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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 webking185

webking185's avatar
webking185
178 posts
 

Like @carlsbad said, all bookshelf have their limitations. Once you

hear floorstanding, its non comparable.  I say for $800 price range, KEF LS50 is a good value on the used market   I've owned LS50, B&W 805, Klipsch RP600, Elac Unifi UB5, Emotiva B1+. Of them all, the Emotiva are my favorite and they cost $250.  My floor standing are B&W 803 and have been great to my ears.  In my second room, the Bose 701 rock.  Screw the specs, let your ears be the judgement.  People bash Bose, but those 701 kill the book shelf speakera any day and they cost me $400 at a garage sale in 1995.  Good luck

webking185's avatar
webking185
178 posts
 

@carlsbad , even if on stands.  Bookshelve speakers do sound good, but towers sound better.  I driven many bookshelves beyond the new models with my ML 27, Yamaha MX-1000 or MX-1, as the volume gets higher those speakers are hitting their limits.  I always said you cannot compare a speaker that weighs 25lbs (bookshelve) vs 100lb (floor standing). The vibration and resonance is un-matched.  Every can have their own opinion, just like people.who say mid-fi and hi-fi.  Some people who spend $1k on a amp and some members say its mid-fi.  

Cheers.  Henry

webking185's avatar
webking185
178 posts
 

@carlsbad , figure to use Japanese midfi as people say in the forum.

Wanted to jam my bookshelf speakers for the weekend.

 

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