Feel free to talk me off the ledge


Just picked up my new Rogue RP-1 from a dealer. That coupled with my Rogue Atlas, then to my Klipsch Heresy IV's with an SVS PB2000 pro has me over the moon right now. But funny thing happened at the dealer.. I couldn't help myself, I listened to some other speakers. I'm an idiot, a glutton, a fool. As you can imagine I'm now about a third the way down the rabbit hole. 

At the dealer I was enchanted by a pair of Golden ear BRX monitors, they were so sweet, airy and open. Can't stop thinking about them.

Now I'm looking at:

Paradigm founder 80F

Tyler Time Keepers

The Golden Ear BRX

Vandersteen's among others..

Am I nuts? should I join a support group (other than the other one I'm already in) ?

Feedback always appreciated 

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Your speakers are obviously horn speakers. It’s a “type” of sound some people think is the end all and others, well, not so much. Given what you’ve said you may have identified yourself as the latter. If Vandy sounds good to you I’d recommend auditioning others like ProAc, Joseph Audio, Usher, whatever’s closest to you as these all exhibit similar imaging and soundstage strengths that I think might be attracting you. As audiophiles, we’re all wired and hear differently. I’m not a horn/Klipsch guy, just not in my DNA, but very much a Vandy fan and one of my faves. Definitely worth exploring further, and you’ll likely be much happier in the end if you just continue to follow YOUR ears. Best of luck.

roxy54's advise is highly recommended.

Its so worth the effort. All the subtleties of your room and system come together to hear a pure prospective. Differences that are difficult to assess at a show or in a showroom.

Good luck with it.  

 

Going through upgrades can be great and coming out the others side wonderful. But if you move too fast without a concrete plan it can result in some real mistakes and disappointment. Just judging by the odd list of speakers you are looking at, and the ones you liked… I think it would be easy to latch on to a speaker with one particular characteristic you like, get them and then being disappointed by loosing several characteristics you liked.

What is your room size and type of music you listen to? Small monitors can be really good at imaging. But they tend not to have the weight across the audio spectrum.

Also, my rule of thumb generally to never upgrade in less that 2x cost of the component it replaces. While speakers vary a lot in performance you can stack the deck in you favor by first identifying the kind of sound you like and upgrading to a higher level of speaker. Sideways moves too easily turn into trading one set of strengths and weaknesses for a different set. Long-term this strategy builds a solid system increasingly educated tastes.

I would recommend consulting the recommended components issue from The Absolute Sound and Stereophile. Look at speakers in your price range. Try to listen to some and compare what you hear with the reviews. Typically speakers are the most expensive component in a well balanced system (meaning all components performing at their maximum capability because the components are complementary). Typically the speaker choice would be first… but it is not critical. You can still take a big step up in sound quality and swap one of the components later to optimize you solution if you have to.

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