Bookshelf Bake Off


Fellow Audiogoners,

Lend me your ears.  I live on a farm in South Georgia and have a 3+ hour drive in any direction to audition anything.  The price I pay for land, peace and horses I suppose.  I am putting together a secondary system and can't audition everything I have interest in, so I am hoping you can help me shorten the short list to a manageable set of maybe three (two would be even better) auditions for bookshelf speakers. They will be driven by 2 x PS Audio M700 Monoblocks, Schiit Freya+ tube preamp and a Mytek Brooklyn DAC+.  The space is fairly small at approx. 10'x20'.  For a number of reasons, floorstanders are not a possibility, hence the call for bookshelf speakers.  I would like to keep the budget in the $2K range, +/- a reasonable %.  I am not someone that feels the need to max the budget, i.e. linear correlation of price and quality, so feel free to suggest high value brands/models less than the max budget.  I have a pair of Focal Aria 906 in another system and very much like their sound, but want something a bit warmer with similar (or better) resolution.  Deeper low frequency extension would be a plus.  The brands I have narrowed the field to are:

Revel
Legacy
KEF
Monitor Audio
Sonus Fabre
PSB

This list is not written in stone, just my initial list after research.  Feel free to suggest anything I have omitted that warrants consideration.  Thanks in advance for your ears.

Mark


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Showing 2 responses by b_limo

These I have heard and would definitely recommend... 

-Focal Electra1008 BE.  Worldwide stereo has a pair for $2k right now.  Killer speaker, killer deal.

-Dynaudio Special 40 (Probably one of if not “the” safest bet!)

-Monitor Audio Gold 100

-ATC SCM11

These I haven’t heard but would take a look at (i.e. read reviews on-line, research research research)

-Spendor
-Buchardt S400
-Fritz
-Revel Performa3 106
-Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2
-Totem
-Pro Ac

Mark,
The pair of Ebony GX100’s with matching stands here on Audiogon for $1099 is a killer deal.  There’s also a pair of GX100’s in piano black here for $895.

There’s a pair of Paradigm S2 V.3 (Not V.2!) speakers here on Audiogon as well for $1450.

I’ve had a pair of GX50’s and a pair of Paradigm S2 V.3 and loved them both.  The Paradigms don’t come up for sale often and they’ve been going for more like $2k used, I believe.

Anyhow, between the GX100’s, S2 V.3 (beryllium tweeters) and the BE 1008 (world wide stereo, $2k new) you have 3 very nice choices, all at killer deals!