Which speakers for a Yamaha A-S2000

Thanks again for all the suggestions. I am taking them to heart.

I stopped by a local audio shop that looks to deal in B&W and Focal, primarily, along with Dynaudio. Now, I know none of these were on the list of recommendations here, but it was helpful to have some reference as to what to expect from a modern (good?) floor standing speaker. I would've checked out what you suggested but this was all they had that fit:

I listened to:

Focal Aria 936 (demo/clearance)
Dynaudio Excite 34 (soon to be discontinued)
Focal Chorus 716

The one take away listening to the Focals is that they would benefit greatly from a subwoofer for my tastes. The Chorus didn't really do it for me, but after listening to the Aria for a bit it grew on it. I have some 'go to' songs when trying things out, including King Crimson's "Easy Money", Bon Jovi's "Let it Rock, and Genesis' "The Cinema Show". I'll tell you, I don't know that I've ever heard "Easy Money" any better than that. With Genesis, the percussion was well represented and all voices heard. I could've done with more bass, though. Tuning the bass on the amp simply made it more "punchy" and not "boomy", if that makes sense. 

What *didn't* work well with the Focal 936's was Mountain's "Climbing". It sounded very muffled and muddy. That type of music represents nearly half my catalog, so they might not be a good fit long term. 

The Dynaudio Excite 34s made up for the lack of bass in the Focals, but didn't really do a great job (to me) in the mid-high end. Plus, everything sounded a bit... mixed. Less separation of instruments, especially the percussion. The cowbell in "Easy Money" sounded hidden, while guitar and bass were more at the forefront. As for Bon Jovi, the Dynaudio's were missing that "kick in the pants" feel. Underwhelming there, to say the least.

Anyway, I'll keep looking and appreciate the suggestions. I will say, that after getting home and connecting the JBL L-50s, there is certainly a LOT of room for improvement!

The larger Klipsch Heritage are definitely better with tubes but many, including myself, have found the Heresy models to not be too amplifier picky and as mentioned by @mrdecibel a good clean SS amp, like the Yamaha A-S2000, can pretty much bring out the best they can provide.

Bill

Hello all -

Found another local audio shop and was able to demo the following:

- Klipsch Heresy III
- Klipsch RF-7 III
- B&W 705s2
- Revel Performa2 M105

Let me just say that the B&W were impressive - I hadn't heard a bookshelf speaker of that - stature - put out that kind of sound. Their size was deceiving; the bass was better than expected. I don't know if I would be completely happy with a 2-way, though. But these could grow on me. A subwoofer would probably address my overall concerns here. The Revel's were OK, but not as good as the B&Ws (to me).

I really, really wanted to like the Heresy's, and I DID like them, but they felt like a newer, better version of what I already have. That is to say, miles above what I'm using now but in the same "family". The RF-7s were good, but man they're big! I didn't take good notes on them, but they weren't for me.

I keep coming back to the Focal Aria 936s, but may want to audition them in my own home before committing to them. I could say the same for most of them, actually. The Aria's "spoke to me" and I really enjoyed the instrument separation with these vs all of the others. 

We'll see! Thanks for all of the feedback.

Hello all -

Just wanted to update followers of the thread that I ended up buying a set of the Focal Aria 936s and signed for the delivery yesterday. Got them all set up and am happy to report that the concerns with lack of bass were unwarranted. In my room, they've got plenty of it. I've only put 1-2 hours of listening time on them, and look forward to really breaking them in over the next few weeks.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions!

Congrats!  I ran that amp with B&W’s for a few years and it was a great pairing!  Enjoy those aria’s!