@jmrrobbie1: Speakers are very "subjective"...I feel the most subjective part of the audio experaaince! What measures well, what is hyped, what some feel are endgame, might not suite you. It is the one component you need to go and audition...not briefly, but a sit down dedicated 2-4 hr session, then come back the next day for another 1-3 hr session...take notes.
@chuck (the OP): I am leaning towards purchasing used speakers to get more value. Thus auditioning at a dealer would be fruitless as I would not want to waste their time. I love the looks of the magico speakers and like what the reviewers say. The downside is many say that sound clinical and lifeless. I like the Rockports but it seems that they have had quality control issues of late so I am a bit afraid of them. I like the form factor of the stegnheim's as well as the Joseph Audio Pearls. Although I have never been enamored with SEAS drivers. I think I will take everyone's advice and spend time at a show and see which speaker I prefer. Thank you all!!
This thread is a great example of individual, subjective preferences -- we all have them. And that's as it should be! Because we're participating in the subjective pass time of attempting to insert & recreate (as if they were there) instruments, musical performers and their performances into our homes. That obviously can't be done, but I often find myself being happily immersed in the illusion.
In this thread, there's speaker after speaker being described and recommended. And that's why measurements in general are pretty useless, when our subjective ear/brain connection computes what we like and don't like.
We learn to like what we like and that changes, as we subject ourselves to different experiences...audio and everything else in life.
In this case, different components...speakers, etc., provide different presentations which we then classify as OK, poor, good, neutral, jaw dropping etc. And the one overriding factor is that we tend to disagree as much, or more than we agree. But that's not a negative, it's just a fact.
So many speakers, so little time. That's why I previously suggest to choose a type - e.g. enclosed cones & domes and hybrid designs with ribbon tweeters, and full-range planar/ribbon dipole loudspeakers and electrostats, horns/hybrid horns, open baffles/hybrid baffles etc. I suggest this in order to prioritize one's focus and I believe we tend to prefer one type over another, but also, it's never prudent to rule out one type over another, until they've been experienced, because no matter how they look, or what others say pro or con, we may like them, or not etc.
But picking components, particularly speakers, based on their aesthetics...how they look, from factors, what other people say, is just throwing darts at a dartboard while blindfolded with 2-blindfolds (could that be a form of double blind testing
?).
