$5k Pair Full Range Speaker Shootout - Help me pick


Hi Guys,

Around the holidays I will be purchasing a pair of (roughly) $5k/pair full range stereo speakers for use in a 2-channel only system. My current JBL Synthesis HDI-1600’s will be accompanied by the matching HDI-4500 Center Speaker and likely an Arcam AVR30 and used exclusively for Home Theater use.


Here’s what I’m currently considering for the 2-Ch speakers. If you all could relay any experiences or impressions you’ve had with these specific speakers, or speakers in their range, it would surely help me make the right choice. I know a lot of people say "I listen to all genre’s", but I truly do have an enormous digital music collection that spans all genre’s. Everything from current EDM and Pop to High Res Classical, Audiophile tester type selections, every one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 albums of all time in FLAC (classic rock and funk heavy), etc. I like to put all of this content on shuffle and just listen to whatever happens.

2-ch system will continue to be powered as follows:

Digital - Foobar2000 --> SMSL SU-8 v2 --> Classe CAP-151

Analog - Technics SL1300mkII --> Ortofon 2M Red --> NAD PP-3 --> Classe CAP151


The speaker choices:

JBL L100 Classic

https://ibb.co/yhjJHn1

Revel Performa F208

https://ibb.co/TK4PNBD

B&W 702 S2

https://ibb.co/D4qPFcH
128x128dougeyjones
Those are all European apartment speakers. Spend a little more and get Klipsch Cornwall IV's. Now we are talking serious horsepower. Certainly not Dodge Challenger but not Ferrari. More like Mustang GT.
I can tell you how many L100s I saw torched when I was a kid. 
lol @ European apartment speakers.. 

Gonna be honest, I think Klipsch Cornwalls are hideous, and I don’t want a project, which they would be. 

Looks like it’ll be F206/F208 depending on which are available in mahogany. 
Hi Dougey Jones! If your a David Lynch fan then you might want to focus on getting a great pair of speakers that excel in tonality not dynamics. Merlins stand mounts, Harbeth, and the Fritz Carrera, as well as the Joseph Audio Pulsar are your ticker under $5k. From what I have read one of those Tekton speakers to may fill the bill (BE tweeter). Good luck!!!