Vote for the best speakers in 10K range

Rayhall, Be careful if you demo a set of Vandersteen 5's. You cannot use a Pass Aleph amp with their balanced crossover. You could damage the speaker if you do. Apparently the Van 5 balanced crossover needs matching values for pos and neg legs. Most amps are this way, but the alephs are not. I talked to a pass labs tech, and he said he could modify the vand hipass filters for around $50. They just have to change capacitors to compensate. I'm using my vt100 to drive them now.

I am looking for speaker cables to use with mine. My red dawns bananas won't fit and I need to biwire. What speaker cables have you or others seen the Vandersteen 5 demoed with ?

Make that their (vandersteens) 'balanced hi pass filter'. They do make a single ended version too.

Telescope_trade:
I've heard the adrenalines at a friend's house hooked up to a spectral and rowland setup. Quad Rowland amps ! I thought they sounded like a very large, detailed, and refined multi-coned dynamic speaker. Probably the most remarkable characteristic is their ability to produce large detailed yet weighty soundfields without being overpowering or sounding like a huge speaker. Sonically, they reminded me of a giant audio physic tempo but with greater bass and a larger soundstage. The sheer size of the drivers allows the speakers to portray spacially complex soundfields similar to a magnepan. They don't quite have the coherence of a magnepan 1.6, nor the timbral purity and weight of a vandersteen 5, nor the low level detail and speed of an audio physic virgo. They do manage to do all these things quite well though. Very fast, powerful bass. A real-live reference speaker. Overall, maybe the best speaker I've heard. Very very strong in all areas. Huge things. You must have a dedicated room.....

Tell us what you think !