I'm ready to pull the trigger on some new speakers.looking for some last minute advice


Hey all,
I know that there are too many posts like this when it comes to buying speakers, and I know that the answer is 'what sounds best to me', but maybe there's something that I have overlooked. Maybe someone has had a bad experience, or has been blown away, etc.  I hope to buy one of these soon. I have an 80W NAD int amp and my room size is 14x12'
The speakers I've listened to in the last 3 days are :

Golden Ear Triton Two+ Tower
Paradigm 85F
KEF r700
B&Wcm10
revel F206
Focal Aria936

It's not easy to remember what one speaker sounded like when listening to a different one days later.
One dealer won't do an A-B comparison because he believes it's deceiving?
From what I've read, the Golden Ears are either loved or hated.

So any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

Dan
128x128snoopgordie
I owned a pair of Golden Ear 2's.  They sounded great but I had qualms about the build quality.  Screws into MDF or small pieces of wood attached to MDF if I remember correctly. Nothing wrong with MDF per se, it just seemed cheaply done.   The other thing to think about is the powered sub built in.   It sounds great but that is another piece of hardware that can fail.  I rank reliability as a main factor in how I spend my audio $$$$.  After all that they may last 20 years with no problem but Golden Ear along with many other mfgs can make it difficult to use their warranty services if you weren't the first buyer.

The last three shows Ive been to    the consesus has been that Ryan Loudspeakers are absolutely stunning values in terms of build quality and overall musicality.......go find some avshowroom videos on youtube.....,4 models range from 2k   to 3400  to 5k   to 15k

the 2k 610 model sounds amazing and would obliterate the golden ears
Shahinian Obelisk 2 - see how many ’I don’t like’ reviews you can find :)

You may need to upgrade the amp to get the best from them...
Revel. Build quality and awesome sound not to mention most value per dollar in high end speakers IMHO. 

Nice short list you have put together and good to hear that you were able to listen to all on them.  Surely something struck you about each when you auditioned?

FWIW, here is my take of them.  Focal, B&W too bright for my tastes.  Always thought Kef were a little weak in the bass dept.  Have heard high praise for the Tritons but mixing active subs in a passive system reminds me a Def Techs which I never liked for music applications.  I am sure the Tritons sound great but their design would steer me away - yeah I know, my own built-in bias.  But we all have them.

But I never heard a Revel I didn't like.   Also a friend has a pair of F12 Concertas that I have spend a lot of time with. Very smooth, musical speaker. So I gotta believe the new F206 Performa3's sound even better. This would be my first choice if looking for a well balanced, musical speaker.  Good luck!