First, let me thank everyone for your responses, I really appreciate all the input I can get. To answer a couple of questions I would like to keep my budget around $10k but Im not locked into that and my upper limit is $20k. Id prefer to spend less. My goal is to purchase a system that sounds good to me, secondly since this will be a part of my family room and Ill be looking at it on a daily basis Id like it not to be too hard on the eyes.
I listen to all types of music but probably more acoustic and smooth jazz than anything. There is so much stuff on the market and my experience and knowledge is limited. Im also living in a rural town in Virginia which makes shopping around a challenge. Stores in the northern VA area are a two to three hour drive each way and its not like they carry all of the product lines that Id like to compare. As I mentioned in my initial post I did like the Linn Akurate 242 speakers but that particular dealer carried primarily Linn products making it difficult to listen to the speakers with a variety of amplifiers. Ive been to another store that carried Macintosh components but not the Linns. Their main speaker line was B&W which also sounded great. The B&Ws were physically quite a bit larger and seemed to sound better when cranked up a bit. I generally dont listen at high volume levels.
Rather than having a salesperson tell me what is best for me when his opinion will be affected by the commission he makes, I chose to solicit the advice of the experienced and knowledgeable group that participates in these forums and has nothing to gain.
Once again, all input is greatly appreciated.
I listen to all types of music but probably more acoustic and smooth jazz than anything. There is so much stuff on the market and my experience and knowledge is limited. Im also living in a rural town in Virginia which makes shopping around a challenge. Stores in the northern VA area are a two to three hour drive each way and its not like they carry all of the product lines that Id like to compare. As I mentioned in my initial post I did like the Linn Akurate 242 speakers but that particular dealer carried primarily Linn products making it difficult to listen to the speakers with a variety of amplifiers. Ive been to another store that carried Macintosh components but not the Linns. Their main speaker line was B&W which also sounded great. The B&Ws were physically quite a bit larger and seemed to sound better when cranked up a bit. I generally dont listen at high volume levels.
Rather than having a salesperson tell me what is best for me when his opinion will be affected by the commission he makes, I chose to solicit the advice of the experienced and knowledgeable group that participates in these forums and has nothing to gain.
Once again, all input is greatly appreciated.