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Would you Upgrade?

Hi everyone, i'd like to get everyone's opinion on upgrading my set of loudspeakers.

I would be going from a pair of B&W 802D (the first of the diamond models, around 2010) to a pair of Focal Sopra 3's.

Is there much of an upgrade making this change?

I heard the Sopra's at an upscale dealer with a close to perfect setup: speakers about 15 feet from the front wall and about 10 feet from the side walls. Electronics were all Esoteric, including their $44,000 Grandiosa M1 monoblocks, preamp, cd player, power regenerator and $3,800 Cardas clear stereo speaker cables.

I'm not sure if these speakers would sound much different from my current 802D and my humble Classe CAM 100 monoblocks.

Also, how many years do speakers last before they degrade (speaker, crossovers, etc...)

thanks to everyone in advance.
onehorsepony
urbie
275 posts
 
don't listen to the paradigm persona series that beryllium mid-range and tweeter are so bright and hard sounding it's not even funny you have to get very warm electronics to go with those speakers. I like the monitor audio new gold 300 generation 5 or the platinum 200 generation 2 that AMT tweeter is so much more natural and three-dimensional sounding than any dome tweeter could ever be.and if you read the white paper on their driver technology they're way ahead of many speaker companies especially paradigm.
urbie
275 posts
 
And just so you know why audio Troy is pushing paradigm persona is because their dealers.
urbie
275 posts
 
Vintage speakers from the '70s are you kidding me that technology is so old it's not even funny the newer speakers are much better than anything from the '70s.
soix
8,641 posts
 
Vocals tend to wander from center to left to right within the same recording.
Maybe cut down on the merlot a bit while listening? Seriously though, I’d recommend going to give the Joseph Audio Perspective 2 a listen if you can find a dealer. JA speakers are masters of imaging/soundstage and disappearing as a sound source, and they’re small enough that an in-home demo should be possible. I’ve heard JA speakers next to B&Ws on a couple occasions and both times the JAs sounded significantly better and made the B&Ws sound congested by comparison. FWIW.

clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 
@mijostyn    It's quite natural you will recommend others to get home demos.  Only you can judge speakers without listening to them.
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