Started with $1k speakers … what now?


I got into this hobby during Covid, browsing YouTube reviews my first speakers were Polk L100s and Sonus Faber Lumina 1s. Not bad as an entry point, but wondering what would be the next level is where a speaker is built with fewer compromises in the drivers and crossover design.  My hope was that in the $5k range truer “hifi” entry points may be found in a small room system with a REL t5x. My source and amplification is already in the $5k range. 
 

I visited a hifi store recently but was overwhelmed by the amount of choice and unsure what would be an upgrade based on first listening impressions alone. 
 

Thanks in advance for any insights.

jdavis234

at this point you have to go to two or three other HiFi stores and listen.

if you ask people online and start talking to Us in the peanut gallery you won’t be successful since many “experts” here are not experts or will recommend things you like. The best dealer I found is GTT Audio.

Give them a call with some real budgets with some real money.

most speakers under $10,000 aren’t made very well. There is just not enough budget in something that costs 500-1000 to make to really sound good. And if they cost 500-1000 to make they are $2500-5000 retail price. If you want to go cheap get magnepan .7 and buy real subs from REL and get S510’s! The T5-T9 rel’s are made in china and for home theater more than 2 channel.

If you're going on the audiophile journey, you need to buy a used pair of Magnepans and a muscular amp. You could do that with 5k.