to everyone's listening environment.

The S400's piqued my interest because of the reviews and I'm expecting  they will hold their own against other speakers of similar price/category.  They'll be playing in the local Best Buy Magnolia room along side the ML, DT and B&W speakers so I'll have some sense of that pretty quickly.

I figure the big names started out as the little guys making good speakers with a compelling value proposition in their segment.  That's what I hope Buchardt is producing and what I bought into. 

Good luck :-)


stuff_jones OP
65 posts
 
@mrfungi - looking forward to your impressions. There’s not much info on them online and I’m always a little suspicious of over the top early buzz on a product. But that return policy covers you.

As of now, I’m leaning heavily towards the Philharmonic BMRs. I can’t order until next month when I move so I still have some time to deliberate but those look like the best value proposition right now if you can convince yourself to get over the large size. The guy makes them at barely over the cost of the parts, according to several reviewers.
More to discover