Speaker Choice for a larger room


Hey all.

I'm going through change in my system again. Whilst I'm in the selling mode presently, and won't be buying for a little while, I would like to start to plan out future purchases.
The main area of concern is finding a speaker that will couple effectively with my room.
The dimensions are 28' X 45' and the cathedral ceiling goes up to 28'
I'm using Maggie 3.6's presently, but plan on changing things around.
My musical tastes are Jazz, classic rock, some blues, some classical most anything that isn't country or rap.
What I want from my system is:
Scale - large open soundstage, good width and depth
Imaging - precise placement of images but with emphasis on 3 dimensional realism
Palpability - the sense of presence and quality of the midrange.
Bass extension isn't of absolute importance, as long as I get a good sense of authority and impact in the lower registers.
I prefer a warmer sound with more bloom and midrange presence over a brighter more analytical sound.

On my list are:
Aerial 20T's
Sonus Faber Cremona
Avantgarde Duo's
Wilson Sophia's
Kharma 1.0's
Soundlab A1's

From the above, I've only heard Kharma's so I may be off target with my wish list of sonic attributes, though I have owned Sonus Fabers, a smaller model, and they seemed to do much of what I like best.
I'm flexible on amplification at this point, but would lean toward tubes, something around 200 watts, perhaps the Antique Sound Lab Hurricanes.
Source is and will remain digital.

What can you suggest that would take full advantage of the larger listening space, and would also be effective in a smaller space (I may move house in 6 months or so).

Would appreciate any insights. Budget wise, the 20T's are as high as I would go (used $12000 ish)

Thanks

Rooze
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Showing 2 responses by cytocycle

I use to own Magnepan IIIa's with the true ribbon tweeter and there are very few speakers that can produce the quickness and imaging as the Magnepans and so my speaker hunt was filled with disappointment.
The SoundLabs will produce more of what you were experiencing. They were too large for me in my small room.

But my quest stopped with the Wilson's because then I had that pinpoint imaging BUT with Dyamics and Volumn which I hadn't been able to get otherwise. The Sophia's would be an excellent match with tubes, as I heard them on a stereo VTL150 amp and my friend powers them with an ARC VS55i (which is not enough power for bass control but still amazingly transparent). I ended up blowing my budget and buying WP7's (now I drive a cheap Honda as a sacrifice for my stereo).

Wilson require time to setup and careful component matching to get that ultimate synergy (Going with tubes will help your quest)

Enjoy the hunt.
Rooze,

I'm still playing with speaker placement right now so nothing is final, the imaging and depth with the system reversed like what is show in the last pictures is amazing but i'm sacrificing a bit of the bass response, but then again I still moving them to avoid the bass mode suckout in the room. This weekend I'll move them 1 foot closer.

No offense to the Legacy guy's but one of my friends did an in home demo of the $8000 legacy's (not the Whispers so this might not be relevant) but they were amazingly dynamic speakers but that forwardness and dynamic presentation began to wear you out and the driver integration wasn't quite like some of the other manufactures. Great home theater speakers though. The speakers were being powered by Manely 250 monoblocks.