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New house, wife reveals she hates my Maggies- looking for stand mount speaker suggestions

Just closed on a new house and as we were walking through and discussing furniture, my wife revealed she has always hated my Maggies and wants them not to make the move.  I have had a semi-dedicated music room, so they were kind of out of sight at our old place, so she never complained.  So a bad news but good news (new speakers!) situation.

Present set up is near field, room perhaps 10x10,but partially open, angled ceilings for some pretty good acoustics. Should be able to set up similar size near field space in new home.

Amp is Primaluna HP with 8xEL34, Conrad Johnson ET7 tube preamp, PS Audio Direct stream DAC and Naim Uniti digital ripper/hard drive.  I listen to lots of different music, but always come back to acoustic guitar or piano with female or male vocalists, or acoustic jazz.  Big soundstage, vocal warmth and detail (guitar strings plucking) are what I enjoy.

My Wife liked (the looks of) my old Rogers LS3/5a back in the day, or my Reference 3a Royal Masters.  So I figure I will be looking for a stand mount monitor.  But my budget is $5-10k, used or new, so I suspect I can do better than the LS3/5a.

i have always loved the Joseph Audio Pulsars, but you never see them used and the new graphine ones are out of my price range. Looking for other ideas:  Sonus Faber are easy to look at, but I have never listened to their monitors.  The monitor versions of Raidho and Focals are ugly enough to fail the WAF test.

so help me out here- what should I consider?

meiatflask

Showing 3 responses by soix

soix
10,485 posts
 

The PS Audio speakers look intriguing but not sure they’re a good fit for your amp given Stereophile’s measurements, just fyi…
 

PS Audio specifies the Aspen FR5's voltage sensitivity as 83.5dB/2.83V/m; my estimate was slightly lower, at 82.6dB(B)/2.83V/m, the same as my Rogers LS3/5a. The Aspen FR5's nominal impedance is specified as 6 ohms, with a minimum value of 5.6 ohms. The impedance magnitude (fig.1, solid trace) was higher than 6 ohms over almost the entire audioband; the minimum impedance was 5.89 ohms at 144Hz. This suggests that the FR5 will be an easy load for the partnering amplifier. However, the electrical phase angle (fig.1, dotted trace) is high in several frequency regions; as a result, the effective resistance, or EPDR (footnote 1), drops below 4 ohms from 39Hz to 46Hz, from 78Hz to 139Hz, and from 2.78kHz to 3.75kHz. The minimum EPDR values are 3.5 ohms at 43Hz, 2.6 ohms at 96Hz, and 2.78 ohms at 2.8kHz. The Aspen FR5 needs to be partnered with an amplifier that doesn't have a problem driving low impedances, and this will be exacerbated by the speaker's low sensitivity.

soix
10,485 posts
 

If the Pulsars are out of reach you might consider the Prisms or even the Profiles if they pass the WAF.  Other speakers I find do many of the same things are ProAc, and the Response DB1, D2, and D20 are definitely worth a look.  Likewise the Usher Mini X, One, and Two are excellent and offer gorgeous looks and very high build quality/$.  And the QLN prestige One would be another to consider although may lean just a bit warmer than the others.  Just some more options to throw on the pile.

soix
10,485 posts
 

Looks like these guys are selling the Pulsars at the top of your price range so maybe worth a call…

https://nowlistenhere.net/speakers/joseph-audio-pulsar2-graphene

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