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My next upgrade

Hello All-

I have a newly built room in my basement.  15x 30 feet.  I am sharing the space with a 7.2.4 theatre and a 2.2 system for music only.  Both set ups are100% independent of each other.

Most of my electronics should be OK for now.  I thought that it was time to upgrade the speakers for I got to deep into treatments and hardware upgrades. 

I was thinking about a pair of Maggie 1.7x’s, but I have concerns they will disappoint when playing more dynamic music like rock or blues.  For classical, jazz, vocals etc, I expect amazing results.  And I do like some volume. 

So, with all of that said, I am looking for stage size, depth and imaging. 

Current system is:

  1. Schilit Kara
  2. 2x Schiit Aegir V1 (these may be replaced depending on the speakers selected.
  3. Gustard x26Pro
  4. Gustard DDC-18
  5. Gustard 10M Clock
  6. All cables are Audio Quest River XLR, carbon BNC and HDMI. 
  7. 2x REL 1205 subs
  8. B&W 705S2’s on FS 700 stands

I mainly stream Qobuz via Audiarvana on a MAC Mini M2.

The floor has thick carpet; ceiling is open rafters painted and the walls will not be treated if at all until after the speakers are selected.

The 705’ are currently 4 feet out and 4 feet off the walls about 8 feet apart.  I sit about 15 feet back from them.  My point here is that I do not feel placement will be an issue.

I hope that is enough info to get the juices flowing, let’s consider $6000 for budget to start.

Thanks in advance

Scott

 

 

 

 

 

 

upward_bound

Showing 1 response by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
7,984 posts
 

I have been a long time ribbon speaker enthusiast for over thirty five years. A while ago, I started asking, then why are the vast majority of speakers dynamic? There are lots of reason. But it set me to exploring and now I am a very strong supporter of them. While alternative speaker types excel at some attributes, they typically are not great overall. For the specific benefits come some significant compromises. And if you are not willing to adjust your electronics to suite ribbon, or horn speakers, you will not be getting the best. 

I think, in general, especially when on a budget, good floor standing dynamic speakers are your best all round solution. One attribute I did not understand with earlier speakers I owned was coherence. The "same sound" top to bottom. Once I moved to full sized floor standing speakers I understood coherence and really appreciate it. 

I would recommend auditioning Sonus Faber (natural / musical), B&W (a bit top and bottom heavy... really good for Rock), Wilson (great imagers... buy used), and DynAudio (outstanding detail). Totem might also be a good choice... not as "audiophile like", but really pleasing and music speakers. 

Find the "sound" you like. Then you can build up the rest of your system to get the most out of them. With $6K, I recommend used. You should be able to get a speaker from the $10K original cost range... and that is going to be a much better speaker. 

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