Help with narrowing down speaker choice


I've been struggling with final choice for a speaker. First, I have a small to medium sized room (16 X 13 X 9). I want an intimate speaker and I own tube amplification. I listen to and like Jazz, Folk, and Rock in that order.

The speakers not need to be true full-range but they need to be close. I currently own the Thiel CS 3.6 speakers and they're very close to full range. I really like my Thiels, but I'm looking for the next level. I wish to better the Thiels in resolution and natural sound, or that real instrument sound. I especially would like to see an improvement in pinpoint imaging. The Thiels are good at this but not great. BTW - My tube amplification excels at bass, and the Thiels dish it out. I have no room for subwoofers, nor do I want sacfrifice a lot of bass being already spoiled.

Speaker placement enters into the equation, as the speakers must be away from the side walls, so no corners. I can move the speakers up to three feet from the rear wall.

The main speaker on my current list is the Horning Aristoteles, but I've only heard the Eufrodites. The Aristoteles are also in my price point of under $10,000. I will also be using a triode amp, so an efficiency of above 90 dB is needed, especially if I later wind up with a low watt amp. So, figure from 7 to 28 watts/ch triode.

Here are three speakers that are my current contenders, but I don't know if I'll get to hear them all. As you can probably tell, they all share a similar footprint:

Horning Aristoteles
Coinicident Super Victory II
Reference 3A Grand Veena
kennythekey

Showing 1 response by david12

I think all 3 are good, having heard them all at different times. Personally, I didn't like the Coincident, which suprised me, after all the reports on them.
I have been looking for fuller range higher sensitivity speakers too and went to RMAF in 09 to search them out. I know you don't want other recommendations, but I am giving you 2 anyway. Firstly Silverline, the Boleros which are costly at about $13000, well it's costly to me. I enjoyed them very much.
The second and the one I bought and recommend, is Daedalus. I bought the Da-R Mas monitors, which are rated down to 38HZ, but have a deep fast natural sounding base. They are less than half the cost of the Boleros and exceptionally good value for the money. I bought those and they are my last speakers and yes I know everyone says it's their last, but I mean it