Candidates for best speakers in the $2000-5000 market
I’m asking for listeners’ experience in this bracket, buttressed by reviews and/or data; I am not a fan of "whatever sounds good to you." Ultimately, yes, that will be the case. But in getting to that point, I’m looking to benefit from the advantage of a thousand pairs of ears rather than mine alone. Those ears can include the inanimate. Thank you.
My experience has included my own Elac 403, Elac 407, and Dynaudio Special 40. Auditions have included various Sonus Faber, and Magico. All of this is in preparation for justifying the leap for an Electa Amator lll or its equivalent. But that’s for another day, another forum.
If you have a smaller sized room, check out the KEF LS50 Meta + KEF KC62 sub. I bought the LS50 Meta as a backup speaker after my old LS50 got damaged. The plan was to buy the $10K USD Yamaha NS3000 monitor from Canada. It is very much like the NS5000 that is sold in the USA, but for smaller rooms. However, after hearing the KEF pairing, I realized the money for the NS3000 was better kept in my pocket. |
Monitor Audio Silver 500 7G. Stereophile didn’t put them in ’Class A’ for nothing. Amazingly clean, effortless sounding great soundstage. Dual-8s with dual ports mean more than adequate and room-tunable bass. For smaller rooms or placement nearer walls, the Silver 300 7G is the same midrange and tweeter with dual-6s and offers the same amazing midrange/treble clarity with bass to the low-mid 40s. My personal daily listen. FWIW, I also have a pair of LS-50s and Maggie LRS, with a subwoofer available, both speakers I admire greatly, but neither worked well in my living room (too big for the near-field LS-50s, couldn’t place the Maggies properly). There’s no shortage of excellent speakers in this price range, but I now have no desire to change. Since the MAs might leave you with a bit of a budget cushion, I would strongly urge you to consider some room treatment panels. I've found Acoustimac https://www.acoustimac.com/ great to deal with - flexible in their offerings, affordable and quick delivery. You'll be amazed at the results, and their fabric and design options make achieving a high SAF entirely possible. |
Lots of great choices mentioned. You may need to consider a large monitor or mid size tower to fill that size room, but if you’re limited to a smaller monitor: Often overlooked but worth investigation are the Aerial Acoustics 5t, Stereophile Class A rated and also super sexy in Ebony finish, ~$3K used if you can find them. |
If I were in your position—needing a speaker that is both aesthetically right and that sounds great—I would start by selecting some possibilities among those that will look good in your room, and then choose from there. There are many choices. Twice, I was in the position of wanting to choose something that both sounded good and looked good (or at least appropriate) in my living spaces. In both cases I researched and tried a number of options. These choices likely won’t apply to your situation. In a medium-size room I chose the KEF LS60s, which are proving to be a perfect visual and sonic choice for our living situation. The second choice might be controversial, but for our large room we eventually chose the Magnepan 1.7i with the light-colored, natural grill cloth. While the panels are large, the light shade and ability to move them easily if necessary makes the size almost a non-issue. I haven’t had to move them out of the way yet, and they’ve been in use for 8 years. Enjoy making your choice! |
Four of my friends own Legacy Signature III speakers. Available at $2000 or under. Sure they are used. They beat out every speaker mentioned in terms of dynamics, deep bass, ease to drive (except Harbeths), besides not losing anything of great significance to any of the others. However, they are moderately large size and weight 135 lbs. I have them in my second system (paid $1600). What a bargain!!! I'm looking for another pair for my TV audio room. |
