2. speakers
  3. 184961-11209

Do my ears deceive me??

     The money is in the bank, thinking of upgrading speakers, but everything I demo is no better or worse than what I have.   Willing to spend up to $6,000.      Upgraditis??   My main system is Mcintosh MX 134 that I bought in 2003, with a pair of Focal 836v's and a Parasound 5250  (250w/channel) amp I bought around 2012.   I either blew the tweeters or crossover on my 836's, so they are in for repair.   Since I've owned them for 10 years, I was considering new speakers.    The blades are way more than I would spend, but I also demoed the Kef R11s, Martin Logan xtf 200's, Mcintosh XR 100s, and B&W 703 S3.   

       None of them sounded better than what I'm hearing right now from my BP 2006s.    Would I really need to demo them in my room to make a fair comparison??  Or are speakers just not much better than they were 20 years ago?   I know I love detail, and tend to lean towards aluminum tweeters.  I pretty much only listen to classic rock and roll.   Of all I demoed, I really like the B&W 706s.   They sounded much brighter/cleaner than the others.   But they had the reciever set up so I couldn't adjust the treble/bass.  I love a V equalizer curve, and bump up the bass and treble a bit on my home/car systems.   Maybe I just have the good luck of prefering cheaper speakers.   

 

  

fenderu2
will3
54 posts
 

Monitor Audio Silver 500 7G's

Polk L600's

Try both sets; choose one set.

Enough said.

Your welcome.

asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,281 posts
 

I'd hold and see if you could demo what you like where you could tweak the eq. on those B&Ws'....  Nothing worse than buyers' remorse. ;)

There's been improvements, but generally in the $s' required for the desire.

A 'v' tweak preferred?   Won't ask your age, but have your ears checked, just because....  Sometimes, the eq is due to the final link in the 'system'... i.e.,

You.  Just saying...(..and not to be rude...)

J

clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 

Often.

yoyoyaya's avatar
yoyoyaya
609 posts
 

@OP - Keep your Focals when repaired because they have the kind of frequency response you say you like. As you have found from auditioning, current B&W's are similar. It is highly unlikely that you would respond positively to Harbeths or any other "BBC" type speaker.

There are lots of other ways you could spend 6K to improve your system - for example, that puts you in the ballpark to replace your preamp with something like a Pass XP-12.

hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,796 posts
 

Why is the lead question about whether there is something "better"?

But how about just going for just as pleasing but also "different"?

Over the course of life, virtually no one vacations at the same place, goes to the same kind of restaurant, drives the same car, etc.

Get a second pair of speakers you like and either rotate them with the first or just replace the first for a while.

Variety is the spice of life, and the notion that one can only seek out "better" is myopic.

 

 

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