Speakers in 10-15K price range for Classical music


Well I am in the market for speakers. My music choice is primarily classical and then a little bit of everything else such as jazz and soft/alternate rock. I started with a budget of 5-7K and auditioned Maggie 3.6, Quad 989, Spendor S8e and so on, but quickly realized I couldn’t get what I was looking for in these speakers. They all did pretty well on solo or few instruments but could not nearly reproduce a symphony (Mahler’s fifth, or Tchaikovsky’s sixth or Schubert’s ninth) with any authenticity. This was about a year ago. Since then I had stretched my budget and am now looking for speakers in the 10-15K price range.

Now here’s the challenge. I didn’t like the Thiel, B&W or Wilson sound. I had liked Maggie 20.1 in the past, but can’t find any dealer nearby that carries them for an audition. Heard the Vandersteen 5a for about 10 mins and they are pretty convincing, but I need a proper audition and then it’s still beyond my price range. Now my question is what other speakers I can look at for the kind of music I like?

Thanks much in advance, for your help.

Oh, my system is Krell SACD and 400xi Integrated Amp. Will upgrade the amp eventually, but will need to wait for another year at least :)
neal1502

Showing 1 response by classical1

09-17-09: Macdadtexas said:

I think if you upgraded your amp first, and tried the Spendor or Maggie 3.6's again you would find them much different. Your integrated does not have the power to really open up either of those speakers."
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I couldn't agree more! In your original post you were looking at speakers in the 5-7 K range Before you double or triple your original budget on speakers I'd consider what a better integrated or separates might do with the Spendors or Quads..

just my 2 cents, but it might save you a lot of money:)