Need speaker recommendations.

Whatever sounds best in your room.

@ishkabibil yes. I haven't kept up with the stereo speakers market much. So now I do have a fairly long list of recommendations to check out over the next few months. Some will be harder to audition, but still... its a fair bit of info to go on.

Amit

Go listen to a set of neat speakers

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@amitb, don't like that discourage you.  I think that either the Pulsars or Perspectives would sound great.  Take a look at all of the posts regarding those speakers here.  They are overwhelmingly favorable.

@moto_man I've been having a really discouraging time getting any replies from Joseph Audio. Zero response to submissions of Contact Us form.

Even calling up their dealer in Chicago hasn't been much better. They acknowledged they are a dealer, and after that, when I asked about some suggestions for amps they recommend for pairing with both Pulsar and Perspective, so that I can get a rough estimate of what sort of money I would have to spend for each combo (low to high)... they went silent. Mind you, I have shared with them my email, mobile phone number and address, as well as the dates I could be in Chicago (a couple of months ahead, so they can arrange for the demo equipment to be available)! As much as even I would like to consider them, I don't know if I want to entertain them anymore.

I second the recommendation for sealed/acoustic suspension speakers. The obvious choice for high-end sound is ATC (various models of differing sizes and costs). 

I have a pair of passive ATCs (SCM12 Pros) and find their sound very impressive. They're not reactive to placement to nearly the degree most ported speakers are.

In your setup you might get away with a downward firing port, in which case there are multiple models to choose from. I read rave reviews of a new Polk floorstander with downward firing bass ports:

If you do not mind active speakers, try GoldenEar Triton Reference speakers. They are exactly within your budget and superb.

 You can save yourself 8,000 and take your family on vacation by,buy the new Polk speakers....

Two feet four inches should be close enough. Lots of speakers mentioned here but I prefer ones that have an organic sound, that allows access to the music without the " detailed" of so many speakers. Resolution not detail is my thing, along with midrange. 

I use a Line Magnetic tube/SS DAC, the 502CA; amazing. I just slipped in an Aesthetix, Calypso linestage and also use a Manly, Shrimp and each are fabulous for very different reasons but both are an excellent match with the 7s. For amps I have run the Quad, 409, Cary, CAD 808R & soon may be inserting a set of Antique Sound Labs, Monsoon monoblocks full time. The Equations split time with a set of Sonus Faber, Cremona Auditor "M" and I find the 7s & Cremonas equally engaging. If you’ve read all the hype around the Cremonas then know that’s a solid compliment. People gush over the Cremonas; I don’t really prefer one over the other, depends on what I’m going to be listening too. Neither are what you’d consider heavy speakers so easy to swap them in and out

Yes the finish is awe inspiring. Glad that you like them as well. They were a fantasy speaker of mine after I heard them on sim audio moon W3 amps. Finally got a pair of 25s set them up on mark Levinson 33h amps they were ok but never like I remembered. I had put them on a hotrodded melody h88 amp thought they were ok. Then treated myself to a new old stock set of canary ca160 monoblocks and a canary CA 801/802 preamplifier. They just come to life and sing with these amps and pre infront of them put my Krell KPS 20I player in from of them and it is just magic. Lol have to look haw I can make the big system to keep up! They do not sell for much and the fellow looking for speakers I think would do really well getting a set of them if he can find them. It makes me so happy that someone else thinks that it is a magical pairing with tunes. I looked at some line magnetic amps before I bought the canary stuff. Which one did you get? 

Regards Tom

@amitb ​​@retiredfarmer - I am currently playing a set of Equation 7 and I can attest they are positively magical with tubes somewhere in one's setup. I have tubes straight through Cary, Manley, Aesthetix & Line Magnetic and they are just fabulously well rounded with eerie imaging. Tubes are the best fit for the metallic tweeters (stupidly accurate) but I will say that they have been tremendous driven with a Quad 409 amp as well. Yes, not made any more but the builder/distributor, Pascal Ravich is still around up in Montreal. He focuses on Audiomat electronics these days & Duevel speakers but he will give you hours on end about his love for Equation speakers, how the company came to be and ultimately how it ended. If you ever see a set of these for sale for $1500 or less (cabinetry is incredible) you should jump on them. Special speakers. Just my opinion.

I have Focal Sopra No.1 in a small office and there are close to the wall I'm certain a bigger/better room would allow them to shine even more but... they are truly amazing. I cannot live without them them anymore!

KEF R series, specs say 9" off the back wall. Check out page 11.

https://www.shop.us.kef.com/pub/media/documents/rseries/r2018_manual.pdf 

Magico A1s. Can be placed close to the walls and if you don't like the you can sell them and make your money back.

I was very impressed with the Joseph Audio Pulsars in my music room, about 2 ft off the wall.  My room is not as deep as yours, only 11 ft.  But I think that a pair of Pulsars is one of the great audio bargains because they hit way above their price point and sound great.  But speakers are like anything else in audio . . . Dependent upon room acoustics and your other equipment.

Check out Dutch and Dutch 8C. Optimized for against the wall placement. 9 grand, but active

Starke Sound Halo series. Designed to be placed close to the wall.

Heard the Volti Audio Razz speakers at the Capital Audio Fest 2021 show, they were singing all the praises an audiophile enjoys! The room was consistently full of listeners that were not talking, just enjoying the music.

In my opinion, they are worth a consideration. On a personal note, I’m purchasing the mid range model, the “Rivals”.

“Enjoy the Music”

https://voltiaudio.com/razz/

Cructhfield>Dynaudio>60 days

You might also want to listen to a pair of neat speakers I have a couple sets of. A home theater they are much better than my home theater system. I have the motive line the big ones out front and the small ones in the rear. The big ones are about six inches wide and three feet tall and eight inches deep. Down firing port. They were five thousand Canadian list. They are the deepest playing speaker I have ever had. They basically play flat to 27.  They better series are supposed to be in the very best made I have never heard there really high end ones. The neat speakers are so small they will not impress small boys'! Lol. 

The bid thing with equation speakers in a they are no longer produced so don't pay much if you find a pair. They were not good on my mark Levinson 33h just not enough load for the amp. They are beautiful on tubes. They were beautiful on the moon w3 I had years ago. 

@retiredfarmer  from everything I have read it appears that Harbeths need a fair bit of breathing room around them. So I'm not sure whether I want to take the trouble to audition them. I have never heard of Equation speakers, so lets see if I can find a dealer nearby.

@wsrrsw I'd like to start afresh with a new speaker-amp combo, whether integrated or SS/tube separates. I have a Marantz CD player from the late '90s.

@sryeager , @ecrotty it will be a lot of work to audition Ohm, Audio Note, Fritz, Tekton etc. May have to wait on them until I can go to a show?

Locally, top of my list, all of which I can easily audition are Vandies, Focal, Devore, Sonus Faber and Spendor.

I have been very frustrated with local dealers who claim to carry Revel/Dynaudio/DALI etc., but can't arrange for the distributors to ship them a model to audition. All talk, but no real follow up even though they know I could potentially buy one. Keep trying to steer me towards B&W or Focal... is this behavior something others see too?
 

@wdguru I am worried the ATCs might get costly on me quickly... but agree I should audition them.

@sandthemall OK, ok. Room is 14' wide, 18.5 deep (front to back wall), 9' ceiling height, hardwood floors but covered with a very large, plush, antique Persia rug 12'x16'. Lot of canvas art and framed photographic art on the walls. One fireplace with granite slab around it (floor to ceiling). Furniture can mostly be rearranged around what I need. I must also add that I have quality sound insulation in my walls and electrical connection and outlets separately wired for audio equipment. Two windows, both with acoustic shades. See 1 photo, with visible ledge 2.4' from floor, on left and right of fireplace... can post more later.

Im not an expert, but 90% don't give a single reason why this and that LOL

Dynaudio Evoke 50...

Spendor D series- downfiring ports.  sound great 1-2 feet from wall.  

Revel m35/36/206/208 or the revel 226be/228be, usher mini dancer II, mini-x, totem model 1/one/hawk/forest

With spl requirement and open to new electronics, the world is your Oyster. Wildcard as others stated is the room / furnishings / potential treatments. Maybe create a virtual system w some photos….so we get sense of the room. Worth a few road trip investments to get a sense of sonic palettes open to you. Visit a variety of dealers. What geo area are you in ?

best to you in music and on your journey

Jim

Vandersteen

Devore

Salk

not in any special order but you can call all three and get their input on what they would recommend.

If I was going to spend that kind of money on new speakers, I'd spend just a little more (say $9,450/pair right now which includes shipping in the continental U.S.) and go for the Tekton Ulfberhts. Yes, some people say they need to at least 3 feet out from a wall and they are beasts, but others say they work just fine 2 feet away from a wall and I have yet to read a negative review about them. Virtually every review says they're also tremendous values even at that price point. They also have a seriously high sensitivity, so they can be driven by just about any amp. You'll need some muscle to help you get them inside, but I think it would be worth it.

@singere  I have a Michi X5, being fed by an Aurender ACS-10 for streaming and ripped disc playback. Synergistic Research cables and power conditioner, 2 SVS 3000 subs adding low end extension.

Without a picture or drawing, your description is still vague.

You haven't told us the width of the wall...only height and depth of the room. There's no description of the room materials so that we might suggest a speaker design that might fit the space.

My advice: take a straight-on picture of your room with something in the scene to approximate scale. Then in Photoshop or another graphics program, add various speaker images to the scene that look the best to you. Preferably speakers that play well with your electronics and room dynamics.

Otherwise it really doesn't matter what you pick...

I agree the ATC SCM40 speakers would be a great choice mainly because of the sealed cabinets. I also use Rythmik subs and other than the bass extension you can't tell that they are in the room. Very easy to set up. 

Including in the million dollar ranges (to finish my post)

+1 on the ATC SCM40

I have owned the ATC SCM35 floorstanders for 18 years. The great thing about sealed cabinets is that they are very easy to set up n any room. The lack of the port interacting with the room really simplifies setup. I have mine about two feet from the wall, with a very neutral sound presentation with soundstage and depth about as good and holographic as any system I have heard, incl

Anything with a front port or down firing port would work fine...take your pick....lots to choose from.

+1 for Fritz speakers. I have a pair of Rev 7's placed about 18" from the wall in a 12x12 room. Crazy bass extension and airy highs. I'm running them on a PrimaLuna Evo 300 integrated and it's a beautiful pair.

1. @amitb  You will get thousand recommendations . Are you close to NJ or NY ?

mournbladeiv - what componenets do you have in your system with your Sonus Faber speakers?

I have been very Happy with my Sonus Faber Sonetto Viiii;s. down firing port works well , 2 feet from the wall should sound fine. I also love the shape and color choices (I have piano black, but the walnut and piano white are quite nice)

+1 Klipsch Cornwall IV. MaybeTannoy too. 
 Your other gear?

This is the size smaller I listened to them back in the day I thought these were no e I liked the 25 s better these were 7000 Canadian the 25 were 10000.canadian

@henry53 

it's all relative, I tried a dozen speakers and found one pair exceptionally good, one that you found boring. 

Well  I am quite different than the above poster but I think the difference is that I like harbeth speakers but I have a high power solid state amp.on them. A mark Levinson 33h. Harbeth s like lots of power. So I also have a pair of slh5 speakers. Not one of the monitor s. They are far more more musical than the monitor speakers. You will need an amp that can swing current.  Now if you want tube amplifier s I would recommend a canary amp. I had a stroke of luck the other day and bought some new old stock ca160 monoblocks for a great price. Between that and the canary ca801/802 preamplifier and a Krell KPS 20i I had they are really making an older pair on equation 25 s I have sing. Wonderful combination with second generation transparent reference wire. Those speakers are rare but when you find a pair cheap. Here is a link to the harbeth speakers.

Bought a pair of Larsen's years ago, thankfully second hand, I refurbished them and made money on the resale.  They sounded good but only with amps I could afford.  I was using a 50 watt Creek at the time and it never drove them at all. I tried a friends very expensive Naim and what a difference.  For what it's worth having tried dozens of speakers for my small music room, 3.2 x 4.5, I find Harbeth, many Wharfedales, all Monitor Audio, and most Dynaudio just plain boring.  On the other hand I find all horn based speakers painful to listen to and just plain awful for voice, especially Klipsch. One exception, Fyne Audio I listened with both tubes and SS and liked the F1 - 5 very nice, and the F7 -00 very good too, albeit both with 2 subwoofers, as per my home set up. Yes 2 subs in a small room.  It works extremely well for me with my Audio Physic Sitara 25's.

"Don’t care between stand-mounted or floor-standing"

why?

Audition planners before you buy. Good luck!

B&W 803’s. 
vanderstein signature II 

my favorites though are my Dalquist DQ 10’s with the factory crossover and base module. Love those but they will make you listen to them LOUD

I'm using a pair of Vandersteen Treo Ct's approx 11 inches from front wall with good results.