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Looking for new monitors - $300-$600 budget

Hello, all.

New here (first post), and I'm sure this topic has been done to death, so if there are are any "greatest hits" threads on this topic, please feel free to direct me there.

I'm currently using a pair of KEF Q10s I picked up at an estate sale with my setup (Rega Brio 3 and P1, unremarkable Sony single disc player). This is the living room setup so we listen to the occasional movie, podcast, etc... over the system too.

The KEFs were a definite improvement over our old speakers, but not quite my taste. They seem to have a bit of a bump in the low end that I'm not wild about. I'm looking for something a little more honest.

In terms of listening habits, I'd say:

65% rock
15% acoustic/folk
15% jazz
5% classical

Listening levels tend to be pretty moderate. Below a list of what I've listened to so far, as well as a list of others I'm curious about. I'm just curious to get some input. Maybe there's a pattern to what I like that might suggest some others to listen to?

liked:

Morel MLP-202 MKII (current front runner) Balanced-sounding, nice imaging qualites, extended but not fatiguing high end. Extreme low end stayed musical and under control.

Rega R1 - (new version) Fairly neutral-sounding to my ears, but not boring with rock. I just can't seem to get that excited about them though.

B&W 685 - a little sizzly I guess, but I actually liked them better than the larger model in the line.

Vandersteen VLR-1 I liked these quite a bit but at $600 EACH they are way out of the budget.

did not like:

Usher S-520 Too lean/clinical sounding.

Quad 12L2(?) Low mids seemed a bit wild n'wooly. A little too hyped-sounding overall.

Rega R1 - (old version) Too "cardboard-y" if that makes sense.

Snell Acoustics Type KII - Fatiguing treble, bass seemed overly reigned in.

curious about:

Tekton 4.5 and 6.5 I definitely find the idea of a single, high quality full range driver appealing, but I've never actually heard this type of speaker design.

Linn Kan These seems to be in my budget when they pop up used. There seems to be some debate about the relative merits of the different versions. Somehow I think these are probably all wrong for me.

Dynaudio Audience 52 - There's currently a pair up on my local craigslist.
marqueemoon

Showing 3 responses by marqueemoon

marqueemoon OP
26 posts
 
Thanks for the suggestions so far, everyone. I might see about listening to the Dynaudios.

This has done nothing to reduce my curiosity about the Tektons. Sigh. I've also been wondering how the 4.5 model with the FE127 driver compares. I like my bass on the light side for a rock listener. On my old Denon tuner I usually left the bass down a notch.

I love my Brio 3, but the lack of tone controls is part of the deal. One of the appealing aspects of the Morels is that I was able to hear them with a Brio 3 at the shop.

Re: Placement limitations, these will need to be pretty close to the wall. 5 or 6 inches from the wall is probably the most I could get away with. Current speakers are on either side of the TV, which is on a wide-ish entertainment center. They're sitting on Auralex Mo' Pads to try to decouple them a little. Arranging the furniture in the room was a bit of a challenge, so unfortunately the spacing of the speakers is not really optimal (on the close side). The basement system will be set up more properly in this regard.

Hopefully the household decision maker will be up for some listening this weekend. This whole thing was partly her idea. I guess I've been good or something.
marqueemoon OP
26 posts
 
Thanks for the new suggestions. I've listened to some PSBs and Paradigms a step or two down in the line pretty recently and wasn't wild about them. I do have a soft spot for Paradigm though. The first system I heard that really made me say "wow" was driving Paradigm monitors.
marqueemoon OP
26 posts
 
My wife and I listened to a few more today. Unfortunately the Morels were gone.

Totem Rainmaker (new) - Pretty nice imaging, fairly open and natural sounding in the upper end. The bass seemed a little disjointed. Tony Williams' ride cymbal on "Maiden Voyage" sounded very brassy and flat. The salesman seemed to think these qualities would lessen with break-in. These were out of the budget anyway, so it was on to the next.

Soliloquy SM-2A3 (used) - A little more detailed in the midrange than the Totems, bordering on harsh. We preferred these over the Totems but they still had difficulty sorting out complex low frequency material like the deep gong bass drum and bass guitar interplay on Luna's "Whispers".

Epos ES-14 (used) - We listened to these on the recommendation of the salesman. They were immediately more musical and sounded very open and balanced from top to bottom. The imaging was also impressive, particularly with the classical and jazz recordings we brought. The only flaw I could find is they came up a bit short in delivering a proper bass kick in the gut from Fugazi's "Bed for the Scraping". The rawness of the vocals and guitars still came through though. They are also a little brighter than I'm used to, but not in a fatiguing way as far as I could tell. My wife liked them a lot with the recording she picked (Calexico, Kristen Hersh, The Be Good Tanyas). She heard many details in these recordings that were new to her.

These might be it.
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