A litlle help for choice of speakers up to €5500 (used or new)


Hi folks. 

In advance I need to say that I am truly gratfull to be among you and learn with you all about this most passionate area of audio/hi fi. 

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Now, what brings me here today is a request for your help in an area so important to me. The purchase of loudspeakers. Perhaps the most important element of a system. And at this point I feel a little lost before the many choices and options available (nationally and internationally, new or used).

Having this budget available, I would like your precious help in choosing speakers within those values above.

The ideal objective would be to reconcile two worlds to which I very much identify myself in audio ...

I love a good mid range but also feel intrinsically need to have good bass that make me feel like "completely filling the room" (correctly, of course) with a full bodied sound.

I'm not referring to the bass of "impress your friends", but deep bass, dark, correct on the timbre and tonally that permits you to connect fully with the music.

The listening room is of an average apartment, by European standards. It has 35m2 and with good acoustics.

Previously (giving a bit of my experience to better situate the intended objective) I had some portuguese handmade speakers, skillfully built with many units and sealed box, that gave me years of pleasure with very good high and low frequencies. But I needed a little more presence in the mid-range and so I decided to change radically... 

I ended up buying from a friend the Harbeth Super HL5 loudspeaker, which I knew well as a regular at his home. From all my audio experience were the loudspeakers that sounded better at this level of the midrange. I've never heard voices so naturally and realistically. But not only. The whole mid range is fabulous.  

But nevertheless, ... I missed the bass I had previously with its predecessors. They were tonally correct basses that made me thrill more about music (I'm lucky that the setup room does not accuse the bass very much. So I can choose speakers with a significant bass). Both things are quite important to me. 

Now, the goal would be to get and reconcile both things, of course. Among all the other normal features we all look for in very good loudspeakers.

An important detail is also the need to choose a model / brand / topology that allows me to have the freedom to play loud but also to play a low levels of sound. Not all speakers allow minimum quality at low / medium volumes.

As a result, I sold the current Harbeth Super HL5 and am a buyer of something I'm not sure what ... so many models, brands and topologies.

I can buy new or used and even internationally if necessary (in Portugal post-crisis, many of the good audio stores have fallen and some others do not give the necessary support).

As amplification, I have an integrated tube amplifier. It's a JJ828 from JJ Electronics. A Push Pull with 75wt channel-separated current transformers with 8 KT88 Genelec Gold Lion tubes.

I had previously a Lavardin IT that many hours (years) of pleasure gave me, but after knowing and testing this model of JJ, I was taken with its quality and conquered me to the point of having replaced Lavardin IT.

Not relevant I think, but as sources, I have a Primare CD31 CD player, a Portuguese hand-held turntable manufactured by artisan Rui Borges (Rui Borges UNO MKII) and a M2Tech Young DAC for hi res files.

The phono units are more than one, depending on the type of music I want to hear.

Sorry for the long text, just wanted to leave you everything you need for a better help.

Once more and in advance, thankyou for all.

Miguel



lcarpediem
As a side note I feel I need to warn that the websites you mentioned plus many other European marketplaces are full of scammers who put up stolen pictures of someones equipment, list these and fish for easy money.
I`ve seen my own listing pictures there many times. Some examples from my quick search for "killer deals" :))

http://www.annunci.net/brescia/audio-tv-video/focal-jm-lab-diablo-utopia-iii-reference-loudspeakers-...

https://www.quoka.de/hifi-audio-tv-video-foto/boxen-lautsprecher-kopfhoerer/c7265a192342137/focal-so...

https://www.kalaydo.de/kleinanzeigen/stereoboxen/paradigm+persona+3f/a/a01a4f8b/

Many are with right prices also so I suggest to be extremely cautious if you don`t live near by!
Plutos, wow, that would be horrible of course!  

The one link that advertised the Sophia 2's on a site in the UK for 5,500 GBP (6200 EUR) looks potentially very good.  The seller is in France, which is a reasonable road trip from Portugal if the deal will set you up with your dream speakers.  When I bought my Sophia 2's used, I drove pretty far to get them as well, and it was a very exciting trip.  Great to be able to see the product in person before actually paying and taking ownership.

https://www.adpost.com/uk/audio_video_electronics/18683/

Yep the price is not too good to be true for these Sophia's so it may be a legit seller. It certainly is worth to ask more pictures/proof etc. before a long trip.
The D48R is amazing, but you don't see many used.  I haven't heard previous model, the D40, but it doesn't seem too difficult to find.

https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=proac+d40

The D30RS might be in your budget new (not sure about prices in Euros), but won't have as much bass.

Good luck.
Marktomaras/Plutos - thankyou, my idea (if doesnt find anything here in Portugal) is really that (finding some solution through Europe. But I am quite afraid of what Pluto's said about scammers.  My idea is really to find some twou ou three good solutions and choose one to go visit in person the equipment in person. 

But to help reduce the risks can you tell me what can I ask the owners to show me before I go there? 

I usually ask for the certificate serial number, invoice, etc. So I may contact the brand and asks for the autenticy of the product. 

If you know any other thing that helps me to assurance the situation, please tell me. 

That WAS seems to me a very good option, despite the owner being not so good in communicate. I already asked him for some information and he is quite reserved in words. Maybe I will have to pass this unfortunetly. Because at first sight I found it a potential very good choice. 

Gnostalgik - thankyou, I put the D48/D40 in my short list and that is a model I can listen in Portugal, I think. The D30 I think (for what I read only, of course) it would be feel a lack of bass, for my taste. The only thing I am afraid is that those models seems to have a problem with the listening rooms etc. But I think to mine maybe isnt the case.