Avantgarde horns would do well within your budget, You won't get the good Acapellas for your budget. I have a pair of current spec AG Duos with valve amplification (Tron Meteor preamp www.tron-electric.com and GT Audio rebuilt Quad IIs). Hence I have significantly less power to play with than you. My listening room is 35 x 18 ft and I barely have to push the volume past about 10 o'clock before my wife say that's enough from another room/floor. You can get deafening levels even from a PX25 amp with 5W with Avantgardes. It's true that you need to set them up well, otherwise they can sound, well, crappy. that's true of many things in hi fi, esp turntables.
best 5-20K speakers for high-end tube amp?
I have a Jadis JPS2 tube preamp and Jadis 845SE tube amp combination, and want to get a pair of speakers which really show off their sound. I currently have a pair of B&W804s, and I figure that seriously upgrading my speakers will give me a significant improvement in sound (these speakers are in a much lower budget range, and not ideal for tube amps I believe). What speakers would you recommend to really get the best out of my equipment? I heard the magic with my Jadis amp in the store with a pair of Wilson Puppys 5.1 in the store. My home system has decent sound, but not at all 'magical'. My currently listening environment is about 17 x 25 feet (9 foot ceiling), and I generally listen to jazz, pop, world (everything from indian classical to spanish flamenco to andean flute music, etc...), and vocal music of all kinds.
I figure the budget will be between US$5K and 20K somewhere, and I will try to buy used, but this will be difficult since I live in China.
I figure the budget will be between US$5K and 20K somewhere, and I will try to buy used, but this will be difficult since I live in China.