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Another help me spend money thread or maybe not.... going to AXPONA

How to start this thread. Well I have a full thread here which has taken me a long ways to Maggie planar bliss.
https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=mug&m=234395
Room size is 11.5w 22.5L 8.5h

The cliff notes version of the above is Maggie 20.7 system with a pair of Vandersteen Sub 3 and HP7 crossovers
Recent additions are: Mac 601 monos, AR Ref6, dSC Bartok + AQ hurricane and dragon power + a lot of room setup.

So the only part of my system not questioned in 5 years has been the 20.7's as I really like planar sound. Of course that gets me thinking why should i stop there... for a $30k budget what can I hear.... this is where AG help is needed!!

The system sounds really good now, the Vandy system has now given me all the bass slam of big boxes to go along with that wall of planar energy. But I have the fever. I want to know how good the system is compared to a bunch of hardware I only read about. So I am going to AXPONA and also looking into my local Atlanta shops. 

Which leads me to: I auditioned two disparate systems today, Wilson Audio Sabrina's ($17k) and Wisdom Audio cost no object in-wall line source system (about $100k) which I have never heard of. I use to have WP7's, to me the newer Sabrina's are much better having lost the hot inverted dome tweeter, good but not superior to what i already have. However the Wisdom mutli line source system was just spectacular which was built around multiple Wisdom Sage L75's. These can be had as a floor stander for about $18k pair and they have them. So we go to that room but it was busy and I did not get a chance to hear them. If they are anywhere close to what I heard these go to the top of my list. 

My list (to hear or have heard as a comparison)
heard: Vandy 7 MKII, really good but too expensive
B&W 802D3 - good but not better

for my budget would like to hear at AXPONA if they are there: 
Vandy 5a Carbons 
Martin Logan ESL15A
Magico
Raidho
ATC
Focal
MBL - just because
KEF
Scaena - just because

But what about YG's or SoundLab and on and on... thanks for your inputs!


  
 

128x128hughp3
csmgolf
871 posts
 
There are a lot of speakers in that price range there. Some to check it if they are there:
Tidal- Piano Diacera
Sanders 10E as already mentioned
Eikon
ATC SCM 50 actives
Prana Fidelity-very good for the price
Kii model 3
The TAD ME-1
The ones you mention are also good choices.
I am sure there are plenty I am missing, also
hughp3's avatar
hughp3 OP
75 posts
 
On the  Sanders 10e,  I am concerned about the DSP module. I have substantial investment in the pre and dac signal which, i believe, gets re-dac’ed by the dsp. Not sure i like that.  It has to alter the sonic  characteristics of the components i carefully selected. Thoughts? 
mtrot
804 posts
 
@ hughp3
Yes, that is an issue with a lot of these newer speaker systems.  They have all sorts of room correction technology involved with them.  Kii and Eikon sound great at shows, but that is not going to work for me.  Personally, I'm just interested in "plug and play" speakers.  Now, some speakers, such as Revel Ultima, have more basic controls directly on the speaker to adjust bass and/or treble response, which I think would be fine.
In my situation, it's not that I have expensive pre and dac units, but I have a multi-channel audio setup that has to go through an AVR or AVP to be able to play my SACD, DVD-Audio, and Blu-ray movie titles over HDMI.
hughp3's avatar
hughp3 OP
75 posts
 
Makes sense mtrot. I have no idea how DSP could be done for multi channel but i am sure some one has figured it out, however for sure would not work per speaker manufacture! I got a response from Sanders but it did not clearly answer my question. I will just call them... 
hughp3's avatar
hughp3 OP
75 posts
 
Just spoke with Sanders. They answered all my concerns. I will be keeping all my front end. The wild card are the subs which I can also keep if I want but they suggested the cross over point should be 23hz which is really low. I will likely not need them but A/B will be easily then I can make that decision.  Really looking forward to hearing these!
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