epiphany in the high-end listening room...

Going to try to keep this brief... 

I was recently in the market for a new pair of floor-standing speakers.  After a few decades in the klipsch heritage line I wanted something more modern like my uncle's recently acquired Paradigms.   A few months research and scouring the ads I had pretty much landed on a used pair of paradigm founder 120's for about $5k. 

But honestly I was just choosing those because I knew the sound and I felt like I should go do some listening to some other brands before I pulled the trigger.  Honestly I was obsessed with the idea that there was some perfect speaker out there, perfect both for my ears and for my tube analog system.  Sitting in the high-end stereo store listening to some Sonos Faber speakers and the youngish, slightly hard-sell, salesman said something to me that just blew my mind and changed entirely how I approached this speaker hunt...  

He said, "The goal of all these manufacturers is to create a speaker that disappears and makes you believe, with your eyes closed, that the musicians are in the room with you."  

Now I don't know if this is true, but it seems likely and does reflect what I've been observing subconsciously in all the speaker reviews.  Most of the reviews of the higher-end lines sound more or less the same.  Lot's of attention to appearance and build quality, but then when it comes to sound all the speakers are described with the same adjectives; transparent, detailed, wide and deep soundstage, tight bass, etc, etc, etc.  There are very few critical statements made against any of these $10,000+ speakers!

So, if it is true, if all these speakers manufacturers are aiming for the same thing, then the higher up the line of speakers you go, the more convergence in sound you should find.  What matters more than which brand, is how far up the hierarchy of quality within each brand you go.  I went home and totally changed the parameters of what I was searching for in the classified ads.  Instead of fixating on brand I started looking for the best deal on a top-level reference speaker I could find.

Instead of the paradigms, for the exact same price I purchased a pair of Canton Reference 2.2 DC.  Endgame speakers for me, from a brand that wasn't even on my radar.