Speaker recomendation


I just bought a second home and the room where the new system will go is quite large (60’x20’) with a wall of windows.  I’m looking for a pair of speakers that will be more for listening in position close to the system but that can still move enough air for when we have lots of people over.  Budget is about $10-15K for an amp and speakers.  I have a Moon 340i but fear it doesn’t have enough power to move the speakers I’ll get.  I was thinking about Golden Ear reference but my wife and I are more classical and jazz listeners and these are better for rock?  Suggestions appreciated!
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Soix, way too many people have over inflated opinions of products that are mearly okay, that they for whatever reason they personally love. 

You may think this applies to us as well but if you examine our product portfollio our products are mostly main line well respected manufacturers that can provide proper service and support as well as making some of the best sounding and top rated products in the industry at their respective price points, we sell: Kef, Dali, Paradigm, Legacy, ATC, ELAC, Cabasse, PSB, JL Audio, the only really micro sized company we endorse is the Rethems, which we got for their sound quality and novel steam punk look. 

In the past we had Acoustic Zen, Jantzen, Usher, Esoteric, Amphion, Polymer Audio, Escalante, and System Audio, Gradient, and probably a few other brands we forgot about. 

We hear way too many times a recommendation based on some weird product from a company that has not really received the kinds of universal accolades that a product of the price range should receive.

That is not to say that the review based world is purly objective but when a companies products are so rarely shown or reviewed or owned or raved by many reviewers it has a lot to say about the company.

We used to sell Acoustic Zen cables and speakers although we did not sell the more expensive Crescendo we did sell the lesser model. 

We had them on display and they were good speakers but in the annuls of audio for a $4k price point there are a lot of other companies products we would prefer to own and recommend.

The AZ cables were good, better then the Harmonic Technologies cables but in term the AZ cables were bettered by Audiquest, and Nordost and Wireworld cables which we moved into later.

Soix you miss the point, there are other posters who have talked about products we don't sell and we tell them sure go check them out like the Focal Sopras, and the Magico A3. 

If you look at the myriad of loudspeaker choices too  many weird difficult or impossible speakers to demo makes potential buyers loopy.

As per recommending Legacy, at least they have displaying dealers not that many but if you look at their dealer page at least they have some decent dealers that someone may be able to actually drive to, please let me know how many displaying dealers throughout the country have AZ loudspeakers available for demo?

Soix if you noticed we said the AZ speakers were okay that doesn't mean we think they are terrrible but ask yourself if the speakers were new would you shell out $25k for a set and even at $12k are there perhaps better alternatives. 

The likelyhood of us by endorsing Legacy is going to make the OP magically apear in our shop to purchase a pair is doubtful as the OP is probably on a different Coast then  us.

If you notice we have been recommending Legacy for years because they are a screaming bargain for the sheer quality and amount of sound quality for the money.  They belong in a rare class of high end audio  products which are a huge value for a hand made American product with really high quality European drivers.

Hope that helps understand our points.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ 






+1 for the Legacy's. Despite the fact that you don't like dealers hawking their wares I believe the Legacy's would be a great choice for this space.
Bache Audio's extraordinary augmented widebanders are my favorite high end speakers.  There are five models ranging from $3K to $15K, and designer/owner Greg Belman will let you try them in your listening room.  I recently replaced my Merlin VSM's with the Bache Metro 001's.

Here is a paragraph excerpted from Laurence Borden's July 2014 review of the discontinued Bache 001 for Dagago. I think it gets to the heart of the augmented widebander advantage:

"In a typical 3-way speaker, the crossover point between the midrange and tweeter is typically between 1 and 2 kHz, which is smack-dab in the region to which our ear is most sensitive. No matter how well designed a crossover might be, the tweeter and midrange drivers invariably differ in their dispersion characteristics, transient response, and distortion characteristics. Making matters worse, the crossover often introduces phase shifts. Although these differences are often not recognized per se (except in especially poor implementations), they become apparent when they are absent, as they are in a speaker based on a wideband driver. As implemented in the Bache Audio speakers, the Tangband covers the range from about 100 Hz to about 10,000, or almost seven octaves. Not surprisingly, they are superbly coherent. As a result, music has a wholeness — or oneness, if you prefer — that makes it seem more lifelike. One has a sense of being more relaxed while listening, a trait I find very desirable in a speaker. Not surprisingly, instruments that span many octaves — like the piano — are especially well served, yet all instruments benefit".

Here's the link to the full review:

https://www.dagogo.com/bache-audio-001-loudspeaker-review

  
@audiotroy -- No, that doesn’t help me understand "your points" at all. It’s an irrelevant and incoherent rambling -- and of course containing yet another ad for the products you carry -- that is a sorry excuse of a defense of an indefensible and harmful act here on Audiogon. Where to start?

"We hear way too many times a recommendation based on some weird product from a company that has not really received the kinds of universal accolades that a product of the price range should receive.
That is not to say that the review based world is purly objective but when a companies products are so rarely shown or reviewed or owned or raved by many reviewers it has a lot to say about the company."

Well I certainly can’t argue with this, mainly beacause I have no idea what it means. But it has nothing to do with what you did here.

"Soix you miss the point, there are other posters who have talked about products we don’t sell and we tell them sure go check them out like the Focal Sopras, and the Magico A3."

Again, this has nothing to do with what you did here.

"As per recommending Legacy, at least they have displaying dealers not that many but if you look at their dealer page at least they have some decent dealers that someone may be able to actually drive to, please let me know how many displaying dealers throughout the country have AZ loudspeakers available for demo?
Soix if you noticed we said the AZ speakers were okay that doesn’t mean we think they are terrrible but ask yourself if the speakers were new would you shell out $25k for a set and even at $12k are there perhaps better alternatives."

And you think I’M the one missing the point here? SERIOUSLY??? You’re once again comparing speakers I recommended to the OP in a relatively negative light to the speakers you recommended here AND SELL!!! You should not be expressing negative opinions on other products and recommendations in any way while you’re promoting your own products here at the same time. PERIOD!!! It’s a pure conflict of interest that makes you look unethical and undermines your credibility here. 

@falconquest -- That I don’t like that audiotroy pushes his products here is irrelevant and you miss the point entirely. The Legacys could be a fine recommendation and I’ve never said or implied otherwise, but again that’s not the point here.
@hifiman5 ...a big +1 to you and a +2 to @soix .  They seem to bash Belles as well whenever they get the opportunity which really displays a sense of idiocy.  Then I realize they’ve probably never even heard Belles.  Never bash anyone’s gear or taste in music I say.  Most of what I’ve seen that they sell is junk!  Oh boy, I guess I broke my own rule.........