$20K to spend on speakers…. . wait! There’s a catch!


Greetings,

Perfect sense says buy stuff only after you have heard it. Only after an in home audition.

Sometimes we are forced to wing it.

Admit it, best guess trigger pulling happens a bunch because not everything is everywhere.

For some unknown reasons we seem to feel we know what we want or need in spite of never having auditioned it.

Here are a couple scenarios based on a “this thing should work’, “shot in the semi dark” buying practices.

Premise: You have $20K and it MUST be spent entirely on loudspeakers.

Here are the options:
1. The used speakers option.
You have NOT heard them ever. At all. Nada.
The deal here is you’r egetting them for about 50% off retail in quite good esthetic (8/10) condition, excellent working orde according to the seller, and about three - four years old and landed or shipped.

The seller has good feedback. No negatives.

All of the speakers numbers are amenable to your existing power plants. They should do well in your room.

2. brandy new speaker option.

The brand new units you’re paying $20K for include a 25% discount from MSRP and sold by a brick & mortar dealership.

You did hear the brand new ones, but only with modest SS gear and nothing on the level of your own equipment which is tubes, or vice versa for sake of this argument.

These come with warranty. ..and in your color preference.

Lastly, neither of these two sets of speakers are what could be called very popular, loudspeakers. Meaning they aren’t littering the pages of the speaker for sale pages with any regularity.


The carrier arrives. The boxes are fully in tact. No issues at all. Still, there’s a nagging thought. Did I do the right thing?

Shouldn’t I have bought used speakers and obtained still more value given just a bit older speakers sell for much less than MSRP.

Or, I bet I should have bought the new speakers and put up with another long run in.

Man! I hope I did not messs this up!!


What is your choice and why?

Thanks for the ideas and insights..

blindjim
@blindjim

Funny thread. Would active speakers be granted access to this experiment?

If so, easy for me; I would go with a new pair of ATC SCM150ASL Pro - in fact I believe they retail for close to if not exactly around $20,000/pair. With these speakers I believe there’re no aesthetic choices other than "working clothes" black. $20k is a lot of dough, but with the ATC’s in question, being active no less, I find they’re close to a bargain. They were the "runners-up" to my existing speakers - indeed a close call.
I like JOND's suggestion too.  A set of custom high efficiency speakers from Deja Vu Audio with vintage horns and drivers would be just the ticket.
ProAcs are known for their synergy with tubes, plus look and sound amazing.  There is a beautiful rosewood D48 with the ribbon tweeters brand new on ebay for $12000 with free shipping and 14 day return policy.  Unfortunately, ProAcs take a long time to break in, but once they do, the sound of string and double reed instruments will blow you away.  I like to use Soundocity SEV9 with my ProAc Studio 148s (a smaller and slimmer tower version).  Check my system page for details.
Check out milpai's posts.  He searched for two years, travelled to a bunch of places, and eventually settled on the D48R.  *That* is a recommendation.
Or you could possibly call Sound Organization in Texas.  They are the ProAc importers for the US.  They might be able to setup a listening session for you or an extended return window?