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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! 🙌 I’m very excited about it. However, it’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 I’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 I’m willing to invest into it. I have a budget of about $10k give or take $1k or so. I don’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 I’ve ever used made me wince because the high frequencies are too pronounced. I just put up with it because I didn’t have a choice, but I’ve noticed that with speakers I’m usually not so sensitive to them so I’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 I’d love something that sounds “true to life” because I have obviously a lot of experience hearing instruments live. I mostly listen to jazz (because I’m a jazz musician) but I also love music of all genres like rock, electronic, pop, soul, alternative, and occasionally K-Pop too, I’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 let’s just say jazz and realistic instruments is my main priority 😇


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

cookiecurls
zlone
652 posts
 

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 LS50’s to KEF Reference 1’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. 

east17
21 posts
 

A good used pair of Wilson Audio TuneTots may be ideal.

ptrck887
83 posts
 

Years ago, Magnolia Audio carried Primare and paired frequently with Sonus Faber for a good reason.....Primare tends to be on the "analytical" side of the spectrum and worked well with Sonus Fabers which are on the "warmer" side.  In a small 11' x 16' room, I had great success, first with SF Cremona Auditor M's and later the highly respected SF Guarneri Evelutions, which are in your budget on the used market.  I also tried Harbeth Compact 7's, Super HL 5+ and by quite a margin prefered the SF Guarneri's.  

Have fun!

yoder
26 posts
 

I have heard some other great brands referenced, but the ones I have lived with the most, check all the boxes for me, and seem to check the boxes of OP would be Daedalus.  Not fatiguing.  I don't listen to much jazz of late, but they've steered me towards more acoustical music because they sound so good and natural.  Also plenty of punch and bass for me on my other music preferences.  I've used a couple models in medium and small rooms.  For me dual 8's didn't overload a small room, but single 8" woofer would be in the budget range.  I have some Athena's, but Muse would fit budget new.  Placement wasn't an issue for me with rear ports, but the Muse has front ports also allowing close placement to wall in small room.  Subwoofer needs would be to your tastes, but the Daedalus are pretty impressive to me.  I'm a bit of a bass head, but I often run without my subwoofers, but they are needed if you want response down to 20 Hz or lower.

gickcf
6 posts
 

I'd offer a couple of suggestions. Maybe buy new so you can get plenty of audition time and return speakers that don't do it for you. Because in the end of course, it's going to be your preference for the sound signature. I'd throw Elac Vela speakers into the mix of what to try. I have Elac Vela 403s (bookshelf two-way) and the sound is great for my taste. Vocals, especially female vocals are special, and drums fantastic. The Jet tweeter is, I think, largely responsible. They have just revamped their Vela line to 2.0, with some expanded options. All of them have downward-firing ports which helps with placement, and they have moved to the JET 6 version of the tweeter. It's a Heil AMT design and offers amazing clarity with no fatigue. You want to hear shimmer in cymbals, and the rattle of the drum kit?  I have Revel Performa 226 BE speakers and while they are really good, the HFs are relatively dry and lack some of the detail of the Elacs. The Elacs are also very musical. and well within your budget. You could try the 404 or 407, add a couple of small REL subs (if desired although maybe not necessary with the 407s) and be well under $10k. My two bits. 

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