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Best bookshelf speakers

I’m building my first high fi system after being more of a portable audio person. I want to start with the speakers. Space is limited so bookshelf speakers are a must.

Preferences:
Balanced and revealing with a hint of warmth.
Midrange most important to get right over highs and lows
Timbre is super important - I listen mostly to acoustic music especially jazz
But I do need some bass as I also listen to some electronic music
Smaller is better but SQ is most important
A speaker that sounds good with different amps but also scalable with high quality sources
Wide sweet spot - I wont have money for a great amp at first but want them to be scalable for later

These speakers have caught my eyes - any thoughts on them?

Ascend Sierra 2s - Ribbon = dispersion limitations?
BMR Philharmonitor - See above. Also massive.
Buchardt S400/S300 - Wary of the sudden hype train and limited info
Silverline Minuet Grande - Limited info
Reference 3A De Capo - This caught my eye as a potential endgame speaker if I could blow up my budget a little. But concerns about BE tweeter as well as some potential snake oil stuff (cryogenic treatment (!?)), exaggerated sensitivity claims and wonky measurements put me off.

What else should I be looking at?

Edit: I could have sworn I had <$2,000 in the title... Anyway, my budget is 2k.

stuff_jones

Showing 3 responses by mrfungi

mrfungi
10 posts
 
Stuff Jones,
Sounds like we're at about the same stage.  I bought the S400's and they just arrived so haven't gotten to listen to them just yet.  Great experience so far.  Good luck on your journey putting together a system you can enjoy for years to come.  Such a subjective thing (what sounds good).  And so many variables and idiosyncrasies to everyone's listening environment.

The S400's piqued my interest because of the reviews and I'm expecting  they will hold their own against other speakers of similar price/category.  They'll be playing in the local Best Buy Magnolia room along side the ML, DT and B&W speakers so I'll have some sense of that pretty quickly.

I figure the big names started out as the little guys making good speakers with a compelling value proposition in their segment.  That's what I hope Buchardt is producing and what I bought into. 

Good luck :-)


mrfungi
10 posts
 
@Stuff Jones I'll update on here for  :-)
mrfungi
10 posts
 
Not sure what to do.  They're ok.  My receiver doesn't have enough power.  But after playing them on a new Denon 8500 via my local best buy magnolia room and, it was about the same only louder.  Clear but not very bright.  Mads was cool and says to keep breaking them in so I am. But I think I ruined myself by playing them side by side with the B&W 707 S2's while in that magnolia room.  So much clearer on the high's.  I really wanted/hoped the S400's would have outdone them
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