Suggestions for Full Range Speakers up to 10K


Hi Everyone,
I am new here and I am working on a home theater/2 channel combined living room setup.  My room is shared with a kitchen (island counter separates kitchen from living room).  My original plan was to convert my 2 car garage into a home theater as I have a walk in cooler there with 5 beer taps through the wall. My wife is not fond of the garage idea, but I think I could convince her to do a full 2 channel setup out there and leave the HT setup in the living room where it is now.  But in the meantime, I'll continue getting the living room dialed in.

My setup is as follows:

Marantz AV7704 pre
Marantz MM8807 amp - currently pushing my center channel, sides and rears. No height speakers at this time.
Peachtree Nova300 - currently doing double duty pushing floor standing fronts using HTB for the HT usage.  I understand this is not the highest end, but you have to start somewhere, and it actually sounds pretty nice, even if the buttons are flimsy-ish.

Fronts are ML Motion 40's, center is ML Motion 30, sides and rears are older Aperion bookshelves that I plan to upgrade down the road, but they are sounding ok for these duties for the time being. I like the combination of the 40's with the Nova300, as I run though the DAC into this amp via USB-B in from a Mac with all my FLAC files on it. Sounds decent to my ears and is more than loud enough but I think the mid and low end needs a bit more presence though. 

Room is 16' x 24' but opens into a kitchen and has a hallway leading to the back part of the house where bedrooms are. My main wall with my projector screen on it and all my components is about 12 feet wide as I have a desk in the corner and a kitchen counter on the opposite side.  Ceilings are beamed, and I have multiple bay windows that are covered with shades.  I would say the room is harder than softer with respect to sound reflection versus absorption.

My thinking is to add a full range speaker in the spaces between the center channel and Motion 40's, which is about 22" of space to work with, up to 46" tall (bottom of my screen) and 30" deep. I was originally considering a pair of subs in this space, but having them able to do double duty for music and HT seems more difficult to deal with as most subs have the controls on the back and I don't feel like reaching back there every time I want to go between HT and 2 channel work.  And frankly a good set of full range speakers shouldn't need a sub for 2 channel work. I think I will do one big sub later for HT use only, but I'd rather focus on the 2 channel part first. Another option is to replace the Motion 40's with a fuller sounding speaker altogether, but I figured since I have the extra room from the MM8077, I can push the Motion 40's from that amp and move over to a fuller sounding full range for my 2 channel application. 

I'd love to hear some expert opinions on what speakers would make sense for my application.

Thanks in advance.
irrenarzt

Showing 9 responses by irrenarzt

I'm keeping the Nova300 for sure.  I like the way it integrates and it's got plenty of punch.  Has anyone used this amp with harder to drive speakers like WATT/Puppy? 


@bache I'm in New Mexico, but the pizza in the tri-state area is hands down the best.
That's the best I can do before actually hearing them.  I will not join the dark side!
So I'll summarize what I have learned thus far:

B&W 703 S2 - dimensionally a good fit at 40.4" high with plinth.  I have a height restriction of 46 inches or so in the current set up.  Downside is a minimum of 46 Hz.  Would like a full range speaker that gets down to 25 Hz or so.

Tekton Double Impact - too tall at 54"
Tekton Impact - 46.5" so might just barely squeeze in there

Quatro Wood CT - could fit at 43" tall, but mildly ugly to me. 
Treo CT - also 43", same issue as above

Revel - good looking stuff. Need to investigate for sure. Studio2 is sexy as hell and could just fit at 46.3"

Magico A3 - looks like a good possibility as the height is perfect.  Good low end, and height is right on the money.  Also very sexy.  Magico stuff is very nice looking, but how does it sound?

Focal Sopra 2 - Weird looking, and only goes down to 35 Hz, a touch on the tall side at 46 and 27⁄32 inches.  Probably not going to win me over on the looks though.

Tannoy Kensington - dig the retro look, and minimum frequency response is tolerable at 29 Hz.  Height works for me at 43.3" as well

ProAc Response D30R - checks all boxes, sort of boring, but nice looking speaker, would need to hear it before jumping in.

ProAc Response D40R - a tad bit too tall at ~47" (1200 mm so 1200/25.4 = 47.2" - looks to be a nice box though.

Wilson Sophia 3 - Fits perfectly in the space I have for it. Definitely have to go used to keep it under 10K and I don't think they make this model any longer.  MFR of 20 Hz is appealing as I don't want to mess with subs.  I do like that WATT/Puppy type look, but I realize that's not for everyone. Unsure if my lowly Nova300 would do a speaker like this justice.

Focal Kanta - again weird looks, but less polarizing than the Sopra, height is good but MFR is a tad bit high 

Magico S1 - prefer the looks of the A3

McIntosh XR100 - too tall

Vienna Acoustics Concert Grands - checks all boxes and price is lower than my max by about half, which is nice.  But will this speaker rock?  

Aerial Acoustics Model 7T - checks all the boxes.  Sexy looking speaker for sure.

KEF Reference 5 - damn good looking speaker in that copper black aluminum finish.  Would have to buy used obviously, but doesn't go that low at 40 HZ MFR and is too tall at 53.1".  Could consider the 3 as it might be shorter.  Had some mild wood forming when I saw the copper black aluminum though.

Spendor D7 - plain Jane-ish, but seems to click all the boxes.  Could go a bit lower in MFR, but size is on point.  Lots of finishes.  UK built, which I don't know if that matters much to me.  Looks like a solid choice.

Triton Reference - way too tall.  Buddy of mine got a set recently and I did listen to them at his house.  They sound quite nice, but they wouldn't work in my place based on the height alone.  They are strangely narrow looking as well.

Ohm Walsh - not your every day suggestion, but intriguing.  Would like to hear these.



















How about Salk Soundscape 8?  That seems like a solid speaker that hits all my requirements.  No love for this speaker? 
I agree. I’m not in this for the fashion side, but it is playing a secondary role in terms of considerations. It certainly helps to have something you can live with in terms of looks.  I'm pretty sure my wife will not allow me to bring home a set of something really ugly, even if they sounded just exactly perfect.

Those Snells sound tight for a shitty youtube video. I’ll check those out.
Someone did mention the port design in an earlier post.  Thanks for all the suggestions fellas.  Lots to think about/try to audition here.
That’s a 54" tall speaker, which won’t work in my setup.

I am very curious about the Magico A3. That speaker would fit well in my current alignment. Numbers look great on it, other than the cost (top of my budget, and since it is new, I will not find any for sale used any time soon). I plan on setting up an audition for that in the near future. I have some travel coming up as well, so I’m planning on hitting up some dealers while I’m away to do some listening.

I’m surprised the Salk Soundscapes do not get mentioned at all. Looks like a solid lineup. There's a nice looking pair on here for 6K in Dallas, which means I could theoretically go pick them up.