Thank you everyone, I greatly appreciate your suggestions. It seems everyone has a different idea and there is no common ground. This hobby is frustrating sometimes... :) I am leaning on just sticking with my current pair of speakers for now, having already overspent recently. I made two impulse purchases on ebay, one for a Nad T175 and a Proceed AMP5 -- good prices I just didn't want to pass up. I think I am going to demo between the Nad and my Cary Cinema 6, and between the Proceed amp and my Rotel/Odyssey amps, figure out which ones I want to keep, sell the rest, THEN revisit this speaker issue. Meanwhile I'll keep all your suggestions in mind and do more research. Thanks!! |
Check out the NHT 3.3. It is full range speaker with a pair of side firing 12" drivers. I have not heard them in quite some time, but they sounded quite good when I did. There are some for sale on this site at about your price point. |
Here's a speaker I've heard, and was very impressed by, that you can buy NEW for $1K/pr.: www.dcmspeakers.com. The TFE200 made beautiful music with a 15 watt/channel Jolida tube integrated and Jolida CDP at HE2007 in NYC. The room was not one of the small guest rooms, but a conference room bigger than most living rooms. They are not small, but bang for the buck is off the charts, IMHO. Plus, if you don't like them, you can return them for 30 days. You lose only the shipping fees. (I am not associated with DCM Loudspeakers.) I am looking to upgrade speakers into the $3-6K/pr range, and I am not so sure I shouldn't try the TFE100s ($800/pr) first (the 200's are too big for my room). They were that good, IMO. |
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Rakuennow,
The newer amps may sound better, but either the Proceed Amp 2 or 3 sound very good to me driving my KEF Reference 104/2s. I use a Proceed PAV/PDSD pre/pro, a 2 chassis AVP if you will, although the AVP was said not to be as good. For HT, I invoke a pair of KEF Reference 102/2s and a 200C. Cross over to a Velodyne HGS-15 is at 80 Hz. Sources are a Sony 9000ES for CD and SACD, a PlayStation 3-80 for DVD, and a DirectTV HD-DVR. The result is a very satisfying system for music, film, or TV.
db |
go to mayaudio.com and pick up a pair of castle harlechs for 1050. yep, classic british loudspeakers, heirloom build, and sound that pretty much competes with anything around 5k. even when they were sold at their last retail of 2700 they were a steal. all new, and lots of beautiful flavors too. |
Hi, I was in the same situation as you, and I went with the Epos m22's. I think I paid about 1100.00 for them here. I have not heard a lot of speakers as it is near impossible to audition gear on the north shore of Kauai, without ridiculous shipping costs. I had the m12.2's before. The m22's have a similar sound with much deeper bass. I like them, beautiful midrange, but like I said, I don't have much to compare them to. |
I was going to mention two of Sonicbeauty's choices, the two Quads and the Polk LS 15. Love all three of these.
I will contrast their faint praise of Totems by suggesting a used pair of Staffs as another brilliant budget tower and available used in your price range. Totem Arros come in at even less used, and while a bit light in the bottom end, they image better than most monitors, or pretty much any other speaker I have ever heard, period. And their slim profile takes up less floor space than most speaker stands.
I really like the B&W CM7's too, but I am not sure any of them are old enough yet to be showing up on the market in the $1000 range.
Finally, I have heard Dynaudio Audience 72's make beautiful music with relatively modest NAD separates. Not sure but you might be able to find a pair of these online for around a grand. |
I did a lot of research on Energy speakers old and new and listened to the current top of the line Veritas (2.4i) at a dealer in a very good room and carefully set up connected to all Ayre gear. No go.... Not too impressive at all. I have not heard the 2.8's but they were strongly recommended to me by another Agoner just as they are being recommended to you, and over the current line. |
One more thing. Is the Energy Veritas 2.8/1.8 significantly different from the newer Veritas lines? I can't seem to find any info on the older models. |
Thanks for all the responses. Keep them coming! I will look into the models mentioned. I actually enjoy the Monitor Audio GR10's; I found them to have deeper soundstage and superior imaging to a pair of Monitor Audio S10's, which I also have. However, I was unsure whether to write that off as monitors vs floorstanders, or just the Gold line at work over the Silvers.
To Dan, who recommended the Proceed AMP2, have you tried the newer Proceed amps, namely the BPA/HPA2? I had the opportunity to pick up AMP2/3's for a nice price on Ebay, but decided to let them go due to reviews saying the later models were 'better'. Right now, I have a multichannel Rotel 1075 and Odyssey Monoblocks. Despite the glowing reviews and appreciation for the Odyssey amps here and everywhere else, I actually prefer the Rotels. Go figure. I find the Odysseys to be 'bright', accentuating higher end frequencies, compressed lows, although a bit wider soundstage compared to Rotels. I also found unacceptable hiss and hum cable interference over the Odysseys, which can be reduced by organizing the cables a bit, but I never had that problem with the Rotel. I'm still a learning newbie though, so take my observations with a grain of salt.
Back to speakers, my main concern is being able to find a floorstanding model of equal or better quality than the GR10's for around $1000 used. Then, it would eliminate having to invest in stands. I would hope not to have to sacrifice imaging. |
In all honesty, and I humbly state that I have owned speakers up to the $ 16,000 Verity Audio Parsifal Encore (my review is here on the 'Gon about those), there are three speakers that stood out in my experiences over the years in this price range.
In third place, the QUAD 22L or 21L floor standing speakers, very nice for the money.
In second place, the Opera Mezza monitors that you could probably find for a grand. Small monitors with a big, full sound.
In first place, an INCREDIBLY good speaker : The Polk Audio LS 15. You will find many comments and excellent reviews on them, most of them glowing. It has the same radiator tweeter as on some mega-buck speakers. Really, they are an absolute steal for the money, and compare favorably with speakers up to $ 3K maybe more. Don't snob the Polk logo on them. They are serious, well made, good-sounding and good-looking speakers.
Small boutique snob-shops won't dare carry them, as it would make selling a twice-the-price Totem speaker (or the like) quite a challenge. This is one speaker where the money is spent on sound, not the name. I once owned them and regret selling them to this day.
Good luck ! |
Shadorne hit is on the head - Energy Veritas is the speaker and not the version being sold today, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4, but the prior version, which as stated the 2.8's come from. The 2.8's were a Stereophile class "A" rated speaker from about 1993 to 1999 when they halted production. At $6,000 per pair and just GoodGuys selling them - it is no wonder why they stopped making them. Not a gloss finish cover put on like the current line of Veritas speakers, these were all PAINTED in gloss black!
Clearly expensive, but the speakers are VERY good. It is THE speaker I use and I have owned all but the top Wilson Alexandria's, I have owned Meridian DSP-8000's, I own JBL K2S9800SE's, BB&W Signature 800 and everything below, Revel (all), PMC (BB-5 and MC-1), Snell, Duntech, Dunlavy, etc. Veritas 2.8's are that good - they just are.
Now, they sell for $2,100 to $2,700 but their little brother, the 1.8's always sell for less than $1,000.
3" mid, 1" tweeter, a pair of 6.5 bass drivers, 3 ports and YOU DO NOT need a sub. I run 18" subs (from 4-8 in a room) but seriously, with the 1.8's and 2.8's subs for music are not necessary.
Only MAXX2's and Meridian DSP-8000's I could say this about - but I am a bass-head.
MAXX2's for about $40K, amplification for them at about $15K, or the Meridian DSP-8000's at $55K plus their electronics??? OR
Here is a phenomenal set up:
Veritas 1.8's - $900
Proceed AMP2 - $650
Proceed AVP (surround processor/preamp) - $650.
CD - most DVD players like an Oppo - $200.
$2,400 and done. YOU WILL BE SHOCKED how good this system is. When the day comes to make a complete surround system, add the Proceed AMP3 ($900), a Veritas 2.0C center ($350) and Veritas 2.0R surrounds ($400) and you are done.
You could thrown in a Velodyne HGS-12 for $600 and at a total system cost of about $4,600 you would have a system in which it would take substantially more to improve - BIG dollars, big room eq and treatments, and someone to work it all for you.
Veritas 1.8's or 2.8's - best speakers in their prospective used price points - without question according to PORSCHECAB!
Dan
Veritas 1.8's, sub $1,000, a Proceed AMP, BPA or HPA2 and |
Check out the Revel F12's, great speaker and you can get them for about 700.00 or 800.00..... |
Energy Veritas 2.8 used is up there in terms of good sound and good value. |
I think it depends on what's important to you in a speaker. As a gross generalization, all things being equal, monitors are going to give you better imaging, and floorstanders are going to provide better bass response. Is one of these more important to you than the other? You also didn't mention your room, as smaller rooms usually do better with the monitors (again, not always 100% true, but works as a generalization).
Since you already have the GR10's, why not invest in used speaker stands. Then, if you have a local dealer that you have a relationship with, see if you can borrow some floorstanders and so you can hear what some of them offer. And if you do decide that you prefer the sound of one of the floorstanders you hear, then you can sell the speakers and the stands to make the funds.
Michael |
check out the used meadowlark ospreys here on agon. perhaps a little pricey for you but great speakers. you just missed, maybe, a killer deal on a 'new' set of smaller brothers called sheerwaters by same co. here on agon. that listing says sale pending. was asking @800.00 and yes i do own a pair of meadowlarks and consider them to be tremoundous values and beautifully finished. why bother with stands if you have floorspace. even good stands have a footprint. |
