Own many mid-game speakers or a few end-game speakers.


After I got hooked into this hobby I started to have a small collection of speakers each in the $5k-$10k ranges that have various tonal quality and unique characters from each other. It doesn’t feel one speaker is absolutely better than another and they all have their own personalities, and I quite enjoy these diversity for different type of music I listen to (or hearing the same music expressed very differently which is always fun) and I’m always tempted to add more, for example, I recently get excited about Klipsch and want to try their horns which I do not have had any experience of.

But, these things quickly add up and could become endless pursuit, especially consider speakers differ not just in response curves but also in dynamic, decay, sound stage and details that are all hard to emulate with software. I’m trying to limit the max spending I have on speakers. I’m wondering what’s the perspective of upgrading v.s. buying into more diversity in this game. A few questions I have for you is, say you have $60k in budget on speakers new/used and you have infinite rooms (no amp/source), how would you allocate it (from buying 5000 Homepod Minis to one B&W nautilus) and why?
bwang29

@dillonlennon 

 

Nice of you to stop by, join and post and endorsement about an obscure speaker brand. DO you have any affiliation? What is the rest of your system?

The $4.5K hORNS Aria 3 MK2 Horn speakers { In the USA they will cost a little more though } Sound Pretty Damn Good with the $6.2K MoonRiver Reference 404 Integrated amp WOW ! 😮🤩 Best-Kept Secret ! 😉

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxR62V9Ghyk

The hORNS Uniwersum MK4 Horn speakers cost $33K and in the USA they will cost a little more. That might be my End-Game Speakers with the MoonRiver Reference 404 amp ! 🤔 🤔

 

I agree with Miller Carbon and others.  I want to spend time listening to the very best speakers I can find and afford and not to a bunch of second bests.

Audioguy85 wrote, "I'll keep my tannoys made in Scottland UK over any home built abomination." 

Audioguy85, that sounds as though you feel all DIY speakers are home built abominations.  I respectfully wish to disagree.  My fully horn loaded, triamplified, DEQX controlled DIY speakers sound damned fine.  I suspect that you've never heard excellent DIY speakers.

   Obviously the amp plays into what kind of speakers you want - so some even goes as far as to buy only powered speakers...

   I have Krell pre/power amps driving B&W 802D ($63,000 system) and I found out that I enjoy the brute less sophisticated sound of Onkyo Integra m-306 power amp with Acurus pre (which gives a smooth sound) driving Klipsch speakers - rather forward sounding. The later system costs many many times less, so its possible to build a quite enjoyable sound with mid-fi gears if synergy is well achieved. 

   My take on the PM's question is it's fun to have many mid-fi systems everywhere in the house, since different systems do different genre music better, rather than just one uber main system...