I Thought I Had My Speaker Choice Narrowed Down. Maybe Not?


I'm in the market for a set of 2 channel speakers. I thought I had it narrowed down to a few brands:

Magnepan, Spendor, Walsh, Tekton, Saulk, Egglestonworks. 

I need to see if you can all help me in clarifying my decision-making process.   As you can see from the Audiogoners comments below, there seems to be a lot varying opinions regarding these manufacturers. 

I like the clarity of electrostats. that said,  Magnepan .7 and 1.7 come up frequently: 

- "I very much enjoy my pair of Maggie .7s" 

- "Amazing - Maggie 1.7i ($2,200)with the Maggie Base Panel($800)"

 - "I had great luck with the Magnepan 1.7i and SVS SB-16 Ultra subwoofer"

 OK great, I’m going with Magnepan, but then, I went on to read: 

- "Spendor A7s will better (Maggie .7s) in most regards and their price reflects that bigger soundstage, greater detail, deeper bass, sweeter midrange"

- "My Spendor are about as stealthy and transparent in this regard as my Maggie .7s" 

OK, now Spendors! But wait! Should I go for D series: 

- "Regarding differences between Spendor A series and D series, the D has superior tweeter  (in house design LPZ, it’s fantastic), superior rear port (5th gen Formula 1 inspired) whatever that means but Spendor considers it a major upgrade over A series, and superior internal damping construction".

- "I own D7 and find them superb" 

- "Spendor D7 checks most of the boxes. I got mine new for $5500 just about in your range"

Or the A series: (don't like shrill):

- "I agree that Spendors may check all your boxes but I’d go with the A7s over the D7s  if you found the KEF LS50s "shrill."

 - " After home audition of both, purchased Spendor A7s; preferred over D Series"

 Or maybe some Ohms?:

- "I have never owned any Ohm Walsh speakers, too expensive, but friends own them and they are spectacular"

 Maybe not: 

- "Had previously ordered Ohm Walsh 2000 Talls, but sent them back"

Of course, then’s  there Tekton:

- "Tekton Moabs, they won best sound of show a few months ago"

 But they are just too darn big.

 I think the Salks are it! (thanks Larry):

 - "The Song3 Encore's from SALK Audio would be my choice.They are $6,500 and sounded better than $50,000 speakers I heard at the RMAF." 

- "I bought Salk Song3 Beat speakers this year and love them, paired with Krell amp and preamp I no longer search for upgrades. My previous speakers were Maggie’s, Kef and B&Ws"

 - “For good sound and great styling, I'd take a look at Salk speakers. 

Then, after all that this wrench gets thrown into it:

- “Klaus Bunge of Odyssey Audio makes a speaker, the Liquids. They are incredible, I have the Salk Song3 beat, Focal 948 Aria, Egglestonworks Emma evolution and the Liquids far better than all above"

UGH!

Of course, there was this final word :

- “Don’t spend 5 thousand spend 2 grand on the Kef new R 2 speakers they sound like a 5 thousand speaker”

There was one other final comment, something about if you can’t afford a Wilson (and something else) they all sound the same anyways, but I can’t find that anymore, possibly it was deleted?

Now I know it's all about your own equipment, ears and room, for sure, but as I can’t listen to all these speakers myself, especially in my own room with my own electronics. And I really don't want to have to 30-day in-home trial all of them as it could run into a tremendous amount of shipping and possibly re-stocking fees. So I am looking to you all for you expertise on what you may sound best with my audio equipment, which is simply:

Coda Csib integrated amp - V1 configuration: 150 Watts per channel Class AB into 8 Ohms, 300 Watts per channel Class AB into 4 Ohms, Class A ~18 Watts

Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2v2SE streaming Tidal through a Roon Nucleus

Looking for something fairly efficient as I want good clear sound without having to crank it up too loud and good bass sidestepping the call for subwoofer.

I’m sorry. I am moving soon, so I cannot provide any room dimensions yet but and I will treat room acoustics accordingly once there.

 

Thank you!


high-amp
High-amp - The Magnepans tweeter will sound dull in comparison to electrosats 
The spendor will image like a stat with narrow baffles , very similar in sound as the Audio Physic I spoke of yesterday.
The Eminent technology lft 8b has highs closer to stats than magnepans
Another speaker that has stat characteristics would be the Paradigm Persona 
All in my opinion on my hearing these speakers in person and doing comparisons with both magnepan and stats at the same time 
No-one can tell you what speakers you will like in your room with your gear, your hearing and your biases. No-one. If possible, best option is to audition at home with a money back guarantee. And if you do this, make sure the speakers are fully broken in before auditioning.

It’s all totally subjective and the posted comments (although well intended) are based on that persons personal preferences and biases.

I can tell you I have the Joseph Audio Pulsars with a REL T7i sub and they get pretty close to the MBL 116's, which retail for $30K and it is my last speaker system.

Good luck.

To the OP are you able to do any listening? You've mentioned some wildly different sounding speakers in Maggies and Spendor and Kef. You have a nice amp that should be able to drive most speakers but you need to narrow down the sound you like.