Looking for speaker recommendations


I am trading in my PMC Twenty5.26’s and looking for new speakers. My room is 15 ft. L x 12 ft. W with a 8 ft. ceiling. The speakers will be driven by Metaxas Solitaire monoblocks and a Devialet 200 pre-amp. Some speakers that I can get in my price range are:
B&W 804 D3
Legacy Audio Signature SE
Paradigm Persona F3
Vivid Audio B1
Joseph Audio Perspectives
Dynaudio Contour 60
Magico A3
I am looking for a greater soundstage and bottom end slam while maintaining the clarity of the PMC’s. I listened to the B&W’s and Paradigms and preferred the B&W’s. Not sure if any of the other speakers would be too much for my room or not? Any comments on these speakers would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

darrenmc

your dealer is wrong, we have both the legacys  and t he personas in a similar sized room 

 

our demo room is 18 long  14 wide with 10 hoot ceilings and both speakers sound great in this room.

congrats on the josephs

Dave and Troy

Audio intellect nj

legacy and persona dealers 

we

  1. I have B&W 804 D3s with a big Naim/ Linn system and am very happy with them. However, my room is a little bigger in every direction and is still only just big enough. In my system and room I get strong but tight bass, but good and wide stereo requires them to be 2 feet from any walls. If you really can’t do this, you may well have to look elsewhere.

 

  1. The bass on the PMC was more obvious than that of the B&Ws if anything when tested, if less well controlled, but imaging and air on (for example) female vocals wasn’t great, and they were much better with some bits of music than others.

 

  1. The fact that what I heard from the PMCs is not what you hear probably highlights that these things are very room/ system/ ears- dependent. Whatever else you do, I’d strongly encourage you to hear 3 or 4 options in your home before spending that sort of money.

 

  1. I think many of the speakers on your list need even more space around them than my B&Ws, particularly if you get enthusiastic with volume. That would also apply to (say) the excellent Spendor D9.2 and just about anything with a rear-firing port.

 

Others can cover this better than I, as I don’t know all the speakers on your list, but I have yet to hear (say) KEF or Vivid speakers that did not need a lot of space to be at their best.

 

  1. The bass issue will probably mean you end up with floorstanders, but it is worth hearing what good stand-mounts can do. I’d try B&W 805 D4 and/ or Focal Sopra Number 1s. You can add well-integrated and high quality subs if needed.

 

  1. At shops, the B&W 804s didn’t win my auditions – that was at my house. The winner in most rooms was significantly cheaper, a lot smaller and a lot happier within 12-18 inches of walls – the Neat Xplorer. If you have not heard these remarkable speakers, I would vigorously encourage you to do so (and not to judge the sound with your eyes, if you see what I mean).

 

  1. Of course, that last bit highlights again how room-dependent these things are, and in the case of the B&Ws (and others on your list) how sensitive they are to position & toe-in.  A 20-minute session or all day in a dealer’s showroom will not be enough for most of us listeners to be at all confident of getting the right answer.

 

  1. If getting enough control and power in bass is proving a huge problem, and you have no wriggle-room on positioning, Klipsch may offer the best solution available.

 

  1. Finally, you can save a vast amount of money by buying speakers of this quality second-hand or ex-dem. Some would feel bad about having a dealer demo at your house, and then buying second-hand at a 40% discount off eBay. If you are one of them, that doesn’t stop you picking a speaker now, with help from 1, 2 or even 3 dealers – and then deciding to wait until someone has an ex-dem pair. At least, that’s what you can say now…