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what speakers to buy

so this is my 1st time posting. the question is what speakers. i am going into this blind trying to put together a decent system on a budget. i live in a city where bose is considered the high end of high end and the nearest audiophile shops are hours away.
over the years i have owned a lot of vintage gear and still collect some of it. solid state and tube. some of the tube gear was marantz, macintosh, dynaco, heathkit, radio craftsmen, pilot etc. also the usual solid state marantz, pioneer, kenwood, adcom. speakers jbl, polk, altec (model 19 and vott), paradigm, klipsch, bozak, sansui, AR, advent. all the usual suspects
so far i have purchased a copland tube pre cta-305 and a pair of rogue audio m180 amps. all mint condition all under a year old for under half price of new. i also have a denon DP-60L TT 
(with sumiko pearl cartridge)
speaker budget is around 5000 give or take a 1000. if i'm patient i think i can find something that was originally in the 12-20k price range for what i want to spend.
so far i am leaning towards ew andra ii, dali euphonia 800, canton reference 3.2, revel studio ii. size is also a factor and all of these are within that limit.
i have a fairly large area open concept living /dinning and breakfast nook with high ceilings.
and i know "dont buy without listening" but not an option
so looking for some opinions/options

after speakers i will be getting tuner, cd and music server, current interconnects and speaker wire are all ZU mission


dragonbutx

Showing 5 responses by inna

inna
7,865 posts
 
I can't be 100% sure but I think Kevin of VAC has Focal Grand Utopia for his work and personal use. This is a strong endorsement.
Yes, of course I was thinking close to the OP's upper price limit. I was in fact a little surprised that you could get such a high level of performance for reasonable money. Would I get them myself if I wanted to upgrade and could afford them? I would strongly consider them, but I would also have to get tube electronics including phono, so it would in fact be an almost complete system rebuilding except for the table/arm and couple of cables.
inna
7,865 posts
 
We are talking about speakers, but your source should be excellent to experience what all those speakers are capable of. I don’t think your Denon with Sumiko cartridge and Rogue phono stage will cut it. Cables do not have to cost thousands but really good cables are not inexpensive, sometimes even used.
I like ProAc recommendation.
inna
7,865 posts
 
I like speakers with big sound and also those with as few drivers as possible. In addition, I think, and someone will corect me if I am wrong or not quite right, that Danish speakers are designed with solid state electronics in mind.
If you do eventually decide to get Focals, you might want later to upgrade your Rogue to VAC, Allnic or somethign else to take the sound to the next level. Cabling will be important too, isn't it always? Purist Neptune fluid cables should be great. Or Echole. I am sure some others would work fine as well if that's too expensive, something like Fusion Audio Magic line.
inna
7,865 posts
 
You cannot audition speakers but, with great caution, you can listen to some systems on youtube. There is one company that recorded many systems at shows. Their recording quality is average at best but it is at least usually consistent. If you have good enough headphones you can hear the difference. I will not tell you what I liked most because it is far outside your range, even the least expensive models. This might help you focus on, say, a dozen of speakers. For $5k-$6k used there are so many good and very different speakers.
inna
7,865 posts
 
I would consider these too, especially with tube electronics.
https://www.audiogon.com/listings/full-range-jm-labs-utopia-alto-be-2017-09-24-speakers
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