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Speaker suggestions please - going to the BIG city

I've received some excellent advice from this forum in the past and I'm hoping you can help with speaker suggestions.  I've had my Martin Logan Summit X speakers for five years.  In that time, I've updated all my components and cables, but not the speakers.  When I purchased them, I lived in a small town and it wasn't practical to travel to the big city to audition others; they were a strong suggestion from an audiophile friend.  I very much like them, but I have a hankering to upgrade, or at least consider other brands that will compliment my system (see below).  I don't want to change my Primaluna HP Integrated because I like it, and I recently upgraded all the tubes at a cost of $1300. 

I listen to jazz, female and male vocals, quartets, etc.; think Jewel, Melody Gardot, Nora Jones, Neil Diamond, Alison Krauss, etc.  Never hard Rock, and never overly loud. 

My room is about 18x25 with a vaulted ceiling and open behind the listening seat by another15 feet (the kitchen). 

I have an Axiom Audio sub in the system that I've also thought about replacing.  

I'm heading to Portland and Chicago in the next few weeks and have time to audition speakers.  I'd very much appreciate your thoughts on what would sound the best considering my music choices and Primaluna amp.  I know I could just listen to everything, but I'm hoping you can help me narrow the choices.

My system:
  • Martin Logan Summit X speakers
  • Holo Audio May DAC (Kitsune edition)
  • Lumin U1 music player
  • EtherRegen.
  • AfterDark clock and power supply for the clock and EtherRegen.
  • Roon Rock using a NUC that I built
  • Acoustic Zen Hologram II speaker cables
  • Acoustic Zen MC2 and Kimber Kable D60 digital cables
  • Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference II interconnects
  • OPPO 105D player for DVD and SACD disks (modified by Ric Schultz).
Thank you!
Steve

smills59

Showing 1 response by abd1

abd1
161 posts
 

Did you ever settle on anything? How are the subs. Looking at upgrading to a pair of S/510’s. I’m in Portland. Not sure if you’re still headed here to visit dealers. There aren’t a ton but I would suggest Pearl Audio and Stereotypes. Echo Hifi is great, my favorite, but most of their inventory is second hand so just make sure they have something you want to hear. Otherwise I think they’re a Kef dealer. Sometimes they have some really great items to check out. 
 

Regarding speakers, I would check out Salk and Cube. With your budget you would have a few options with Salk. I had a pair of Song3’s and used Primaluna and it sounded fantastic. You could move up the line to SS9.5’s and be blown away. I currently have Cube Nenuphar Mini’s also being driven by a Primaluna Evo300 amp. Best sound I’ve ever had. The speakers love tubes and are so natural and detailed it’s eerie sometimes. Cool thing is the Cubes can also run with very low powered tube amps too. I have an Oliver Sayes 45 tube amp that’s like 1.5 wpc and it sounds amazing too. There’s no dealer in Portland but I think the dealer is in Chicago; Refined Audio. 

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