Upgrading - Pls Suggest Speakers to Review


I have been reviewing speakers for my system that consists of the following:

SME 30/Graham Phantom/Koetsu RSP
Manley Steelhead
Reimyo CDP-777
Jeff Rowland Synergy IIi/302
Synergistic Cables
Revel Studio
Music tastes are primarily acoustic jazz and vocals of various types
Room size is 23 x 18

So far I have heard:

- Wilson Maxx II and WP7 - Too dry for my musical tastes
- Avalon Vision/Diamond - Nice, but not sure if they would work well with solid state, though
- Wilson Benesch Chimera - Nice, but a little "light" and thin sounding in my system,
- Sonus Faber - New Amati and Stradivari - Very musical; good speaker; Amati did not have enough low end though
- Piega C-10 ltd - Better than I had expected
- JM Labs Utopia Be (can't remember the model) : hard to tell as the room was awful

Question to all:

What other speakers should I audition/am I missing? I've owned a variety of planar speakers in the past and am not sure I want to go back there based on sheer size/width. Others that I would like to review so far include:

Von Schweikert VR-7SE
Line arrays of some type
Kharma??

All input is most appreciated

Carl
carl2001

Showing 3 responses by mdhoover

Of course, the upper echelon Kharmas are a must listen in that price range as well.
In that price range you may want to consider the Intuitive Design Denali's at $65K. I own the Intuitive Design Summits, and they are phenomenal. My room is a little smaller, but not that much. The Summits have very good bass, but do roll off around 40 hertz, so I have them supplemented with a Rel Storm 3. But to give you an idea of their low end output, I've got the Rel crossover set at 27 hertz to avoid overwhelming bass.

I wrote a review about the Summits. If the Denalis are as much better than they are as the price suggests (Summits are about 3500, stands about 1500, total ~5k, plus Stillpoints), then they must be breathtaking. The Denali speakers are said to have great dynamic range and phenomenal soundstaging. If spending that kind of money, I'd certainly give them a listen.