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Excellent Speakers for Classical Music - $2,000 USD Budget

Hello All...I am primarily a classical music listener, leaning more towards solo piano, symphony/orchestral, and chamber music. I have a Rotel A14 integrated amp in which I plan to add mono amplifiers to at some point in the future. I let a pair of B&W 804 Nautilus Speakers slip through my fingers recently. There is a B&W 804 Matrix set for sale near me, but don’t know if the Nautilus are better than the Matrix. So, I let a good pair slip through my fingers. But, it got me to thinking...Are there any other brands that I should consider besides B&W? I had in mind to audition Magenpan and Martin Logan electrostatics. Seeing that I only want to spend around $2,000, does anyone have any ideas?

In my office, I use Adam A7x nearfield monitors with ribbon tweeters, and for headphones, I love my Sennheiser 800S’. I like a nice detailed, clear, and forward sound. Would another ribbon tweeter floor standing set do it for me? Electrostats the way to go?

Looking forward to your suggestions.
dfwbach

Showing 1 response by mijostyn

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mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Having sold Ohm Walsh loudspeakers for 4 years at Luskin's HiFi in Miami Florida. I can say that they are certainly room filling and have a confused image probably from too much reflected sound but, I never lied the high end either. 
In your price range with your current amp I would be inclined to recommend a set of used Klipsch Heritage speakers like Heresy's or Cornwalls. Martin Logans will be OK for your purposes. I really do not like Magnepans until you get to the 3.7i which is a great speaker for the money but have neither the power or finances for them. You want an efficient speaker with reasonable directivity. This is where horn speakers excel. 
Reproducing a symphony orchestra is no joke. You have to be ready to reproduce 100dB peaks effortlessly if you want to get bass and Kettle drums right. 
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