Salk bookshelf or Dynaudio bookshelf? Or something else?

What you should decide first is which room/system you want to upgrade, or where the speakers will ultimately end up. Will they be in the larger room? The smaller room? Placed close to the wall, or well into the room?

A small bookshelf like the Evoke10 will be too small for your larger room, especially without subs. The larger Special 40s could overload your smaller room, depending on your taste, but the Special 40s will certainly require room to breathe for best bass response, based on what I see in the Stereophile measurements. So if you can’t pull them away from the wall in your small room, the 40s are probably a no-go.

If you can’t audition anything locally, stick with products you can return or purchase under a trial period. Ascend Acoustics, Spatial Audio, Zu Audio, and Omega are all comsumer-direct brands that offer generous trial periods. Of these, I only have experience with Spatial and I feel they offer one of the best values out there. They may be beyond your budget but they do compete with many speakers of twice their retail cost. Since you mentioned wanting accurate sound of upright bass, you’d be hard pressed to beat an open-baffle design at any price.

I was having issues with my Carver and it needed to be re-soldered.  After about 15-20 years, you want to have any electrolytic caps replaced.  The service on my Carver was $400 and it sounds like new. The reality is, Carver was probably not as well made as Adcom in that era so the situation might not be as negative.  

The need for caps will be driven by use.  If used regularly, you will see that they will have ballooned out due to heat through time.  

Good CD Rippers can be had for modest amounts of money, the bigger issue is the amount of time.  

Regarding speakers, I make one that would be a good choice. It was explicitly praised by Part-Time Audiophile for it's delivery of upright bass but is pricier than what you are looking at $3999.  


Harbeth's would be a fine choice.  ATC has a speaker in that price range that would be interesting. A little pricier, you could look at the Devore Gibbon 3XL though it is also a bit pricier at $3499 

@helomach: Which room? That's a good question. I suppose I'm just working on the smaller room setup for now. They will be close to a wall.

I think the 40s are a no-go for now — but presumably, they could always emerge later. This fact returns me to the intial thread question: Salk or Dynaudio Evoke 10? I'm now leaning Salk but I'm yet to hear a lot of argumentation using the details of the speakers' acoustics given my other constraints — though some here have said that my Adcom isn't up to the task. I guess I need to see that for myself.

Thanks for the additional brands to consider — I've not heard of Ascend Acoustics, Spatial Audio, Zu Audio, or Omega so I'll take a look.

Appreciate your taking the time to write up your thoughts and address what I've been asking. This is truly a special community here at Audiogon. Thank you.

@verdantaudio: Thanks for the info about your Carver. I may at least get an estimate about my Adcom if issues arise (I get some drops but I think it's just the pot.). No ballooning, I don't think, is happening. Thanks too for the info about cd rippers and the speaker you make, as well as the others. When I get to the point where I'm buying new power and setting up a larger room, I may be in touch!

Dave

There’s a pair of Joseph Audio Pulsars at US Audio Mart for $3650 (retail $7700).  They’ll do all that you’re looking for and more and would be a great starting point to build a system around.  If in the unlikely event they’re not to your taste you can sell them for likely little or no loss, but once you hear them I doubt that’ll be the case.  They’re also not a difficult load so should work fine with your current amp for now.  Totems are great too but usually require more power to get the best out of them.  Best of luck. 

Salk makes such a wide range of products, with a wide range of driver types, that I think it’d be impossible to ascribe a house sound. It appears that linear frequency response is one of their design goals, but that doesn’t mean all their speakers will sound similar. Even a 1db dip or peak at a midrange frequency can drastically influence the speaker’s voicing as heard by a listener.

I believe Salk offers a trial period, but if I’m not mistaken, it’s only for speakers finished in one of a few standard veneers, and not for every model they make.

 If I were shopping in this price class, I’d be most interested in Salk's version of the Philharmonic BMR monitors:

http://www.salksound.com/model.php?model=BMR+Monitors