Need advice on loudspeakers Southern California


Hi guys I am new to the high end home audio scene and I wanted to get some advice from some experienced audiophiles. I use to be into high end cars, but my wife just had our 3rd child 3 months ago, now I feel it's time for me to throw in the towel and spend most of my time at home now, and take on a new hobby that I can enjoy at home. One of my good friends owns the Wilson Watt Puppy and I think they sound great, but he told me there are other options available. Now I am familiar with high end sound for the car, but totally new to home audio. Any advice or experiences on speakers 50-100k would be great. I have a pretty big home theater room that the speakers will be going in so size isn't really a big issue, I just need some good info, in the mean time I'll be searching this whole forum to absorb all the information I can. Thanks in advance!
bruce74

Showing 1 response by audiokinesis

Bruce74,

Welcome, and I hope you enjoy your interaction with us audio loonies here. As you probably guessed, there are some very very nice speaker systems in your price range. I'm a dealer and a speaker manufacturer, but what I'm going to suggest here is not something that I build or sell.

There's a small speaker company called Sonicweld that builds unorthodox loudspeakers of incredible sound quality. They do not advertise so you are unlikely to encounter them unless you go to their room at an audio show. The two most recent audio shows I attended were the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver, and at both shows my favorite speaker was the Sonicweld "Pulserod" system (actually, the system includes amplification and preamplification, so all you'd need would be a source).

http://www.sonicweld.com/

At first glance the Sonicweld system looks like it's all about eye candy, but that wouldn't impress me much. In fact, I had to get past my prejudice against audio jewelry to appreciate how natural they sound. But on recording after recording, these darn things dropped my jaw. They aren't a reach-out-and-grab-you initially impressive speaker; they are an incredibly refined, naturalness-and-nuance speaker that is enjoyable to listen to for hours on end. They have become my wife's favorite speaker; they're what she wants once I start making some serious money from my own designs (which fortunately do not compete in the same price range as the Sonicweld system).

High-end cars aren't my thing, but presumably there's the flashy, high-profile, impress-the-inexperienced type of car. And then there's the low-profile, supremely refined, utterly enjoyable, appreciated-by-the-select-few kind of car, of which maybe less than a dozen a year are built. The Sonicweld system would be analogous to the latter, in my opinion.

Now I don't know for sure that the Sonicweld system is necessarily the right choice for you - that depends on what your requirements are. But imho Sonicweld is the undiscovered masterpiece among ultra-high-end uberspeakers in your price range.

Best of luck in your quest.

Duke