Sonus Faber...Revel m20
Best Two-Way Monitor Speakers under $700 New/Used
So, here goes. I have a good friend who needs audiophile recommendations (you guys) for two-way speaker replacement with a budget not to exceed $700 new (or used) for the pair of speakers. He will place the monitor speakers on stands - color is important. Expresso finish or black color is preferred because it matches his room furniture. With that in mind, let me know what you think. He's running a NAD integrated solid state amp (but I'm anxiously trying to convince him to purchase a tube integrated or separates). He has a Music Hall turntable and Morrow Audio interconnects and speaker cabling. I recommended Totem Mites, Dynaudio Excite 12 (used) and Paradigm. Any other ideas that come to mind? Thanks in advance for your help.
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- 35 posts total
KEF XW10B or XQ20B, list price $1500 and $2000 respectively, on blowout at Vanns.com for $700 and $800 respectively. Both in gloss black, all curved lines, which should fit in with modern decor. The Absolute Sound flipped over the XQ20s, and named both the 10s and 20s to their Editor's Choice awards that year. Otherwise, I'd look at what's available from Dali, PSB, Epos, Mordaunt-Short, and Monitor Audio in his price range (unless he can score a used gloss black pair of Dynaudio Excite X12s). Is he allowing extra for the stands or $700 total? In that case he should probably shoot for $500-600 to leave room for decent stands. As for an amp, if he's using a lot of digital sources he may want to look into a Peachtree with built-in upsampling DAC with multiple digital inputs. If a general purpose integrated (even with built-in phono), he probably can't do better under $1K than the Marantz PM8004. TAS review here. |
- 35 posts total