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New Speakers $10K -$20K

Hi everyone. A few bullet points and thank you all for your advice! Sorry for the length just trying to help you to help me.

* A Florida family room untreated and large. 30’ x 30’ with 12’ cathedral ceiling.
* I sit basically on left half of the room, the right side of the room is billiards and wet bar.
* I just turned 65, so these are my forever speakers!
* I am 70% HT and watching TV, and 30% 2Ch, but with a little room improvement 2ch listening will go up. I want better sounding 2 ch but I’m in a very live room.
* The front wall “half width” of my room is a stacked-stone marble wall.
* to my rear is a 16’ opening to a large kitchen.
* to my immediate left is a window 40” and 12’ of sliders looking into pool.
* just sold Paradigm Persona 7F towers, (2) Persona subs and Persona center ch. Amazing speakers in a poor large room. But I do think the Be. mid-range became a bit fatiguing.
* I need a company that also makes a great center ch for HT., Legacy Audio does.

Based on WAF etc. some treatments will be done but not greatly. More pillows, a defuser or two, maybe a bit more.

My needs: warmth, no harshness at the top, not massive speakers, WAF!
I still love movies with the grandkids, big subwoofers won’t be approved. “Eye Candy” is what she likes beautiful cabinetry, Sonus Fabre, and custom finishes available from Bill D. at Legacy.

Current candidates are:
1. Sonus Fabre Amati Tradition in the red stained finish - “gorgeous”, her favorite!
2. Legacy Calibres in a custom veneer with 2+ subs that are not too big. I really love the Aeris with Wavelet processor but they are too tall for her! Remember this is a family room.m we use for everything.
3. Sonus Fabre Serafino Tradition in the same beautiful red stain wood veneer.
4. Spendor, not terribly familiar but they do make a center ch, and are respected and are considered warm. Really wish Harbeth made a center ch.

Now I am looking forward to your suggestions!
Related equipment:
Classe’ CAV 180 - 5 x 180W
Marantz 8805 Pre-pro
Oppo 203
Innuous streamer/DVD ripper
Kaleidescape movie server 
Sonance DSP 8-130 MK2 for surrounds
Paradigm in ceiling (3pr) for surrounds 

Thank you all!
Dave





dave1980
dave1980 OP
70 posts
 
Everyone here is very astute. Sopra 3’s on the shortlist. Wish here in Fl. I could demo the Larsens which require a back wall.

while the room is big, about 30’ x 30’ we sit on the left side, actually 17’. Behind the stone covered wall we sit in front of is a small hallway leading to a pool bathroom. So where we sit is about 9-10’ from main speakers flanking our 85” Sony TV. Directly behind us is maybe 4-5’ of flooring then bar stools to a kitchen counter. Hence why speakers need to be near the wall we sit in front of, with the bathroom on the other side of the that stone wall. The right half of the room is truly 30’ deep with a bar at one end and a 9’ billiard table.
ghdprentice
6,471 posts
 
In the May/June issue of The Absolute Sound Alan Taffel talks about compact reference systems… which addresses, a little,  the close to the wall speaker problem. He mentioned the Wilson Duette as about the only choice when up against the wall. You might read his section on speakers.

My Sonus Faber Amati Traditional are six feet from the rear wall.
nitrobob
238 posts
 
I have those Legacy’s Focus/ Marquis Center with the Marantz 8805. I have mine about a foot from the walls as I have to. I currently have a Lyngforf on order (a 40) for the exact reasons you suggested,,, the room correction. I am told there is no comparison between X32 and Room Perfect, especially on ill handling rooms. But I’ll have to wait and see. Keep us posted ...
hshifi
572 posts
 
Hello, 
My recommendation is the Revel 228 be due to these being front ported and the tweeter is so good you will not need to treat the walls. They have a great center channel speaker to match if you want to upgrade. If you can get them away from the wall I would say spring for the $16k Revel 328 be. They are rear ported so you need at least 2’ away from the front wall. If you get the $10k 228be you can spring for 2 JL Audio f110 subs for around $8k. I have not listened to the 328be but I have demoed the 228be I would also look into a two channel preamp with home theater pass through. Emotiva has one and it’s really great. This lets you use your two channel system with your home theater. The Emotiva has a built in crossover for the subs. This is what I am using now until I upgrade my system. I have the Marantz 7704 Pre/pro. I know what all of this sounds like even your Classe amp. I am using an Ayre VX-5 at the moment. Emotive lets you return stuff if it doesn’t sound good. 
jimob
85 posts
 
If you want to try something different as well as special 
Spatial Audio Labs make a Exceptional open baffle speaker 
with the excellent Custom Beyma AMT tweeter-midrange driver 
with Nothing in the Xover  path , only 2 capacitors and a inductor 
for a very pure signal path. A 12 inch MidBass Driver and your choice a 12 or 15 inch Bass that is powered by a direct coupled 250:watt Hypex amplifier  ,but the upgraded VH Audio Odam capacitors.  The X3 and X5 Model and under $9 k .and 97 db efficient .
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