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Speaker audition: a novice’s journey

I am no expert at audio. But I like to listen to music, primarily classical and then a little bit of everything else such as jazz and soft/alternate rock, both at home and concerts. I am looking for speakers that can play classical well, can represent the ‘body’ of a full scale orchestra. That can soundstage and image well. And that can isolate different instruments. Oh yes, my budget is 10-15K.

On this forum I got tremendous help from several folks. Now I have a list of speakers that I need to check out.

So, sooner the better and I decided to take a plunge. Along the way I’ll also learn how to really audition speakers. It’s a little dummy’s guide to myself. I wouldn’t get into technicalities, my head rings when a dealer tries to explain first order network and phase-time coherence. After all it ain’t matters how sophisticated the science is. The speakers need to sound good. Period. My evaluation is purely by how it sounds, caveat being on untrained ears. I am planning to use the same set of music so that I can get a fair comparison.

I decided to write down my experience (coming in the response links below); hopefully someone, someday will be benefited by it. I welcome your inputs/suggestions.
neal1502

Showing 1 response by knownothing

knownothing
1,655 posts
 
Neal,

This is a great thread and I look forward to your next review/post. There is a huge temptation to provide specific options, and several speakers come to mind that I have enjoyed revelatory classical music experiences with the right electronics in the right listening room.

Have to agree with much of the advice here - your electronics/speaker/room combination is critical. A dealer that wants to sell you $10-15K speakers without offering to move to another listening room, let alone demo in you home or offering to hook up to your current electronics in their shop, is someone you should sprint away from IMHO. There are good dealers out there, and as someone suggested, if necessary you should travel to hear various speakers if not available in your home town.

Finally, I have come to the conclusion that with respect to both rock and classical music there is no replacement for displacement. Your budget should put you in a position to get a big enough cabinet to reproduce the scale of this music with convincing scale and authority. But as mentioned, you are starting to edge into the range where marketing and cachet get ahead of acoustic value. Beware.
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