Best Speakers for small room under $3.5k


I have a small room (about 10 feet by 18feet), and want to optimize my listening environment. Speakers may be the next upgrade, but not sure what to get. My current system is Bel Canto Dac 1 & Arcam 7 as transport (also use DV525 as transport sometimes), Bryston 3b-st amp, Bryston BP20 Preamp, B&W Nautilus 805 speakers, PS300 powerplant. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on good speakers that will match my room - they could be monitors or floorstanders with a relatively small footprint. Thanks!
128x128outlier

Showing 2 responses by dekay

Outliar. What is it about the sound that you would like to improve or change? I agree with Trelja, you have a very nice set of speakers. You may also want to be certain that you have exhausted your placement options before you switch to something else. Moving a speaker an inch or so can make a dramatic difference in the total sound. That's why I used the word "exhausted" - it is exhausting to fine tune a set of speakers. I recently auditined the Solioquy line and found them to be to my liking and hope to take a listen to the small Coincident Triumph Sig. Have you considered adding a powered sub or home auditioning another amp/preamp or integrated (like the plinius)? These options would be well within your budget and would deifinatly give you a different sound.
Outlier: Not to nag, but also you will want to make certain that your source is well isolated. I prefer the Vibrapods under an MDF base as apposed to cones in our current placement. But will soon have to move the components (that are blocking a heat vent) to another piece of furniture and location, so this may change. The difference this made was jaw dropping. I prefer the Homegrown Super Silver interconnects, my wife likes the Harmonic Tech. Truthlinks, this is just to say that cable is difficult to recommend. I just added $2 worth of felt material around the tweeters on our speakers (not an option and not necessary on your speakers) and what a difference in the HF. I can now listen to "The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions" without gritting my teeth. Once I have achieved the maximum sound in our setup, I will probably move on to new speakers, but in the meantime the process of doing so has become a challenge that is kind of fun in a way. One more note - I find it necessary to hedge the speaker placement when I switch cables in order to re-balance the sound. I have a set of written speaker coordinates for each set of cables. My wife has gotten used to the pencil marks on the walls and my use of the T square and protracter. Though I am certain that she thinks that I am nuts.