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Help Deciding On New Speakers For Small Room, $10k budget

Hello everyone! A brief background. For the first time in my life, I have a dedicated room for listening! šŸ™Œ Iā€™m very excited about it. However, itā€™s not very big. Something is better than nothing though. Previously I always lived in apartments and had to primarily listen on headphones. The room size is 10 feet by 11 feet with 10 foot ceilings, almost a perfect square. It has already been professionally sound treated with many panels from Gik Acoustics. So despite its tricky sizing, it should be all set up for a proper experience! And I already have a nice chain, a McIntosh MC52 Preamp and Primare Power Amp and CD Player with a Holo Audio May KTE. Oh, I also have a Rel A7X subwoofer.

I unfortunately have a disability that makes it very difficult for me to travel. I cannot easily just go to a hifi store and try things. I also live kinda in the middle of nowhere. But Iā€™m a former professional musician and music is my life, and I want to feel connected to my music as much as I can, so Iā€™m willing to invest into it. I have a budget of about $10k give or take $1k or so. I donā€™t mind looking at used options in like new condition.

A little about my hearing preferences: I am very sensitive to high frequencies, specifically around 7k-10k. For reference, every hifi headphone Iā€™ve ever used made me wince because the high frequencies are too pronounced. I just put up with it because I didnā€™t have a choice, but Iā€™ve noticed that with speakers Iā€™m usually not so sensitive to them so Iā€™m excited to go down this journey and enjoy my music listening more. I like powerful, punchy bass, and generally prefer a warmer sound signature, however, even though my ears are sensitive to higher frequencies, I love a nice crisp and realistic cymbal sound. In general, as a musician, I think Iā€™d love something that sounds ā€œtrue to lifeā€ because I have obviously a lot of experience hearing instruments live. I mostly listen to jazz (because Iā€™m a jazz musician) but I also love music of all genres like rock, electronic, pop, soul, alternative, and occasionally K-Pop too, Iā€™m pretty open minded. So something that is a good all-rounder might also be nice. Writing this all out, I now think I might be asking for the moon though, so letā€™s just say jazz and realistic instruments is my main priority šŸ˜‡


So with all that said, I would greatly appreciate your suggestions. Iā€™ve been looking at Focalā€™s line of Kanta and Sopra but Iā€™ve heard they are bright. Iā€™ve heard B&W but I donā€™t think their house sound is for me, again too bright. Ā Also debating between bookshelves and small floor standers for a smallish room. Iā€™ve been looking also at Canton, Dali, Tannoy and Wharfdale, but Iā€™m not as familiar with the speaker world as I am the headphone or IEM world, so Iā€™m quite open to ideas. Thank you so much and best wishes on the evening of this crazy time Iā€™m in the U.S.!

cookiecurls
cundare2
267 posts
 
exley_99
+1

Iā€™m in very much the same situation as the OP. Iā€™m older and not able to handle heavy components, live in an isolated area & unable to travel to shows or dealers to hear before I buy, have a relatively small (14x17) listening room, and have absolutely no tolerance for brittle high ends. My previous speakers were a pair of Quad ESLs that I restored over the course of a decade.

When I downsized upon retirement, I was advised by no less than Art Dudley that any of Harbeth model would be a close sonic match to the ESLs. My suggestion: The latest "HD" iteration of Harbeth's C7 has received glowing reviews from Stereophile & TAS (worth reading), and are priced low enough to leave room in your budget for cables. Harbeth consistently earns a spot in both magazines' Recommended Components lists.

And, despite their relatively low nominal sensistivity, the C7 is easy to drive, with low LS3/5A-type reactance and consistently moderate-to-high impedance. Theyā€™re also a heckuva lot easier than an ESL-57 to mate with an external sub.

Iā€™ve been listening to my pair for 8 or 9 years now and every time I upgrade anything in my $40-50K system, the Harbethsā€™ sound quality also improves -- theyā€™re still not a weak link.Ā  Even today, powering them with a recently added $19,000 T+A integrated, well-recorded LPs still leave me breathless.

My second and third choices would be speakers that stimulate the gizmo-loving geek in me: Vividā€™s wild little S12 (available in any automotive color!) and MBLā€™s admittedly pricier 126 or 120 (because Iā€™d love to hear a true omnidirectional speaker in my room). But even though I now have the means to consider speakers in the $20-30,000 range, the unassuming little Harbeths still do the job for me.

Hey, if I ever do decide to move to something like an MBL, Iā€™d sell you my pair for not too much money. If the little I can glean from your original posting is correct, the C7s would satisfy all your requirements.

<And no, Iā€™m not trying to sell gear on this forum. If I ever did replace the Harbeths, it wouldnā€™t be until at least next year. Iā€™m just sayinā€™.)

Anyway, good luck with your search. Let us know what you finally decide.

dtorc
35 posts
 

If I were in your situation, Iā€™d consider speakers by Larsen. They are meant to be placed right next to the wall, and yet supposedly gift a decent soundstage regardless. They are said to be a little on the warmer side. It may make sense for your smaller room to not have to bring the speakers too far forward.

petar3
63 posts
 

i have your size room and Dynaudio contour makes me happy everydayĀ 

rbstehno
1,431 posts
 

I used to have a small room like yours. The problem you will have is controlling the bass if you go with any floorstanding speakers except if they have small woofers like the revel m35 or revel f226be. Any floorstanding speakers except with a large woofers, you wonā€™t be able to get the volume right. You need to turn up a he volume to get any bass and then he volume is too loud for the room.

so what I did is get a good bookshelf speaker like the: totem model one, totem model 1ā€™s, revel m106be, the tad bookshelf, usher mini x with DMD tweeters, usher mini dancer 1, then use 2 rel t7/x subs, because you can adjust the volume for the subwoofer to get the bass you want without overloading the room.

I agree with you: the non-utopia focals, and the B&Wā€™s are too cold sounding

disc
118 posts
 

Another vote for Joseph Audio. Ā I have the relatively small floor standing Perspective2s. Ā I love them in my smallish room. Ā You can definitely find the pulsars at your price point, but might find a pair of good used perspectives or Perspective2s, even. Ā There are a lot of wonderful speakers out there. Ā  Happy hunting!

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