Candidates for best speakers in the $2000-5000 market


I’m asking for listeners’ experience in this bracket, buttressed by reviews and/or data; I am not a fan of "whatever sounds good to you." Ultimately, yes, that will be the case. But in getting to that point, I’m looking to benefit from the advantage of a thousand pairs of ears rather than mine alone. Those ears can include the inanimate. Thank you.

My experience has included my own Elac 403, Elac 407, and Dynaudio Special 40. Auditions have included various Sonus Faber, and Magico. All of this is in preparation for justifying the leap for an Electa Amator lll or its equivalent. But that’s for another day, another forum.

Ag insider logo xs@2xrichardmathes

If you're wanting to stick w/monitors to match your gear and buy new, consider Klipsch Heresy. A used pair of Tannoy Stirling or Eaton would sound fabulous, too, and match well, but might be a little large for your wife although they're elegant and furniture-like if that's your bag. I liked them both and they're easily driven by your amp. 

Vandersteen mate well w/pretty much anything except your wife. Dynaudio and Totem monitors are exceptional but your Primaluna won't have the power to open them up.

Having owned all the above and held the same considerations, the Klipsch stand a good chance of making you both happy. Having written that, I picked up a pair of Daedalus Athena v2's for 3500 and they're not leaving anytime soon even in the face of some initial lamentations and protests from my wife. In the end, though, she's happy to see the parade of cartons having come to a close....temporary as that may be give our collective predilection!

Also using PrimaLuna for amplification (Dialogue HP Integrated) and settled on a used pair of Focal Aria 936’s and couldn’t be happier. Well within your budget. SQ has exceeded my expectations and scored well on the WAF scale (wife acceptance factor).

Gallo Reference 3.5 w/ the additional subwoofer amp to power the 2nd voice coil would light up your room. They come up once in a while here and on US audio mart. One of my favorite top end and low extension speakers. 

B&W CM floor standing speakers sound really good to me. My first pair was CM4s, then CM6s and finally CM7s. The CM6s should not disappoint you and sounded the best to me. I don't see CM6s come up for sale very often and I hope it is because people don't want to let them go. I see CM8s, CM9s, and CM10s come up now and then. I haven't heard them but I read a review on the CM9s and the reviewer wasn't that hot on them like the others. I think the CMs would be worth listening to in any case.