In the Market for new speakers

Try to find Revel, Sonus Faber and Monitor Audio, too.

I'm also looking for new speakers in this range. I heard the Dynaudio Contour 3.4s. Smooth and resolved, but polite-- not enough sense of musical excitement for my taste. The Revel F30s are sweet and detailed, but a little bass-shy. Very low bass distortion, which supposedly gives them their lean sound (no warm-sounding doubling of the bass due to 2nd order distortions). I heard the Sonus Fabor Cremonas the other day -- beautiful! Detailed, sweet, and smooth. Great sense of musicality. But lacking that last octave of bass extension, which I would expect in a speaker at this price. If you're not a bass hound, I'd give it strong consideration. I'm still looking for Platinum T8s to audition. Haven't found a PSB dealer with any in stock yet. I'm interested in hearing Revel F50s... should have the same good qualities of F30s, but with full bass extension.

For those "stuck" with Paradigm locally, the new Paradigm Signatures should be out in a month or two. My hifi guy I've been buying from for years swears they're the ones to wait for. I've never liked Paradigms, but the Reference 100's caught my ear recently and he said the Signatures will blow me away.

While waiting to be blown away (and probably not about to buy a Paradigm speaker), I went ahead and picked up a pair of Totem Forests. The clarity is incredible. Hmm.. I'm not audiophile-lingo-fluent... how to put this.. they're transparent, I guess is the term. If I put crappy equipment with them, they go downhill real quick. If I upgrade the equipment, they shoot right back up. I'm not sure I'll ever reach their potential. I'm warming up an Anthem setup to go against the Musical Fidelity A300 that's kept me happy for weeks now. On the way is an NAD Silverline S100 preamp that'll pair with a BAT VK-200. Those are my 3 options right now. The speakers, well, they're chosen.

My two notes, pay for a good CD Player. I'm looking for recommendations on that right now, I have an Arcam Alpha 7 that I just got to try them out, and I'm pretty happy, but I think I'd like to look at the Cary. The other thing to note is these are not efficient speakers. Give them juice, the more, the better. Make sure it's clean, but make sure they get lots of juice.
-Bill

I upgraded speakers recently and after auditioning many speakers. The Von Schweikert VR 1's and VR 2's easily out performed the competition in the same price range and well beyond. I mostly listen to rock/pop and believe you would be impressed with all aspects of reproduction. You can spend more and get less with other well known companies.