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Musical full-range in the $3-4K range used?

I have been going back and forth on speakers for awhile now. Looking to get a new pair (used, most likely) and I live in a really remote area with nobody except a B&W dealer nearby. I can't reasonably drive 400 miles round trip to bring speakers back home for audition, and demos at the dealer are sketchy at best. I have a decent sized room (21x14x9) and would like a musical speaker, mostly for jazz, jazz vocals, classical. Full range would be best. My last speaker was a Soliloquy 6.3, which was great in a bigger room, but a little too warm, and not tight enough in the bass for my taste.

I can use it with solid state or tubes, either is fine. I have around $2500 to budget for an integrated amp, but figured it best to find speakers I like, then an amp down the road.

Budget is max $4,000.

Some speakers I have heard at dealers, or have heard good things about:

Coincident (haven't heard these, but lots of good reviews)

Sonus Faber (seemed very musical, easy to listen to)

Tyler Acoustics (again, musical, a touch warm, nice and detailed)

Opera (haven't heard them, reputation is that they are similar to SF)

Aerial Acoustics (heard the 7b, a little flat, but could have been the $1000 integrated powering it: 9 was superb and sounded huge)

Dynaudio (heard the 5.4 at a dealer, but room was poor and speaker sounded thin and lifeless)

Acoustic Zen (haven't heard these)

Thiel (heard the 2.4, sounded really thin)

Devore (dealer is 3 hours away, but might be worth checking out the Super 8)
komaki
hchilcoat
152 posts
 
I'd recommend Duke's Audiokinesis Jazz Modules. Efficient at around 93db sensitivity and can be used with a range of amps. I have a pair that I am very happy with and if you search the web, you will hear nothing but good things about them. Duke is located in Idaho, but will travel some distance for auditions or might be able to refer you to a local owner.

Cost is $4500, but he sometimes runs promotions. Parts cost about 60% of what he charges, and includes TAD prosound drivers for woofers and compression driver and waveguide for high end.

Plus Duke is one of the nicest guys in the business. Check out audiokinesis.com!
kurt_tank
1,189 posts
 
I would recommend a used pair of Revel Studios. Your $4K budget is just enough to get a pair. They are nearly full range, as they go down to 30hz, and with room reinforcement, they will sound full range. These are very accurate speakers, and the bass is very quick and tight, and not boomy at all.

Check out the glowing reviews both online and in stereophile (see link below):

Stereophile Review of Revel Studio

(FYI: Kal Rubinson, the Stereophile reviewer, bought and used these as his reference for a few years.) I lived very happily with them for five years before moving onto the Eggleston Andra IIs.

I will state that they do need a fair bit of power though. I recommend 200 wpc, but 100 wpc will do, if it's a very powerful 100 wpc (i.e. a beefy solid state amp, and better yet, monoblocks). I started out with the Levinson No. 27 (100 wpc), and while it worked acceptably, (the bass was a bit loose), upgrading to the Mark Levinson No. 23 (200 wpc) was a definite improvement, as the bass tightened up, and the speaker seemed to open up very nicely.

My two cents worth.
Good Luck in your search!
avrij's avatar
avrij
70 posts
 
you can pick up a pair of acoustic zen adagios for half your price, and be very happy. with the other half, try some tube amplification if you have not yet.
ptmconsulting
1,000 posts
 
From the tone of your post and comments on choices it souonds like you want a warmer and more "musica;" speaker rather than something hi fi sounding and overly detailed.

The Sonus Faber clearly fits that bill, as does the Opera Callas. Both make beautiful music in most situations. You don't need to have the best of the best in front of them to get a good tone. Then again, the upgrade bug could bite after a while with them also.

Good luck,
Bob
bnrlaw
130 posts
 
Joseph Audio Rm25si MkII used.
Perfect for what you are describing.
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