Would you Upgrade?

I always want to hear how well a speaker upscales.  Then I need to hear how it sounds with my own gear.  One place that needs to be looked at is your room and your set up.  Those are two areas that can be inexpensive to tighten up as long as you are able to (family can mess that up at times).  

I have liked and owned JMLab Micro's (their original company that was started in '77 (Thiel and Vandersteen were also 77 and 78).  What an era, but I digress.  I too have found their bass lacking in some of their models in the range you are probably looking at.  

Dealers can sit here and tell you to listen to something they sell instead of what you are asking and that's fine. They are partly correct.  You should get out and listen to as many speakers as you can in your price range. Then go another step up in price and see how much different they sound.  Try to bring your source with you if you can and have them use similar components.  Your ears will tell you IF it's time to upgrade and what direction to go.  

There are a ton of great options and since we all hear differently, you need to figure out what is truly missing with what you own and what do you NOT want in a speaker. That is a different way to looking at things, but I've found that we dont' always know what sounds right until we hear it, but we do know what compromises we won't be able to live with.

As a Focal first generation BE owner, I’d have to say it’s something of a sideways move. The Focal Beryllium tweeter is arguably more exciting & dynamic perhaps with a lower distortion midrange but not really enough of either to especially warrant a change. The D3 does give you significant improvements in the tweeter & midrange so that needs to be considered at least as strongly. The Esoteric electronics certainly have a different character to your Classe, muddling up the quantifiable differences you heard by a fair amount.

2 & 1/2 suggestions for you to consider. The D3 B&W’s will give you clear improvements. Everything you like about your tweeter is obviously enhanced (done in the D2 series) & the continuum material dramatically decreases break up distortion in the midrange. Here’s an interesting approach that allows you to completely remove that distortion (as opposed to reducing it) B&W (& reviewers dependent on their advertising) fail to mention. The butyl rubber surround on the 805D3 does that & arguably makes far better use of the newest continuum midrange material. As for the elaborate B&W bass, you’re used to - that can be maintained or improved by the use of one or preferably a pair of their subwoofers. Nothing’s not appreciably & noticeably improved by going this route. At first, the idea may sound counterintuitive but hearing is believing.

The second suggestion is the one midrange driver that is appreciably better then either of the above are ceramic ones. I don’t have a particular speaker in mind but auditioning some with tweeters of the quality you’re used to will definitely tell the tale.

I’m presuming you want a dynamic speaker & not stats. Auditioning some higher-end Martin Logans could easily give you some interesting reference points to hear a very different sound (quite superior in some but not all aspects) that may modify your thinking - or at least meanigfully clarify it.

MY 1st hi-end speaker was a B&W 801 matrix (series-3) on sound-anchor stands. I also heard the 802's and they sounded fantastic on Bruckner #9- not an easy task. You have 802-diamonds which are even better as long as they're properly anchored to the floor.  There are still better loudspeakers out there but- be careful in your search in order that "better" will be affordable and easy to drive. Upgrading to a night-and-day speaker will force you to look hard at all of your gear and can you afford the change. If not then plan on being patient and spreading your upgrades over a period of time. It's hard (for me) to go from something that's already very good to an OMG! component unless I can learn to be patient afterwards and wait for some great deals on "lightly-used" premium components to come available. 

I've owned a pair of Focal Sopra No2's since they first hit our shores and they just might be the last pair of speakers I own (for my man cave).  I have them being driven by a McIntosh MC452 power amp, which some of my friends describe as sounding like a "tube amp".  This particular amp (with my ears) pairs well with the Focals.  I've heard these speakers driven by a Naim & NAD integrated and thought they sounded "thin",

When my Sopra's arrived I carefully broke them in, starting out at low volume levels, each day turning up the volume a little, until I had over 200 hours on them.  They sounded great!  But at about the six month time frame they really seemed to "settle down" and become more enjoyable.

I enjoy just about all types of music except for modern country and hip hop and find the Focals sound awesome whether I'm enjoying a Beethoven symphony or a Foo Fighters album.

I appreciate everyone's input, but if we could just focus on my original post.

In my selection, I also need a speaker that will make poor recordings and older recordings sound musical.

I had found that my Thiel 3.7's made anything but good records sound intolerable. I personally, don't think this is a sign of a good speaker. Yes, it is a very revealing speaker, but my 802d's make older and poor recordings sound, well poor, but yet they are listenable.

I go to audition speakers, Focal, B&W, and the first thing the salesperson does is remove my cd and proceed to play some perfectly recorded upright bass jazz piece which sounds amazing.

I'm running into this issue of listening to the speaker vs listening to the music.

Your thought