I am about to embark on my next upgrade journey


Hey Audiogon Community-

The basics of what I have now:

12x15 room with cathedral ceilings.

2x Schiit Aegirs in mono

Gustard R26 Pro

2x REL T/5X (next for an upgrage)

MAC Mini M1 with Audirvana Studio

Various cable upgrades and power conditioning

Back wall is treated.

What I want to upgrade are the B&W 705 S2 speakers on 30” stands.

I have enjoyed the B&Ws but I feel I am missing some general musicality, presence and depth.

As the impedance curve heads down to 4ohms on the B&Ws, the Aegir’s seemed to run our of steam.  Otherwise, the amps sound quite amassing for what they are.

I have limited options for brick-and-mortar retailers to do in person listening.   The closest oner to me made me feel like I was buying a used car.  They immediately started discussing a $20K before even qualifying what I currently have, or about ny tastes or listening room.

I need a stand mount that is a stable or as stable as possible @ 8ohms and 89db efficient.

I have narrowed my choice to the Sopra N°1and would appreciate some feedback.  Open to other options as well.

 

Thank you!!

upward_bound

I’ve owned many speakers over the years mostly British made as I prefer their sound characteristics. Recently purchased Harbeth C7es-XD pair. If you want something that sounds like real music with no hype then  Harbeth is a wonderful brand with several models. They all sound musical. 

I own a set of Fritz carbon 7se  MK2 in a smaller listening room with very good electronics (IMO) and a SVS SB 3000 sub. Listen to only Rock, they are so GOOD. I told Fritz during a recent conversation, after listening  for 3 plus hours that I would never sell them. They look so simple and refined, but sound so good. The call was just about telling him How much I enjoyed them. Robert TN

Room correction. I recently added a McIntosh Men220 room correction unit to my system. It dramatically changed the sound for the better. I may do a full on report if anyone is interested. But, one of the big things it did was to align all of the phase and frequencies between my speakers and subwoofers. It adjusted phase and crossover frequencies, making all of my speakers work together. It was also a hit in the WAF, (wife appreciation factor) as my wife can decorate without multiple room acoustic treatments all over the room. 

I would definitely recommend auditioning the Borresen X-Series the X1 starts at $5,500 US and even the X2 is only $8,800 and the X3 is $11,000 and they punch way above their price range phenomenal sounding speakers.

Have you considered the Magnepans LRS + ?  You have the room to pull them out from the wall and you also have to subs to help with the low Hz A good amp to drive them would be the Orchard Audio Starkrimson Stereo GaN Ultra DMC 2.0  250watts@8ohm & 500watts@4ohm