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New Speakers $10K -$20K

Hi everyone. A few bullet points and thank you all for your advice! Sorry for the length just trying to help you to help me.

* A Florida family room untreated and large. 30’ x 30’ with 12’ cathedral ceiling.
* I sit basically on left half of the room, the right side of the room is billiards and wet bar.
* I just turned 65, so these are my forever speakers!
* I am 70% HT and watching TV, and 30% 2Ch, but with a little room improvement 2ch listening will go up. I want better sounding 2 ch but I’m in a very live room.
* The front wall “half width” of my room is a stacked-stone marble wall.
* to my rear is a 16’ opening to a large kitchen.
* to my immediate left is a window 40” and 12’ of sliders looking into pool.
* just sold Paradigm Persona 7F towers, (2) Persona subs and Persona center ch. Amazing speakers in a poor large room. But I do think the Be. mid-range became a bit fatiguing.
* I need a company that also makes a great center ch for HT., Legacy Audio does.

Based on WAF etc. some treatments will be done but not greatly. More pillows, a defuser or two, maybe a bit more.

My needs: warmth, no harshness at the top, not massive speakers, WAF!
I still love movies with the grandkids, big subwoofers won’t be approved. “Eye Candy” is what she likes beautiful cabinetry, Sonus Fabre, and custom finishes available from Bill D. at Legacy.

Current candidates are:
1. Sonus Fabre Amati Tradition in the red stained finish - “gorgeous”, her favorite!
2. Legacy Calibres in a custom veneer with 2+ subs that are not too big. I really love the Aeris with Wavelet processor but they are too tall for her! Remember this is a family room.m we use for everything.
3. Sonus Fabre Serafino Tradition in the same beautiful red stain wood veneer.
4. Spendor, not terribly familiar but they do make a center ch, and are respected and are considered warm. Really wish Harbeth made a center ch.

Now I am looking forward to your suggestions!
Related equipment:
Classe’ CAV 180 - 5 x 180W
Marantz 8805 Pre-pro
Oppo 203
Innuous streamer/DVD ripper
Kaleidescape movie server 
Sonance DSP 8-130 MK2 for surrounds
Paradigm in ceiling (3pr) for surrounds 

Thank you all!
Dave





dave1980

Showing 1 response by rhg88

rhg88
44 posts
 
I have somewhat similar requirements as yours (80% AVR 20% 2-channel stereo) and close to your age (~66). I have the Marantz 8805 preamp, which I believe works very well for listening to movies and regular TV programs with surround sound and Atmos. I bought a pair of Magico A3s for the front left and right mains and a Salk Supercharged SongCenter for the center speaker (https://www.salksound.com/model.php?model=Supercharged%20SongCenter).

I found that the Magico A3s and the Salk Supercharged SongCenter are nicely matched. I have not found the A3s to be fatiguing at all even thought they have a Beryllium tweeter. In fact, excessive high-frequency brashness was one of the reasons why I de-selected several candidates (including Paradigms) when I was listening to and picking speakers.

I have found the Salk Supercharged SongCenter to be extremely clear as a center speaker and very musical. I recommend it highly. If you insist on matching the center with the front mains, you may want to consider some Salk left and right mains, as has already been suggested by other.
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