New Speakers up to $15k - The more I read the less I know!


I am looking to upgrade my speakers and I am in search of guidance. I presently have B&W 803S and I find that these are excellent speakers and have really responded as I have steadily upgraded my system. I am now looking to buy speakers that will disappear, image and sound as neutral as possible. The 803's are close. 

My system is: ARC REF110 w KT120s, ARC LS27, ARC PH8, VPI Aries 3 fully upgraded, Lyra Delos, Rega Saturn CD, Oppo Sonica DAC, AQ Water & Niagara IC's, REL R528se Sub and more...

Actually, the ARC REF110 and B&W's are a much better match that I would have ever thought and the amp has plenty of power to drive at very high levels. I mainly listen to analog. 

I am looking at Vandy Treo CT, Quatro Wood CT, B&W 802D (used) but I need more ideas... I would prefer to buy new but I will look at used if the right deal presents itself. I am leaning towards the Quatro Wood CT so if anyone has experience with these and a REF 110...?

Thank you.
pilrem
My 2 cents on the Harbeth (and other wide baffle designs):

The Harbeth speakers - the larger ones included - do a surprising level of "disappearing" as sound sources. Not what you’d expect from looking at them. So their design philosophy does seem to be working to quite a degree.

That said, Harbeths don’t "disappear" as sound sources as well as any number of other speakers that take the "dampen resonances" approach.

Thus far I’ve auditioned 3 brands of the wide baffle, resonating cabinet approach: Audio Note, Harbeth, Devore. In each case they disappeared more than their shape lead me to expect. But also in every case, that aspect was pretty easily bettered by other resonance-controlled speakers (e.g. my Thiels and others). In the wide baffle/resonating designs, I always sense some level of "fill in" between the sonic images. This can lead to a nice cohesiveness and richness to the sound, but can also become a bit more confused with more complex material, with a lot of instruments playing in the mix.

One of my go-to tests for this are some cuts from the Lost Angeles Guitar Quartet, in which 4 similar sounding guitars are simultaneously playing complex parts. The wide-baffle speakers I auditioned could make it harder to untangle one guitar from the next, vs my Thiels and some other low-resonance speaker designs.

The trade off is that wonderful bigness and warmth of tone from the wide baffle designs. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve heard from Devore speakers which is why I’m contemplating buying a pair from the "O" series.


Yes, the state of the art loudspeaker design still involves serious compromise.

I'll compromise on anything this side of a screechy treble to get a vivid midrange. Its the best way for me to forget that I'm listening to loudspeakers.

For some others the goal may be the imagery / disappearing act combination. Devore seem to be a modern take on the classic DC Tannoys from the past with their luxury bass.

 
heinrichmilw the review doesn't reveal much about construction or materials but the fact that they succeeded the D40R's and were designed by Stuart Tyler speaks volumes.

The review does suggest that they are a high resolution design and disappear well. It also suggests that they were not necessarily designed for comfort.
Hard to imagine not giving the new 10k Revel a listen.Kevin V is one great designer with a very large budget. A wonderful alternative is a used pair of Salon 2’s for way under 15k. This is where I’d look fwiw.