$35000 to $40,000. speakers what would you buy and why?


I am contemplating purchasing my End game speakers.     The ones that catch my eye are the Magico M3, Magico M project,  Stenheim Alumine 5se, Rockport Cygnus and the Songs Faber Amati Homage G5.   My system consists of  An Aurender N20 feeding a MSB Technology Premier Dac with Premier powerbaye.  Preamp duties are handles by An Audio Research Reference Anniversary and amplification is a pair of Lamm M 2.2 mono blocks. I currently have Magnepan 3.7i's.   I love their transparency and inner detail but they do not play in the low registers.   I do not want separate subs....  My room is mediums sized.  I listen to mostly soft pop, classical and some light rock.   I am trying to walk the thin line of tranparency vs musicality.    I would enjoy some suggestions and some sound reasoning behind members choices in speakers.  I do not want this to morph into a bashing thread.  Please stay on topic.

chuck

Jsalerno277:

I assure you, I’m not offended. When you elaborated, I could see that The Magnepans might not reach a certain level of performance. I just didn’t see the original poster mentioning imaging or the other traits you mentioned.

For under $18,000 I would choose the Gershman Acoustics Avant Garde 30th Edition. They sounded so real & natural...& No matter which track was playing I couldn't stop my body from moving. 

I enjoyed their Symphoria model more but the price jumps closer to $80,000. But they did not sound $60k better to my ears. I listened to the Symphoria for a very long time at the Tampa show this year. Best speaker at the show in my opinion. I would be completely content with the Avant Gardes though. They checked all the boxes as far as performance & stage perceptions. I really dig the looks as well. 

I have no affiliation with the brand or anyone who may sell them. 

The Wilson Benesch Speakers at the most advanced cabinet design and driver design available....They seem to be shaking things up a bit with their importers but I would call them find out what is available in the USA. Dollar for dollar the best speaker I have heard. Was a dealer for them for 20 years they just keep getting better...

 

https://wilson-benesch.com/horizon-floorstanding-loudspeaker-wilson-benesch/

Magnepans are a very hard habit to break - been there, done that! I had 3.6’s, 3.7’s, and then upgraded those to 3.7i’s. I spent many years trying to find something which gave me most of what I loved the 3.7i’s for, but also addressed their various weaknesses. I had almost settled on a pair of Fyne F703sp’s when I stumbled across the Icon 12’s ($25k) from Ø Audio at Axpona last year. They gave me the same sense of space and coherence as the Fynes, but were more "fun" and dynamic. After coming from years of limited dynamics with my Magnepans, the Icons were a refreshing change! At your $40k price point Ø Audio has the Verdande, but it was a larger speaker than I wanted. At Axpona this year they debuted the Ymir which is dimensionally almost identical to the Icon 12, although over twice the weight (and price). Feel free to check out my more in-depth comments about my Icon 12’s on here, but I have no regrets with them almost a year in! 

https://www.oaudio.no/icon12

For me, after having various moderately priced rigs over the 50 years of listening to music, I settled with and am very content with a pair of AL5  Klipsch La Scalas and two SVS 3000’s to bring up the bass. They fill my 25 x 35 Media room just fine for two channel music and 4.2 surround using my NAD M10 v3 for front and a BluOS Powernode N330 for the rears.

 

They seem to fit all of my needs crystal clearly, and with new-in-box La Scalas at  $10,000, and the SVS subs at $1900 a pair, I am perfectly happy all in at $12,000 with a pair of WB interconnect cables and the wireless SVS adapters.

I have a closet full of Martin Logan Ascents, Canton CT-2000’s, Infinity RS2’s, and TWO sets of Polk Audio SDA SRS 1.2TL’s….that will have to soon go to new homes.