Vote for the best speakers in 10K range

Vandersteen 5. The best speaker that I have personally heard. Spacious airy highs that are not etched or unnatural. Transparent midrange. Beautiful vocals. Great soundstaging. Solid powerful bass, including deep bass, with which few, if any, of the speakers mentioned previously can compare. When matched with the right electronics, I think it really doesn't get much better than this. At any price. Don't buy until you have heard these speakers.

Sschreiner: I heard the Vandersteen 5 with an Ayre V-1 (200 watts, solid state) and Ayre K-1 solid state preamp. It was magical. This is pretty expensive stuff. I would also recommend what I have now, which is a Pass Aleph 4 power amp and CAT SL-1 Ultimate preamp. If you want to spend less, you can look at amps by Marsh, Aloia, Monarchy, and possibly Electrocompaniet, as well as preamps by Audible Illusions, a used Audioprism Mantissa. As you can see, I am a solid state bigot (as far as power amps go), so you'll have to ask elsewhere for info about tube amps. These speakers may do well with tube amps. Since they have a built in amplifier to handle the bass, you will not be relying on your tube amp to deliver the bass which is where nearly all tube amps that I have heard fall down. Also, try to find a dealer who can properly set up and demonstrate the Vandersteen's. It is a difficult speaker to get "right". I highly recommend John at Audio Connection in Verona, N.J.

Now I'll offer up a speaker that I haven't heard. The Soundlab Millenium M-1 or Soundlab A-1. These speakers are electrostatics, not dynamic. People whose ears that I now and trust say these are even better than the Vandersteens. These are huge speakers, which unlike all other electrostatics deliver terrific deep bass, can play quite loudly (although not quite like dynamic speakers), and can disperse high frequency sound throughout a wide horizontal angle. The Millenniums won the Absolute Sound Golden Ear Award in 1999. If I had a dedicated room, with sufficient space, and the desire to spend this type of money on speakers, I would definitely check these out. Their dealer network is small and they are difficult to find in order to get an audition. Again, they require a high power, high current amplifier, but people who are in the know say that these are absolutely magical. Check them out at www.soundlab-speakers.com. Oh yeah. These two speakers are over 10K. I did see several great deals on used A-1's on this site and others around 5k. With no disrespect to others, if you get a good audition of Vandersteen and Soundlab's, and natural, full range sound reproduction is your goal. I think you will forget about names like B&W, Dunlavy and Martin Logan and Wilson Audio. IMO, these do not come close.

Snook2: As I stated earlier, I cannot personally vouch for the Soundlabs, but I offer them as one a prospective buyer should listen to, before buying in the 10K price range. I make this statement based on the opinions of people I respect, and with whom I have had a high degree of agreement in the past on what sounds right. You may not agree with my assessment of B&W, Dunlavy, Martin Logan etc., and that is your right to do so, but I think those speakers are lacking in one way or another-more so than the Vandersteens. John_l: Thanks for the heads-up. Although, I wasn't considering Vandersteen 5's for the Aleph, that is a possibility in the distant future. I have heard them with Nordost SPM speaker cables. I don't remember the interconnects. The CD player was a Wadia 860.

Subaruguru,
A mon avis, les Parsifals de Verity Audio manquent la base profonde et, alors qu'ils affichent une presentation generale qui n'est pas tout a fait epouvantable, ces enceintes ne justifient pas la coute qu'il faut payer. Il y a beaucoup d'enceintes qui donnent du son aussi ou plus "lisse" , mais qui coutent moins cher. Et a ce prix, il faut que l'enceinte atteigne les frequences bases assez fortes que la reste de la gamme sonique et qu'elle demontre quelque chose d'exceptionel aux hautes frequences et aux frequences moyennes. D'apres moi, bien que les Parsifals ne sont pas de mauvaise enceintes, ils n'achevent pas un niveau d'etre considere comme une des meilleures de cette categorie. Peut-etre que j'ai recu une mauvaise demonstration, mais c'etait mon opinion.

Subaruguru, Merci de votre reponse. Je dois ajouter que je n'ai pas entendu Les Parsifals Encores, mais juste Les Parsifals et je ne sais pas quels developpements ils ont fait pour ameliorer le Parsifal. Il faut admettre que les hauts-parleurs aient ete demontre avec les "woofers" emettant le son vers le mur plutot qu'en face de nous, mais apres m'avoir entendu plaindre depuis quelques minutes de la base profonde absente , le vendeur a tourne la boite woofer vers nous. Bien sur, c'etait une enceinte avec un son "tiede", donc, on attendrait qu'il ait porte assez de frequences bases. Mais, ce n'etait que les frequences bases plus profondes qui etaient manquantes. J'ai trouve cette bande de frequences beaucoup trop "tight" ou "supprime". Par exemple, les parsifals n'ont demontre aucune tendance a ebranler la salle sur la deuxieme bande du CD "Surfacing" par Sara McLaughlan. D'autres CD's portant la base profonde nous ont montre la meme chose. Peut-etre que les enceintes se trouvaient trop loin du mur pour produire les fortes bases frequences. Mais, est-ce que vous pensez de pouvoir les utiliser sans un "subwoofer" est d'etre heureux avec la reproduction des frequences bases profondes? Merci.

Apres avoir relu votre reponse, je comprends que vous etes heureux de la base, je crois, sans subwoofer. Regardant mes notes de la demonstration, je n'ai pas ecrit quels equippements etaient utilises pour les demontrer et maintenant, apres longtemps, je ne m'en souvenais pas. La difference entre ma perception et votre experience prouve que les demonstrations au magasin sont beaucoup plus inutiles que les demonstrations chez nous. Il est probable que vous ayez raison et je me sois trompe de la capabilite base profonde des Parsifals a cause d'une mauvaise demonstration.