Looking for a Speaker in the $15,000 Range


Category: Speakers

MY SYSTEM CURRENTLY CONSISTS OF QUAD 988'S, THOR AUDIO
TP-60'S, THOR AUDIO TA-2000 PREAMPLIFIER WITH PHONE STAGE
AND A CARY 306/200 CD TRANSPORT/PLAYER. I AM VERY HAPPY WITH
THE SYSTEM BUT MY QAUDS LACK BASS AND DO NOT CREATE ANY SENSE THAT 80-100 PEOPLE MAY BE ON STATE AT ONCE, AS IN A LARGE ORCHESTRA. DOESN'T CREATE A LARGE SOUNDSTAGE. PERHAPS,
ANOTHER SPEAKER WOULD HELP? MY POTENTIALS ARE:

1. VANDERSTEEN 5A
2. WILSON WATT PUPPY 7
3. AVALON EIDELON
4. VERITY PARSIFAL ENCORE

HAS ANYBODY HEARD ANY OF THE ABOVE 4?. MY THOR POWER AMP
PUT OUT 60 WATTS OF ULTRLINEAR POWER PER MONBLOCK AND
REALLY CAN DRIVE MOST SPEAKERS WITH GREAT EASE. I AM WONDERING IF THERE IS A SPEAKER SYSTEM THAT WOULD HAVE THE
MAGNIFICENT CLARITY OF THE QAUD 988 MIDRANGE, WITH A
LARGER SOUNDSTAGE AND THE ABILITY TO A MORE REALISTIC AURAL
PICTURE. I HAVE LEFT OUT THE KHARMA 3.2 BECAUSE AT $19,000
FOR THE PAIR IT IS MISSING BASS AND THERE IS NO DEALER
IN NEW YORK STATE TO EVEN AUDITION KHARMA. THANKS FOR ANY LIGHT THAT YOU MAY SHED ON MY SEARCH.
kjl
I don't know if your looking for options but I'll throw my favorite speaker into the mix.

B&W SIGNATURE 800

They are a little out of your price frame, $20k
but they are the best speaker I've ever heard.
However I've never heard them with lower powered or tube amps.
I may of found my N802's successor!
I have heard the above speakers other than the Verity, also other speakers including Martin Logan, B&W Signature and JmLab Utopias. And the speaker that got my toes tapping was the W/P 7. Another speaker that you should look into is the Revel Salon, if you can get over how it looks, the sonics are first class. I would say on par with the W/P 7, Staging, dynamic, resolution, imaging, weight and more, these two pairs have it in spades. Of course the rest are excellent speakers, but these two just suits more to my taste.

Happy Listening
You might consider the Coincident Total Victory.

http://www.coincidentspeaker.com/total_victory.html

http://www.coincidentspeaker.com/opinions.htm
Hi:

You make a nice list of speakers.

You are looking for the illusion of 80-100 people on the stage at once and wonder if "another speaker would help."

I think you have very high standards. I have never heard any speaker at any price meet that expectation under the best of conditions and the majority of great speakers I have heard had no chance to do their stuff because of room problems. You are not going to create a symphony hall in the average sized (or most) listening room(s).

In any event, I think you are looking at some great stuff but I doubt if it will come up to the high standard you set.
I fear that you will always find you are missing something.

Buy season tickets.

Sincerely
I remain,
I heard the $14,000 highly efficient Cabasse Karas recently at the Home Entertainment Show in San Francisco. Also present were the above mentioned speakers. There was no contest. the Cabasse was the only speaker I heard there that gave a truly life size believable image of real performers at real volumes. The Cabasse was seamless throughout it's huge range.

I am a dipole die hard. Never have I been moved by dynamic driver speakers... Until I heard the Cabasse.