Looking for my End Game Speaker


I'm looking for my end game speakers.  My system currently consists a digital streaming front end with the Mola mola Tambaqui DAC and Grimm MU1 streamer along with Magico A3 speakers.  For amplification, I recently acquired on the used market, the Audionet Humboldt.  

I live in a small 960 sq ft condo in a highrise.  My system is in the great room (living, dining, and kitchen all in one).  Given the room configuration, my speakers have to be located close to a side wall (unless I radically change the room and block my balcony doors with my stereo).  Room dimensions are 12' x 16' (not including kitchen).   

The following speakers are on my list to auditon:

Marten Parker Trio,  Acora (SRB, SRC1, SRC2), Magico S3 - 2023, Magico M2, Joseph Audio, Franco Serblin, Rockport, Vivid Audio Giya G4, 

I have already heard the Acora SRC1 and thought they were amazing, however, perhaps a bit  bass shy.  

Given my room constraints, I'm concentrating more on the models that have a sealed box design.  Given that, I am very interested in the Magico M2 and S3 - 2023.  Has anyone heard these two models?  A used M2 would cost about the same as a new S3.  How do these two models compared?  Which would you choose?  

Can anyone recommend any other sealed box design speakers.....or any speakers that would fit into a relatively small room (close to the walls)?  I should also note that I would like a speaker that performs well with lower listening volumes....

I have booked my ticket to AXPONA 2025, so I'm making a list of speakers that I should audition.

 

calgarian5355

Showing 1 response by patrickdowns

Vandersteen Treo CT, which can be placed very close to the front wall, or its bigger brother the Quatro CT (or even the Kento, but $$$$) . The Humboldt is a superb integrated, I’ve read, and the question is whether it would work with the high-pass filters that the Quatro CT requires (and that’s why separates are more ideal with the Quatros).
https://www.vandersteen.com/categories/crossovers

Quatro Wood CT

"That's primarily what I want from a pair of loudspeakers—not deep bass (which these Vandersteens do have); not wide dynamics (at which the Wood CTs excel); not clean, uncolored mids and highs (something the Vandersteens readily offer); but a stereo virtual reality engine to connect me with the music I want [to] listen to. On that ground, a pair of Vandersteen's Quatro CTs scores big-time." ~
John Atkinson

https://www.vandersteen.com/products/quatro-wood-ct