Speaker suggestions for Levinson

Used MAGICO A3s here buy them ASAP!!

@rwatson

Thanks, all! Will definitely read up on the various suggestions: Tekton, Harbeth, etc.- Hadn’t really considered it, but the room actually is rather reverberant—hardwood floors, minimalist furniture. I’m sure this is a significant contributor to the muddied sound with large orchestral recordings.

definitely treat the room to get the most out of what you are spending on gear...
really matters

Superb choice for your taste in music!  Congratulations and you are right, your Levinson gear will be brilliant.  

Thanks again to all.  For a number of reasons, I’ve decided to go with (used) Magico A3s.  Not gonna lie: small footprint, build quality, industrial design, and US made factored heavily.  I think the Levinson will provide ample power for them as well.  

As a 2nd opinion, I agree with (FSTEIN.)

High efficiency speakers have a jump factor missing in the traditional Brits and planars. I can't forgive the dynamic compression.A good place to start is with JBL semihorn speakers. And go used.

Thanks, all!  Will definitely read up on the various suggestions: Tekton, Harbeth, etc.- Hadn't really considered it, but the room actually is rather reverberant—hardwood floors, minimalist furniture.  I’m sure this is a significant contributor to the muddied sound with large orchestral recordings.
- The B&Ws are more than loud enough and never get too strident, which is nice.  - I will definitely consider the subwoofer option.  I don’t have a reference accurate low bass recording (new to this), but am open to suggestions.  

Also what is your reference accurate low bass recording and how loud are you listening ( w spl meter ) ? I will give a listen.

Have fun on your journey!

Keep your main speakers ! High pass them and take a load off them and your amp and you will be rewarded w greater clarity in the complex larger ensemble recordings. Then all you need are a couple ( or more ) capable subs to restore the high passed low end. One way to do that is the Vandersteen M5 high pass filters in concert w model 3 subwoofers. They  have 11 bands of EQ and a bunch of other proven features. Sometimes, especially on a tight budget replacing a speaker that was amazing thirty years ago is the wrong answer.

Please consider a number of *reputable* brands.

Consider Dynaudio, Vienna Acoustics, and a bunch of others.  There are a few 10K speaker threads on the forum.

Oh yeah, within $10k you could get Tekton Moabs with Duke's Swarm subwoofer system, and truly have it all. Tekton's are super dynamic, have all kinds of headroom (always seem effortless regardless of volume) and even have some of that nice dispersion pattern Duke is talking about. All for only about $8k!

Welcome rwatson, Jazz Musician! My first successful home audio speakers were called the "Jazz Modules", obviously designed with YOU in mind. Alas some critical parts became unobtainium so they were discontinued. Dangit!!

In addition to home audio, I design speakers for amplifying musical instruments including double-bass and electric piano, both of which are rather demanding from a qualitative standpoint.

You mentioned that you cannot listen to music "passively". I love it!!

Just to get a baseline (no pun intended), I assume your current Matrix 3’s are indeed capable of delivering the "concert levels" you mentioned... ?

You mentioned that "tonal accuracy is paramount". I totally agree. I believe there is room for improvement in this area by "getting the reverberant field right". You see, the reflections contribute to the perceived tonal quality, and the reflections come primarily from off-axis response. The off-axis response of most speakers is considerably different from the on-axis response because the radiation pattern goes through significant changes. By keeping the radiation pattern consistent over as much of the spectrum as we reasonably can, we can greatly reduce the tonal discrepancy between the direct and reverberant sound, and come that much closer to what live unamplified music sounds like.

Something you mentioned (though not as a loudspeaker issue) is, dynamic range. Compression CAN be a loudspeaker issue. Without getting too technical, it is not uncommon for speakers to compress the peaks a bit when they are pushed hard. The solution is to use speakers which are capable of much higher SPLs than you will actually require of them, so that they don’t get pushed hard enough to start compressing. Rumor has it that musicians use dynamic range to convey emotion, in which case preserving dynamic range allows more of the emotion to come through.

You also mentioned that you " lose detail in complex and layered big band and orchestral recordings. ". That CAN be a room acoustics issue if the room is too reverberant. What happens is, the reverberant field in the room becomes in effect a "noise floor" which can mask the details in new sounds. If this is happening, one speaker-related solution would be to use speakers that have narrower dispersion, so that the direct-to-reverberant sound ratio is higher. ("Narrower dispersion" does not necessarily impose a "smaller sweet spot".)

Are you open to using subwoofers if they offer a worthwhile improvement in quality as well as quantity?

You mentioned electrostatics, specifically Martin Logans and Magnepans (the latter are not technically "electrostatics" but they fall into the same general category). I’m a dealer for SoundLab electrostats, which are kinda pricey. Imo this type can sound magnificent, BUT the one area where they tend to fall short is "concert level" capability. I used to go to audio shows and walk from room to room and not feel that anything challenged my beloved SoundLabs, UNTIL I heard a very high quality horn system. At that point, it was like my SoundLabs do some things better, and the horn system does some things better, but I felt like there was room for improvement (at least in cost-effectiveness) in the horn systems. That’s when I started working towards becoming a speaker manufacturer, having built speakers as a hobbyist for decades.

Anyway let me know about the subwoofer thing, if you don’t mind. Imo there are solutions within your price range either way.

Duke

$10k will get you Tekton Ulfberhts, totally the immersive concert experience you are looking for. Nothing else in your price range even close. Made in Utah. Read the reviews. Read the threads. Exceptionally good speaker.

planars can be lovely sounding but present placement issues with their unique dispersion pattern... you will need to work (and for some rooms, work very very hard) for good sound

in my experience, levinsons are prototypical high end lean and super clean solid state sound, with all the pros and cons that brings

it is were me, i would seek a somewhat warmish speaker that still produces tactile, extended treble for good imaging for classical and jazz

consider harbeths - they are just wonderful... the owner alan shaw can be a stick in the mud on some topics ('all amps sound the same') but the speakers are beyond reproach - natural, coherent, full bodied, very easy to listen to for long stretches - if you like a brighter, even livelier, more hifi presentation, consider proacs or tektons