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

I have a room thatā€™s 12x13 and I am using the QLNĀ Prestige 3. Itā€™s a small, slim floor standing two way. It gives me the warm yet detailed sound that I prefer. There are plenty of reviews online that can give you more details.

Several of these suggestions are great! And provide superior sound quality in the right room with the right set up. But several may not be easy to place in your room. In order of priority:

1. Quad ESL 57s - nothing better with right room and set up. This is the reference to judge all others by. But may be difficult to place in your room.

2. Magnepsn LRS+ - very, very close to ESL 57s with right room and set up.

3. ATCs - but very expensive and might be a hair brighter than you like.

4. Harbeth M30.2s XD or SHL5s XD - sound very close to the ESL 57s with the right set up.

5. Qualio IQ Ultra - superb, but may be a bit large for your room.

For my money - Iā€™d focus on the LRS+ and Harbeths - wih the right set up - nothing is any better in that size room. And, of course, these are for all things acoustic as far as music.

PS Audio has a free in home trial option. This may be worth the time. The FR5ā€™s have gotten some great reviews.Ā 

Lots of great suggestions here, nothing I can add. I used to be in a room of similar size and only recently moved to a slightly larger one. During that transition I upgraded my KEF LS50ā€™s to KEF Reference 1ā€™s. They were too much speaker for the small room, but thrive in the larger one. My point is to be aware of overloading the room, and lean towards speakers that do well closer to the back wall.Ā