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Please recommend speakers

I’m just starting my audiophile journey and want to make sure I pair the right equipment before going too far down the rabbit hole. I am coming into this as a complete newbie. I listen pretty much to everything but mostly pop, classical and jazz in a fairly large-ish lower level living room (maybe 20 x 20 feet square) and speakers sitting on bookshelves. I know they should be on stands or floor-mounted, but that doesn’t really work for me right now space-wise. So far I have Jamo 803 bookshelf speakers with newly purchased SMSL DA-9 amp and matching SMSL SU-9 DAC (previously was using an old NAD D 3020 V1 integrated amp with direct connection from iPad to internal DAC). Now I stream directly from an old iPhone/iPad via a USB camera adapter to the DAC which has balanced connections to the DA-9 amp. I pretty much stream music exclusively (currently on free trials with Tidal and Amazon HD). No other sources. No library to speak of. No headphones. The Jamos sound great to me, but I feel like I need something better to pair with the mid-fi DAC and AMP. So I’m looking for upgrade the Jamo 803s which were purchased on sale for $130. Looking to spend up to maybe $800 for a pair. Recommendations? Thanks in advance!

 

Edit:  Here's what I'm considering so far.  KEF350, Polk R200s, Audio Monitor Bronze.  Thoughts on pros and cons?  Anything else?

expresstrain

Showing 3 responses by artemus_5

artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5
1,911 posts
 

I see the amp is rated at 50 wpc.@8ohms. The way they post the spec makesme believe that 50wpc is questionable.  I would not look at any speaker with less than 90-91 db sensitivity. 93+ even better. So far, none of the speakers except the Tektons are a decent choice for your amp. There are other mfg’s who make high sensitivity speakers but I can’t think of any right now. You will have to look at the sensitivity rating. Anything below 91-92 db is not going to be very good. Don’t look at the speaker mfgs rating on "Recommended Amplifier Power" Sure you can get some sound from an 87db. But your amp will be near distortion (clipping) when playing

BTW, Here is an example of the specs I was speaking about. Look at the Recommended Amplifier Power" and you will get some understanding of what I am speaking about

M106 Look at the specs. 87db

artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5
1,911 posts
 

@expresstrain

Perhaps I should also consider the Klipsch 600M (sensitivity of 96db)

Yes, Klipsch is another high efficiency speaker mfg. While looking up the ones you mentioned, I ran across these. Supposedly the are a discontinued model but are the same as the 625FA which sell for $599 apiece. They are towers if you have the room they should have a better freq range They are 8ohm & 97db sensitivity.

 

Klipsch R 26FA

artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5
1,911 posts
 

Geez Guys. Look at his amp. Then look at the Vandy's 86db for a questionable inexpensive amp that is rated 50 wpc? Youi can't just call out speakers because they are good. The Vandy's are as are many others. But the amp won't drive them properly.

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