What speakers for 10k?

Hi JugHead, the Vienna Beethoven Grands are fine VA speakers... But if you can find a pair of used Vienna Mahlers, they are far superior, and well within your budget. They are simply divine! My review of the Mahlers V1.5 was originally published on TAS 188, and should still be available on AV Guide. Let me know if you can't find it, and I will send you a cached copy.

Guido

JugHead, I have heard Beethoven Grand and Mahler in the same system, being driven by a Rowland 500W M312 stereo at RMAF several years ago.... I did fall instantly in love with the Mahlers and eventually bought a pair... There was a night and day difference with Beethoven Grands... I found the latter to be fine speakers, but sounded "matter of fact" and far from the enchanting Mahlers.

Since then, Beethoven Grands have been significantly updated... You might want to ask the seller when the pair in consideration was manufactured.

G.

Hi Jughead, the Beethovens you are considering are not likely to be the latest design. The latest Beethovens will be featured for the very first time at CES 2015 in Vegas. Here is a line item from a professional reviewers newsletter I just received this morning from VANA Ltd, Vienna Acoustic importer in North America:

...

System Two: [Venetian Towers] Suite 30-130
Vienna Acoustics – Beethoven Concert Grand Symphony Edition, $8,500.00/pr (World premier)

...

For more info, you may want to give a buzz to VANA Ltd:

http;://www.vanaltd.com
Phone: (425) 610-4532
(425) 610-4532

Regards, Guido

Jughead, Mahlers are out of production, hence you will not find a new pair. With a little bit of patience you will eventually find a set on Audiogon or other source.

The current Vienna speaker in the same price range as Mahler is the Listz, also to be featured at CES:

System One: [Venetian Towers] Suite 30-129
Vienna Acoustics – Imperial Series – Liszt, $15,000.00/pr

They use technology trickled down from the current VA flagship, called DIe Muzik. Here is the Lizt Imperial page:

http://www.vanaltd.com/imperial-series.html

and

http://www.vanaltd.com/assets/liszt-data-sheet.pdf

And here is my mostly technical discussion of my own pair of DIe Muzik:

http://positive-feedback.com/Issue59/vienna.htm


Regards, G.

Hi Jughead, the current model of the Baby Grands is called Baby Grand Symphony AEdition... Make sure that if you get a new pair, the vendor does not give you the previous model instead.

Inevitably, a new pair of Beethoven Baby Grands will need to be broken in... They might sound a little boxy and occasionally peaky in the beginning. Breaking might extend to about 1,000 hours. To spead up things, Whenever you are not listening to music, you can feed them white noise from an FM tuner.... Tune the device between station and let interstation hash reach the speakers at low to moderate volume.

G.

Go for it Jug... Talk about a bargain... Vienna Speakers are uberperformers even if you got them new at full price... Beethoven Grands for $2K are total no brainers... They will take what Mozarts are good for and multiply it by 5! Let us know how things go.

G.

Sounds exciting... Keep us posted. G.

Yep... More than likely You will be in a completely different audio territory from VA. 40 days should allow you to assess if their sonic signature fits your preferences or not. G.

Oh my.... Didn't know that class A topology would do so much magic all by itself... I learn something new every day... I should have known... Would have never sold my old 1966 Braun bookshelvers. G.