“House” Character of Popular $20-$30k Speakers

@larry5729 , I’d love to listen to the Rockports as they have a lot of fans. But I live in Western Canada and there are no dealers near me. Maybe I would consider using some Airmiles and flying to a dealer that sells Rockports and has a Diablo 300 as well? As I said their do seem to be a lot of Rockports fans.

Yes, I do like my speakers after finding the Diablo which made them much more engaging, natural and with excellent dynamic swing. Slight tonal darkness (from the Diablo) which makes pretty much everything I listen too sound great, even with noisy hard rock recordings (ie Pearl Jam, etc).

What am I missing? I’ve heard what the 802 D3’s can do with the Diablo 300 when I auditioned the Diablo. Far, far mor transparency with details in songs is never heard before, way more fully formed imaging, with instruments and vocals not just in a 3D space but sounding 3D themselves.

With both the 802 D3’s and also my speakers, I’m also missing some bass presence and the 802 D3’s MIGHT be a hair too mid-forward for me (but if they had more bass than they might be perfect). Also, the 802’s were very finicky when moving around - poor off-axis performance.

I feel like subwoofers shouldn’t be needed at this level. So what am I looking for beyond my speakers:

-More transparency and detail

-More bass, but not looking for crazy room shaking bass. Just a bit more.

-Better imaging

-I want speakers that are stunning at low volumes (like my current speakers with my amp. This might rule out Dynaudios from what I’ve read)

-I want a musically engaging sound. Whatever that means, but I know it when I hear it. I home demoed some Moon / SimAudio amps and found them to have wicked precise detail and pinpoint soundstaging but found the music so uninvolving it was depressing… Some may say that rules out the A5 but I’m thinking my Diablo could add the “life” as it did with my current speakers.

-I want speakers that are not fussy about where you listen to them. Wasn’t an important feature before but my current system is very unfussy and I like that about it.

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I can  speak to the Sonus Faber -  last week I heard a brand new pair of Amati Traditions, and they were exquisite. Visually stunning (red stain) and beautifully voiced, they are the top contender for my next speaker upgrade.

Another great sounding speaker I have heard many times is the Magico A5. While, IMO, somewhat boring appearing, they are anything but boring to listen to. It is a lively, detailed speaker with excellent bass response as well as a sweet mid range and treble.

I am sure there are other fantastic choices in this price range (Paradigm Persona 7f, Audio Vector R6 Arrete, come to mind), but the 2 above are the only ones I have heard in person.

Good hunting!

@mournbladeiv, thanks for your thoughts! All brands you mentioned are available near me. How would you characterize the sonic differences between the A5’s and the Sonus Faber Amati Traditions and, looks aside, would you put one over the other in sonic performance?

For me looks are way down on my list of priorities, although my wife said she doesn’t like the like the look of the A5’s compared with my current speakers! Personally I think they look boring too, but also cool understated and very classic.

@nyev For me, I found the A5 could be a little strident at times, but if you are after absolute clarity, I give the nod to the Magico’s. For me, even though I generally listen to classic rock, prog rock and hard rock/heavy metal (with the occasional foray into classical and jazz) the Sonus fit what I was after: slightly warm, but with good separation, good bass (full disclosure: I am a bassist and even the Magico's could benefit from subwoofers IMO) and an excellent mid/treble It should also be noted that the Sonus were driven by Burmeister (not a good mix IMO) and McIntosh (truly beautiful) while the Magico’s in the other room I have heard through Soulution and MSB ( I preferred the MSB). All listening was done at Scott Walker Audio in Keller, TX with a full suite of Synergistic Research interconnects, power cables and room acoustics. I do not work for SWA, just a satisfied customer who wants to give full transparency.

Love my Monitor Audio pl300s