Looking for Speaker Recommendations


Hi,

I am getting a new system and am looking for speaker recommendations. I will have a ma8950 and will, at least initially, be streaming exclusively. Focal and B & W are too bright and fatiguing. Wilson SabrinaX are good except for the price. Any thoughts? Thanks.

wast314

OP. I can't speak of Focal as I haven't spent much time with them. B&W speakers are definitely NOT fatiguing! If they are to you then I'd guess there is an issue with your room. You really need to listen to a set of speakers in a well set up system and then decide. Good luck. Joe

If you are buying a new system, why that amp?  Suggest you re-think the amp and go for the Maggies.  Your room will be great with them, but as noted, you need power.  I suggest you spend your $9000 for used ARC tube separates, but that's just my experience.  You can get a good used ARC preamp for $1500 or so and put the rest to as high a power ARC used tube amp(s) as you can find.  With tubes, 150 a side should be fine in your room with Maggies.  If not, you can always add more later.  Either way, you get WHAT YOU PUT IN with Maggies, so they reproduce the source.  I don't know about streaming, so I will leave that to others.  

Whatever you decide, good listening!

Cheers!

you may want to check out the Raven Corvus Monitors, beautifully done and terrific sound at every type of music, clear voicing, great detail, never fatiguing

@wast314

your add’l info is quite helpful... always good to see folks coming here for advice provide ample useful input so we can be more informed to try to help you properly

a few additional thoughts -

1. life is short, if wilson sabrina x’s are it for you, you should go for it... why have regrets?

2. not sure how much of your speaker choice is driven by visuals, cosmetics and/or speaker set up constraints, or is it pretty much all about the sound? if the latter, please do not underestimate magnepans, while they look how they do, and demand to be out into the room they play in, they are absolutely superb when done right and provide a magical balance of live presence without attendant treble harshness

3. seems like you are bascailly quite sensitive to modern sizzly treble but still want the visceral impact of a live performance in the rest of the range, along with tonal correctness at good volumes - given this, i do agree with your notion of getting electronics that have tone controls, or the modern version of such, being digital signal processing/equalization - this will allow you to use speakers that are more alive sounding, but shelve down the treble