What is a good all around high quality speaker to purchase?


I'm looking for a high performance all around musical speaker. My previous speakers are:

Bose 501 - I was young and they served a purpose

Infinity SM150 - terrible from the start

Boston Acoustics T1000 - actually a nice all around speaker

Polk SDA-SRS1tl - loved the full sound, not accurate at all

Thiel 2.3 - Very dry sounding

B&W N802 - perhaps my favorite, but needed to be played loud

Thiel 3.7 - I think Jim's cancer affected his hearing

B&W 802D - 1st gen, still have.....please stop my ears from bleeding

 

What do you suggest?

 

 

onehorsepony

Showing 1 response by panzrwagn

I have three completely different recommendations, each capable of outstanding sound quality, but each approaches that very differently.

+1 for Monitor Audio. The Silver 500 7G ($3400/pr) is simply the finest speaker available under $5000 per pair. Check its presence on the Stereophile Class A List. The reviewer  saw the price and thought that it was per speaker, not per pair. My first thoughts on hearing them was "This is what JBLs SHOULD sound like." Clean, tight, dynamic with good bass extension, soundfield and imaging are very good, with no muddiness, nasality or harshness on male or female vocals. Instrumental attack on piano and acoustical guitar are first rate. The dual rear ports allow easy room tuning in the bass. They do like to be 3-4 ft away from walls, as do most 2X8 floor standers. If they aren't enough, you can move up to the Gold series which steps up the basic config, swapping in a ribbon tweeter and more sophisticated driver and cabinet builds and an incredible Macassar veneer cabinet option for $7500/pr. 

Of course everyone should own a pair of Magnepans at some point in their audio journey, A pair of 1.7is and a pair of REL T/9X subwoofers would fill your room nicely given an amp with 100-200W/ch that likes 4 Ohm loads. And it looks like you have that already covered. Like all dipoles they really need to be out away from the rear walls and corners. Observing that rule, the immensity of the soundfield they can generate simply can't be done with a box. Any qualms about bass are easily handled by the RELs. 

Finally, KEF LS-60. A phenomenal all-in-one speaker/amp/streamer system. Just plug and play. With 700Watts of triamplified power per speaker, KEF has done a stunning job in an impossibly slim cabinet. Just stream using your favorite source using your phone as a controller, or buy an inexpensive Android tablet and dedicate it to that task. Need more bass? KEF offers the matching KC-92 twin 9" sub with 1000 Watts of power. If listening is more important than tweaking with your gear, this is the way to go. 

The nicest part is any of these can be had for less than $10,000.